Interpol calls on the general public to solve 22 “cold cases” in Europe

Interpol (in English) announced on Wednesday, May 10, the launch of an unprecedented campaign aimed at the general public to help solve “cold cases”. The objective is in particular to help the international organization for police cooperation to identify the bodies of 22 women, found over several decades in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. These different files “have no connection between them”but have in common “their international context”says a manager.

Interpol will publish on its website and social networks a selection of information, hitherto reserved for its services and contained in “black notes”, dedicated to the identification of human remains. A photo will thus be broadcast based on facial reconstruction technologies and elements on the place and date of discovery of the body, personal objects, clothing and the context.

The oldest crime was discovered in a motorway parking lot in the Netherlands, in October 1976, and the most recent in a municipal park in Belgium, in August 2019. These bodies could not be identified by the national police “in part” because these women were not from these countries, according to Interpol. “All the avenues considered to resolve these ‘cold cases’ have been processed, points out a manager of the organization’s DNA databases. The investigations are at a standstill and we hope public attention will move them forward.” baptized “Identify Me” (“tag me” in English), this first campaign could be extended to other cases later.