Interpol's Identify Me Campaign: The Woman Who Wasn’t Alone (1999 Jane Doe)

The Woman Who Wasn’t Alone: Unidentified Jane Doe (INTERPOL Case 2024-ES03)

Female, White / Caucasian: Jane Doe
Date Body Found: January 27th, 1999 (Wednesday)

Case Overview

Location Found: Premià de Mar, Barcelona Province, Spain.

The body was discovered in a hotel room. The specific hotel names and exact coordinates are not publicly provided by INTERPOL, but Premià de Mar is a coastal town about 20 km northeast of Barcelona. 

Who Found the Body: Unknown (INTERPOL does not specify; likely hotel staff or police responding to a report).
Estimated Age Range: 23-25 Years
Birthdate Estimate: Based on the estimated age range and date of death, her birthdate would fall between January 28th, 1974 (Thursday) and January 27th, 1976 (Tuesday). However, you can use a broader range while searching in missing persons reports to be more comprehensive and allow for a mistake in her age estimate.
Year of Death: 1999, she was dead for a short time on the discovery of her body
Estimated PMI (Post-Mortem Interval): Not specified by INTERPOL; likely hours to a day, given the hotel setting and rapid discovery.

Demographics and Physical Description

• Biological Sex: Female
• Race / Ethnicity: White / Caucasian
• Height: 5’7” (170 cm), Reported
• Weight: Unknown (no estimate provided)
• Hair Color: Light Brown
• Eye Color: Blue
• Distinctive Physical Features: Two pierced holes in each ear (would mean four piercings in total)
• Clothing/Accessories: None reported (possibly removed or absent)

Circumstances of Discovery

• Date Body Found: January 27th, 1999 (Wednesday)
• INTERPOL Case Created: 2024 (exact date not specified in public data)
• Circumstances of Recovery: The body was found in a hotel room in Premià de Mar, Spain, with signs of violence. Her hands were tied, indicating foul play. She was staying with a white male companion, aged 25-30, approximately 165-170 cm (5’5” to 5’7”), normal build, with short stubble and thick, wavy, dark brown or black hair combed back. He spoke French and English fluently. Witnesses suggested the couple may have come from Geneva, Switzerland, or a town about 10 km from Geneva with “ville” in its name (e.g., Ferney-Voltaire, France). The man disappeared after the incident.

Research and Analysis

By: Shane Lambert

This Jane Doe, identified as "The woman who wasn’t alone" (2024-ES03), is part of INTERPOL’s Identify Me initiative to solve cold cases of unidentified deceased women across Europe. 

The campaign has had some success so far. Last week, the agency reported that one former Jane Doe had been named. She was previously dubbed "The Woman in the Chicken Coop" but was found to be a missing woman from Paraguay.

The Woman Who Wasn't Alone is a Jane Doe known to be in the company of an unidentified man close to the time of her death. Her body was discovered on January 27th, 1999 (Wednesday), in a hotel room in Premià de Mar, Spain.

Her case details suggest a violent death. So in addition to being a Jane Doe, it appears authorities are dealing with a murder victim. It could be that the absence of clothing or personal items like jewelry may indicate an attempt to obscure her identity.

Her companion is described as a bilingual man, possibly from Geneva or nearby. He is a key figure in the case and could potentially be the suspect in this murder.

His fluency in French and English raises questions about his origins, with Canada (e.g., Quebec) as a potential country of origin. Canada's official languages are English and French

Looking Through Canada's Missing

I decided to look for this person in Canadian reports. I consulted Canada's Missing, the RCMP's website for missing people in Canada.

In particular, I was looking for someone who went missing or was last heard from in 1998 or 1999. Also, I calculated a birthdate range and applied that as additional criteria. The goal was to read about the missing person's case details and then cross-reference them against Jane Doe's details.

However, there were no cases that matched the triple condition of female, missing since 1998 or early 1999, and born in a broad date range of 1972 to 1979. Based on that, you could assume that the woman was not Canadian, despite her traveling companion's French/English fluency. The list of missing people the RCMP lists is not exhaustive and there could be missing people who are not yet digitalized. 

In truth, the angle was always a bit tenuous. But I think if everyone has a look through their own country's missing persons, then it might generate a clue as to this individual's identity.

My recommendation is to search for a female, missing since 1998 or 1999, and aged in her 20s. The best match I found in Canada's Missing was for Mary Smith but she was seen alive in August 1999 and could not be the Jane Doe. I did find another woman who was born in 1972 and went missing in August 1998, however, she was not caucasian. Right there, there's no need to look at either of those two leads any further.

Another potential match, Dana Zelic, had mild potential at first glance. She was born in 1972 and was last seen in August 1998. However, she left her home without her ID or medication. It seemed too fanciful to imagine that she could have gone abroad without identification.

The date of my search was the date of this article, March 24th, 2025. The databases are updated so if this Jane Doe remains unidentified, the databases could be looked at again after some time passes.

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