For more than four decades, Pietro Orlandi has sought answers to one of Italy’s greatest mysteries.
Italy marks 42 years since the 15-year-old schoolgirl Emanuela Orlandi disappeared while returning to her family home in Vatican City on Wednesday 22 June 1983.
The daughter of an employee at the Vatican Bank, Orlandi vanished without a trace on her way home to the Vatican after a flute lesson at her music school in the centre of Rome.
Over the decades there have been numerous false leads relating to Orlandi’s mysterious disappearance but they have always come to a dead end.
In 2019 the Vatican opened two tombs in the Teutonic Cemetery, adjacent to St Peter’s, following an anonymous tip-off received by the family of the missing girl.
However the tombs, which were supposed to house the remains of two 19th-century princesses, were found to be empty, adding further mystery to a case that has enthralled Italian for decades.
In 2018 human remains found on the grounds of the Vatican nunciature to Italy, in Rome’s Parioli district, sparked speculation that Orlandi might have finally been found.
But DNA testing revealed that the bones belonged to a man who died sometime between the years 90 and 230 AD.
Netflix promotes new series #VaticanGirl with missing posters around Rome for Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old schoolgirl who vanished almost 40 years ago in one of Italy’s greatest mysteries. https://t.co/iO4WC4zcps pic.twitter.com/gsW2CAdDOB
— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) October 21, 2022
The unsolved case has sparked conspiracy theories ranging from kidnap by a terrorist group demanding the release of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square in 1981, to the involvement of the Banda della Magliana, Rome’s notorious criminal gang founded in the 1970s.
One of the theories was that Orlandi was buried alongside Roman mobster Enrico De Pedis in the Basilica di S. Apollinare near Piazza Navona. However when his tomb was opened in 2012 there were no clues found.
Over the years there have also been numerous alleged sightings of the missing girl, all of which proved unreliable.
Two years ago the Vatican reopened an investigation into Orlandi’s disappearance after a four-part Netflix documentary series Vatican Girl purported to shed fresh light on the case.
42 years since Orlandi vanished, the mystery continues.
Pietro Orlandi’s search for the truth
Each year Emanuela’s brother Pietro Orlandi marks the anniversary of his sister’s disappearance with a sit-in protest in Rome to call for answers.
On Saturday he expressed the hope that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV would acknowledge the 42nd anniversary by remembering Emanuela during the Angelus address on Sunday 22 June.
“It is a symbolic day and it would be important for the pope to dedicate a few words to an event that can no longer be considered secondary” – Orlandi told Radio Cusano Campus – “It is not just the disappearance of a girl: 42 years have passed in which facts have emerged that have never been made public, which clearly indicate anomalies and responsibilities that have not yet been clarified. The Vatican must take a clear position”.
Orlandi was hopeful of a meeting with the new pontiff, noting that although Pope Francis expressed closeness to him and his family, “he never wanted to meet me privately, despite numerous requests”.
Article first published 22 June 2021, updated and republished 22 June 2025.
