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How Rita Roberts ‘flower tattoo’ mystery was solved – but cops still desperate to find names of 21 other murdered women
One woman's body parts were found in different locations over Amsterdam, though her head has never been found
THE mystery surrounding the murder of British woman Rita Roberts has finally been solved after 31 years.
But police still have 21 other women who were brutally killed to identify as part of an unprecedented international operation.
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Rita's body was identified when a relative spotted her distinctive tattoo in an article online, shared by Interpol as part of Operation Identify Me.
The operation, like none launched before, began in May this year.
Cops in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium were left baffled by a string of murders going back 47 years which had taken the lives of 22 young women.
Murdered across Europe in a string of mysterious and chilling circumstances, stumped police pooled their resources to help identify the victims.
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Interpol released details relating to all 22 cases - many of them now cold - to the public.
Information about the women and the cases, photographs and even some facial reconstruction was released, including a picture of Rita's tattoo.
It was the first time the group - which facilitates international cooperation among police forces - had publicly shared information about unidentified bodies.
The so-called black notices are usually only circulated internally among Interpol's network to individual forces around the globe.
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Just months later, one of Rita's family members noticed a picture of her distinctive flower tattoo in an article on the BBC.
Head of police at Interpol Stephen Kavanagh said a relative of Rita's identified her after spotting the distinctive mark - a black rose with green leaves and "R'Nick" underneath.
The family then travelled out to Belgium to work with investigators and identify Rita officially.
Rita had travelled to Belgium from her home in Cardiff in February the year she died, aged 31.
She was violently murdered and later found on June 3 in a river in Belgium.
Cops are still desperate to identify the 21 other women who were killed in a similarly brutal way.
Rita's sister-in-law Paulette Roberts shared a post on Facebook on Tuesday that read: "Today, we come together as a family to share both a heartbreaking and hopeful story that has deeply impacted us.
"My sister-in-law has recently found our sister, Rita Roberts, after an agonising 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 grapple with the pain of losing Rita, we are also compelled to raise awareness about 21 other unidentified women who, like Rita once was, are waiting to be recognised and reunited with their families."
The woman whose death sparked the landmark police case was found in a wheelie bin in an Amsterdam river.
Her body was discovered in 1999 by local man Jan Meijer, who retrieved the bin from the water while on his boat.
Cops prised the bin, which had been nailed shut, open and discovered the gruesome scene.
She had been shot in the head and chest and part of her body was cast in cement.
Investigators believe she was probably in her mid-20s and "partly western European and partly Asian", reports the .
Detectives battled to identify the woman, but after hitting a dead end, forensic detective Carina Van Leeuwen and her colleagues contacted counterparts in Belgium and the Netherlands.
They discovered they all had a list of murder cases with unknown female victims, and compiled a list.
Interpol then released details on each case on , including seven from Belgium, nine from the Netherlands and six from Germany.
In another mystery case, a horrified passerby found two hands in Lauriergracht canal, Amsterdam, in September 1992.
Cops also found the victim's torso in a suitcase in the canal 1km away in Egelantiersgracht.
Days later, authorities discovered more body parts nearby in Prinsengracht - though her head has never been found.
One woman, who could have been as young as 13, was found murdered in the Autumn of 1976 in the Netherlands.
Another victim's body parts were discovered in a bag in a river in the Netherlands.
Interpol released a picture of her distinctive gold and white bracelet but no facial reconstruction sketch.
Cops believe part of the reason they have struggled to identify the women is because some are not from the countries they were found dead in.
Carina van Leeuwen and Martin de Wit, from Netherlands police, said: "Most of the 22 victims died violently, and some were also abused or starved before they died.
"Partly because the women are likely from countries other than where they were found, their identities have not yet been established.
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"It is possible that their bodies were left in our countries to impede criminal investigations."
Most of the victims were believed to be aged between 15 and 30 when they died between 1976 and 2019.
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