Vatican Girl: The Disappearance Of Emanuela Orlandi

On June 22, 1983, Orlandi went missing after failing to return home from a flute lesson in Rome. Her disappearance sparked a massive media frenzy in Italy, and her case has recently been brought back to light thanks to Netflix’s Vatican Girl. The four-part series, directed by Mark Lewis of Don’t F*** With Cats, delves into the various theories and conspiracies surrounding Orlandi’s disappearance. Orlandi’s disappearance sparked an intense media frenzy in Italy, leading to the case being dubbed “Italy’s most famous unsolved mystery,” as well as one of the few known disappearances of a Vatican citizen. Emanuela was the fourth of Ercole and Maria Orlandi’s five children. According to some reports, her father worked for the Vatican Bank, while others claim he worked for the papal household. According to Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s older brother, the family lived inside Vatican City and the children had free access to the Vatican gardens. 

Orlandi was in her second year of high school at a liceo scientifico in Rome. Despite the fact that the school year was over, she continued to take flute lessons three times a week at the Tommaso Ludovico Da Victoria School, which was affiliated with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. She was also a member of the choir at the Vatican’s Sant’Anna dei Palafrenieri church.

Reference Source: newsweek, Wiki

What Happened To Emanuela Orlandi?

Emanuela Orlandi, 15, left her home in Vatican City, Italy, on Wednesday, June 22, 1983, to attend a flute lesson at her high school in Rome. She was supposed to meet her sister and friends after that, but she never showed up. By 9.30 p.m., her parents and family were concerned and began looking for Orlandi. Unfortunately, Orlandi has never been seen again, and the case remains unsolved to this day. Orlandi called home on Wednesday, June 22nd, after her music lesson. According to Vatican Girl, Orlandi told one of her sisters that a man approached her about working for the cosmetics company Avon. Two witnesses said they saw a girl who matched Orlandi’s description talking to a man outside her school.

Reference Source: newsweek

Who Killed Emanuela Orlandi?

The Orlandi family allegedly received a call from a terrorist organisation linked to Mehmet Ali Aca, the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in May 1981. The terrorist group’s identity has never been confirmed, but the Italian press speculates that it could be the Grey Wolves, a Turkish ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist youth organisation of which Aca was a member. They demanded the release of Aca in exchange for Orlandi in the call, and no other information was provided. After escaping from a Turkish prison, Aca shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in May 1981. He spent 19 years in prison in Italy and another 10 years in Turkey. 

Aca told Italy’s RAI state television that Orlandi was alive and well, living in a cloistered convent. In a letter written in 2006, Aca claimed that Orlandi and another girl, Mirella Gregori, who went missing in 1983, were kidnapped as part of a scheme to secure his release from an Italian prison. Following his release from a Turkish prison in January 2010, Aca stated on Turkish state television that the Vatican was holding Orlandi as a prisoner for him. He also claimed Orlandi was a nun living in Central Europe.

Reference Source: newsweek

The American

Due to his thick accent, a man only known as “The American” called the Orlandi family. He is identified as Marco Accetti in Netflix’s Vatican Girl. “The American” played a recording of Orlandi’s voice during the call. He then called the Vatican and proposed exchanging Aca for Orlandi. He also identified Mario and Pierluigi as “members of the organisation,” but no further information was provided.

On July 8, a man with a Middle Eastern accent contacted one of Orlandi’s classmates and told them they had 20 days to arrange the exchange with Aca. He also requested a direct phone line with then-Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli, a Catholic priest and Holy See diplomat. When the line was installed, “The American” made 16 calls from public phone booths.

Organised Crime

Former Banda della Magliana member Antonio Mancini suggested in 2011 that Orlandi’s disappearance was linked to a series of attacks the gang was carrying out against the Vatican. They hoped to recoup a large sum of money they had lent to the Vatican Bank through Roberto Calvi’s failed Banco Ambrosiano in 1982. In May 2012, Italian police opened the tomb of Italian gangster Enrico De Pedis, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana, and took DNA samples.

An anonymous caller told an Italian television programme that De Pedis was linked to Orlandi’s disappearance and that the evidence was in his tomb, which is located in Saint Apollinare, the final resting place of a number of cardinals and senior Vatican figures.
According to BBC News, De Pedis’ former girlfriend claimed he once told her he kidnapped Orlandi.

According to Andrea Purgatori, an Italian journalist, all of the theories surrounding Orlandi were committed by “the same people—the mafia—with the same target—the Vatican—and the same message: Give us back our money.”

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