The disappearance of Emmanuel Orlandi. What happened to the daughter of a Vatican official?

Emanuela Orlandi was born in 1968. Her father was a lay official who lived with his family in the Holy See. However, family members spent a lot of time in Rome. Emanuela (like her siblings) went to high school and music school there. The teenager also belongs to the Vatican Choir. She was undoubtedly musically gifted and may have linked her adult life with music. Unfortunately, fate had written a different, tragic scenario for her.

On June 22, 1983, Emanuela Orlandi was supposed to go to her flute lesson in the afternoon. She asked her brother to drive her to his car, but he refused. So the girl went by bus, as she usually did. Before starting studies at a music school, Emanuela called home. She talked for some time with her sister, who told her that she had received a job offer as a representative for a cosmetics company. She also mentioned this offer to one of her friends that day.

Orlandi was supposed to go home after finishing her music lesson. She left school with her friend. The teens headed toward the bus station. But Emanuela did not get into the bus, but into a green car. To this day it is not known who the driver of the car was and whether the 15-year-old knew this person.

Finally, evening came and hours passed, and Emanuela was still not at home. Her relatives started to feel nervous because such a situation had never happened before. Family members quickly began searching for the teenager, but the search turned out to be futile. The next day, the police received a report about a missing person, and information about him quickly began to appear in the media.

Over the next few days, the Orlandi family received calls from people claiming to have met Emanuela. Details provided by witnesses could indicate that they actually saw the missing person. Soon the phone calls started to get more and more strange. During one call, the caller played an audio recording that relatives identified as belonging to the missing woman. It appears that the 15-year-old has been kidnapped and held captive somewhere.

During another attempt to contact, the missing person's family received information about where Emanuela's belongings would be placed. In fact, the girl's personal belongings were found in the aforementioned place, including a note most likely written by the kidnapper. Her relatives believe this is her handwriting style.

Demands also began to emerge for Ali Ajca's release in exchange for Orlandi's release. This man was in prison for an attack on Pope John Paul II in 1981. However, it was not possible to determine whether the case of Emanuela's disappearance was actually linked to Ali Agha.

Over the years, more exciting information has come to light. According to one theory, an Italian gangster, Enrico De Bedis, was responsible for the girl's disappearance. Others, in turn, suggested that high-ranking Vatican clergy were involved in Emanuela's kidnapping. However, these hypotheses cannot be conclusively confirmed or ruled out.

Finally, there is a hypothesis that Orlandi's disappearance was linked to the disappearance of Mirella Gregory. She was the same age as Emanuela, and had disappeared only a month and a half earlier, also in the Italian capital. These cases have many similarities. To this day, the missing persons have not been found, and it has not been clarified what happened to them or who was behind their disappearance.

Pietro, Emanuela's brother, is still struggling to give the case of his sister's disappearance as much publicity as possible. The man believes that one day he will know the truth. Pietro appeared, among others, in the documentary “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” released on Netflix in 2022. This series presents many interesting details and scenarios.

Unfortunately, we will not find an answer to the question that remains a mystery to this day – what happened to Emanuela and is she still alive? Perhaps thanks to media attention and the efforts of Emanuela's relatives, the mystery of her disappearance will one day be solved.