A effort to solve inexplicable cold cases achieved its first intercontinental victory on Thursday, with Interpol identifying a Paraguayan lady found hung in Spain in 2018.
In a statement, the France-based organization identified the 33-year-old victim, previously known only as “the woman in the chicken coop,” as Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima.
It heralded the finding as “the first successful trans-continental identification” in the worldwide agency’s “Identify Me” program, which has identified more than 40 women discovered dead in six European nations in recent decades. Interpol has been asking the public for aid in identifying the missing ladies.
Police added that identification would eliminate the need to identify victims based on distinguishing characteristics or clothing, such as “the woman with the flower tattoo” and “the woman with the artificial nails.” Other names involve the sites where their remains were found, such as “the woman in the canal” and “the woman in the suitcase.”
Izaga’s brother reported her missing in 2019 and informed detectives she left Paraguay for Spain in 2013.
She was discovered hanging on a property near Girona, northeastern Spain, in August 2018.
There was nothing on her to identify her, and the farm’s residents and neighbors had no idea who she was or where she came from.
Following the announcement of the Interpol appeal in 2023, Paraguayan officials matched her fingerprints submitted by Spain with those in their database in March 2025.
The effort had its first European breakthrough in November 2023, when officials identified Rita Roberts, a British woman slain in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1992. Relatives identified her by her tattoo.
Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement that the campaign was “about restoring dignity to victims and giving a voice to those affected by tragedy”.
Forty-five of the “Identify Me” cases have yet to be resolved.