VATICAN CITY (AP) — A genetics expert retained by the family of a girl
who went missing in 1983 said Saturday that a cavernous underground
space near a Vatican cemetery holds thousands of bones that appear to be
from dozens of individuals, both "adult and non-adult."
The expert, Giorgio Portera, said the "enormous" size of the collection
under the Teutonic College was revealed when Vatican-appointed experts
began cataloging the remains, which were discovered last week .
"We didn't expect such an enormous number" of bones and other remains
which "had been thrown into a cavity," Portera said. "We want to know
why and how" the bones ended up there.
Fragments were also found, complicating the forensic experts' work, he said.
Portera is working on behalf of the family of Emanuela Orlandi, a
Vatican citizen who vanished at age 15 after she left her family's
Vatican City apartment for a music lesson in Rome. What became of her is
one of Italy's most enduring mysteries.
Some have
theorized the girl was kidnapped in an unsuccessful ransom bid to win
freedom for the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in
St. Peter's Square in 1981.
A Vatican statement
Saturday made no mention of the number of remains in the newly
discovered space near the Teutonic Cemetery but said the forensic work
would resume on July 27.
Orlandi's family previously
received an anonymous tip to search near the 19th century tombs of two
German princesses in the tiny graveyard.
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