Vatican to open ancient tombs in bid to solve mystery of missing girl

Her family were sent an anonymous letter telling them to 'look where the angel is pointing' in the Vatican City cemetery

Pope Francis during the Angelus, traditional Sunday's prayer, in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City. EPA/ANGELO CARCONI

The Vatican has agreed to open two centuries old tombs in a bid to solve the mystery of a teenage girl who vanished more than three decades ago.

It comes after the family of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, who disappeared in 1983 on her way to a flute lesson in Rome, received an anonymous tip-off that her remains could be hidden there.

Her family were sent an anonymous letter saying Emanuela could be buried in the Teutonic Cemetery, a small burial ground in the Vatican used over the centuries mainly for Church figures of German or Austrian origin.

It told them to seek a marble statue of an angel above a tomb in the cemetery, adding: "Look where the angel is pointing."

The two graves will be opened on 11 July with the teenager’s relatives and lawyers for the family and the Holy See present.

There have been many conspiracy theories surrounding her disappearance.

Her father was a Holy See clerk and the police have investigated a number of leads from the possibility of her being abducted in an attempt to secure the freedom of a gunman jailed for trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II, to a connection to the grave of Enrico De Pedis, a mobster buried in a Rome basilica.

His tomb was opened in 2012 but nothing was revealed.

They also looked at whether she may have been abducted and killed for reasons unconnected to the Vatican or if she may have been a victim of human trafficking for sexual reasons. She would now be 51.

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the exhumed bodies will be scientifically analysed to date them, and DNA testing will be carried out to see if any of the remains belong to Emanuela.

Her brother Pietro Orlandi told Italian news agency Ansa: "After 35 years of lack of cooperation, the start of an investigation is an important breakthrough."

The relatives of the people buried in the tombs, who have not been identified, will also be present when they are opened.

Last year, bones found during ground work at the Vatican embassy in Rome sparked an Italian media frenzy suggesting they might belong to Emanuela or to Mirella Gregori, another teenager who disappeared the same year. DNA tests turned out negative.

Laura Sgro, an Orlandi family lawyer, said the family was grateful for the Vatican’s decision to open the graves.