Case name: Woman at the border
Case code: 2023-NL04
- Date of death (estimated): Probably in the first half of 1994
- Date of discovery: 6 July 1994
- Location: The Netherlands: Gerrit van Hoekestraat in Retranchement, the Netherlands, in a thicket at the edge of the parking lot of visitors’ centre Het Zwin, near the border with Belgium.
- Sex: Female
- Estimated year of birth: Between 1947 and 1959
- Estimated age: Probably between 35 and 47 years old
- Height: Approximately 1.65 – 1.70 m
- Skin tone: Probably light to light olive
- Hair colour: Most likely brown to black. Shortly before her death she had probably started going grey.
- Eye colour: Most likely brown
- Clothing: None found
- Tattoos, birth marks, scars: Unknown
- Jewellery: None found
The case
Het Zwin is a nature conservation area in the coastal region linking the Netherlands and Belgium. On the evening of 6 July 1994, a tourist found body parts in the grass near the former Zwin museum, close to the border, on the Dutch side. A day later, more body parts were found in a nearby creek. The body parts belonged to a woman who has not yet been identified despite extensive police attempts.
Characteristics
The victim’s teeth had been neglected, but it seems that they had been professionally cared for until about five years before her death. One of her right upper teeth was missing; this was probably visible when the victim smiled. The victim had spina bifida occulta, but was probably mobile.
It is thought that she lived in an Eastern European country for a large part of her life, in any case when she was an adolescent. Around 5 to 10 years before her death, she moved to another town, most likely within or to an Eastern European country. If she lived in a Western European country before her death, she had only moved there shortly before.
Contact
If you have any information regarding the possible identity of this person, please contact the Dutch national police via the form below.
You can also contact them and view this case on their national police website.
If you have any information regarding the possible identity of this person, please contact the national police.
