Emanuela Orlandi, 15 years old, a Vatican citizen, disappeared on June 22, 1983. Two judicial inquiries - for a total of 11 suspects, all gradually acquitted - were not enough to shed light on one of the best known unsolved cases in Italian history. The intertwining with the scandals of the IOR and the poisons against Pope Wojtyla
It is cold case number one, the unsolved mystery par excellence: that of the "girl with the band". An intrigue halfway between news and history, which for years has involved western and eastern chancelleries, religious circles, fake beards, and still continues to cause concern. A mystery never revealed because - generations of investigators, criminologists, journalists, even some ecclesiastics agree on this, provided they speak off the record - the hidden truth is uncomfortable. What happened to Emanuela Orlandi? Into what bottomless black hole was the 15-year-old girl, a Vatican citizen, daughter of a papal clerk faithful servant of Karol Wojtyla, pushed after leaving music school (flute and choral singing) on that damned Wednesday June 22, 1983? When there are only a few months left before the 40 years without justice expire, which for the Orlandi family are equivalent to a sentence no less atrocious than prison ("the life sentence of waiting", renamed his brother Pietro, never resigned), we thought the docuserie «Vatican girl» (on Netflix) to rekindle the spotlight on the enigma.
The Orlandi thriller begins on June 22, 1983 when Emanuela, fourth daughter of Ercole, an employee of the papal Prefecture, and his wife Maria, a former Red Cross nurse, does not return home (within Vatican City) after having been to music lessons in the complex of Sant'Apollinare (Piazza Navona). In the last phone call, around 7 pm, the girl (enrolled in the national boarding school, Prati district) tells her sister Federica that she had received a job offer for the Avon company from an unidentified person: distributing cosmetics and flyers during a fashion show Sorelle Fontana, in exchange for 375,000 lire, a hefty figure, unlikely for a single afternoon's work. "Wait, talk to mom about it," her sister says. But Emanuela doesn't come back.