Italian authorities are investigating the possible involvement of an uncle in the disappearance of a schoolgirl who ‘disappeared’ 40 years ago.
Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, was last seen leaving a music class in Rome on June 22, 1983.
His disappearance has been linked to everything from a mafia kidnapping to an attempt on the life of Pope John II and a financial scandal involving the Vatican Bank.
But prosecutors in Rome are now investigating the possible involvement of her uncle Mario Meneguzzi, who accused her older sister of sexually abusing her after a tip-off from the Vatican, according to Italian media.
It comes after the city-state passed its case files to Rome in June, saying they included ‘some lines of inquiry worthy of further investigation’.
Emanuela Orlandi (pictured), the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, is seen leaving a music class in Rome on June 22, 1983.
But prosecutors in Rome are now investigating the possible involvement of her uncle, Mario Meneguzzi (pictured), who sexually assaulted her older sister.
The files include a letter in which a priest told the Vatican’s secretary of state that Orlandi’s older sister Natalina had revealed during confession that her uncle Mario Meneguzzi had sexually abused her, according to Italian television channel La 7.
But Orlandi’s brother Pietro, who has campaigned for the truth for years and believes the Vatican knows what happened to Emanuela, reacted angrily to the La7 report.
He told news agency Adnchronos: ‘They can’t put the whole thing on the family. I am angry’ and claimed the authorities had ‘crossed the line’ by blaming his uncle.
Meanwhile, Natalina told a press conference on Tuesday that when her uncle made ‘advances’ towards her, she stopped after being rejected. ‘There was no rape,’ she said.
Orlandi said his uncle’s alibi — that he was on vacation far from Rome at the time — had been established and verified.
“The Vatican wants to deny any responsibility,” he said, reiterating calls for a parliamentary commission.
His disappearance has been linked to everything from a mafia kidnapping to an attempt on the life of Pope John II and a financial scandal involving the Vatican Bank.
But Orlandi’s brother Pietro (pictured), who has campaigned for the truth for years and believes the Vatican knows what happened to Emanuela, reacted angrily to the La 7 report.
Meneguzzi, who died several years ago, looked remarkably similar to a painting of a man seen talking to Emanuela on the street after his music lesson, La7 said.
He also played a key role in the months after her disappearance, responding to calls from alleged kidnappers, reports said.
Meneguzzi had ties to the secret service, and was able to pay for a family lawyer, La 7 added.
During the first, brief inquiry into him, he was alerted by the service that police were tailing him, it said.
Meneguzzi told investigators he was outside Rome the day the teenager disappeared, in the village of Torano east of the capital, with several relatives, including Emanuela’s father Ercole, according to the Open Online newspaper.
But Ercole Orlandi told investigators on multiple occasions that he was not in Torano that day, but in Fiumicino, west of Rome, Oppen said.
Corriere della Sera investigative reporter Fabrizio Peronassi said on Tuesday that he had also uncovered information that the kidnappers insisted from the start that Meneguzzi was their point person for ransom negotiations.
A poster announcing the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee
The Vatican has been accused of obstructing investigative efforts for decades, but finally opened its most famous cold case investigation in January. Prosecutors in Rome then opened their own new investigation – the third so far – in May.
In July 2019 the tombs of the two princesses in the Vatican’s Teutonic cemetery, opened to search for Orlandi’s remains, were found empty.
In late November 2018, prosecutors in Rome said bones found in an annexe of the Vatican’s nunnery in Italy were not those of Orlandi or another girl, Mirella Gregori, who disappeared a month before Orlandi disappeared.
The twists and turns of the case were documented in a 2022 Netflix TV series, ‘Vatican Girl,’ although it did not look at Meneguzzi.
In the documentary, a friend claims the teenager hid a week before her disappearance from being molested in the Vatican Gardens by a figure close to Pope John Paul II.
Another claim often repeated in the Italian media is that he was taken to force the release from prison of Mehmet Ali Agaka, the Turk who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.