This mystery has podcast gold written all over it.
A search operation for Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Italian girl who went missing 36 years ago, has led to the exhumation of several tombs in the Vatican City.
Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared mysteriously on 22 June, 1983, on her way home to the Vatican from a music lesson in downtown Rome.
An anonymous tip sent to the Orlandi family suggested that she was buried in the tombs of the Teutonic Cemetery.
This tip is now being explored.
“At 9 am this morning, operations began regularly at the Teutonic Cemetery as part of the investigation of the Orlandi case,” said a statement by Alessandro Gisotti, the “ad interim” Director of the Holy See Press Office.
The searches so far have turned up other strange surprises.
On 11 July, when the tombs of two other princesses were opened, no human remains and no traces of coffins or urns were found.
The Vatican claims that the remains of the two princesses could have been removed elsewhere in the cemetery when the adjacent Teutonic College was built.
The searches continue as of Saturday, overseen by Promoter of Justice of the Court of Vatican City State, Prof. Gian Piero Milano.
The Vatican insists the investigation is conforming to international protocols.
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