German police have new leads in cold cases of slain women

Who was the woman found in a forest near the German town of Hagen in June 1997 by a motorcyclist? She had been raped, strangled, doused in petrol and set on fire.

Who was the woman found on the moors near Cologne in October 2001? She had lain there so long that only her skeleton was left.

And who was the woman whose body washed up in a yacht in the northern city of Bremen in 2002?

These three women all died a violent death, and their identities remain unclear to this day. For Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), these cold cases can't simply be left unsolved.

German authorities want to see them cleared up, and to that end they have launched a new campaign called "Identify me" with Dutch and Belgian police, along with Interpol.

A global search is now underway for clues that could help identify 22 unknown female victims of violent crime, who were all found in recent decades in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

"This is the first time that Interpol has published information from 'Black Notices,' which are normally reserved for national police authorities, in order to raise public awareness, help identify these women and bring to justice the criminals responsible for their murder," Interpol told DW.

Interpol suspects victims may be international

The campaign is a first in Germany. To drum up additional publicity a veritable TV institution "Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst" ("Case number XY… unsolved"), which has been reconstructing unsolved crimes on German screens since 1967, is now also including the six victims found in Germany in its series. No woman has been identified in the campaign so far, but the tips are coming in.

"Since the start of the campaign, more than 500 messages have arrived, some of them containing valuable information. All of these unsolved cases may have an international background, with the women not coming from the countries where their bodies were found, or being victims of human trafficking," Interpol said.

Identification the key to finding perpetrator

The various investigative teams on the ground are also receiving tips regarding cold cases, said Anja Allendorf, a spokesperson for the BKA. Thus, investigators are managing to track down new leads after what feels like an eternity, she added. Figuring out who these victims were is key to eventually figuring out who their perpetrators were.

"The identification of the victim is, of course, the basis for further lines of inquiry. Only after identification can new investigations take us in the direction of the crime or the perpetrator," Allendorf explained. "Only after identification do we know where the woman actually came from, where she may have been at the time of the crime, what environment she lived or worked in."

In fact, most violent crimes committed against women are perpetrated by someone in their family. In Germany alone, the police record one attempted killing against a woman every day on average, according to the BKA. Almost once every three days, a woman dies at the hand of her partner or ex-partner.

In other European countries, the numbers are much higher, though there are no Europe-wide statistics.

Campaign to focus on naming victims

In the 22 cases concerned in the campaign, the BKA believes the murdered women came from Eastern Europe, Africa or Asia and did not spend most of their lives in the state where they were killed. For Allendorf, the fact that there were no missing persons' reports is a strong indicator that they did not have major social networks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

She feels it's important to emphasize that the campaign's initial focus is not on identifying perpetrators, but on identifying victims.

"You also have to remember that victim identification is, of course, also about notifying the relatives. It's very important for us that the families have the opportunity to mourn these wives, mothers or daughters as well, and that the victims don't lie in nameless graves," she said.

New technologies, new leads

In recent years, new technologies have made it much easier to solve decades-old cold cases. For example, as part of the "Identify me" campaign, experts at a specially qualified institute have performed a so-called soft tissue reconstruction by analyzing the skull. The idea is that the public may recognize the image of the face.

DNA analysis is another tool available to investigators. "We have had the ability to extract DNA from tissue, teeth and bones and profile the body since the late 1980s. Our database, established in 1992, includes DNA profiles of both missing persons and unidentified bodies," said Allendorf.

DNA profiles will also be forwarded to Interpol's international DNA database in Lyon. "This allows us to see if there is a match, meaning the DNA profile of the body matches a missing person," she said.

Cold murder case closed half a century later

In the United States, the recent successful closure of a cold case involving a woman murdered more than 50 years ago drew major interest. In 1969, a woman was wrapped in a plastic bag, strangled and left to be discovered in a large black suitcase.

Investigators took a fresh look and found a hair sample that had never been examined. Thanks to the DNA profile, the woman was identified as Sylvia June Atherton earlier this year. They even tracked down living relatives. News like that has given Allendorf hope that they will find the identities of some of the 22 women.

"We have drummed up the greatest possible publicity with the campaign. Perhaps, even after such a long time, someone who knows something or an accomplice will come forward and we will get a decisive tip, perhaps also anonymously," she said.

"Then all the work, everything we have invested in this campaign will have been worth it."

This article was originally written in German.