All the Theories of What Happened to Vatican Girl Emanuela Orlandi

The Vatican has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi who went missing in 1983.

The release of Vatican Girl, the Netflix docuseries, has put increasing pressure on the Italian church, according to a CNN report.

Orlandi was the daughter of a Vatican employee and lived within the walls of the city-state. She disappeared in the summer of 1983 while on her way home from a music lesson in Rome.

Here is a look at some of the most prominent theories surrounding her disappearance.

Demonstrators hold letters reading Emanuela Orlandi reading during Pope Benedict XVI’s Regina Coeli noon prayer in St. Peter’s square, at the Vatican on May 27, 2012. Over the years multiple theories have developed about what happened to Orlandi, Newsweek is taking a look at some of the most prevalent ones. Getty Orlandi–Ağca connection theory

Mehmet Ali Ağca was a Turkish man who was a member of a right-wing paramilitary group and was jailed for his attempted assassination of the late Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Ağca once claimed that Orlandi had been kidnapped by Bulgarian agents of the Grey Wolves, a Turkish ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist youth organization, of which he was a member.

In a prison interview with Italy’s RAI state television, he said that Orlandi was alive and not in danger.

In the mid-2000s, Judge Ferdinando Imposimato said that based on what he had learned about the Grey Wolves, Orlandi could be living a perfectly integrated life in the Muslim community.

In addition to this, the Orlandi family also received a call that demanded the release of Ağca in exchange for Orlandi. No other information was given, however.

Vatican sex scandal theory

The docuseries on Orlandi’s disappearance explores the possibility that the Vatican was involved or aware of her disappearance.

In May 2012, 85-year-old priest and exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth claimed that Orlandi was kidnapped by the Vatican police in order to be used during sex parties. He added that she was then murdered.

Amorth also said that a foreign embassy, that was not named, was involved in her disappearance.

In the documentary, a childhood friend of Orlandi alleged that Orlandi had been sexually assaulted by “someone close to the Pope” a few weeks before she went missing.

Orlandi vanished a few days after she confided in the friend about the alleged incident.

The docuseries takes the theory further and suggests Orlandi could have been sent to a London convent as a result. A leaked Vatican dossier has appeared to show expenses related to Orlandi’s stay in a London convent for almost 15 years.

Organized crime theory

Antonio Mancini, a member of the organized crime organization Banda della Magliana, in 2011 implied that Orlandi’s kidnapping was just one of a number of strikes the gang made against the Vatican.

This was done in order to force the restitution of large amounts of money they had lent to the Vatican Bank, according to Mancini.

Per this theory, Orlandi was tied to gangster boss member Enrico De Pedis, who died in 1990.

In 2005, an anonymous call to the Italian television program Chi l’ha visto? said De Pedis’ grave contained evidence that would help police figure out what happened to Orlandi.

In addition to this, a former girlfriend of De Pedis said that he had once confessed to her that he had kidnapped Orlandi.

In 2012, Italian police opened the tomb of Pedis and took DNA samples. However, no clues were found in the tomb linking De Pedis to Orlandi.

Regarding the reopening of the case, the Holy See Press Office director Matteo Bruni said that it was in response to “several requests made by the family.”

Newsweek has contacted the Vatican Press Office for comment.