CHARACTERISTIC: It was the disclosure of the flower tattoo that led to the identification of Rita Roberts. Photo: AP / NTB
She was found dead in a river Antwerp in Belgium in 1992. For 31 years no one knew who she was. She only went by the name of the woman with the flower tattoo. The murder was brutal and Interpol was completely without a trace.
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All the way Operation Identify Me was launched. Information about 22 murdered women, which until now has only been available to the police, was made public in May.
– Now the first so-called cold-case case has been solved, writes the British The Guardian.
The woman with the flower tattoo has been identified as Rita Roberts, a 31-year-old British citizen. At the time, she was described by the police as a woman between 20 and 50 years old. Dark hair and was found wearing a dark blue, purple T-shirt with the inscriptions “Splinter” and “1990”.
She was wearing blue Adidas sweatpants – and perhaps most importantly: A black flower tattoo on her arm. A family member recognized the tattoo and contacted Interpol and the Belgian authorities via the website Operation Identify Me
FUNNY: The family has described Rita Roberts as fun-loving and open-hearted. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP / NTB
Rita Robert was 31 when she moved from Cardiff to Antwerp in February 1992. The last her family heard from her was in May 1992, when she sent them a postcard. The family have now been to Antwerp and formally identified Roberts and a death certificate has been issued.
– She was killed in a brutal way, writes Sky News.
In a statement, the family writes that the news that she has now been identified is both “shocking and heartbreaking”.
– Our passionate, fun-loving and open-hearted sister was taken away from us in a cruel way. We have no words for the sorrow we felt at the time – and still feel today, the statement goes on to say.
The family also states that over the years it has been difficult to come to terms with what may have happened to Roberts.
– But we are incredibly grateful that we now know and that Operation Identify Me has given Rita Roberts her identity back. We know that she has found peace, the statement from the family continues.
Interpol has now also published a video on YouTube where famous women such as the Dutch actress Carice Anouk van Houten, the German journalist Katrin Müller-Hohenstein and the Belgian artist Axelle Red, encourage the public to provide information about who these women might be.
– Don’t let these women be forgotten, it says.
For Rita Roberts is not the only one on the list for “Operation Identify Me”. The other 21 women on the list have been found murdered in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands over the past 10 to 40 years. The oldest of these cases goes all the way back to 1976 and is referred to as “the girl in the parking lot”. The police estimated at the time that the deceased was between 13 and 20 years old.
THE GIRL IN THE PARKING SPACE: This is the oldest of the “Operation Identify Me” cases that have now been published by Interpol. Photo: Interpol
– Most of these women died a violent death, many of them were abused and had not been fed before they died, Dutch police say according to CBS News.
But despite an extensive police investigation, neither the “girl in the parking lot” nor any of the other 20 women have been identified.
– In similar cases where we have managed to identify the victim, it has on several occasions led to the arrest of a suspect, says Anja Allendorf, who is associated with the German police.
According to Interpol, it is likely that the murdered women came from countries other than where they were found murdered. For some of the women, Interpol has published photos of them on “Operation Identify Me”‘s website, for others the police have had to reconstruct the women’s appearance.
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Published: 15.11.23 at 02:29
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2023-11-15 01:29:38
#Murder #mystery #solved #years
