VATICAN CITY: The Vatican opened two tombs on Thursday tosee if the body of a girl missing since 1983 was hidden there and ran into anew mystery when nothing was found, not even the bones of two 19th centuryprincesses supposed to be buried there.Experts were looking for the remains ofEmanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican clerk who failed to return homefollowing a music lesson in Rome. Her disappearance has been the subject ofwild speculation in the Italian media for years.

Exhumation work began after a morning prayer in the TeutonicCemetery, a burial ground just inside the Vatican walls used over the centuriesmainly for Church figures or members of noble families of German or Austrianorigin.

Officials were expecting to find at least the bones ofPrincess Sophie von Hohenlohe, who died in 1836, and Princess Carlotta Federicaof Mecklenburg, who died in 1840, but there was no trace of either."Theresult of the search was negative. No human remains or funeral urns werefound," Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said. Gisotti said theVatican would now examine records structural work done in the cemetery at theend of the 19th century and again about 60 years ago to see if they could shed anylight on the new mystery.Princess Sophie`s tomb led to a large emptyunderground room and no human remains were found in Princess Carlotta`s tomb,he said. "They went down and found a room measuring 4 metres by 3 metres(13 feet by 10 feet), which was the first surprise ...There was absolutelynothing inside," Emanuela`s brother, Pietro Orlandi, told reportersoutside the Vatican.The two tombs were opened in the presence of the Orlandifamily and descendants of the princesses. The Orlandi family had received ananonymous letter saying Emanuela`s body might be hidden among the dead in theTeutonic Cemetery where a statue of an angel holding a book reads"Requiescat in Pace," Latin for "Rest in Peace". Theoriesabout Orlandi`s disappearance have run the gamut from an attempt to securefreedom for Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk jailed in 1981 for trying to assassinatePope John .