Human remains found near Vatican’s embassy could solve mystery of missing girl, 15, whose disappearance in 1983 has been linked to Pope assassination plot
Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican Bank employee, was last seen leaving her music lesson in Rome on a summer's day 35 years ago
HUMAN remains unearthed at the Vatican’s Embassy to Italy may hold the key to solving the mystery of an Italian teen girl who vanished 35 years ago.
Bone fragments were discovered during construction work at the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See to Rome in the posh neighbourhood of Parioli, the Vatican said late yesterday.
Experts are still working to determine the age, gender and date of death of the remains.
But detectives will be looking in particular at whether they are a DNA match for Emanuela Orlandi — the daughter of a Vatican employee at the centre of one of Italy’s darkest mysteries.
The 15-year-old was last seen on June 22, 1983, leaving her music lesson in Rome.
Her dad was an employee of the Institute for the Works of Religion, more commonly known as the Vatican Bank.
Over the years, theories have linked her disappearance to everything from a plot to kill Pope John Paul II to the financial scandal linking Vatican Bank to Rome’s Mafia underworld.
The last major twist happened in 2012 when cops exhumed the body of an alleged Mafioso in the hopes of finding Emanuela’s remains buried in the same crypt, but came up empty handed.
Her brother Pietro has been leading a decades-long campaign to find out what happened and has even accused the Vatican of complicity in the case, reported.
The Vatican has repeatedly said that it has co-operated fully with police investigating the case.
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Recently, a top Italian reporter caused a stir when he published a document stolen from a locked Vatican cabinet suggesting the Holy See was involved.
The document seemed to be written by a cardinal and listed supposed expenses for Orlandi’s upkeep after she vanished.
The Vatican said the document was a forgery but never explained what it was doing in one of their cabinets.
A version of this story first appeared on
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