Rita Roberts: The ‘girl with the flower tattoo’ and her tragic and turbulent previous revealed after she was lastly recognized final week – 31 years after being discovered useless in an Antwerp river

Early June of 1992, it is the beginning of summer season within the Belgian metropolis of Antwerp and a walker spots a physique floating within the murky water of the Groot Schijn river.

It is a stark spot, this small nook of inexperienced surrounded by the commercial hum of town; simply yards away, automobiles pace alongside on one of many metropolis’s busiest stretches of twin carriageway, whereas standing within the foreground is the imposing shadow of the sports activities palace, Antwerp’s equal to Wembley area.

Right here, too, is a water remedy plant, and it’s in opposition to a grate resulting in the plant that the physique has washed up.

It swiftly turns into clear that she — for it is obvious it is a girl — has been a sufferer of a violent crime; she has been stabbed a number of occasions, with accidents to her again and neck, and he or she has probably been within the water for a while.

However who’s she?

The subsequent day, June 4, a brief report seems within the pages of newspaper the Gazet van Antwerpen, documenting the invention. It notes that nothing that might result in identification was discovered anyplace on the physique.

All, it will appear, detectives know of this nameless sufferer is her look.

She is between 30 and 45 years outdated, she is 1.7 metres (5ft 6in) tall and he or she has darkish hair stretching down her shoulders.

Her garments, too, are distinctive: DAG-brand trainers, a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase ‘SPLINTER,’ dark-blue Adidas sweatpants and a pinky-red terrycloth ribbon in her hair. However what stands out most is the tattoo on her left forearm.

This tattoo could be very distinctive, depicting a black flower with inexperienced leaves; beneath the flower is an ornamental scroll bearing what appears to be like just like the letters ‘R’Nick’.

Absolutely with a tattoo as distinctive as this, somebody will establish this unknown sufferer of probably the most violent of crimes? However no, at the very least not then in 1992.

Her killer is rarely discovered, and neither is her id. Regardless of particulars of her garments and that tattoo being launched, the sufferer stays nameless — apparently unmissed.

Buried in an nameless grave the girl with the flower tattoo turns into one of many misplaced — the scant particulars of her id added to the lengthy checklist of anonymous victims of crime that litter each nation.

And there, in that grave with out a memorial stone, she might have lain for years to return had it not been for probably the most extraordinary of breakthroughs.

For final week, 31 years after that horrible morning in June 1992, the thriller girl with the flower tattoo was recognized.

She is Rita Roberts, a 31-year-old who hailed not from Belgium however from Cardiff, 380 miles away.

And now, having spoken completely to her shocked and grieving household, the Mail can, for the primary time, piece collectively the troubled again story to Rita’s life that ended so violently, lots of of miles from house.

It has emerged that Rita, who was no stranger to the police and courts, was on the run when she was killed.

She had fled to mainland Europe after being caught up in a feud, within the downtrodden space of Cardiff the place she’d lived, and had been concerned in arson, prostitution, theft and blackmail, to call just some of the misdemeanours in her brief life.

But to her household, who had spent 31 years — the equal of her life on earth — looking for the ‘passionate, loving and free-spirited’ younger girl, this identification has introduced each reduction and sorrow.

In Cardiff, a rare story has emerged of the household who endured an ‘agonising search’ for a beloved one who merely vanished into skinny air.

They scoured the UK and Europe in search of her. At one level they feared she had died within the Dutch airline catastrophe of 1992, when a Boeing 747 freight aircraft careered right into a block of flats in Amsterdam, killing 43 individuals.

On Friday, Rita’s youthful brother Jason, 54, spoke to the Mail and mentioned he had by no means given up hope of discovering his large sister, whom he described as a ‘feminine Peter Pan, lively and laughter’.

Jason had visited Holland and Belgium twice in search of Rita, and had met with police in each international locations, however mentioned they weren’t excited about serving to.

‘I used to be stonewalled all the way in which —all they did was refer me to the Salvation Military and to the police again within the UK,’ he says with bitter remorse.

