‘Woman in pink’: Russian national’s body identified in Spain after 20 years; police suspect foul play

A Russian woman whose body was found in Spain more than 20 years ago has been identified as 31-year-old Liudmila Zavada, Interpol announced Thursday.

Zavada, dubbed the “Woman in Pink,” was discovered in July 2005 along a road in a small town near Barcelona, wearing a pink floral top, pink pants, and pink shoes. Authorities suspected foul play, noting her body had been moved before it was found and that she had been dead for less than 24 hours.


She was 31 years old at the time of her death.

The identification comes after an international police campaign was launched, aiming to resolve cold cases.

“After 20 years, an unknown woman has been given back her name,” Interpol secretary general Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.

She is the third person identified through Interpol’s Operation Identify Me, launched in 2023 to uncover the identities of women who were murdered or died under suspicious or unexplained circumstances in Europe.

The initiative shares case details widely online and with the media, including facial reconstructions, personal belongings, tattoos, and biometric data from initial investigations. Interpol asks its 196 member countries to cross-check the information with national databases to help solve cold cases.

Spanish authorities submitted the “Woman in Pink” case to the initiative in 2024. This year, Turkish police ran her fingerprints through a biometric database and confirmed they matched those of Liudmila Zavada, a Russian national.

A close relative of Zavada provided a DNA sample, which matched the sample collected during the original investigation, allowing authorities to confirm her identity.

"Each successful identification brings fresh hope to the families and friends of missing persons and creates new leads for investigators,” Urquiza was quoted as saying by CBS News.

The first woman identified through the campaign was 31-year-old Rita Roberts from Wales, murdered in Belgium in 1992.

Earlier this year, a woman found dead in a Spanish poultry shed was identified as 33-year-old Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima from Paraguay. Police officials described her death as "unexplained," as cited by the BBC.

Interpol said 44 women remain in the "Identify Me" campaign, with the oldest case dating back to 1976.