-65members who disappeared during the armed conflict, due principally to searches undertaken by the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda; but their family has received no assistance from the State to this end. In this regard, all the young people who disappeared during the military operation known as the 1982 “guinda de mayo” who have been traced by the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda were found alive (supra para. 48(8)). 113. This failure to investigate what happened to Ernestina and Erlinda and their whereabouts has been and continues to be a source of suffering for their next of kin, who are still hoping to find them alive and achieve family reunification. In this regard, the expert witness, Ana Deutsch, stated that the uncertainty of the next of kin who do not know where Ernestina and Erlinda are “was aggravated when, once the war had ended[,] the family renewed the search with the help of institutions […] and did not succeed in discovering their whereabouts. With the passing of the years, the traumatic impact became more severe. […] Events spiraled, and this led to frustration and gave way to an exacerbation or worsening of the emotional condition of all of them.” For example, in her testimony before the Court during the public hearing, Suyapa Serrano Cruz, Ernestina and Erlinda’s sister, stated that finding Ernestina and Erlinda “would mean a great deal” to her family and herself; that although “wounds cannot be healed,” they would feel “very happy,” since there had been “many cases of children who are reunited” with their families and she hoped that this would happen with her sisters (supra para. 36). In his sworn statement of August 19, 2004, José Fernando Serrano Cruz, Ernestina and Erlinda’s brother, stated that, “as a member of the family, he hoped to discover the girls’ whereabouts at some moment[,] that investigations would be conducted[. T]his gave them strength to carry on, and although it did not console them much, at times it gave the family serenity, with the hope of finding them one day.” Likewise, almost four months before she died, Ernestina and Erlinda’s mother mentioned in her sworn statement of December 5, 2003 (supra para. 35) that “the only thing that she want[ed was] to have [her] daughters returned to her, and if [she] could ask the judges something, it [was] that they at least show [her] daughters” to her. In his testimony before the Court during the public hearing (supra para. 36), Father Cortina stated that “shortly before Erlinda and Ernestina’s mother died, she was going blind as a result of diabetes, and she told him that she hoped she would not lose her sight, because perhaps she could still see her daughters. Likewise, regarding Erlinda and Ernestina’s mother, the expert witness, Ana Deutsch, stated that: María Victoria had the typical symptoms of post-traumatic stress and depression. She could not sleep well, she was very irritated at times, she never stopped thinking of her disappeared daughters, she was extremely sad, […] she complained of chest pains[, …] and that is the surest description of anguish. 114. The mother of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz died with the hope that her daughters were alive and that one day her family could be reunited; she died before the State had determined what had happened to her two daughters or established their whereabouts. The impossibility of knowing the fate of her daughters and the constant sense of being able to find them alive caused feelings of guilt and impotence. The frustration of not having the help and collaboration of the State authorities to determine what happened to Erlinda and Ernestina and, if applicable, to punish those responsible, and also to determine their whereabouts and achieve family reunification profoundly affected the physical and mental integrity of their next of kin. 115. In view of the foregoing, the Court declares that the State violated the right