Crime Boss’s Tomb Is Exhumed for Clues in Missing Girl’s Case

ROME — Since 1983, when 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi vanished on a street here on her way home from a music lesson, investigators have struggled to solve her disappearance. Various theories have tied the presumed kidnapping to intrigue involving the Italian secret services, organized crime, even the attempt to assassinate John Paul II — or possibly all three.

On Monday, police forensic experts pursued yet another lead, exhuming the tomb of a notorious local crime boss at a Vatican church, where some speculated Emanuela might have been buried. Besides his remains, they found hundreds of other bones in an ancient ossuary nearby in the crypt. The police said they would test them to see if any might have been Emanuela’s.

The exhumation added a new chapter to the 29-year-old mystery that has captivated Italians, in particular because Emanuela was the daughter of an employee of the Vatican City State — and a Vatican citizen, a fact that many see as a key to understanding her disappearance....