Is Vatican Girl Based on a True Story – Was She Ever Found?

Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi investigates the disappearance of a young woman from Italy 37 years ago. Many have wondered if the narrative of Vatican Girl, which can be found on Netflix, is based on a true event because it is so unusual and fresh. The historical context of this tale is discussed in detail below.

Is Vatican Girl Based on a True Story?

The disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, then 15 years old, in Rome in 1983 is the subject of Vatican Girl, a Netflix documentary that features interviews with members of the Orlandi family, including Maria, Emanuela’s mother, and a woman who claims to have been her friend.

The disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi is the central subject of the docuseries, despite the fact that it provides numerous theories and rumours about the case that have not been proved.

When the young teen was a resident of Vatican City, news of her disappearance quickly spread around the globe. According to The Telegraph, she was the daughter of a Vatican office employee and disappeared from the Italian capital on her way home from a flute lesson.

Director Mark Lewis told Variety that he hopes viewers of Vatican Girl would have an emotional response to what the Orlandi family has gone through and that it will spark conversations regarding this issue. Emanuela Orlandi was last seen leaving a class.

“I hope that an audience will respond on an emotional level to the Orlandi family. The other thing I’m hoping audiences get from the series is a better understanding of the Vatican,” he said. “While it is the smallest country in the world, it’s so much more than that. It’s a kind of absolute monarchy.”

Mark continued, “Ultimately though, I hope audiences respond in a way that gives this case momentum and gets the conversation about this case going again.”

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Was She Ever Found?

Even though it’s been years since Emanuela Orlandi disappeared, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain shrouded in mystery. Following Emanuela’s disappearance in 1983, numerous ideas have surfaced as to her whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, with some pointing fingers at the Italian Mafia and others at secret agencies.

Nonetheless, Vatican Girl also centres on the rumoured Vatican involvement in Emanuela’s disappearance. Reports indicate that the Vatican has categorically refuted claims that it attempted to conceal the teen’s disappearance.

While Emanuela’s disappearance remains a mystery, The Telegraph says that an unidentified woman who was a childhood friend of the missing teen makes the astonishing claim that the teen confided in her about a “secret to confess” about a week before she vanished.

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Did Anyone Ever Bother Her?

The woman said that she and Emanuela had been “bothered” by “someone very close to the Pope” while strolling about the Vatican grounds. According to the buddy, Emanuela experienced sexual harassment and was too “scared” and “ashamed” to inform anybody about it.

The woman was allegedly asked if she was worried about the fallout from making the findings public for the first time, and she responded, “I have always been afraid. It’s a terrible world.”

Meanwhile, Vatican Girl director Mark Lewis told the publication that he thinks the actress “felt the weight of the Church” and “didn’t feel comfortable coming forward before” due to her own faith.

It has also been claimed that a criminal organisation could have utilised this knowledge to blackmail the Vatican at the time. According to the investigative journalist who worked on the case, Emiliano Fittipaldi, he would have made more money kidnapping a cardinal or a renowned priest.

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Why a Girl Was Taken Instead of a Cardinal?

The question is why a girl was taken instead of a cardinal. There’s just one thing that makes sense to me: she was hiding a huge secret that could have caused a major scandal.

Already, references to Dan Brown’s best-selling conspiracy novel The Da Vinci Code have been made in connection with the Netflix show.

Over the years, various other explanations for Emanuela’s disappearance have surfaced, such as that she was abducted by the Mafia, that she was abducted by Soviet agents in an effort to influence Pope John Paul II’s political views, or that she was being held for ransom in exchange for the freedom of Mehmet Ali Aca, the man who shot the Pope in 1981.