A woman’s body found 31 years ago in Antwerp has been identified as that of a British national, Rita Roberts, after police appealed to the public for help in identifying 22 women murdered in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany over the past 50 years.
Operation Identify Me was launched in May by the Belgian, Dutch and German police, which, with Interpol, the international policing organisation, released details of the cases that would normally only be available to law enforcement agencies.
The case of “the woman with the flower tattoo”, as Roberts was described, dated back to 3 June 1992 when a woman’s body was found against a grate in the Groot Schijn River in the Deurne district of Antwerp.
Described as aged between 20 and 50, light skinned and dark haired, she was wearing a dark blue, purple and light green T-shirt with the inscription “Splinter” and “1990”, along with blue Adidas training trousers and dark brown walking shoes, size 40.
Her most striking physical feature, however, was a tattoo on her left forearm showing a black flower with green leaves and with “R’Nick” written underneath.
Interpol said on Tuesday that it was this that had allowed Roberts’ body to be identified, after a member of her family in Britain recognised the tattoo and contacted the organisation and Belgian authorities via the Identify Me website.
It said Roberts was 31 when she moved to Antwerp from Cardiff in February 1992, and she last communicated with her family via a postcard in May that year. Her family have since travelled to Belgium and formally identified her, Interpol said, allowing the Antwerp family court to amend her death certificate to reflect her identity.
Roberts’s family said in a statement that the news had been “shocking and heartbreaking. Our passionate, loving and free-spirited sister was cruelly taken away. There are no words to truly express the grief we felt at that time, and still feel today.”
The family said it had been “difficult to process, but we are incredibly grateful to have uncovered what happened to Rita … This cross-border collaboration has given a missing girl back her identity, and enabled the family to know she is at rest.”
They described their relative as “a beautiful person who adored travelling. She loved her family, especially her nephews and nieces, and always wanted to have a family of her own. She had the ability to light up a room, and wherever she went, she was the life and soul of the party. We hope that wherever she is now, she is at peace.”
Interpol’s secretary general, Jürgen Stock, said such cases “underline the vital need to connect police worldwide, especially when missing persons are involved”. After 31 years, “an unidentified murdered woman has been given her name back and some closure has been brought to her family”, Stock said, describing Operation Identify Me as “important work”.
Belgian authorities have issued an appeal to the public for any information they may have on Roberts or the circumstances surrounding her death, which they said could be submitted via a form on Interpol’s website.
The Identify Me website includes facial reconstructions of some of the murdered women, as well as videos and pictures of recognisable items such as jewellery and clothing discovered at the sites where their bodies were left.
It marks the first time information from so-called Interpol black notices – used by police forces to seek intelligence on unidentified bodies and determine the circumstances of the death – has been made public. The notices contain details of the scene, the victim’s appearance and clothing and other relevant observations, and are usually restricted to police.
