A woman whose body was discovered in Spain more than 20 years ago has been identified through an international police campaign.
The woman was named on Thursday as 31-year-old Russian citizen Liudmila Zavada.
She is the third person to be identified through the Operation Identify Me initiative, launched in 2023 to find the names of women who had been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances in Europe.
Valdecy Urquiza, secretary general of Interpol, expressed hope that this identification will offer fresh leads to investigators and comfort to the families of missing persons, saying, After 20 years, an unknown woman has been given back her name.
Ms. Zavada was discovered in July 2005 beside a road in the province of Barcelona. Dubbed 'the woman in pink' due to her clothing, her death was classified as suspicious after evidence suggested her body was moved prior to its discovery.
Despite attempts to uncover her identity for two decades, it wasn’t until last year when her case was included in Operation Identify Me that progress was made. Turkish police successfully matched her fingerprints with those in a national database, leading to identification through a DNA match with a relative in Russia.
Police continue to investigate the circumstances of Ms. Zavada's death. Operation Identify Me has already helped to identify several other cold cases, and authorities are still seeking to identify 44 additional women found deceased across various countries, many believed to be victims of violence.
