A lady whose body was discovered in France greater than 20 years ago has been identified – and a suspect in her murder arrested.
Hakima Boukerouis is the fifth woman to be named through a world police campaign called Operation Discover Me.
Her body, tied up and wrapped in bin bags, was discovered in a rainwater barrel in Saint-Quirin, a village in northeastern France, on January 7, 2005.
The barrel was seen in October 2004, floating within the Red Saar, a river about two miles north of the village, based on an Interpol ‘black notice’.
However the breakthrough got here when the victim was identified using familial DNA searching, Interpol said yesterday.
Interpol said Boukerouis was aged between 35 and 47, though French news outlet TF1 says she was a 34-year-old from Algeria.
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Suspect is victim’s ‘ex-husband’, French media says
Boukerouis’s 4 children had long assumed that their mother had abandoned them, their family lawyer, Alexandre Bouthier, said.
They were minors on the time of her disappearance, Bouthier told Radio France.
He said: ‘Greater than 20 years later, they arrive knocking on their door to inform them, “Listen, now we’ve the reason: your mother is dead. She was present in a barrel and hadn’t been identified.
‘”In other words, we were aware of a body, but we couldn’t discover it on the time.”‘
Boukerouis’s husband was reportedly arrested in June 2025 on suspicion of ordering her killing.
Bouthier continued: ‘”Today, we’ve been capable of achieve this through DNA, and it’s indeed your mother and your father appears to be involved on this murder.”‘
He was released under judicial supervision three months later as a consequence of his age and health. Prosecutors declined to provide an update.
With police unable to ID her, Boukerouis became often known as ‘The lady with the Richmond dental crown’ due to her expensive dental work.
Detectives had long suspected she was from Eastern Europe or Russia, ‘as a consequence of the numerous young Russian women who were present in the world on the time’, the Interpol notice said.
Operation Identity Me seeks to find the names of ladies who’ve been murdered or died in suspicious or unexplained circumstances.
Interpol secretary general Valdecy Urquiza said: ‘This identification underscores how essential it’s to maintain investigating unresolved cold cases.
‘As a part of the Discover Me campaign, the efforts of the French authorities have helped discover a murder victim whose case had remained open for a few years.’
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