At mass grave exhumation, daughter of Spanish Civil War victim seeks closure

Benita Navacerrada Lopez walks as she holds a picture of her father Facundo Navacerrada Perdiguero who was one of the people who were killed by the forces of dictator Francisco Franco and for whom members of the Aranzadi Science Society are searching for in a mass grave in the Colmenar Viejo cemetery, Spain, August 9, 2023. REUTERS/Juan Medina

COLMENAR VIEJO, Spain (Reuters) - Benita Navacerrada is a 91-year-old Spanish woman with a yearning to know where her father was buried more than 80 years ago.

She hopes the answer will lie in an exhumation outside Madrid of the remains of more than 100 people who were executed by forces of late dictator Francisco Franco in 1939, in the aftermath of Spain's Civil War.