The Afghan man accused of killing a Scottish refugee volunteer and dumping her body inside a suitcase first arrived in Europe as an unaccompanied minor before building a new life in Greece.
The 26-year-old reportedly reached the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016 after traveling from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, according to reporting by iefimerida.gr. He later settled in Athens, became a professional boxer, and participated in projects supporting refugees and other vulnerable people.
It was through those circles that he is believed to have met 38-year-old Elizabeth-Jane Ross, known as Lisa, a devout Christian from Edinburgh who had traveled regularly to Greece to help asylum seekers.
Ross’s decomposing body was found inside a suitcase in an abandoned building in the Kypseli district of Athens on July 18. The Afghan man has since been charged with murder, robbery, and weapons offenses.
CCTV footage shows him moving through Athens with a large suitcase before entering the building where Ross was discovered. He is then seen leaving without it.
The suspect denies killing her and claims he found Ross already dead before placing her body in the suitcase because he feared becoming implicated.
However, investigators allege that he withdrew approximately €10,000 using Ross’s bank cards after her death and attempted to conceal her disappearance by sending messages from her phone.
Friends and relatives received texts claiming Ross wanted to be alone and was traveling to a Greek island. Messages were also reportedly posted through her Facebook account before the communications stopped following reports that a woman’s body had been found.
The suspect’s wife is said to have provided important evidence to police, including data from a shared location application placing her husband at the apartment where Ross had been staying.
She also allegedly told investigators that he admitted killing Ross because she would not stop discussing Christianity and was attempting to convert her.
The Afghan man and his wife had reportedly been involved with a Christian refugee organization in Athens. Ross had spent much of the previous seven years helping asylum seekers, particularly those from Afghanistan and Iran.
Police searching the suspect’s home seized a replica handgun and a knife.
Authorities have not yet established Ross’s precise cause of death because of the advanced decomposition of her body.
