but to start the investigation, started with miriam. >> reporter: miriam is miriam lewin.was kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused. she was taken to esma and was among the few who survived. though she never knew quite why. later, she became a leading investigative journalist in argentina, best known for unearthing the crimes of the dictatorship. when ceraudo first contacted miriam she told him she had other things on her mind. >> i said, look, we're looking for the desaparecidos, the missing people. and then, we started looking for the bodies. so, we had plenty to think about. >> reporter: people, not things. >> yeah. and he said, i come from a different culture. in rome, when they're digging a tunnel to extend the subway lines, they find a plate or a sculpture and they stop everything for, like, three years. right? >> reporter: he comes from a culture where objects are witnesses to history. and that hadn't occurred to anyone here. >> yeah. >> reporter: giancarlo's passion paired with miriam's reporting chops and her own experience at esma. she'd seen other prisoners tak