Search for girl leads to mobster's tomb

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ROME, May 15 (UPI) -- Forensic teams in Rome have opened a mobster's tomb hoping to find out what happened to a teenage girl who was kidnapped in 1983, authorities said.

Emanuela Orlandi, 15, the daughter of a Vatican bank functionary, was on her way to a music lesson when she vanished triggering one of Italy's greatest mysteries, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday.

One theory regarding her disappearance involved her remains being placed in the crypt of Mafioso Enrico "Renatino" De Pedis who was shot dead in Rome in 1990.

Vatican and state officials permitted the tomb at the basilica Sant'Apollinare in Rome to be opened on Monday. Inside the ancient crypt were found dozens of boxes containing human bones in addition to the body of De Pedis.

The story of Orlandi's disappearance has sparked numerous conspiracy theories ranging from links to shady Vatican bank affairs to organized crime in Rome.

The next step in the investigation is DNA testing of the remains found in the tomb by coroners and forensic anthropologists at Rome's University of Sapienza.