Missing girl’s family lawyer: no bones in Vatican tombs

Pietro Orlandi, brother of Emanuela Orlandi who when missing in 1983, walks with his lawyer Laura Sgro after the Vatican reopened two tombs in the Teutonic Cemetery inside the Vatican, Thursday, July 11, 2019. The Vatican opened two tombs near St. Peter's Basilica after further investigation into the case of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, who never returned after heading out to a music lesson in Rome. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY — A lawyer for the family of a Vatican City teenager who vanished in 1983 says that no remains have been found in tombs opened near St. Peter’s Basilica.

Laura Sgro told reporters Wednesday, shortly after the pair of graves in the Vatican’s Teutonic Cemetery were opened at Emanuela Orlandi’s family’s request, that “the tombs are empty. We’re all amazed.”

Sgro had received an anonymous letter suggesting that the girl’s remains might be in one of the tombs. Orlandi was 15 when she disappeared after leaving her family’s Vatican City apartment for a music lesson in Rome. Her fate has been one of Italy’s most persistent mysteries.

The Vatican has said two princesses in 1836 and 1840 were buried in the two tombs. It was unclear why the tombs were empty.

The Associated Press