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A BRITISH woman has been identified more than 30 years after she was murdered in Belgium.
The huge police case launched to solve Rita Roberts’ murder was closed when her family spotted her unique tattoo in a BBC report.
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The British expat sent her family a postcard in May 1992 a month before her body was found in a river.
Her family said the news was “shocking and heartbreaking”.
“Our passionate, loving and free-spirited sister was cruelly taken away,” they said in a statement shared by police.
“Whilst the news has been difficult to process, we are incredibly grateful to have uncovered what happened to Rita.”
Rita was one of 22 women thought to have been murdered all across Europe under mysterious circumstances almost 50 years ago.
Cops in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium were left baffled before they came together in a bid to identify the women.
They launched Operation Identify Me and Interpol went public with information about the unidentified bodies in an unprecedented move.
Details about the women, including photographs and even some facial reconstruction was released, including a photograph of Rita’s tattoo.
Interpol chief 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 – in an article published this year.
“A member of Rita’s family [saw] the Identify Me appeal through the BBC and suddenly realised there may be an opportunity that a lost member of their family had actually come to harm,” he told the BBC.
“There’s a terrible contradiction here – we’re proud that we’ve been able to work with member countries, we’re proud that we’ve been able to identify this poor woman, Rita, but we’re also devastated for the family because they’ve lost a loved one through brutal circumstances,” Kavanagh said.
Rita had travelled to Antwerp in Belgium from her home in Cardiff in February the year she died.
A month after the last contact she had with her family in May, her body was found in a river following a violent murder.
Her family said she was “a beautiful person who adored travelling” and was close with her relatives.
They added: “She had the ability to light up a room, and wherever she went, she was the life and soul of the party. We hope that wherever she is now, she is at peace.”
Most of the victims, now known to include Rita who was 31, were believed to be aged between 15 and 30 when they died between 1976 and 2019.
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