Police in three European countries asking for help to identify 22 murdered women

Police in three European countries are asking for help to identify 22 murdered women whose names remain a mystery.

The bodies were found in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany between 1976 and 2019.

An unsolved murder of a woman in Amsterdam, found in a wheelie bin in a river, sparked the move by Interpol.

It's the first time the international police group has gone public with a list seeking information about unidentified bodies.

The so called black notices, released as part of the campaign known as Operation Identify Me, are normally only circulated internally among Interpol's network of police forces throughout the world.

The woman found in the bin in Amsterdam in 1999 had been shot in the head and chest.

Forensic detective Carina Van Leeuwen has been trying to solve the mystery since joining the city's first cold case team in 2005.

Dutch police say a case typically becomes "cold" when it remains open and unsolved after about three years.

Having exhausted all efforts, she and a colleague contacted police in neighbouring Germany and Belgium and learned of many more possible murder cases with unidentified women victims.