Discovery in Vatican property seen as potential breakthrough in case of teenagers who disappeared in 1983

The family of a teenager who went missing in Italy in 1983 has called on the Vatican to provide more details on the discovery of human remains in one of its properties in Rome.

Fragments of human bone were found during restoration work on the property next to the diplomatic office of the Holy See in Rome in what could be a breakthrough for police investigating one of Italy’s darkest mysteries.

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Italian media have speculated that the discovery could shed light on the fate of one or possibly two teenagers who went missing in the 1980s.

“We will ask Rome prosecutors and the Holy See how the bones were found and why their discovery has been linked to the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi or Mirella Gregori,” the Orlandis’ family lawyer, Laura Sgrò, told the media.

“The statement released by the Holy See provides hardly any information.”

Citing sources close to the investigation, the Italian news agency Ansa reported on Wednesday that the remains found during restoration work on the floor of the property could belong to two people. Initial tests on some of the bones found indicate they belonged to a woman, according to the agency.

Workers are reported to have found an almost complete skeleton in one area and bone fragments in another.

A police investigation was under way to establish the age and gender of the remains and date of death. Media reports said the remains were discovered on Monday.

“Above all we need to established the period [of death] before we jump to conclusions,” Greg Burke, the Vatican’s spokesperson, told the Guardian. “The [outcome of the investigation] isn’t anything that will be known in a few days, it will take some time.”

Detectives will be looking in particular at whether they are a DNA match for Orlandi or Gregori, both of whom were 15 when they went missing in Rome within the space of 40 days in 1983.

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Orlandi was the daughter of a member of the Vatican’s police and was last seen on 22 June 1983 when leaving a music class.

Theories have circulated that the then teenager was kidnapped by an organised crime gang to put pressure on Vatican officials to recover a loan. Another claim was that she was taken to force the release from prison of Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Orlandi’s brother, Pietro, has been leading a decades-long campaign to find out what happened to her and has accused the Vatican of silence and even complicity in the case.

The Vatican has said on several occasions that it has cooperated with Italian police over the case.

Pietro Orlandi organised a sit-in demonstration in June, accusing the Vatican of “raising the wall even higher”.

“A few days after Emanuela disappeared, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Morandini told my dad that the state was concerned about the incident and that it was suggested to plug the leak before it was too late. I think the decision to drop the investigation was a consequence of those words,” he said at the time.

Sgrò said the Orlandi family were waiting to understand the details of the discovery and would comment further after a DNA test.

“The family’s hope is that [the remains belong to Emanuela], for so long we have fought a battle to bring her home.”

Gregori disappeared 40 days before Orlandi. Her mother says Gregori answered the intercom at the family apartment before telling her parents it was a school friend and she was going out to speak to him. She never returned. Investigators have not ruled out that the cases could be connected.

“I don’t want to delude myself, I want to keep my feet on the ground but in my heart I hope the bones belong to Mirella so that we can put an end to this story and have a place to weep and take a flower to my sister,” Maria Antonietta Gregori, her sister, told the Italian press.

The four workers who discovered the remains will meet Rome’s chief prosecutor over the coming days. The bones were found as they carried out restoration works on the floor of what used to be the home of the building’s caretaker.

The property where the remains were discovered had been left to the Vatican in 1949 by a Jewish businessman who belonged to the Nazi party before the introduction of racial laws in Italy, and later converted to Catholicism, according to Italian media.

