A 26-year-old Afghan man was arrested on Sunday for the murder of a British woman whose body was found in a suitcase in Athens two weeks ago. The victim has been named on the media as Elisabeth-Jane Ross, a resident of Edinburgh.
The suspect was brought to police headquarters on July 30, 2026, where he eventually confessed to his actions. “The involvement of the 26-year-old foreigner has been verified through material from the preliminary investigation and digital analysis of video footage,” the Hellenic Police said in an announcement.
In the days following the murder, the suspect had used the victim’s bank cards to withdraw cash, the announcement adds. The investigation that solved the case took place in cooperation with the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Police Service of Scotland.
Murdered British woman identified through US fingerprints database
The case was solved following a marathon investigation after the grim discovery of a dead body in a suitcase on July 18. Immediately after the body was found, investigators collected fingerprints from the victim despite the advanced decay of the body and the adverse environmental conditions, law enforcement officials noted. Nevertheless, her personal information was not registered in Greek police databases.
Local authorities also conducted DNA checks against missing-person cases after relatives of missing individuals contacted police and provided samples, but neither of those methods proved successful in identifying the woman. Investigators then expanded their search internationally after clues suggested the victim may not have been Greek.
The victim was identified earlier this week as a British national, born in February 1988, according to information provided to Greek authorities through an official document from the Interpol office in Washington, DC.
Her identification marked a turning point for the Hellenic Police homicide division, which then focused on tracking her last contacts in Greece and the neighborhood of Kypseli, where the body was found.
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