2023-05-11 05:27:08
- Alice Cody
- BBC News – Amsterdam
Police in three European countries are asking for help in identifying 22 murdered women whose names are still unknown.
These bodies were found in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany between 1976 and 2019.
A mysterious murder of a woman in Amsterdam prompted Interpol to search for the killer following her body was found in a dumpster dumped in a river.
This is the first time that the international police group has published a list seeking information regarding the bodies of unidentified victims.
The so-called black notices, which were issued as part of the campaign known as Operation Identification, were circulated only internally among INTERPOL’s network of police forces around the world.
The woman, who was found in an Amsterdam dumpster in 1999, had been shot twice, one in the head and one in the chest.
Criminal Investigator Karina Van Leeuwen has been trying to solve the mystery since joining the city’s first “cold” case team in 2005.
Dutch police say a case usually goes “cold” when it remains open and unsolved within regarding three years.
After exhausting all efforts, I contacted police colleagues in neighboring Germany and Belgium and learned of many possible murder cases of unidentified female victims.
image copyright Netherlands Police
The original reconstruction of the Amsterdam victim’s face from 1999, along with a more accurate depiction using new technology
The three countries compiled a list of 22 cases they were grappling with and asked Interpol to release the details. Seven cases were reported by the Belgian police, six cases by Germany and nine cases by the Netherlands.
Most of the victims were between 15 and 30 years old.
Police say it is difficult to determine the exact circumstances of their deaths unless their names or who killed them is known.
The full list – available on the INTERPOL website – includes details regarding the women, photographs of potential identifiers such as the victim’s clothing, jewellery, body tattoos and, in some cases, new facial reconstructions and case information.
Finding answers in such cases is vital, says Van Leeuwen.
“If you don’t have a name, then there is no story, and the victim is just a number,” she explains.
In the Netherlands, all unidentified women’s bodies appear to be linked to murders, while unidentified men died in several different circumstances, police say.
In this part of Europe, people can move between countries with ease due to the open borders between them.
Increased global migration and human trafficking has led to more people being reported missing outside their country’s borders, says Dr Susan Hitchin, coordinator of the DNA unit at INTERPOL.
Victim number one
The body of the woman found in the container is now in a cemetery in central Amsterdam. Her grave is located near a train line and behind rows of graves, whose headstones are inscribed with freshly cut flowers.
But the unidentified victim is buried in an area designated for the unidentified, and there are only small wooden boards embedded in the soil with the words “unidentified dead”.
The woman was found when a man from the area, Jan Meyer, went out on his boat to retrieve the container that was discovered by his neighbor, who found it floating in the river near his home on the outskirts of the Dutch capital.
Jan Meyer found the woman’s body more than two decades ago.
But when the container hit the boat, the man noticed that it looked heavier than expected, and as more of it protruded above the surface of the water, the man sensed a stench wafting from it.
As a firefighter, Yan had come across many corpses in his life, but this stench was so foul, it reminded him of the smell he had smelled as a child when he found the rotting corpse of a butchered sheep.
On examining it, he found the container sealed with nails, pulled it out and called the police immediately.
When the container was opened, the police found bags of washing powder piled on top of a piece of concrete, so they turned the container upside down, only to be surprised by a body falling out of it, and one of the hands was partially covered with cement.
A policeman who was there told me that the body was gray and looked like a “sand sculpture”.
He said it was impossible to know whether a person was a man or a woman.
An investigation at the time established that the woman was most likely in her mid-20s and of mixed “Western European and Asian” ancestry.
Modern forensic examinations, using the technique of “isotope analysis”, have narrowed down her place of birth to either the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg or Belgium.
“It’s all regarding the food you eat and the water you drink, but also the air you breathe,” Ms. van Leeuwen says of the isotope analysis technique.
In the weeks following her discovery, the police revealed details of her clothes, shoe sizes and what she wore, but they are still unable to identify her. Her dark lace-up shoes weren’t on her feet, but rather with her corpse in the container.
Details of what was found with the body were released by Interpol as part of their “identify me” operation.
There was a gold-colored watch on her right wrist, a snakeskin bag, and men’s clothing, which police believe belonged to the perpetrator. It is a jacket embroidered with a red circular symbol. However, efforts to identify the symbol have reached a dead end.
No suspects were ever questioned or arrested in connection with the case, and an initial wave of media attention quickly evaporated.
But for those there on the day the body was found, the woman with no name was easy to forget. They still wonder who this woman is and who might be missing her now.
“They each have someone they miss.”
When Detective Karina Van Leeuwen visited the victim’s grave for the first time in 2007 to exhume her remains, she was shocked and saddened by the thought of people ending up in mysterious deaths.
The owner of the cemetery asked the investigator what she intended to do regarding the “other women”. Then she realized the magnitude of the problem posed by the unidentified corpses.
Identification of the dead became her specialty, and she continued to work on identifying 41 people who died of various causes.
“No matter how long it takes to identify the victims, they all have one thing in common: they all have someone they miss,” she says.
“Even if it takes 25 years, people will be very happy to have anything from the victim’s remains that they can bury and pay their respects to.”
Detective Karina van Leeuwen says she will not give up searching for the names of the women whose murders he is investigating.
practical “identify me“
Only four of the bodies Karina helped identify in the Netherlands were of people from that country, which is why she believes working with police forces across borders, and wider public awareness, is so important.
One case of Operation Identify Me is a woman found in Belgium with a distinctive tattoo of a black flower with green leaves and the writing “R’NIC” underneath.
She was found lying on a river bed in Antwerp, the Netherlands, in 1992. Police said she was violently murdered, but they never found out her name.
In another case from 2002, the body of a woman was found at a sailing club in the German city of Bremen, wrapped in a carpet and tied with rope.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) says it hopes the issuance of a public list of such black notices will help stimulate memory and encourage people to come forward with any information they may know.
“They may recognize an earring or a particular piece of clothing that was found on the unknown woman,” says Interpol’s Dr Susan Hitchin.
image copyright Belgian Federal Police
Photo of a flower tattoo on an unidentified woman from Belgium
In some cases, police forces use technology that was not available at the time the bodies were found to enhance their chances of identifying them.
Dr Christopher Wren, a forensic technologist in Scotland, has produced a new reconstruction of the face of the woman who was found in an Amsterdam rubbish bin.
He remembers seeing the original autopsy pictures of the woman when he was a student, as it never left his mind.
He hopes the new image, which he produced using advanced computer software to reconstruct the face around the skull, will help uncover new leads to the crime.
While she would like to solve the case and find the culprit, Karina says, for her, “it’s all regarding who the woman is, just to get her back to her family”.
She says she will “never give up” the woman found in the container, or the others whose murders are being investigated.
“You are a person, you have a name and a history, and history must be told to the end, even if it is tragic and horrific.”
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