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On 22 June 1983, fifteen-year-old Emanuela Orlandi left her home in Vatican City to attend a music lesson in Rome.

She never came home.

What followed became one of Italy's most enduring mysteries — a disappearance that would eventually draw in the Vatican, Italian intelligence agencies, organised crime, international politics and decades of speculation.

Emanuela was a Vatican citizen and the daughter of a lay employee who worked inside the Vatican. Her disappearance therefore immediately placed an extraordinary case at the heart of one of the world's most secretive institutions.

There were phone calls. Witnesses. Conflicting accounts. Alleged sightings. Claims that Emanuela had been kidnapped as part of a political bargain. Connections were suggested to the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, the mysterious Banco Ambrosiano scandal and organised crime.

But very little has ever been proven.

Decades later, Emanuela's fate remains unknown.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we follow the events surrounding Emanuela Orlandi's disappearance, examine the major leads and theories, and look at why this case became so deeply entangled with the Vatican itself.

Because this isn't simply the story of a girl who disappeared.

It's a mystery that has spent more than four decades refusing to stay buried.

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