Police hunt for names of 22 murdered women and girls in bid to solve international crime mystery

‘Most of the 22 victims died violently, and some were also abused or starved before they died,’ police statement warns

The public has been urged to help police in Europe trace the identities of 22 women and girls they think have been murdered in three countries.

The women’s bodies were found in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands between 1976 and 2019 and now police from all three countries have joined forces for Operation Identify Me via Interpol to find out who the women are.

The hunt was prompted by the unsolved murder of a woman in Amsterdam who had been shot in the head and chest. She was discovered in a wheelie bin in a river in the Dutch capital in 1999.