Scottish woman identified after body found in suitcase in Athens
A body found inside a suitcase in an abandoned building in central Athens has been identified as 38-year-old Elisabeth-Jane Ross, a Scottish woman who had
A body found inside a suitcase in an abandoned building in central Athens has been identified as 38-year-old Elisabeth-Jane Ross, a Scottish woman who had been in Greece for about two weeks before she died. Greek police are still waiting for test results from the medical examiner to determine how she died.
Police Scotland said they are in contact with Greek authorities after Ross was reportedly found on 18 July by a homeless man in Kypseli, a district in the Greek capital. The building where her remains were discovered stands in a part of downtown Athens that has seen a rush of Airbnb rentals and foreign arrivals in recent years. Quiet now. But not for long.
Identified after 11 days
Greek authorities identified the remains 11 days after the discovery, following appeals to foreign law enforcement agencies. A well-placed source told Greek media that Ross had been born in Scotland in 1988 and that her next of kin had been informed. Ross had family in Edinburgh, according to reporting from Athens.
State broadcaster ERT said she had travelled to Greece from Cyprus last month. Other reports said she had connections to Greece and had been staying with a friend in Athens before she disappeared. Police believe she died between five and seven days before she was found.
Questions around her final days
The circumstances remain murky. Helena Smith, The Guardian’s correspondent in Athens, said Ross had arrived in Greece about two weeks before her death and had stayed with a Greek friend in the capital before she vanished. She added that messages were later sent from Ross’s phone in what appeared to be an effort to distract friends and investigators.
Her mobile phone, Smith said, remained operational until the identification was made public. That detail has added another layer to an already grim case.
Police keep working the case
Greek police have not yet determined the cause of death and are awaiting the medical examiner’s results. The search for answers now stretches across borders, with Scottish and Greek officers sharing information as investigators try to piece together Ross’s final movements.
Authorities in Athens are also continuing their inquiries into the abandoned building in Kypseli and the people who may have been there around the time Ross disappeared. For now, they are still waiting on the autopsy findings. That may change the case next.
