FERIZAJ, Kosovo -- In a childhood room that was once filled with laughter and the promises of a brighter future hang photos of a young woman whose voice will never be heard again.
"I say good morning and good night to her every day," said Milihate Cokli, whose voice trembles as she speaks of her daughter, Erona, who was killed on April 12 by her ex-husband.
Divorced for nearly a year, 20-year-old Erona was on her way to pick up her 14-month-old son when her ex-husband, 36-year-old Valon Aliu, pulled out a gun and fired, killing her and injuring her brother, Driloni, who accompanied her to the social-welfare center.
Cokli recalls the peculiar moment at work when she heard her colleagues discussing the latest news of a woman being murdered. "It was as if something pierced my heart," she said. "I didn't know it was my daughter. I was in the kitchen, and I said to myself, 'How are people so broken?'"
Her sadness turned to shock when her brother-in-law arrived at the restaurant to take her home and instead headed off in a different direction.
"When I asked him, 'Why are we going to Ferizaj?' he said, 'Erona and Driloni are injured.'"
Not fully comprehending, she was in a daze as she was driven to the nearby hospital.
"When I saw Driloni, I knew that he would recover.... Then I started to scream, 'Where is my daughter?'" she said.
From that moment on, Cokli says recalls nothing except being surrounded by doctors and staff.
Cokli believes Aliu, who has been charged with murder and is currently in custody, was physically and mentally violent toward her daughter for years, although Erona tried to keep it hidden.
Erona first met Aliu when she was 16 years old. As the mother recalls, "She became depressed, didn't eat the same, and she didn't laugh the same."
"She would come home and tell me that she would never return to him...but something would happen and she would go back."
Cokli recalls seeing bruising on her daughter's body, but Erona would say she had fallen in the bathroom.
"I was convinced that he threatened to harm us," she said. "Erona would do anything to please him."
Her fears increased when Aliu started to threaten Erona's older brother Rinor, saying he would punish him if she left.
"We sent our eldest son, Rinor, away from Kosovo, and we reported the situation to the police."
"Several times we turned to the regional police in Ferizaj. I told them that I miss my daughter, but they told me that they are in contact with her and that she refuses to speak with her family."
The family's anxiety lasted for months, until one day Erona returned to her parents home "tired, weakened, and traumatized" after the birth of her then-6-week-old son. With the support of her family, Erona decided to stay at the family home and move on with her life.
Cokli says she and her husband, Gazmend, were prepared to do anything to support their daughter and their grandson, whom she fondly recalls.
"He is the most precious gift that Erona left me," says Cokli as she embraces his clothes, tears welling in her eyes. "He looks like her."
Following the death of her daughter, Aliu's family was granted guardianship of the child. They are able to visit him every two weeks for three hours. Cokli says that she is seeking custody of her grandson.
As she discusses the family's plight, Gazmendi, remains silent, his face overshadowed by grief.
"She was extremely close to her father," Cokli said.
Less than a week after Erona's death, a 42-year-old woman was killed in Peja, about 90 kilometers from Ferizaj. The suspect reportedly turned himself in to police with the words, "I shot my wife."
From 2010 to April of this year, a total of 57 women have been killed in Kosovo. In most cases, the perpetrators of the murders were husbands, followed by fathers and sons.
Murder in Kosovo is punishable by a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life. However, the Kosovo Institute for Justice, which monitors the justice system in the country, said cases involving the murder of women often "receive low sentences, go back to retrial, or drag on."
Official data released by the police show that last year 2,460 cases of domestic violence were reported, with the victims mainly being women.
According to Adelina Berisha, from the Women's Network of Kosovo, the actual number is much higher than the official figure. They say the violence is underreported for several reasons, including social pressure on women, their lack of economic independence, and their family's inability to provide financial support.
Mimoza Thaqi, a personal development coach who spoke with Erona in the months before her death, said the woman lived in fear of violence from her ex-husband.
"Erona's dream was freedom for her and her son. Because she was like a captive of that person...she only saw her future in the boy," Thaqi said.
Psychologists say the families who go through such tragedies often experience "emotional shock."
"They find it difficult to accept and believe the reality. Often conveying feelings of guilt...that they had the opportunity to do something more, to notice the problems earlier and prevent the murder," said Gyltene Derguti, a clinical psychologist at the Family Medicine Center in Ferizaj.
Cokli does not wish to discuss her daughter's ex-husband, instead saying she hopes he received "the punishment he deserves."
She now sleeps in the room where her daughter and grandson once slept, where she can still hear their laughter and smell them. For a moment, she seems lost in her memories, but soon the grief returns.
"I buried her with a veil because she didn't have a dress when she got married," she said before adding, "Erona was beautiful, but that day she had become even more beautiful."
