The discovery was made by a homeless man who ventured into a wasteland of derelict buildings and graffiti-covered walls in what was once a car park. The site, on Evelpidon Street, is separated by sheets of corrugated iron from a tree-lined road bordered by a park and the home of Greece's oldest sports club.
At midday on 18 July, he found the body of Elisabeth-Jane Ross inside a suitcase and alerted authorities. The 38-year-old had arrived in Athens on holiday almost three weeks earlier, after flying from Edinburgh on 26 June.
“She was an angel”
Ross, who had longtime connections to Greece and reportedly worked in the charity sector, was originally from Edinburgh. A friend there told the Guardian: “She was an angel. Wherever she went, she did good. Who could possibly have done this?”
The daughter of a lawyer, she had lived and worked in the US. She stayed in Keratsini, a working-class suburb close to the port of Piraeus, with the son of a Greek friend until 15 July, and told him she would then spend a few days with friends from the US in Kypseli.
Homicide division mobilised
Greek police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou said: “We’ve had the entire homicide division of the Greek FBI working night and day on the case. We’re in contact with other police forces. We’re going to solve this.”
Four days after Ross was publicly identified, the circumstances around her death remained unclear. Identification was made through fingerprints that matched biometric data in the US. Initial examination of her remains proved inconclusive, although pathologists believed she had probably been dead for several days before the discovery. There were no evident injuries or sign of struggle on her body.
On Friday, residents left flowers at the site. Police said investigators were intensifying their search of CCTV footage after DNA analysis of the suitcase produced no evidence linked to a suspect. Local fashion designer Manos Andreou, who walks his dog along Evelpidon, said: “Whenever I pass by I think of that poor woman. Until the area was closed off, I used to go in there and let her run around it, so it’s all been a bit of a shock. They say they’re looking at camera footage, they say they’re making progress, but can you see any cameras anywhere on this street?”
Friends from US still sought
Detectives trying to reconstruct her movements have expressed frustration at their inability to trace the US friends she had arranged to meet in Kypseli. Other members of her Athens social network have been interviewed at length, giving testimony described as “incredibly helpful”, and none are considered suspects. Dimoglidou said: “July 15 was the last day she had contact with any of her friends. Our investigations are focused on the intervening days and whom she may have met and where she stayed. The Americans have not been identified or found.”
Police believe the suitcase had not been at the scene for more than 48 hours before it was found on 18 July. They are convinced Ross died nearby in Kypseli, but have stopped short of describing her death as a murder. Dimoglidou added: “There is always the possibility that she died and then for some reason was hidden. Our priority is to get to the bottom of who left the suitcase. Whoever they were was careful not to leave any fingerprints or DNA.”
Phone messages after death
Ross’s mobile phone appeared to be in operation and being used days after her death. Her distraught father is reported to have told police he received text messages from his daughter, believing she was alive and well, until her body was identified on Wednesday. The messages spoke of her “need to be alone”. Authorities, who have yet to retrieve the device, believe they were sent deliberately so that she would not be declared missing and to “buy time”. The phone’s digital footprint has been located to Athens.
One source said: “We have to presume that the person who had her phone and then sent these messages, days after pathologists believe she probably died, is connected to the crime and we cannot rule out that they knew Ms Ross.”
More than 60 people in the Greek police department’s homicide division have been assigned to the case, and investigators have requested that laboratory tests be fast-tracked to determine the cause of death. Grigoris Leon, who heads the Hellenic Society of Forensic Medicine, said: “At such times, when there is advanced decay because of heat or the conditions in which a body is kept, only toxicological tests and in-depth examination of [vital organ] tissues can determine, exactly, how a person died.” He added that there would be answers that would unearth the truth: “I have no doubt they will come but it won’t be easy and it will take time.”
