Key Points
- Pope Francis has given a Vatican investigator free rein to look into the disappearance of a schoolgirl 40 years ago.
- In 2018, bones found during ground work at the Vatican embassy sparked a media frenzy but DNA tests were negative.
- Italy's lower house has approved a parliamentary commission to investigate the disappearance.
One of Italy's most enduring mysteries, the disappearance of a Vatican schoolgirl 40 years ago, entered a new chapter on Tuesday, 11 April, when her brother met with a Vatican investigator whom Pope Francis has given free rein to get to the bottom of the case.
Over the past four decades tombs have been opened, bones have been exhumed from forgotten grave sites and conspiracy theories have abounded in attempts to determine just what became of Emanuela Orlandi.
The daughter of a Vatican usher whose family lived in the Vatican, Ms Orlandi, then 15, failed to return home on June 22, 1983 following a music lesson in Rome.
The case, which has been the subject of on-and-off investigations in Italy and the Vatican, has drawn fresh worldwide attention following the release late last year of the Netflix series "Vatican Girl".
In January, Vatican chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi reopened a previous inconclusive Vatican investigation after he inherited files from his retired predecessor.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper ahead of the meeting, Mr Diddi said Pope Francis wants "the truth to emerge without any reservations". He said the pope had an "iron will" regarding the case.
Vatican chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi, who reopened a previous inconclusive Vatican investigation in January, said Pope Francis wants "the truth to emerge without any reservations." Source: Getty / LightRocket
"We hope this can shed light on this episode and write a page of history," Ms Sgro told reporters afterwards, saying that the Vatican's openness and the pope's determination was "absolutely positive".
Theories about Orlandi's disappearance have run the gamut. In the 1980s, Italian media speculated she had been kidnapped in an attempt to secure freedom for Mehmet Ali Agca, the man jailed in 1981 for trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II, though nothing came of the link and the suggestion faded.
Pietro Orlandi, brother of Emanuela Orlandi holds a speech during a sit-in to mark the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi on January 14, 2023 in Rome, Italy. Source: Getty / Franco Origlia
In 2019, the Orlandi family received an anonymous letter saying Emanuela's body might be hidden among the dead in the Teutonic Cemetery just inside the Vatican walls, where a statue of an angel holding a book reads "Requiescat in Pace," Latin for "Rest in Peace".
Two tombs were opened and nothing was found, not even the bones of two 19th century princesses supposed to be buried there. They apparently had been moved during restructuring work decades before Ms Orlandi was born.
Italian soldiers stand outside the Vatican Nunciature-Embassy to Italy in Rome, where bone fragments were found during construction work. Source: Getty / Alberto Pizzoli
Last month, Italy's lower house approved the establishment of a parliamentary commission to investigate the disappearances of both girls.
Police have never excluded the possibility that Ms Orlandi may have been abducted and possibly killed for reasons with no connection to the Vatican, or been a victim of human trafficking.
She would be 55 now.
