Greek police have arrested a 26-year-old Afghan national on suspicion of murdering a Scottish charity volunteer whose body was discovered inside a suitcase in an abandoned building in central Athens.
Elisabeth-Jane Ross (also known as Lisa or Elizabeth Jane Ross), 38, from Edinburgh, was found on July 18 in the Kypseli district by a homeless man who reported a strong smell coming from the site.
Her remains were wrapped in fabric and placed in a suitcase. Forensic examination indicated she had died several days earlier, with initial indications pointing to asphyxiation, though toxicology results were still being processed.
Ross, a Christian volunteer, had travelled regularly to Greece for several years to support refugees and homeless people, including through organisations such as One Heart, which provides medical assistance particularly to people from Afghanistan and Iran.
She arrived in Athens from Edinburgh on June 26 and initially stayed with acquaintances in the Keratsini suburb near Piraeus until around mid July.
She then told friends she was going to stay with American contacts in Kypseli.
The suspect, identified in reports as Sharif Ahmadzai, a 26-year-old Afghan who arrived in Greece as a child refugee via Lesbos around a decade earlier, was arrested in late July.
Ahmadzai has been linked to the case through CCTV footage showing a man matching his description transporting a suitcase, bank-card withdrawals of approximately €10,000 using Ross’s cards, and sending messages from her phone in the days after her death telling her relatives she wanted to be alone.
“I need time alone,” one message reportedly said. Another stated: “I want to be alone for a while.”
Police also recovered a replica pistol and a knife during a search of his residence.
Ahmadzai, described as a lightweight boxer and father of one, was connected to Ross through shared volunteering circles.
He and his American wife, Alaina Hall, were involved with a refugee-support group called Love Every Nation Athens and had access to an apartment in the Exarchia area where Ross had stayed.
Hall, who met Ahmadzai on Lesbos, is widely described as having played a “significant role” in the investigation.
She allegedly called the police, turned over money he had given her, and relocated into a hotel after growing suspicious of Ahmadzai’s whereabouts and newly acquired income as a consequence of using Ross’s credit cards to make cash withdrawals.
Greek authorities say he has admitted transporting and concealing the body but has denied carrying out the killing itself, claiming he found her already dead.
He has been quoted as telling police he discovered Ross’s lifeless body in the first floor flat of an apartment block he helped manage in Exarchia, a bohemian district in downtown Athens popular among leftists, foreigners and NGOs, The Guardian reported.
Police do not accept this account and have charged him with intentional homicide, robbery and weapons offences.
Investigators continue to examine the final hours of Ross’s life and the precise circumstances of her death.
This is Elizabeth Ross
She went to Greece to help illegal migrants cross into Europe
There she met an Afghan man and spent time with him
The Afghan man murdered her and put her body in a suitcase
He also used her bank cards to rob moneyThere is a valuable lesson here pic.twitter.com/Rz2yEmtZ4c
— Basil the Great (@BasilTheGreat) August 2, 2026
