credit, Scientific
Emanuela Orlandi was 15 when she disappeared while walking home from music class
One of the most publicized and mysterious disappearances in the Vatican remains unsolved: the disappearance of young Emanuela Orlandi on June 22, 1983, when she was returning home from a flute lesson in Rome.
On Monday (9/1), the authorities decided to reopen the investigation into the case, according to Vatican sources confirmed to the local press.
This fact comes after several requests from Pietro, Emanuela’s older brother, who has carried out a campaign over the years to solve the problem of the disappearance.
According to the Adnkronos news agency, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Dedi, said that “all files, documents, reports, information and testimonies” related to the case will be reconsidered “in order to “not renege on anything”.
In addition, the investigation will also focus on the case of Mirella Gregory, who was also 15 when she disappeared in Rome a few weeks before Orlandi.
The news of the reopening of the investigation comes a few months after the premiere of the film The missing girl of the Vaticana Netflix documentary that explores the theories surrounding the Orlandi case.
In 2019, as part of investigations into this case, the Vatican authorities opened two tombs of nineteenth-century German princesses, although no evidence was found at these sites.
credit, Getty Images
Emanuela Orlandi (right) disappeared 40 days after the disappearance of another 15-year-old girl, Mirella Gregory. Both are depicted on this fresco.
On June 22, 1983, Orlandi was walking home from a flute lesson. She was last seen at a bus stop in the center of Rome.
The 15-year-old girl simply disappeared. No one has seen her since.
The Orlandi family lived in the Vatican City, where the father worked as a servant in the papal house.
credit, Andreas Solaro/Getty Images
Pietro Orlandi is the older brother of Emanuela
Decades of speculation gained renewed momentum from a new Netflix series. Was Orlandi kidnapped and murdered? If yes, where is her body?
The girl’s family – who said they learned of the reopening of the investigation from the press – had to chase clues and rumors for years.
“Many people say to me: forget it, enjoy life, and don’t think about it anymore,” Pietro Orlandi stated in 2019, when the cemeteries in the Vatican reopened.
“But I can’t. I won’t even be at peace.” [o caso] have been solved.”
