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Vatican Girl is the latest true-crime documentary series to land on Netflix, exploring the unsolved disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi.
Orlandi has been missing for 39 years after she failed to return home from a flute lesson in Rome on June 22, 1983. Her disappearance sparked a huge media frenzy in Italy and has been brought back into the spotlight thanks to Netflix's Vatican Girl.
The four-part series from Don't F*** With Cats director Mark Lewis explores the numerous theories and conspiracies surrounding Orlandi's disappearance. Was the Vatican involved? Did the Pope know? Was it Organized Crime or did she simply run away from home?
Newsweek has everything you to know about the case of Emanuela Orlandi.
What Happened to Emanuela Orlandi?
On Wednesday, June 22, 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi left her home in Vatican City, Italy, to attend a flute lesson at her high school in Rome.
Afterward, she was supposed to meet her sister and friends but never showed up. By 9.30 p.m., her parents and family began to worry and started looking for Orlandi.
Sadly, Orlandi has never been seen since and the case remains unsolved today.
The Theories Surrounding Emanuela Orlandi's Disappearance
The Vatican's Alleged Involvement
In Netflix's Vatican Girl, the theory that the Vatican could be involved in Orlandi's disappearance is explored in great depth.
Her brother, Pietro Orlandi, assets in the docuseries that the Vatican elite are the only ones who know the truth about what happened to his younger sister, with filmmaker Mark Lewis and Italian journalist Purgatori theorizing that someone took Orlandi to blackmail the Vatican.
Father Gabriele Amorth, an 85-year-old priest and Chief Exorcist of the Vatican claimed in May 2012 that Orlandi was kidnapped by a member of the Vatican police for sex parties, The Huffington Post reported. He also said that Orlandi was murdered and that officials from a foreign embassy were involved.
A childhood friend of Orlandi said in Netflix's Vatican Girl that Orlandi was allegedly sexually assaulted by "someone close to the pope" a few weeks before she disappeared. After Orlandi confided in the witness about the inappropriate behavior, she vanished a few days later.
Vatican Girl explores the theory Orlandi may have been sent to a London convent as a result. A leaked Vatican dossier appears to show expenses related to Orlandi's stay in a London convent for more than 14 years.
For over 30 years, the Vatican has faced accusations from Italian authorities of not fully cooperating with their investigations. A petition to Pope Benedict XVI requesting a Vatican inquiry into Orlandi's disappearance, with over 100,000 signatures received no response, The Toronto Star reported in 2014.
Newsweek reached out to the Vatican for comment.
The Job Offer
On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 22, after her music lesson, Orlandi called home. As heard in Vatican Girl, Orlandi told one of her sisters that a man had approached her about taking a job at Avon, the cosmetics company.
Two witnesses told police they saw a girl matching Orlandi's description talking to a man outside of her school. Perhaps he was the man approaching her about the job offer?
On the Run From Home
In the days after Orlandi was last seen, articles regarding her disappearance were published in the newspapers Il Tempo, Paese Sera, and Il Messaggero.
The articles include the phone number of the Orlandi household and almost instantly, they began to receive calls.
On June 25 at 6 p.m., a boy called the Orlandi home, giving his name Pierluigi and his age as 16 years old. He told Orlandi's parents he and his partner had seen Orlandi that afternoon in Piazza Navona and gave a description that matched the girl.
Pierluigi said Orlandi had just had a haircut and told him she had run away from home and was selling Avon products to make money.
On June 28, the Orlandi family received a phone call from a man named Mario.
He said that he owned a bar near Ponte Vittorio, an area located between the Vatican and Orlandi's music school. He alleged a girl named Barbara had told him she was on the run from home but would go back for her sister's wedding.
Mehmet Ali Ağca
The Orlandi family received a call allegedly from a terrorist group linked to Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in May 1981.
The name of the terrorist group has never been confirmed but the Italian press has theorized it may be the Grey Wolves, a Turkish ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist youth organization of which Ağca was a member.
In the call, they demanded the release of Ağca in exchange for Orlandi, and no other information was given.
Ağca shot and wounded Pope John Paull II in May 1981 after escaping from a Turkish prison. He served 19 years in prison in Italy and served a further 10 years in Turkey.
In an interview with Italy's RAI state television, Ağca said Orlandi was alive and safe, living in a cloistered convent.
In 2006, Ağca claimed in a letter that Orlandi and another girl, Mirella Gregori, both of whom vanished in 1983, were abducted as part of a ploy to secure his release from an Italian prison.
Following his release from a Turkish prison in January 2010, Ağca said in an interview with Turkish state television that the Vatican was keeping Orlandi a prisoner for him. He also alleged Orlandi was living in Central Europe as a nun.
"The American"
The Orlandi family also received a call from a man only known as "The American" due to his accent. In Netflix's Vatican Girl, he is indentified as Marco Accetti.
In the call, "The American" played a recording of Orlandi's voice. He then called the Vatican, proposing the exchange of Ağca for Orlandi. He also identified Mario and Pierluigi as "members of the organization" but provided no further information.
On July 8, a man with a Middle Eastern accent contacted one of Orlandi's classmates, stating Orlandi was with him and they had 20 days to arrange the exchange with Ağca. He also asked for a direct phone line with the then-Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli, a Catholic priest and diplomat for the Holy See.
When the line was installed, 16 calls were made by "The American" from public telephone booths.
Organized Crime
In 2011, former Banda della Magliana member Antonio Mancini suggested Orlandi's disappearance was related to a number of attacks the gang was making against the Vatican.
They were hoping to recover a large amount of money they had lent to the Vatican Bank through Roberto Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano, which had collapsed in 1982.
Italian police opened the tomb of Italian gangster Enrico De Pedis, one of the bosses of the Banda della Magliana, and took some DNA samples in May 2012.
The move came after an anonymous caller told an Italian television program that De Pedis was linked to Orlandi's disappearance and the evidence was in his tomb, located in Saint Apollinare—the final resting place of a number of cardinals and senior figures in the Vatican.
BBC News also reported a former girlfriend of De Pedis claimed he had once told her that he had kidnapped Orlandi.
Speaking in Vatican Girl, Italian journalist Andrea Purgatori concludes 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."
However, there was no evidence located in De Pedis's tomb to link him to Orlandi.
Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi is streaming on Netflix now.
About the writer
Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on ... Read more