A woman whose body was found on a Dutch beach in 2004 has become the fourth person to be named through an international police campaign called Operation Identify Me.
The woman was named on Friday as 35-year-old German citizen Eva Maria Pommer. She was identified following a tip-off to police in the Netherlands.
The cause of death remains unexplained, and police are continuing to investigate.
Operation Identify Me was launched in 2023 to find the names of women who had been murdered or died in suspicious or unexplained circumstances in six European countries.
Known as “the woman with the German keys”, Ms Pommer’s body was discovered lying in sand dunes on a remote beach near the city of Wassenaar in July 2004. There were no obvious signs of injury or struggle.
The BBC visited the beach last year, where Dutch forensic investigator Sandra Baasbank said Ms Pommer was wearing brown plaid leggings and red shiny patent shoes – “unusual if you are going for a walk on the beach”.
She had also been carrying a key that linked her to the German city of Bottrop, close to the Dutch border.
But police were unable to trace the key to a precise address, and her identity remained a mystery for two decades.
Last year, they added the case to Operation Identify Me, which has seen Interpol “black notices” – seeking information about unidentified bodies – released to the public for the first time, and records such as fingerprints shared with police forces around the world.
It has also seen renewed publicity for the unsolved cases.
After an appeal linked to the campaign aired on German TV, Dutch police received a “crucial tip” about a German woman who had been missing for about 20 years.
This “accelerated” investigations in Bottrop, and DNA testing later confirmed Ms Pommer’s identity.
Interpol, the international policing agency, says increased global migration and human trafficking has led to more people being reported missing outside of their countries, which can make identifying bodies more challenging.
Interpol secretary general Valdecy Urquiza said: “This latest identification is more than just a milestone in our ongoing campaign – it’s a testament to what we can accomplish when nations stand together.”
Janny Knol, commissioner of the Dutch National Police, said: “In combination with perseverance of Dutch and German detectives yet another woman has been given a name.
“Our thoughts are with all the families who have finally received answers about their loved ones and with the families who are still waiting for these answers.”
The first woman to be identified as a result of the involvement of the public through the Interpol-coordinated initiative was 31-year-old British citizen Rita Roberts, who was murdered in Belgium in 1992. Her family identified her after seeing a photograph of her tattoo in a BBC News report.
A woman found dead in a poultry shed in Spain in 2018 was then identified as 33-year-old Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima, from Paraguay in South America.
Last month, a woman whose body was discovered by the side of a road in a different part of Spain in 2005 was named as 31-year-old Russian national Liudmila Zavada.
Police are still trying to find the identities of another 43 women found dead in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.
The majority of them are murder victims, believed to have been aged between 15 and 30 years old. Most died 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years ago.
