Very lengthy article.. re-posted in associated threads.
April 2 2023 rbbm.
Locate International, founded by a retired detective, has one ultimate goal: to investigate every cold case in the UK
www.theguardian.com
''Despite international appeals for help, the identity of the young woman killed on a motorway in the early hours of 18 February 1975 remains a mystery. She is known only as
the Girl in the Afghan Coat. Her anonymity is not unusual: the
UK Missing Persons Unit has a database of 13,000 names, a figure that has risen sharply in recent years.
The devastation of families left behind is lifelong. Misha, whose relative went missing 20 years ago, said it never stopped. “You’re always searching,” he said. “It’s emotionally as well as physically and mentally exhausting – you have to think of new ways to search all the time.”
This is where
Locate International comes in. The charity is the brainwave of Dave Grimstead, a retired detective, and its ultimate goal is to investigate every cold case in the UK – finding loved ones if possible, or if not then providing a degree of peace to friends and families with the reassurance that every lead has been exhaustively scrutinised.
Locate International is still only a pilot scheme but nevertheless it investigated 128 missing person cases last year, including the Girl in the Afghan Coat. They identified 26 people – one in five.
The success has taken Grimstead by surprise. “It amazes me that our volunteers are able to find answers to cases that have remained unsolved, sometimes for decades,” he said.''
locate.international
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''Can you help us identify ‘Baldock Woman’?
In the early hours of February 18th 1975, a young woman was struck by one or more vehicles on the A1 near Baldock, North Hertfordshire.
The person who was driving the vehicle that killed her has never been identified and they have never come forward.
A witness stated that she had said that she was heading for London and that she spoke with a foreign accent. We believe her name may have been
Odile and she may have been from France – either Paris or the north of the country.
She had fair hair and hazel eyes and a few distinguishing features: a scar on her right leg and a piercing in her right ear.
She wore:
- a distinctive brown Afghan coat
- a brown leather waistcoat
- a white cotton ‘Chelsea Girl’ blouse
- a white cotton smock with a floral pattern and imitation lace
- black Prisu jeans – a French brand
- a chiffon lace scarf
''Did you ever meet her while she was hitch-hiking, or did she stay with you?
Did you study at a language school with her?
Did she ever tell you her name, or where she was from?''
We’re confident that after close to 48 years, Baldock Woman’s identity can be found thanks to just one person with one piece of information.
Did you ever see her at the Stotfold Social Club in Bedfordshire, where she was known to enjoy drinking cider?
Did you ever work at an industrial estate in Henlow, Bedfordshire? We believe she worked at a factory that made souvenirs there in the early 70s.
Did you ever spend time with her in Cornwall in the 1970s? If you met her, can you remember anything she told you about herself?''
