Operation Identify Me

Operation Identify Me was launched on 10 May 2023 by Interpol to solve cold cases across Western Europe to identify 22 unidentified women who were found deceased in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany between 1976 and 2019. Most of the women were murdered, and have never been identified.

A public appeal was made for information surrounding the unidentified women. Interpol alongside Dutch, German, and Belgian police forces released forensic facial reconstructions as well as other information used in the investigations. It is believed some of the murdered women may be from parts of Eastern Europe.

Cases
The murder cases span five decades. The bodies were discovered between October 1976 and August 2019. Their average ages range from 15 to 30. Most of the women suffered violent deaths.

Further inquiries
On 16 May 2023, it was reported that police had received over 200 tip-offs regarding the cases, with 122 tips from Germany, 55 from Belgium and 51 from the Netherlands, some of them with names. Near the end of August, the number of tips had increased to over 500. By November police said they had received about 1,250 tips.

On August 29, 2023, Interpol made a public appeal on the identification of an unidentified dead boy in Großmehring, Bavaria, Germany. While the unknown dead child was not officially added in Operation Identify Me, he was part of an effort to publicly request tips for unidentified decedents.

In November 2023, "the woman with the flower tattoo" was named as British woman Rita Roberts. Roberts was 31 years old when she moved from Cardiff to Antwerp in February 1992 but was reported missing months later. Due to the publicization of the case, a member of her family in Britain recognised the tattoo and contacted the Belgian authorities to formally identify the body.