Interpol is launching a public campaign on Tuesday to try to identify 46 women whose bodies were found in six European countries years ago in suspicious circumstances that lead one to believe that many could have been killed.
One of them is a young woman between 25 and 30 years old whose body was located on July 9, 2019 off the coast of Santa Eulària, in Ibiza. The woman was one meter sixty, with white skin, brown hair and blue eyes, without tattoos or scars, as detailed in her Interpol file. Likewise, it is specified that she was not wearing jewelry, only a black swimsuit in two parts with white paisley print.
According to Interpol, the woman was found by the occupants of a boat that was anchored 150 meters off the coast of Santa Eulària. Apparently, she had recently drowned. None of the boats that were anchored in the area alerted of her absence and no report of her disappearance was filed in the following days. It is believed that on the day of his death he had left in a black van to work on a boat for wealthy Middle Eastern clients.
An investigation by the Balearic Homicide Unit in 2022-2023 established that she was a sex worker in the Platja d’en Bossa area, presumably of Romanian nationality, but of Hungarian origin. She frequented some nightclubs in the area.
She was considered introverted (this is the name she receives in the file) because she hardly spoke with others, Interpol states in the file of the young woman posted on its website. Her acquaintances did not know her name. She was usually accompanied by a slim blonde transvestite who also frequented the area.
Citizen collaboration
This operation that seeks to obtain results through citizen collaboration is a new stage of the ‘Identify Me’ initiative that the international police agency itself launched in May 2023 with the aim of naming 22 deceased women.
At the time, the response of some 1,800 people led to the identification of Rita Roberts, a British woman who had disappeared in the city of Cardiff and whose family had not heard from her since May 1992. Her body was discovered in Antwerpin Belgium, on June 3 of that year.
Interpol sources have explained to EFE that the operation, which in its initial stage involved Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, has been extended to France, Italy and Spain due to the interest of the member countries.
For each of the 46 unsolved cases, certain information about the women is published, including images of objects such as jewelry and clothing found at the sites where the bodies were found, and for some, facial reconstructions have been made.
Six bodies in Spain
Of the six bodies found in Spain, one is of a woman found on February 6, 2009 near a forest road on Mount Archanda, near Bilbao; another of one wearing an owl-shaped ring who was on the M-127 road, north of Madrid, when she was found on March 26, 2007.
Three of the bodies were found in the province of Barcelona: one of a 23-25 year old woman on January 27, 1999 in a hotel room in Premià de Mar; another of a 25-30 year old woman found on the side of a rural road in Malgrat de Mar on November 3, 2003; and the third also of a 20-25 year old woman wearing pink on July 2, 2005 at kilometer 84 of the Vila road in Viladecans.
“Black notice”
For each of the 46 women in this operation Interpol has issued what is called a “black notice”, addressed to police in other member states, in an attempt to gather information about the bodies and determine the circumstances of the death.
These notices usually contain information about the location where the body was found, biometric data (such as profiles, DNA, fingerprints or facial images), dental examinations, physical descriptions of clothing or other items.
With ‘Identify Me’, some of this information from the notices is made public with a clear objective, according to Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock: “To identify the deceased women, to provide answers to the families and to enable the victims to obtain justice.”
Stock stressed in a statement that, as police work has so far failed to solve these cases, “we call on the public to join us in this work. Your help can change everything.
“Even the smallest piece of information – he adds – can be essential to solve these cases in suspense. Whether it is a memory, a clue or an anecdote, the smallest detail can help uncover the truth. Citizenship can be the key to finding out a name or a past event and to obtaining justice after a long time.”
Interpol has posted information about each of the women on its website (www.interpol.int/IM) and is asking anyone with information to contact police.