‘I feel all of us knew that one thing horrible had occurred. Rita would ship birthday and Christmas playing cards to my mom with out fail.’

When the playing cards stopped, the worry set in for Rita’s household.

The breakthrough within the case got here in Might this yr when Belgian, Dutch and German police launched a joint enchantment with Interpol. This ongoing enchantment, Operation Determine Me, was making an attempt to establish 22 ladies who’re believed to have been murdered.

It was the primary time the worldwide police group had gone public with an inventory searching for details about unidentified our bodies from so-called ‘black notices’, usually circulated solely internally amongst Interpol’s community of police forces all through the world.

It bore nearly speedy fruit. Again within the UK, in County Durham, Rita’s youthful sister, Donna, 61, noticed a report concerning the enchantment and recognised the outline of her lacking sister’s tattoo.

The household travelled to fulfill with investigators in Belgium, and petitioned Antwerp’s household courtroom to have ‘the girl with the flower tattoo’s’ loss of life certificates amended, to lastly grant her a reputation. And final week that request was confirmed.

When it was introduced that Rita had been recognized, her household made a press release.

‘The information was surprising and heartbreaking,’ they mentioned. ‘Our passionate, loving and free-spirited sister was cruelly taken away. There aren’t any phrases to actually categorical the grief we felt at the moment, and nonetheless really feel at present.’

Of Rita herself, they mentioned: ‘Rita was a wonderful one that adored travelling. She beloved her household, particularly her nephews and nieces, and all the time needed to have a household of her personal.

‘She had the power to mild up a room, and wherever she went, she was the life and soul of the celebration. We hope that wherever she is now, she is at peace.’

So who was Rita Roberts? Born in October 1960, Rita’s beginning certificates bears solely the title of her mom, Eirlys, a lady who went to her personal grave in 2001, aged 68, by no means understanding what had occurred to her eldest baby.

Rita’s father was Maltese-born Joseph Cordina, a fisherman who had began a brand new life in Wales, marrying twice — although neither time to Eirlys — and having quite a few different youngsters.

Tragically Joseph additionally died with out ever understanding what had occurred to Rita. Her sister, Donna, was born in 1962, her brother, Anthony, in 1964 after which Jason, in 1969. Their childhood, raised by a single mom, couldn’t have been simple.

Grangetown, the place they grew up alongside their father, prolonged household and half-siblings, is a tight-knit group, albeit a as soon as downtrodden nook of Cardiff that for years was marked out by a fame for crime and violence.

And for the younger Rita Roberts, bother was by no means distant. Courtroom stories, courting from February 1983, when Rita was 22, via to just some months earlier than she disappeared, element a life that was usually spent on the incorrect aspect of the tracks.

Going through a cost of blackmail and theft, her defence lawyer instructed the courtroom: ‘She has been concerned from an early age in prostitution, drink and medicines, and it was, maybe inevitable that she ought to find yourself concerned in a critical case.’

Rita’s final look earlier than Cardiff magistrates got here in 1991, when she was accused of setting fireplace to a home within the metropolis with intent to hazard the lives of seven individuals.

Her brother, Jason, now a father of three and a gaming software program engineer, says this courtroom look was the results of a vendetta between rival households, which had culminated in a firework being lobbed via an open window by an intoxicated Rita.

The case, says Jason, was thrown out of courtroom, however the vendetta simmered, leading to extra bother, and one other warrant being issued for Rita’s arrest.

Figuring out she was going through jail, he says, Rita fled to Belgium utilizing sister Donna’s passport. Rita had lived in Amsterdam and Belgium in her 20s. Notably, says Jason, she had been in Antwerp earlier than, having endured a stint of compelled prostitution from which she was rescued by her household.

‘She was put to work on the sport however managed to get a message to us in Cardiff,’ says Jason. ‘Our brother, Tony, went over to convey her again. She was in a horrible state, half starved. It took three months to feed her up earlier than she began recovering.’

Rita left Cardiff for the final time in February 1992 — 4 months earlier than her physique was discovered.

The final her household had heard from her was a postcard they acquired in Might of that yr.

