LYON, France – A woman who died in unexplained circumstances in Spain has been identified as 33-year-old Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima, from Paraguay, following INTERPOL’s Identify Me appeal.
The international cold case campaign, coordinated by INTERPOL with six European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain), aims to seek the public’s help in identifying 46 women whose bodies were found in Europe over recent decades.
One of those cases, submitted by Spanish authorities, related to an unidentified female discovered in the province of Girona, Spain, on 6 August 2018. The woman was found hanging in a poultry shed attached to a farmhouse. She was not carrying any identity papers and no one in the area knew who she was, or how she got there. The victim had a tattoo on her left forearm of the word ‘success’ in Hebrew. Despite extensive investigations by local police, the woman was never identified.
A breakthrough came in March 2025 when Paraguayan authorities matched fingerprints uploaded by Spain to INTERPOL’s Black Notice against their own national databases, as part of the Identify Me initiative.
It is the first successful trans-continental identification made as part of Identify Me.
**Case timeline**
-----------------
* **2013:** Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima was 28 when she travelled to Spain from Paraguay, according to her brother
* **6 August 2018**: A body was found in a country house in Girona, Spain.
* **Mid 2019**: After several months of no contact, her brother reported her missing to authorities in Paraguay
* **October 2024**: INTERPOL launched phase two of Identify Me, leading to the circulation of biometric information from all 46 cases to its 196 member countries for national database checks
* **March 2025**: A fingerprint match was made by NCB Asuncion Paraguay, later confirmed by NCB Madrid Spain
**Identify Me: An international public a****ppeal to solve cold cases**
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Identify Me campaign brings together six European countries and INTERPOL to throw light on cold cases at an international level. Many of the cases involve women who died 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. Evidence suggests some of the women could have come from other regions.
The campaign is a key opportunity for case files and INTERPOL Notices to be reviewed and updated. Details of each case are also published online and shared with the media, including facial reconstruction images and descriptions of personal objects or tattoos, in the hope that a member of the public might recognize something.
**Successful identific****ations**
----------------------------------
The first round of Identify Me, launched in 2023, also yielded noteworthy results, with the identification of Rita Roberts, a British woman who was found murdered in Antwerp in 1992. The family of Rita Roberts contacted the appeal hotline after they recognized their relative’s tattoo from news coverage of the campaign.
Identify Me is the first time INTERPOL has released public extracts from Black Notices, which are used to seek information internationally on unidentified bodies and to determine the circumstances surrounding a death. Black Notices can include information on the location where the body was found, biometric information (DNA, fingerprints, facial images), dental charts, physical descriptions of the body or clothing and any other details relevant to identifying the deceased.
INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said:
“Our work is not just about solving cases, it’s also about restoring dignity to victims and giving a voice to those affected by tragedy.
“Each successful identification gives renewed hope that the other unknown women who are part of this campaign can also have their identities returned to them.
“My congratulations to the Spanish and Paraguayan authorities for their joint effort on this case and we will continue our work connecting police worldwide in the hope of helping more families who have lost loved ones.”
**The appeal continues: 45 rem****aining cases**
------------------------------------------------
Identify Me continues, with 45 remaining cases of unidentified women. Members of the public, particularly those who remember a missing friend or family member, are invited to consult [www.INTE RPOL.int/IM](/en/What-you-can-do/Identify-Me) and contact both INTERPOL and the relevant national police team should they have any information on any of the cases.
For biological relatives who believe one of the deceased women could be their missing loved one, national police once contacted can liaise with INTERPOL for international DNA comparison.