Vatican says it has promising leads on the disappearance Emanuela Orlandi
7862 Mins Read
The Vatican said Thursday that a new investigation it has opened into the into the case of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl who went missing in 1983, had uncovered some promising leads on the 40th anniversary of her disappearance, adding that it was sharing the evidence with Rome prosecutors.
Orlandi a resident of the Vatican City, disappeared while returning home from a flute lesson in Rome on 22 June 1983,.
The case sparked an intense media frenzy in Italy that has resulted in it being called “Italy’s most famous unsolved mystery”, and it inspired a hit Netflix four-part documentary called Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanule Orlandi last year.
Last month Rome prosecutors said that had opened a new probe into the case.
“In recent months this office gathered all the evidence that could be found in relation to the Emanuela Orlandi case in the Vatican and Holy See structures, seeking testimony via conversions with people in charge of some offices at the time,” said the Vatican’s Office of the Promoter of Justice.
“It proceeded to examine the material, confirming that some investigation leads are worthy of further study and transmitting all the relative documentation, in recent weeks, to the Rome prosecutor’s office so that it can see it and proceed in the direction it considers appropriate”.
Emanuela was the fourth of five children of Ercole and Maria Orlandi.
Her father was a Vatican employee and the family lived inside Vatican City.
“40 years is a long time. The activity carried out by the Vatican is a first step,” said Emanuela’s brother Pietro Orlandi.
“I hope that the documentation passed to the Rome prosecutor’s office is significant and that the Vatican continues to cooperate actively with the prosecutor’s office.
“Lots of things need to be clarified. My sister deserves truth and justice”.
Pietro Orlandi recently caused controversy by linking the case to rumours that late Saint Pope John Paul II used to leave the Vatican looking for girls with Polish cardinals, a claim rubbished by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Pope Francis.
Francis called the suggestions about the late Polish pope, who died in 2005 and became a saint in 2014, unfounded and offensive.
