CNN —
The Vatican has launched a new investigation into the 1983 disappearance of a 15-year-old daughter of one of its employees.
The case of Emanuela Orlandi has come under intense scrutiny in recent months following the release of an investigative Netflix docuseries entitled Vatican Girl.
Orlandi, who was the daughter of a prominent Vatican official and lived within the walls of the Holy City, disappeared in the summer of 1983 on her way home from a music lesson in central Rome.
On Monday, the Vatican confirmed in a statement that Alessandro Diddi, the Vatican’s judicial officer, will launch a new investigation into the case.
Holy See press secretary Matteo Bruni said the opening of the case was “also a response to several requests from the family.”
Orlandi disappeared on June 22, 1983 after a lesson at a music school next to the Catholic Church of Sant’Apollinare Opus Dei near Piazza Navona in Rome.
Her father, Ercole Orlandi, who died in 2004, worked for the Institute for the Religious Works of the Holy See. Her mother, Maria Orlandi, still lives in the family apartment in Vatican City. Her brother, Pietro Orlandi, has spent his life uncovering what happened to his sister and has often accused the Vatican of hiding information.
Mark Lewis’ four-part Netflix series, released last year, highlighted several of the most well-known conspiracy theories, including that her kidnapping was linked to Mehmet Ali Agca, who was being arrested at the time for an attempted assassination of St. John Paul II’s Square in 1981.
Orlandi’s disappearance has also been linked to the Band of Magliana criminal gang, whose leader Enrico de Pedis was buried in the church of Sant’Apollinare until the Vatican exhumed his remains in 2012 at the request of the girl’s family, who thought she could be buried with them become him. Then, in 2012, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, claimed Orlandi had been kidnapped by Vatican police as part of a sex ring.
Human remains were found at the Holy See’s Embassy in Italy in central Rome in 2018 and tested unsuccessfully for a DNA match to the missing girl.
A year later, the Vatican agreed to exhume the graves of two princesses believed to be buried in the Pontifical German College Cemetery in Vatican City. The remains of the princess were not found in the tomb, nor were Orlandi’s, but two ossuaries were found under a secret door in the cemetery.
Lewis interviewed Orlandi’s mother and sisters, who had never been interviewed before, as well as the Italian police chief investigator at the time. He used the old missing persons poster design with Orlandi’s photo as the main publicity for the series, which brought new attention to the case.
Orlandi’s brother Pietro confirmed to CNN that he organized a sit-in in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate her birthday on January 14. Lewis confirmed to CNN that a number of cult fans of the Netflix series are expected.