Interpol launches campaign to solve 22 murders of women

The international policing organization Interpol has launched a campaign to solve 22 unsolved murders of women dating back decades.

Interpol is working with the German, Dutch and Belgian police to try to find out the identities of the dead women.

The operation, called "Identify Me" was being launched with the publication of pictures of the victims' clothes and belongings as well as facial reconstructions, Interpol announced in the French city of Lyon on Wednesday.

The unsolved killings from Germany include one from 2001 involving a woman whose mummified body was found in Cologne, and a case dating back to 1986 when the body of a woman was discovered on the A6 motorway near Heilbronn in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg.

"Most of the 22 victims died violently, some were also abused or starved before death," Carina van Leeuwen and Martin de Wit of the Dutch police said in a joint statement.

"The identity of the women is not yet clear, partly because they probably came from countries other than the one where they were found," the statement continued.

The officers said it was possible that the dead were deliberately left in Belgium, the Netherlands or Germany to hinder the investigation.

"We want to stress that we are looking for names," said Carolien Opdecam of the Belgian police. "The identity of the victim is often the key to unlocking the secrets of a case."

Since some of the murdered women were believed to be from Eastern Europe, identifying the victims could also provide clues to the perpetrators, said German Federal Criminal Police Office spokeswoman Anja Allendorf.

As part of Operation Identify Me, Interpol is for the first time publishing details of what it calls its Black Notices, which are used to search for information and intelligence on unidentified bodies in order to establish the circumstances of death. This information is also used to help cross-border police cooperation.