It has been reported that The Vatican has reopened the investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi. A daughter of a lay employee of the Holy See, the 15-year-old went missing on June 22nd, 1983. The return to the mystery comes only months after a hit Netflix documentary, Vatican Girl, shed new light on it.
Recently, the Orlandi family asked the Italian Parliament to look into her disappearance, and now the Vatican prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, has opened a file on the case.
The investigation has partially been reopened based “on the requests made by the family in various places”, said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni (per Sky News).
Laura Sgro, the Orlandi family’s lawyer, said she had no independent confirmation of the news, which was first reported by the Italian agencies Adnkronos, LaPresse and Ansa. She claimed that her last Vatican filing on the case was in 2019.
Emanuela Orlandi went missing after leaving her family’s Vatican City flat to attend a Rome music lesson. At the time, her father was in the employ of the Holy See.
Emanuela’s disappearance has been the source of much debate, with some commenting that it could be linked to the notorious plot to kill Pope St John Paul II. This scandal involved the Vatican bank and the Italian criminal underworld.
In 2019, the family were offered a glimmer of hope when bones were discovered in the tombs of a pair of 19th-century German princesses. However, an investigation found they were too old to be Emanuela’s.
The four-part Netflix documentary explored both scenarios and provided new evidence from a friend of Orlandi’s. She claimed that Emanuela had told her only a week before vanishing that a high-ranking Vatican cleric had made sexual advances towards her.
In December 2022, Orlandi’s brother, Pietro and Ms Sgro announced a new initiative to obtain a parliamentary commission of inquest into the case, as many questions remain. Notably, the previous initiatives have failed. However, the duo have recieved support in their campaign, including from opposition politician Carlo Calenda.
This is a developing story.
