Mirella Gregori, her sister Maria Antonietta speaks: «I wonder why they didn’t follow that lead…”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes,” he said. And then those ten minutes became forty years, they became “never”.

Mirella Gregori he was 15 years old when he disappeared on May 7, 1983. He lived in the Roman district of Porta Pia. We don’t know what happened, he never knew: “We never had a precise idea of ​​what happened,” he says Marie Antoinette Gregorithe sister, who is 57 today, “We have never had answers of any kind: who knows, perhaps she was kidnapped and killed on the same day, or maybe she is still alive and I would hope so with all my heart, even if after 40 years hopes have faded.

The story made a comeback after it came out on Netflix Vatican Girlthe series dedicated to Emanuela Orlandi: she too disappeared when she was 15, she too was in Rome, she too in that 1983.

However, there has always been a lot of talk about Emanuela: perhaps because the Pope was in the middle (she lived in Vatican City), perhaps because it seemed that the Banda della Magliana had something to do with it and someone even hypothesizes Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, fact is that the “Orlandi case” has occupied newspapers and television, much more than that of Mirella, who basically, as far as we know, had a very similar fate.

In that series, which is being talked about so much now, Mirella Gregori is barely mentioned: «Unfortunately, I was prepared, I knew what I had been asked and even if, yes, I was disappointed at the little importance they gave to Mirella, I didn’t expect much: the series was made on Emanuela Orlandi, I was aware of it».

But what effect did seeing this story still on TV have on you?
“Nothing traumatizing. He has talked about it many times: in the series Disappeared, Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother, dedicated an entire episode to Mirella. Of course, this time it’s an international release, but it didn’t awaken dormant emotions in me: for me, Mirella is there, it’s a thought that always accompanies me».

But do you think there are links with the Orlandi case? A photo of Mirella with the Pope circulated: can there be a link?
«Who knows, there could even be, maybe that photo of Pope Wojtyła is a clue. They had seen Mirella talking to the Pope’s bodyguard, who lived near us. But from here to see the links between the two stories it takes. Maybe the trail is completely different: let’s not forget that at the time there was still talk of the trafficking of white women, a criminal trafficking of women to be sent into prostitution in foreign countries».

But do you, in your heart of hearts, think that Mirella might still be alive?
«A thousand hypotheses have been made, we have been making hypotheses for forty years. My mum was convinced that she had been kidnapped and taken abroad: Mirella was naturally showy, she was beautiful, with her brown curls. According to my mother, she was taken away ».

But how did his parents live the following years?
«My mother is no longer here, she has been dead for 27 years, my father for 18. My mother has always been combative, if there was anything to talk about, she started in the first person. Dad, on the other hand, had closed himself up, had become frozen, he no longer expressed anything. After that they certainly never managed to have a “normal” life again, like I didn’t have: I was 17 at the time, I was a minor and I tried to be their sidekick».

And in fact she, as a sister, what kind of life did she have?
«Let’s say that it wasn’t a carefree life, on the contrary: my mother had increased her worries and asked me to always warn her, for whatever I did. She had raised her attention to the max. Such a thing devastates you. My sister and I had a very close bond: I was older and had a boyfriend at the time and it often happened that she went to the beach with us. We were a normal, very normal family, and we sisters didn’t hide anything from mum and dad».

What girl was Mirella?
«She was sunny, sociable, had a lot of friends, was very open and had a wonderful relationship with my mother, who, having had us at a late age, adored us, held us like two pearls, like the most precious gift he had given her the life”.

In your opinion, have there been any details that have been overlooked in recent years, which instead would have been important to follow up on?
«I think that at the beginning a lot of time was lost: they thought it was a voluntary removal and unfortunately – you know – the first 48 hours are the most important. According to her friend, Mirella went to play the guitar at Villa Torlonia, but no one went to see if there were any traces at Villa Torlonia, even though we said it over and over again ».

But what weight did that famous testimony by photographer Marco Accetti have? Have you ever met him? Do you think that has anything to do with Mirella’s disappearance?
«We received a call at the bar: the person listed the labels of the clothes Mirella was wearing on the day of her disappearance, including underwear. But even if Marco Accetti says he made that phone call, it seems that’s not true: they questioned him for a year and a half, but were unable to find almost anything. He accused himself, but it seems that nothing is certain. In any case, I’ve never met him, I really don’t care about it».

And what is her life today?
«I manage the same bar that belonged to my parents, in via Volturno in Rome. I have three grown children, and I’ve tried not to take my fears out on them. They know everything about Mirella, but I waited until they were in middle school to tell the story, I didn’t want them to know about the aunt from others, but I wanted them to be old enough to understand what had happened. Until last year I was the vice president of Lazio of the Penelope Italia Association, the one chaired by Nicodemo Gentile: it’s a non-profit organization that deals with giving psychological and legal support to the families of missing persons. I didn’t get help on this long journey: I tried to think about my parents and defended myself. Maybe if I hadn’t been a minor then I could have done more. In practice, they only really interested in Mirella after what had happened to Emanuela Orlandi: it’s as if she had always been in a bit of a queue and I didn’t have the tools to impose myself at the time as I could perhaps have done today. But it’s a non-fault fault. The thing that saddens me is that I don’t even have a film of Mirella and today I can’t remember her voice or the details of her face. The memory is built only through photographs.

If you could text Mirella today what would it say?
“That her sister is still waiting for her. I’m always here, still incredulous that someone could have had the strength to destroy a 15-year-old girl, full of joy and will to live.”