Paris link to 1970s victim in Afghan coat

The woman, wearing a distinctive Afghan coat, was hit by a vehicle on the A1M in Hertfordshire in February 1975.

She was never identified and the case is now part of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit's cold case review.

Police said the woman, thought to have been aged 23-25, was not wearing shoes, or carrying any form of identification.

It was thought she had possibly left a vehicle in a hurry because her feet indicated she had not walked barefoot very far.

The search has moved to Paris after the police review unit was contacted by a man from Christchurch, Dorset, who said he recognised the facial reconstruction of the woman dubbed the "Lady in the Afghan Coat".

He said she was wearing the coat when he first came across her hitch-hiking in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, in the early 1970s.

In need of accommodation, she stayed with him and his family for a while and he learned her name was Odile Ludic and she was either from north Paris, or north of Paris.

Detectives are working with Interpol in France to try to trace any relatives.