A BRITISH woman has been identified more than 30 years after she was murdered in Belgium.
Rita Roberts, who was noted for her distinctive flower tattoo, died along with 21 other women in a case that has baffled police for years.
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Rita Roberts was murdered in 1992 when she was 31 years old
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Her family spotted a unique tattoo in a BBC report that led them to identify RitaCredit: Interpol/Belgium Federal Police
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Rita’s body was found in the river Groot Schijn in Antwerp
A British expat, 31, was found on June 3, 1992, in a river in Antwerp. She was violently killed.
Her family said learning what happened to her years later was “shocking and heartbreaking”.
Rita’s sister-in-law Paulette Roberts shared a post on Facebook today that read: “Today we have come together as a family to share a heartbreaking and hopeful story that has touched us deeply.
“My sister-in-law recently found our sister, Rita Roberts, after an agonizing 31-year search.
“However, the joy of this reunion is marred by the tragic news of Rita’s untimely and senseless murder in Belgium.
“As Donna and my husband deal with the pain of losing Rita, we are also compelled to raise awareness of the 21 other unidentified women who, like Rita once, are waiting to be recognized and reunited with their families.
“Rita loved her family passionately and we will miss her dearly.”
Rita was one of 22 women believed to have been murdered across Europe under mysterious circumstances over the past 50 years.
Police officers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium were left baffled before coming together to try to identify the women.
They launched Operation Identify Me and Interpol went public with information about unidentified bodies in an unprecedented move.
Details about the women have been released, including photos and even some facial reconstructions, including a photo of Rita’s tattoo.
Interpol chief Stephen Kavanagh said Rita’s relative identified her after spotting the distinctive mark – a black rose with green leaves and “R’Nick” underneath – in an article published this year.
The family then traveled to Belgium to work with investigators to officially identify Rita.
“Member of Rita’s family [saw] the BBC’s Identify Me appeal and suddenly realized there was a chance their missing family member had actually perished,” he told the BBC.
“There is a terrible contradiction here – we are proud that we have been able to work with member states, we are proud that we have been able to identify this poor woman, Rita, but we are also devastated for the family as they have lost a loved one through brutal circumstances,” Kavanagh said.
Rita traveled to Antwerp, Belgium from her home in Cardiff in February of the year she died.
A month after she sent her last postcard to her family in May, her body was found in the Groot Schijn River, lying against a grate.
Her family said she was a “beautiful person who loved to travel” and was close to her relatives.
They added: “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.”
Most of the victims, including Rita who was 31, are believed to have been aged between 15 and 30 when they died between 1976 and 2019.
Belgian police are now appealing for more information from the public in the hope they can identify her killer.
Operation Identify Me, launched in May this year, has already received 1,250 reports about 22 murdered women.
The tips covered various identifying factors, including the clothes and jewelry the women wore.
Kavanagh said officers hoped Rita’s identification was “just the beginning” of finding out what happened to the other 21 women.
A landmark police case was sparked by the unsolved murder of a woman found in a trash can in an Amsterdam river.
Her body was discovered in 1999 by local resident Jan Meijer, who pulled a bucket out of the water on his boat.
The officers opened the trash can, which was nailed shut, and discovered the gruesome body of the victim.
She was shot in the head and chest, and part of her body was cast in cement.
Detectives struggled to identify the woman, but after hitting a dead end, forensic detective Carina Van Leeuwen and her colleagues decided to contact colleagues in Belgium and the Netherlands.
They discovered that they all had a list of murder cases with unknown female victims and decided to compile a list.
Interpol later published details of each case on its website, including seven from Belgium, nine from the Netherlands and six from Germany.
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Interpol asked the public for help in identifying her by her clothes and shoes
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She is believed to have been wearing a tracksuit and tennis shoes when she was killed
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Interpol worked with Dutch, Belgian and German police to identify 22 women murdered across Europe – now including Rita
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education