By Rob Broomby BBC Germany Correspondent

It's the stuff of detective fiction. On a cold November day last year the body of a young woman was washed up on the tiny picturesque island of Juist, off Germany's North Sea coast.

All the best efforts of the local investigators to identify her have failed, though there is very strong evidence that she is British or Irish.

All the relevant authorities were alerted but in the aftermath of 11 September, Interpol had other priorities and the trail went cold very quickly.

No-one seemed to care. No one that is but a single German policeman, Detective Michael Scheffer from Norden Police station on the North Sea coast .

He has single-mindedly refused to give up hope.

M&S socks may indicate "Juistine's" nationality

"Most people have a mother or father or someone who is waiting for a message. This woman is alone, she has no one, but I am determined to find her family give her back, " he says. "That's why I am working so intensively."

The woman was about 30 years old and wearing, Marks and Spencer's underwear, brown suede shoes and a Sekonda watch.

Her skin colour and dental work confirmed that she was west European.

It is not known if she was murdered, committed suicide or drowned in some terrible accident.

But Michael Scheffer is determined to find out.

Horse-drawn taxi

The beautiful island of Juist is car free, so it's on the back of a horse-drawn taxi on the beach that he opens his case file containing the pictures of the woman's skeleton.

To local people she is known as Juistine - named after the island itself.

Scheffer: Wants an answer before he retires

Frustrated by bureaucracy Michael Scheffer, has taken matters into his own hands. He is now appealing to the British media for help.

He has complete dental records and DNA information. But he needs families of missing people to come forward to offer a match.

Detective Scheffer says the normal channels like Interpol, are just too slow.

"They need years to give me answers," he says with a grim smile.

Peace of mind

In just over four years he will retire but he is determined to solve the mystery before he goes and bring peace of mind to Juistine's family wherever they are.

In his experience he says families "simply want to know".

He says he will do anything this side of the law to solve the riddle.

He is commissioning a computer simulated reconstruction of her face in the hope it will jog someone's memory.

In battling bureaucracy Michael Scheffer is something of a local hero. But he is not the only one.

The cemetery lies amid the peace of the sand dunes

Gerd Schwipps is the captain of the Juist lifeboat. He says in a closely knit community someone lost at sea is counted as one of their own, wherever they come from.

His men helped recover the body from the sands, and they attended the simple funeral ceremony out of respect.

She now lies in a simple and peaceful cemetery amongst the sand dunes.

The secret of her final hours may never be known.

But in death, if not in life she was treated with respect.

Jan Ullrich, an elderly resident tending another grave, interrupts his task to ask if we have news of a family for Juistine.

"It's difficult" he says , "but we just want to know for sure, we have all heard she may come from England but who knows."

North Sea

The body had been in the water about a year and coastguards confirm the current could have carried her all the way across the North Sea from Britain.

The shoes: Another important clue

Police in the British town of Margate have ruled out the body being that of the missing British woman Louise Kerton who was last seen in the German city of Aachen.

The dental records do not match and at 175 centimetres she was considerably taller.

But diplomatic channels are now belatedly beginning to work. His publicity drive is working.

The tiny island graveyard has been the temporary resting place for unknown British people before.

In the midst of the Second World War, the bodies of around 50 British soldiers, many lost in the battle of Dunkirk washed up on the sands.

They were buried on the tiny German island with full military honours.

After the war they were reclaimed and re-buried by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.