The small Vatican cemetery that could hold the key to a 36-year-old mystery

Located on the original site of the circus of the Emperor Nero, this one hides behind high walls, in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica.

This cemetery is perhaps the solution to solve a 36-year-old mystery that shocked Italy: the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl named Emanuela Orlandi.

This Thursday, the police will enter the spot to exhume two graves, in search of the missing girl.

This cemetery is normally used to bury German speaking members of Catholic institutions. Tourists are not allowed to take the road that leads to it.

At best, you can approach a door protected by a Swiss guard.

And if you raise your head above this door, you will be able to distinguish the entrance of the cemetery from far away.

What happened to Emanuela?

On June 22, 1983, Emanuela returned home after a flute lesson. He was last seen at a bus stop in the center of Rome. The 15-year-old girl has just disappeared. Nobody has seen it since.

Decades of speculation followed. Has she been kidnapped and murdered? If so, where is your body?

Emanuela's family had to search for innumerable clues and rumors.

"A lot of people tell me: give up, enjoy life, do not think about it anymore," his older brother Pietro told the BBC. "But I can not, I can not be at peace until it's resolved."

• "It would be painful for my mother [si se encuentran los restos de Emanuela]. She still lives in the Vatican ", Pietro Orlandi

Attention has always been drawn to the fact that Emmanuela was the daughter of an employee of Vatican City. Could this fact have something to do with his disappearance?

Why the interest has shifted to the graveyard

In March 2019, the Orlandi family received an anonymous letter.

In this one, there was an image of an angel on a grave in the Vatican Teutonic Cemetery.

Was this a clue as to where Emanuela could be buried?

The family knew that he had to inform the Vatican. But he had not been lucky in previous attempts.

"For them, the case was closed," says Pietro. "With the Pope Francisco, the wall grew up, I met him a few days after his election (in 2013) and he said to me:" Emanuela is in paradise "."

"I thought," All right, Pope Francis knows something. " I then filled out all sorts of requests to meet him again, to get an explanation, but he never wanted to see me again. "

So, there was no direct way to the pope.

The family had to make a general request to the Vatican to open the grave in the Teutonic cemetery. A Vatican state court accepted the petition.

What will the Vatican do?

"For the first time, the Vatican shows that it is considering the possibility of internal responsibilities within the Vatican [por la desaparición de Emanuela]"Insists Pietro.

But the Vatican press service says only that the police will investigate the possibility that Emanuela was buried in the cemetery.

He will not investigate his disappearance. This corresponds to the Italian authorities outside the jurisdiction of the Vatican.

When the police exhume the two graves, the Orlandi family can attend if they wish, as well as the relatives of those buried in these graves. Then, DNA tests will be done on the remains, a process that could take weeks.

Pietro must prepare for what could be found in this exhumation.

"It would be painful for my mother [si los restos de Emanuela son encontrados]. She still lives in the Vatican, only 200 or 300 meters from this cemetery. The simple thought of thinking that I have been so close to my sister for so long without knowing that it makes me feel terribly bad. "

"In fact, the truth is that I hope that Emanuela is not here."

The last memory of a brother

Pietro refuses to eliminate the distant possibility that his sister is alive, in a certain way. Remember the last time you saw it.

"She and I were very close, we both loved the music, I was trying to show a piece of Chopin, we had only seen two pages when he disappeared, I hope that One day I'll come back and show me the rest. "

There is a thought that does not come out of your head.

"The last time I saw her, it's not really a beautiful memory," she explains.

"We quarreled because she had a music clbad, it was very hot, I refused to accompany her because she had something else to do." She slammed the door and left , and it's the last memory that I have. "

"I often think what would have happened if I had accompanied her?"

BBC