The Orlandi case, a 40-year mystery: from the reopening of the investigation to the Parliamentary Commission, what happened on 22 June 1983

In June 1983 Emanuela Orlandi, a Vatican citizen, was returning home within the Leonine walls from a music lesson when she disappeared into thin air. A mystery, that of the disappearance of the 15-year-old girl still without an answer and that she has seen various hypotheses and leads in the last 40 years, all of which ended up in a dead end. Now, four decades later, the turning point, with the reopening of the investigations by the Vatican judiciary and with the first ok, by the Chamber, to the establishment of a commission of inquiry which now passes to the vote of the Senate. It all began on June 22, 1983: Emanuela finished her flute and singing lessons at the Ludovico da Victoria music school in Piazza Sant’Apollinare, between Piazza Navona and Palazzo Madama. It is 7pm when, in theory after class, she calls from a telephone booth at her house, finding her sister Federica: she will tell her that someone has offered her a large sum to distribute Avon products at the Fontana sisters’ fashion show. Emanuela should take the bus to go home but she won’t get on that bus. The why is still not clear. What is certain is that from that moment all traces of her are lost. Right from the start, the case appears complex, with the prosecutor investigating the disappearance linked to an alleged sexual assault, without touching the Avon track, as the family immediately requests. Days go by and nothing is known about Emanuela. The mystery deepens when on July 3 St. John Paul II, then Pope, expresses his closeness to the family for the disappearance of the young woman. It is a Vatican citizen, the Pontiff’s words are in the order of things but two days later the Vatican press room receives a phone call from a man with an Anglo-Saxon accent, dubbed the American by the press. He said he had the girl hostage and that he would only release her after Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Karol Wojtyla on May 13, 1981, was released. Agca should have been released from prison by 20 July. His request will also be answered by the Anti-Christian Turkish Liberation Front Turkesh. Over time, other details emerge, such as the American’s request to use the code 158, used for communications between the kidnappers and the Holy See, but in the meantime, other leads emerge, one of which would also link the story to the Banda della Magliana. Over the years, both the Vatican and the Capitoline judiciary have investigated the case, without arriving at any result, at least until today.