Interpol launches new appeal in EU cold cases, 11 from NL

Two Dutch cases have been added to an international list of 46 women who were found dead in European countries, in a new public appeal to establish their identities.

Identify Me, an Interpol operation set up in 2023 to identify women who were found in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands has now been extended to include France, Italy and Spain.

One of the two added Dutch cold cases involves the body of a woman found in the dunes near Wassenaar 20 years ago.

“This case has been on my mind for a decade,” former police officer Dick Oudewater told RTL Nieuws. “The body was found with a set of keys which we eventually found were made in Germany. But it didn’t provide the breakthrough we were hoping for because the locksmith had erased his archives,” he said.

The second woman was found in the river Meuse near Maastricht in 2013. Her jewellery and tongue piercing may give people a clue as to her identity, police hope.

Apart from all known information, the Interpol database includes facial reconstructions and clues about their possible country of origin.

Last year, police received 700 tips on the Dutch cold cases, none of which have been solved so far. A Belgian cold case was solved when relatives in Great Britain recognised the tattoos on the body of  31-year-old murder victim Rita Roberts, whose body was found in Antwerp in 1992.