What Remains

Emanuela Orlandi

In 1983 Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, went missing.  Thus started one of the greatest searches and mysteries in Vatican history.

 As a consequence authorities swarmed the basilica on Monday as they began to excavate the remains of a supposed mobster Enrico De Pedis who might have been connected to the young woman's disappearance. 

According to reports, "Orlandi was 15 when she disappeared in 1983 after leaving her family's Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See.Amid a new push to resolve the case, the Vatican said last month it had no objections to opening the tomb. On Monday, Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the inspection of the De Pedis tomb was "certainly a positive fact" aimed at carrying out "all possible steps so the investigation could be completed."

What remains is only a vague hope and possible sense of closure for a grieving family.  During the exhumation of the remains of De Pedis, a family attorney stated that investigators "had found some 200 containers with bones near De Pedis' tomb in the ossuary."  The remains within the jars have been collected and will be examined closely and tested in the weeks ahead. 

If you would like to read more about Emanuela Orlandi please go to the following link: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/14/vatican-braced-for-exhumation-in-old-kidnap-case/#ixzz1uwa4VYG0