Emanuela Orlandi has been missing for almost 40 years, the student disappeared in the Vatican. Now the pressure on the Vatican is growing, and investigations are being initiated for the first time.
Update from January 12, 2023: For almost 40 years there has been no trace of Emanuela Orlandi, now the missing person case could take a new turn. As it became known at the beginning of the week, the Vatican is starting new investigations into the case of Emanuela, who is still missing.
Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is also complying with a request from the girl’s family, a spokesman said on Tuesday. On June 22, 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi had not returned from music lessons in Rome. The case is considered one of the greatest mysteries in recent Italian criminal history. Countless theories surround the disappearance of the teenager, and the Vatican also plays a role in them (see original message below).
The reason why the investigations are currently being initiated is not yet known. The Vatican initially gave no information on this. According to their lawyer, the Orlandi family was not initially informed of the details either. “We don’t know what the Vatican will do,” said attorney Laura Sgro. She has therefore not yet found out whether the Vatican wants to re-evaluate the old investigation files of the Roman public prosecutor’s office or whether it is following its own tracks.
Original notification from January 10, 2023: Rome – It is probably one of the most mysterious disappearances in the world: the disappearance of the then 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi. Almost 40 years after the student disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Vatican, the judiciary of the Papal States has now launched official investigations for the first time.
Emanuela Orlandi missing for 40 years: pressure on the Vatican is growing – investigations initiated for the first time
The prosecutors want to investigate the suspicion and the indications that Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Curia employee and a citizen of the Vatican, was kidnapped or murdered. The teenager did not come home on June 22, 1983 after a music lesson in the historic center of Rome. A body was never found, and what happened to the girl was never clarified.
The launch of investigations from the Vatican was confirmed on Monday evening after the Adnkronos news agency was the first to report the new development. “This is good news,” Pietro Orlandi, the brother of the disappeared, told the newspaper La Stampa. “I am convinced that there are many people in the Vatican, including those in high positions, who know what happened at the time.”
There have been countless rumors and theories about the mysterious missing person case for decades: for example, that Orlandi was kidnapped to free the Pope’s assassin Ali Agca; that the young woman was abused by a senior Curia official; that the Roman mafia clan Banda della Magliana is involved in the case.
Netflix also reported on the missing person case: Where is the “Vatican Girl”?
The Netflix streaming service also dealt with the missing person case from the Vatican. The documentary “Vatican Girl” dealt with various scenarios and suspicious elements surrounding the Orlando case. As reported by the Italian media, the Vatican’s main prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, now wants to re-examine all the evidence and documents from back then and hear witnesses, including cardinals.
At the end of 2015, the public prosecutor’s office in Rome archived the case. Orlandi’s relatives then turned to the Vatican and directly to Pope Francis. Observers speculate that the pontiff himself may have put the pressure on recently.
The recently deceased Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. and his private secretary Georg Gänswein appear in the case. Pietro Orlandi is convinced that Gänswein knows something about a Vatican file – the German archbishop himself said this to the lawyer for the bereaved. But in a book out this week, Gänswein writes, “I’ve never compiled anything related to the Orlando case. This phantom dossier has not been disclosed simply because it does not exist.”
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