What was “the woman in pink”, “the introvert” or “the globetrotter” called before she died? Interpol launched an appeal to the public on Tuesday to identify 46 women killed or died in suspicious circumstances over half a century in six European countries.
A tattoo, a necklace, a physical characteristic: the international police cooperation organization, whose headquarters is in Lyon, publishes investigative elements on its website to give their names back to these women renamed thus by the investigators.
“The smallest piece of information can be decisive and shed light on these mysteries,” hopes Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock, quoted in a press release.
“Whether it is a memory, information or an anecdote, the smallest detail is sometimes enough to bring out the truth,” he adds, hoping to “provide answers to their families and obtain redress”
Interpol launched an unprecedented campaign in May 2023 called “Identify me”, to give the names of 22 women found in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands since the 1970s.
This first call for witnesses made it possible to identify Rita Roberts, a 31-year-old British citizen discovered in Antwerp more than thirty years earlier. Relatives of the victim had recognized the young woman’s tattoo, representing a flower, in the documents posted online by Interpol.
The organization has decided to expand this campaign to new unresolved cases, “cold cases”, and to include three other countries – France, Spain and Italy.
– Jean, Nelly et Ibiza –
By publishing extracts from their “black notice” – alerts in principle reserved for the use of the police – the organization hopes to name “the woman with the tattooed butterflies” found in the Seine in 2016 or “the pregnant woman with the necklaces of garnet”, discovered in a forest in Burgundy in 2001.
For each victim, the organization publishes on its site a facial reconstruction, details concerning the location and condition in which they were found or photos of clothing or jewelry discovered at the scene.
Seven of these women were found in France, between 1982 and 2021. One of them, discovered below a ledge near Villefranche-sur-mer in March 2008, was between 60 and 75 years old and wore On the left ring finger a ring engraved “Jean and Nelly, 06.25.1960”.
Another victim was found in the Seine in 2016. She had numerous tattoos, including butterflies tattooed on her hips, left ankle, inside of her wrist and on her right upper arm. A 100 Venezuelan bolivar note was found in his pocket.
Six files were provided by the Belgian federal police, including that of “the woman with the cane”, aged 60 to 80, found in the Meuse in Liège in 2010, or another discovery in the port of Ostend in 2022 wearing a T-shirt bearing the inscription “Ibiza”.
“Look at these women (…) could they be your friend, your cousin, your colleague, your patient, your neighbor, suddenly disappeared?” ask singer Axelle Red or actress Carice van Houten in the video campaign.
“You can help them. Give these women their identity back,” they call in this clip.
In France, the athlete Marie-José Pérec and the actress and writer Sarah Biasini are the ambassadors of the campaign.
