CRIME HUNTER: Interpol, Euro cops try to identify 22 murdered women

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In a parking lot alongside Holland’s busy A12 highway between Utrecht and Arnhem, hikers found the first female corpse.

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Hidden under soil and branches, they discovered the body of a female, possibly as young as 13 or 14.

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That was Oct. 24, 1976.

Local cops botched the identification and tied the nameless body to a local girl who had vanished. Thirty years later, they announced that the identification was wrong. Jane Doe remains just that.

Now, Interpol — in conjunction with cops in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany — is asking for help in identifying 22 murdered women and girls.

Operation Identify Me hopes to determine the identities of the victims, some of whom were starved and tortured.

The bodies were discovered across three northwest European countries between 1976 and 2019.

“Because the women are likely from countries other than where they were found, their identities have not yet been established,” Carina van Leeuwen and Martin de Wit said in a statement by the Netherlands police.

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“It is possible that their bodies were left in our countries to impede criminal investigations.”

Cops also suspect many of the victims were likely from Eastern Europe and possibly the victims of serial killers or sex traffickers.

According to detectives, the first Jane Doe was likely from the Rhine Valley area of Germany and had moved from Eastern Europe (Poland or Ukraine) to Western Europe. It’s suspected she suffered from malnutrition during the last 14 months of her life.

The most recent victim was discovered in a Belgian park in August 2019.

Others include a woman with a flower tattoo discovered in the Groot Schijn River in Antwerp; a woman whose body was burned in a forest in Altena-Bergfeld, Germany; and the remains of a female aged 16-35 found in a bag in the IJ River in Amsterdam.

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Most of the victims were aged between 15 and 30.

The circumstances of their deaths remain a mystery.

While the cases being looked at are historic, the crisis of human trafficking across Europe has exploded along with reports of missing people.

“Most of the 22 victims died violently, and some were also abused or starved before they died,” said van Leeuwen and de Wit.

Interpol and their partners said identifying the victims is crucial to discovering who killed them.

“We want to stress that we are looking for names,” said Carolien Opdecam, of the Belgian police. “The victim’s identity is often the key to unlocking the mysteries of a case.”

Operation Identify Me reveals details of each case, showing facial reconstructions of some of the murdered women and videos and photos of items like jewelry and clothing discovered with the victims’ remains.

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COLD CASE: THE WIFE DID IT

Two bullets were parked in the head of wealthy Miami produce wholesaler Joseph DiMare.

Two thugs looking to make bank shot her beloved hubby, his young teary-eyed bride Frances told homicide detectives. And that’s where the March 24, 1961, cold case slaying of Joseph DiMare stood for more than six decades.

Until now.

Last week Miami investigators announced they had solved the 53-year-old DiMare’s slaying. There was, they said, no evidence pointing the finger anywhere else but his wife, who was 20 years his junior.

DiMare was discovered dead in his car behind a gas station. But cops never fully believed Frances’ story.

The killers hit her over the head, took all her belongings. She was unconscious and when she awoke her problem … er, husband … was dead.

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Terrified, she fled barefoot from the scene of the carnage and called police. The problem was she had no cuts or bruises on the bottom of her feet from the rough gravel. Instead, her shoes were neatly placed beside the car.

Detectives later discovered there had been trouble in paradise and Joseph decided to change his living will. She had to be living in the home at the time of his death to collect his fat insurance policy.

The wealthy produce king had been shot with his own gun and investigators now believe he was murdered at home before the pair was slated to have dinner. The gun was never found.

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According to local media, Joseph DiMare’s blood ran out of the car leaving a trail to the gas station where his body was found about three minutes from home.

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A review of the physical evidence determined the gunshots originated from the driver’s seat, police said. Frances’ original statements were never corroborated even though cops suspected she had accomplices.

“Based on the background and context of the crime, the physical evidence from the vehicle, which includes the injuries to Mr. DiMare, the inconsistent statements made by Mrs. DiMare, the motive for killing her husband was due to an impending divorce, and the fact that he was killed with his own firearm,” police said in the news release.

Frances DiMare died in 2006. She got the dough.

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