THE childhood friend of a Vatican school girl who vanished more than 40 years ago could hold the key to her mysterious disappearance.
Laura Casagrande, 57, has been placed under investigation by Roman police after it was revealed she allegedly lied to prosecutors.
Casagrande may have been the last person to see Emanuela Orlandi after they left a music class together in central Rome on June 22 in 1983.
Just days later, the teenager received a phone call at her home from Mehmet Ali Agca – the Turkish gunman who was locked up for shooting and wounding Pope John Paul II just two years prior.
Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, was just 15 years old when she vanished without a trace.
For many years, the missing teen has been considered a pawn to obtain Agca’s release, a suspected victim of sexual abuse inside the Vatican, as well as a means to pressure the Vatican bank into repaying mafia funds, which had been diverted to support the Solidarity trade union in Cold War Poland.
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Rumours have swirled around the reasons for her mystifying disappearance, including that she may have been pregnant and hiding in London.
Following the 2022 Netflix documentaryVatican Girl, both Italy and the Vatican reopened investigations into the case, as well as a commission of inquiry being launched by the Italian parliament.
During the commission, one of the first witnesses to give evidence was Casagrande.
Throughout her time being questioned, she apologised repeatedly for the gaps in her memory over the crucial moments of her final interaction with Orlandi.
Orlandi family lawyer Laura Sgrò said Casagrande had “made contradictory statements”.
“You can tell she is being reticent,” she added.
“Is she covering for someone?
“Why is there so much fear so many years later?”
Other school friends have also proven unreliable witnesses, after being either traumatised by her disappearance, or later being intimidated in intervening years.
One example of this is Raffaella Monzi, who was Orlandi’s colleague from the music school.
She said she had been followed and threatened, and has since been admitted as a patient into a psychiatric clinic.
Another, Pierluigi Magnesio, was a contemporary at the missing girl’s high school.
He called a television crime show to admit: “If I talk they will kill me.”
“It’s shocking that after 42 years this climate should still exist,” Sgrò said.
“It’s terrible. We hope that if she [Casagrande] knows something she will finally get it out.
“These people have come under tremendous pressure and we don’t know what is behind it.”
Andrea De Priamo, president of the parliamentary commission, said Casagrande gave two accounts of Orlandi’s exit from the school in depositions shortly after the event.
Last year, she told the commission that she had no recollection of her movements at all.
“My recollection of that day is that she didn’t come to choir practice,” Casagrande said.
“I was waiting for her because she was one of the girls that I was closest to,” she told the commission.
“We didn’t leave together. I would have remembered that.”
Casagrande said she experienced several nervous breakdowns over her life and protected herself by blocking out traumatic events from her memory.
Roberto Morassut, one of the commissioners, expressed frustration at her memory lapses.
“I don’t believe that you didn’t fix the day of Emanuela’s disappearance in your memory,” he said.
“Although many years have passed, I believe it is an event that now belongs to the history of Italy.”
Shortly after his election to the pontificate in 2013 Pope Francis mysteriously told Orlandi’s brother, Pietro, that “Emanuela was in heaven”.
He declined to provide any more details of what he knew about the case.
Pietro urged Casagrande to not be afraid to come out with the truth she knows about the vital moments before his sister’s disappearance.
The Orlandi family hope Pope Leo – who was elected in May – will shine a light on the mystery that has plagued their family for four decades.