Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A murdered woman has been identified as Rita Roberts after 31 years following Operation Identify Me.
The international appeal was launched in May 2023 by Belgian, Dutch and German police, in collaboration with INTERPOL, seeking the public’s help in identifying 22 women believed to have been murdered.
One of those cold cases, known as ‘the woman with the flower tattoo’, dated back to 3 June 1992, when a woman’s body was found against a grate in the water of the river ‘Groot Schijn’ near the Ten Eekhovelei in Antwerp, Belgium. She had been violently killed.
Her most striking physical feature was a flower tattoo on her left forearm of a black flower with green leaves and with ‘R’Nick’ written underneath. For three decades, the victim remained nameless.
How Rita Roberts was identified:
The following details have been made public with the agreement of the victim’s family and that of the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office:
- Rita Roberts was 31 when she moved to Antwerp from Cardiff in February 1992.
- She last communicated with her relatives via postcard in May 1992.
- On 10 May of this year, Operation Identify Me was launched, receiving significant coverage and generating some 1,250 tips from the public.
- A family member in the United Kingdom recognized the tattoo on the news and notified INTERPOL and Belgian authorities via the Identify Me appeal web page.
- The family then travelled to meet with investigators in Belgium, and formally identified their missing relative through distinguishing personal identifiers.
- Thereafter, the Antwerp family court was petitioned to have the victim’s death certificate amended to reflect her identity.
Full story: https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2023/UK-woman-murdered-in-Belgium-identified-after-international-appeal
A murdered woman has been identified as Rita Roberts after 31 years following Operation Identify Me.
The international appeal was launched in May 2023 by Belgian, Dutch and German police, in collaboration with INTERPOL, seeking the public’s help in identifying 22 women believed to have been murdered.
One of those cold cases, known as ‘the woman with the flower tattoo’, dated back to 3 June 1992, when a woman’s body was found against a grate in the water of the river ‘Groot Schijn’ near the Ten Eekhovelei in Antwerp, Belgium. She had been violently killed.
Her most striking physical feature was a flower tattoo on her left forearm of a black flower with green leaves and with ‘R’Nick’ written underneath. For three decades, the victim remained nameless.
How Rita Roberts was identified:
The following details have been made public with the agreement of the victim’s family and that of the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office:
- Rita Roberts was 31 when she moved to Antwerp from Cardiff in February 1992.
- She last communicated with her relatives via postcard in May 1992.
- On 10 May of this year, Operation Identify Me was launched, receiving significant coverage and generating some 1,250 tips from the public.
- A family member in the United Kingdom recognized the tattoo on the news and notified INTERPOL and Belgian authorities via the Identify Me appeal web page.
- The family then travelled to meet with investigators in Belgium, and formally identified their missing relative through distinguishing personal identifiers.
- Thereafter, the Antwerp family court was petitioned to have the victim’s death certificate amended to reflect her identity.
Full story: https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2023/UK-woman-murdered-in-Belgium-identified-after-international-appeal
