Ben Pawlowski
A WOMAN whose body was discovered in Barcelona more than 20 years ago has finally been identified after an international campaign spearheaded by Interpol.
On Thursday, the international policing organisation announced that the woman had been identified as Liudmila Zavada, a 31-year-old Russian citizen.
Previously known as ‘the woman in pink’, the female’s body was found on July 2, 2005 in Viladecans, near to the busy Barcelona El-Prat airport.
She was found dead wearing pink three-quarter length trousers, a pink floral print top, and black and pink sandals.
Investigators estimated the woman to be between 20 and 25 years old, with brown hair, blue eyes and light skin tone.
According to local police, the cause of death was suspicious as evidence suggested the body had been moved in the twelve hours preceding its discovery – although no one has ever been arrested over the case.
READ MORE: ‘Woman in the shed’ finally identified in Spain- igniting fresh hope for cold case investigators
Valdecy Urquiza, secretary general of the policing agency, said the campaign to identify Zavada would give ‘fresh hope to the families and friends of missing persons’.
“After 20 years, an unknown woman has been given back her name,” he said.
As part of the operation, Interpol shared biometric records with all of its 196 member countries.
Turkish police checked Zavada’s fingerprints against a national database and found a DNA match with a close relative living in Russia.
“Congratulations to the Spanish, Turkish and Russian authorities for working together on this case. Through global cooperation and by connecting police around the world, we’re helping more families find the answers they’ve been waiting for,” Urquiza added.
Zavada is the third person to be identified through Interpol’s Operation Identify Me, an initiative launched in 2023 in an attempt to identify women found dead in suspicious or unexplained circumstances across Europe.
The first case to be solved was that of a 31-year-old British woman murdered in Belgium more than 30 years ago.
Rita Roberts was named by police after members of her family recognised her distinctive tattoo in a television news report.
Earlier this year, a woman found dead in a poultry shed near Girona, Catalunya, was identified as 33-year-old Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima from Paraguay.
The breakthrough came when Paraguayan authorities matched fingerprints uploaded by Spain to ones in their national database.
Police are still trying to find the identities of another 44 women found dead in suspicious circumstances across Europe – including Spain.
The remaining cases from Spain are called ‘the woman of Mount Artxanda’, ‘the woman with the owl ring’, ‘the introvert’, ‘the woman who wasn’t alone’ and the ‘woman on the road’.
The deaths occurred in Ibiza, Catalunya, Madrid and the Basque Country. Information on the cases can be found on Interpol’s website.
Interpol say increased global migration and human trafficking has made identifying bodies more challenging, with women disproportionately affected by gender-based violence, such as domestic abuse, sexual assault and trafficking
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