‘We want to give them their names back’: the team identifying Europe’s forgotten female murder victims

British-born Rita Roberts was recognised through Operation Identify Me, a joint European police appeal led by Interpol, 31 years after her body was discovered in an Antwerp river. Photograph: AP

In the shadow of Antwerp’s main arena, close to the city’s docklands, runs the Groot Schijn River. It was here that the body of Rita Roberts was discovered in June 1992, floating against the grate of a water treatment plant.

She appeared to have been murdered, but Belgian police were unable to identify her. A tattoo of a black rose with green leaves and initials on her left arm was their only clue.