‘My mum knew we had misplaced her,’ says Jason.

‘It was by no means spoken about, however I may see it in her eyes.’

Then, in October 1992, got here the Netherlands’ worst aviation catastrophe, when an El Al jumbo jet crashed into an 11-storey block of flats within the Amsterdam suburb of Bijlmermeer one Sunday night.

Figuring out Rita had connections within the Netherlands, her household feared the worst.

‘We thought she was in Belgium, Holland or Germany and we hoped she was constructing a brand new life for herself,’ says Jason. ‘Then that aircraft went right into a tower block killing so many individuals . . . there have been unidentified our bodies: we thought one among them may have been Rita.’

Now, after all, he is aware of that Rita had truly died over the border in Antwerp, 4 months earlier than that crash.

Heartbreakingly, the massive household was in mourning for Rita’s half-sister, Caroline — who died of most cancers in June this yr — once they discovered that the physique present in a river in Antwerp was Rita.

‘It was the tattoo that recognized her,’ says Jason. ‘So far as I do know, there has by no means been any DNA testing accomplished.

‘I keep in mind Rita having a tattoo — it was fairly crudely drawn. However my sister, Donna, remembered the rose tattoo; she was adamant about it, so we knew it was Rita.’

Jason’s sorrow and remorse is shared by the remainder of this huge household with totally different surnames however a deep familial bond. ‘Though we’ve totally different moms we’re a household,’ Jason explains. ‘We will squabble amongst ourselves however as a household we stick collectively. If anybody, or something, occurs in opposition to the household, we come collectively.’

His half-sister, Joanne Bryan, agrees. ‘Rita and I had been half- sisters, however we had been very shut,’ she recollects. ‘I all the time considered her as my sister. She was one of the best — she was a pleasant woman, woman. And really fairly.

‘I used to be 17 when she disappeared and it has been a very long time. However we carried on looking — you by no means quit hope when it is household.’

One other relative, who did not wish to be named, mentioned: ‘We all the time feared the worst when she did not ship a birthday card to her mom after which there have been no Christmas playing cards. Household was all the things to Rita. She was a beautiful woman who would do something for anybody.’

So does the revelation that Rita has been useless all these years convey any reduction?

Jason says: ‘For me, it is introduced some closure. Once I noticed the {photograph} of her, it introduced again many pleased recollections.

‘However after I was instructed she had been murdered all these years in the past I used to be misplaced for phrases.

‘Our mom has died, however it’s her I really feel sorry for. She suffered in silence for therefore lengthy. For years, we anticipated Rita to show up, and I feel all of us hoped she had made a brand new life for herself and was getting on with it. You do not prefer to dwell on dangerous ideas.’

As this household lastly involves phrases with its loss, the very fact stays that what occurred to Rita is much from resolved. Who killed her, and why?

The Belgian authorities are calling on the general public for any info they could have about Rita, or the circumstances surrounding her loss of life.

And, after all, there are the opposite 21 ladies victims from the Interpol marketing campaign, who nonetheless stay unidentified.

That could be a ache solely a household who’ve suffered a loss akin to this will comprehend.

That agony was made clear by Rita’s sister-in-law, Paulette Roberts, who wrote on Fb that even because the household grapple with the ache of shedding Rita, ‘we’re additionally compelled to lift consciousness about 21 different unidentified ladies who, like Rita was, are ready to be recognised and reunited with their households.

‘Their tales stay shrouded in anonymity, and it’s our collective accountability to make clear their plight.

‘We kindly ask on your help in sharing a publish [about Operation Identify Me] throughout your networks.

‘By doing so, you not solely honour Rita’s reminiscence but in addition contribute to the potential reunification of different households desperately looking for their family members.’

Thus far, Rita is the primary to have been recognized, though 1,250 ideas have been acquired concerning the different chilly circumstances.

Within the meantime, Rita’s household is planning lastly to convey her house to Cardiff.

Sister Joanne says: ‘Rita will likely be introduced house and buried. She was beloved — you do not go away your family members behind.’