The Vatican has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of teenager Emanuela Orlandi, a case that has gripped Italy for nearly 40 years and involved the Holy See, The Guardian reports, which comes months after her release. on Netflix of the documentary “Vatican Girl”.

Emanuela Orlandi was 15 years old when she disappeared on June 22, 1983, while returning home from a flute lesson she had in Rome, News.ro reported. Orlandi’s family lived in the Vatican, where the girl’s father was a layman in the papal household.

The case has spawned several theories, including that Emanuela was kidnapped by a gang to blackmail the Vatican into securing the release of Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk who was jailed in 1981 after attempting to assassinate Pope John Paul II.

Vatican Chargé d’affaires Alessandro Didi reopened the case after several requests from Emanuele’s older brother, Pietro, who has fought tirelessly to uncover the truth about her disappearance, LaPresse news agency reported.

“I only learned about the investigation from the media,” said Laura Sgro, the Orlandi family’s attorney. “A year ago, I wrote to the Pope with the intention of speaking with the champion of justice. Of course, we are glad that the investigation is underway, but we hope that it will really give concrete answers,” commented the lawyer.

Alessandro Didi said that “all files, documents, reports, information and testimony” related to the case will be reviewed to clarify a number of issues and “leave no stone unturned”. In addition, the investigation will focus on the case of Mirella Gregory, who was also 15 when she disappeared in Rome a few weeks before Emanuela Orlandi after telling her mother she was going on a date. For a long time it was believed that there could be a connection between the two disappearances.

Theories surrounding the Orlandi case

The investigation also comes months after the release of the Netflix documentary The Vatican Girl, which explores theories surrounding Orlandi’s case. In the most surprising claim, a childhood friend of Emanuele’s who was interviewed in the documentary said that the teenager was molested by “someone close to the Pope”, who at the time was John Paul II.

Another theory, revealed in the documentary, was that Emanuela was taken to London, where she lived for years in a youth home owned by the Catholic community, with her expenses financed by the Vatican. According to this theory, Emanuela died in London before her body was transported back to Rome and buried in the Vatican. In 2019, two tombs in the Vatican were exhumed and reopened after it was discovered that Emanuela may have been buried there. But human remains were not found, reminds The Guardian.

Other theories link Emanuela’s disappearance to financial scandals in the Vatican, an alleged sex ring run by the Vatican police and Rome’s underworld.

The reopening of the case also comes after Georg Genswein, a longtime private secretary and close confidant of former Pope Benedict XVI, said he would reveal Orlandi’s secret in his exposé book, due to be published on January 12.