Police in six European countries and Interpol are reopening investigations into the cold, or unsolved, cases of 46 women who were murdered or died under suspicious circumstances in order to identify their remains, the international police agency Interpol said on Tuesday, the 8th of October, reports Reuters.
“We want … to provide answers to the families and justice to the victims,” Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said in a statement to the public, explaining the aim of the campaign.
The campaign, dubbed Operation Identify Me, follows a 2023 initiative involving Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, which sought to establish the names and fates of some 22 women whose remains have been found over the years.
This resulted in some 1 800 tips from the public, including information that led to the identification of the remains of a British woman, Rita Roberts, by her flower tattoo 31 years after her body was found in Belgium.
Stock said the public’s help had been crucial. “We can’t do it alone,” he said.
France, Italy and Spain will also be involved this year. Most of the 46 cases in the new campaign are “cold” cases – women who died ten, 20, 30 or even 40 years ago.
The new campaign combines police analytical skills with forensic techniques such as DNA profiling and facial reconstruction.
Interpol has published on its website extracts of these cases from so-called Black Alerts, which are usually only issued among the police, which are requests for information on unidentified bodies. They contain detailed information ranging from biometric data to physical descriptions of the body or clothing.