Emanuela Orlandi went missing from the Vatican city streets when she was on her way to music class. Source: Twitter
Vatican City: The unsolved case of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, whose inexplicable disappearance in 1983 sparked a complex web of conspiracy theories, some of which blamed the Holy See, was reopened, according to local authorities, who made the announcement on Monday.
As per the reports, Alessandro Diddi, the recently appointed head prosecutor under Pope Francis, will oversee the investigation into the 40-year-old cold-case mystery that has gripped Italy.
Italian newspaper La Stampa claims that as part of the renewed effort to learn what happened to Orlandi, detectives will re-examine all the files, records, reports, and testimony connected with the case while pledging that they will leave no stone unturned to find the facts.
The action was taken shortly after the Netflix released a four-part docuseries “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” which has apparently revived interest of the Italian people in the issue.
Late in December, Orlandi’s family also requested a new inquest be opened into the incident from the Italian parliament.
The case was closed in 2016, and the Vatican’s Matteo Bruni acknowledged on Monday that part of the decision to reopen it was based “on the request made by the family in several places.”
A lawyer for the Orlandi family named Laura Sgro told media that the case’s most recent Vatican filing was made in 2019.
Meanwhile, Orlandi’s brother, Pietro Orlandi, who has been pushing to have the case of his missing sister reopened, told media on Monday that Diddi’s decision is a “positive step” because it shows that the Vatican has apparently changed its mind, overcome its resistance, and will review the case from the beginning.
What do we know so far?
When Orlandi left her home on the afternoon of June 22, 1983 to walk to her flute lesson at Sant’ Apollinaire Square in the centre of Rome, she was the daughter of a lay Vatican official and a resident of the Vatican City State. She was never seen again.
One of the Vatican’s long-standing mysteries, her disappearance has been connected to a variety of things over the years, including a failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, a financial scandal involving the Vatican bank, and the now-defunct Banda della Magliana gang.
A new testimony from a friend who said the youngster had told her a week before she vanished that a senior Vatican cleric had made attempts toward her was also included in the Netflix documentary about Orlandi.
The case made headlines in July 2019, when the Vatican ordered the opening of two 19th-century graves containing the remains of German noblewomen as part of the search for Orlandi, but no new evidence was found.
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