Ode to Onbekende vrouw (Karen of Catherine)You were a woman and had a life and dreams
Unknown woman, found in 1998 after fire in a boat, photo source Identify Me
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Dear Karen or Catherine,
It is unknown whether either of these two names you used were your real name. For some reason you were living under a false name in Amsterdam. Were you fleeing something or someone or were you staying illegally in the Netherlands, so you were not using your own identity?
Your body was found after a fire on a cabin boat in a canal in Amsterdam in January 1998. Whether your death was an accident or whether you were murdered before the fire started has never been clarified.
Your estimated age at the time was between 25 and 35, so you were probably born between 1963 and 1973. You were 1.62 m tall, had green eyes and brown hair, possibly dyed that color.
What is known about you is that you only spoke English, that you had eczema and many warts around your knees. You had no tattoos or visible scars. And very striking: you are said to have always dressed in red.
A beautiful drawing has been made of what you would have looked like. Long hair in a braid, your lower lip slightly fuller than your upper lip, gold-colored earrings in your ears, 2 thin gold-colored chains around your neck, one with a heart.
Somewhere in the world there must be someone who wonders why he or she has never heard from you again. A family member, a girlfriend, a friend, someone. There must be someone somewhere who knows who you are and where you come from.
Hopefully that person will be found one day, preferably soon, and you will get your identity back. You deserve better than to remain an unknown dead person. You were a woman and had a life and dreams.
You too are part of the history of Amsterdam.
The Dutch police and Interpol are still trying to find out your identity, among other things through the campaign “Identify me” with which they are trying to identify several women found in Europe, mostly murdered.
About
Ode by Elise Buskermolen to an unknown woman (Karen or Catherine) who died during a fire on a boat.
Hopefully that person will be found one day, preferably soon, and you will get your identity back. You deserve better than to remain an unknown dead person. You were a woman and had a life and dreams. You too are part of the history of Amsterdam.
Onbekende vrouw (Karen of Catherine)
Unknown woman, who was found in 1998 after a fire on a boat.
Operation Identify Me - The woman on the boat. In 1998 a body of a woman was found after a fire on a houseboat in Amsterdam. It turns out that the victim, a woman known as 'Karen' or 'Catherine' is living under a false identity. Who is she? Interpol, Dutch police and the Dutch crime program Opsporing Verzocht appeal to the public to identify several nameless female victims of heinous crimes. #IdentifyMe Please share, or give information: https://www.interpol.int/im