The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) launched a new campaign last week seeking the public’s help solving 46 cold cases of women whose bodies were found in Europe between 1982 and 2021.
Interpol’s goal through the “Identify me” campaign is to solve 46 cold cases in which the victims, all women, were found dead in six European countries, including France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
“Despite extensive police investigations, these women were never identified, and evidence suggests that some of them could have come from other countries,” Interpol said in a press release. “Who they are, where they are from and why they were in these countries is unknown.”
Interpol issued a Black Notice for each victim, and while the alerts are for police only, Interpol released extracts of the notices for the public to review.
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Along with the extracts, there are details about each case, including facial reconstruction images, with hope that someone may be able to recognize them and help determine the circumstances that led to their death.
One of the cases, for example, is called “The woman in the well,” which roots back to Aug. 6, 1991.
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That day, a woman estimated to be between 30 and 55 years old was found in a rainwater well in Holsbeek, Belgium.
Police say the woman was wearing a beige/brown knitted cardigan, a t-shirt with black vertical stripes, an image of two surfers and three palm trees with text reading, “sun-surf-sea,” and dark plaid shorts.
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Police also said the woman’s body may have been in the well for up to two years before it was discovered.
Another case called, “The body in the bog,” was opened on Oct. 14, 2001, when the body of a woman between the ages of 20 and 30 was found in a bog in the Worringen quarter of Cologne, Germany.
Police said the woman is presumed to have had a dark complexion and had black hair with interwoven artificial hair.
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Her body was discovered by a mushroom picker, and it is suspected of being there for at least four months prior to its discovery, though police added it may have been there for up to four years.
Experts reconstructed the woman’s face in April 2002, to get an idea of how the woman may have looked at the time of her death.
For each case on the website, police have a link that people can click to contact Interpol and the police agency of the particular country where the body was found.
“We need you to help us resolve these cold cases,” Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said in a post on X. “Our goal is to identify these deceased women and bring answers to families.”
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