New developments have emerged in the investigation into the killing of 38-year-old British woman Elizabeth-Jane Ross in Athens’ Kypseli neighborhood, after security camera footage showed the 26-year-old Afghan professional boxer accused in the case carrying a large suitcase believed by authorities to have contained her body.
The footage reportedly shows Sharif Ahmadzai dragging a large black suitcase through the streets of Athens while also carrying a blue backpack.
Authorities say he later headed toward an abandoned building in Kypseli, where the suitcase was left. Around 13 minutes later, he is seen leaving the area without the suitcase or the backpack.
Ahmadzai is expected to appear before an investigating magistrate on Wednesday.
From Afghanistan to Greece
According to a report by the Daily Mail, Ahmadzai arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos in 2016 after fleeing Afghanistan. He later converted to Christianity and, in 2023, married Alaina Hall. Together, they founded the organization “Love Every Nation Athens,” which provided assistance to refugees in Athens.
Ross, who also volunteered in Christian humanitarian initiatives, reportedly knew the couple through their shared work.
The apartment where Ross was staying belonged to the organization associated with the couple, and police sources said they had access to the property.
Police Investigation and Evidence
Police began investigating Ahmadzai after his wife reported suspicious behavior on July 30.
According to police statements cited in the report, she said that on the night of July 15 she woke up and discovered that her husband was missing. After checking a location-tracking application, she found that he was at Ross’s apartment.
Authorities say Ahmadzai told police that he found Ross dead in her bathroom.
He admitted using her bank cards to withdraw money and using her phone to send messages to relatives and friends while pretending to be her.
His wife reportedly became suspicious after Ross’s body was found. She left their home with their baby and went to a hotel.
According to the report, Ahmadzai gave her €2,550 and a new mobile phone, but she refused to keep them and handed them over to police, believing they had been purchased with Ross’s money.
During a search of Ahmadzai’s home on August 1, police reportedly found a black metal Glock-style replica pistol and a black military-style knife.
Ahmadzai’s Past as a Refugee and Boxer
Ahmadzai is a professional boxer in the Super Light category, with two recorded fights in Athens, one victory and one defeat.
His life story has been presented in an animated video and a book titled From Hell To Home: How Loss, Exile And Hope Built The Man I Became.
According to the report, Ahmadzai was born in Afghanistan. His father, a military commander, survived six assassination attempts by the Taliban before being killed in an ambush when Ahmadzai was three years old.
At the age of nine, his older brother was kidnapped by the Taliban and never returned. Six years later, his mother, sister, and younger brother were killed in a car bombing.
Orphaned, Ahmadzai left Afghanistan using the family’s remaining money and traveled for 45 days through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, according to the Daily Mail report.
During the journey, he reportedly witnessed deaths, was detained several times, and encountered violence, including an incident in Iran involving police shootings in which 26 migrants were killed.
After reaching Turkey, he attempted three times to reach Greece by sea, with the first two journeys ending in shipwrecks.
In 2016, at the age of 16, he eventually reached Lesvos and entered the Moria Reception and Identification Center, where he learned English on his own and became a translator for a humanitarian organization.
Life in Greece and Relationship With Ross
While on Lesvos, Ahmadzai met Alaina Hall, who was volunteering there. According to the report, he converted to Christianity in 2017 and moved to Athens in 2019.
He began training refugee children in boxing and developed a relationship with Hall in 2021. He proposed the following year, and the couple married on April 29, 2023.
Hall previously said: “I had seen his growth and his love for the Lord, something that drew me closer to him. We shared a desire to serve God and people.”
Together, the couple founded Love Every Nation Athens. Ahmadzai provided free boxing training for refugee minors, while the couple distributed food and medicine to refugee families and organized social activities for young people in Athens.
Police sources said Ahmadzai and Ross had disagreements over religious issues, stating that Ross wanted to introduce him to a stricter Christian group.
Ross’s Volunteer Work in Greece
Ross, who was from Edinburgh, had frequently visited Greece over the previous seven years, volunteering with non-governmental organizations supporting refugees and vulnerable groups.
She had worked with the organization One Heart, which provides medical support to refugees from Afghanistan and Iran.
Ross arrived in Athens on June 26 and initially stayed with friends in Keratsini. On July 2, she moved into an apartment on Rethymnou Street in central Athens, where she continued her volunteer work with a Christian NGO.
Police footage reportedly shows Ahmadzai arriving by car at Ross’s ground-floor apartment on the evening of July 16. Shortly after 10 p.m., he was recorded carrying the suitcase toward a street where an abandoned parking area is located. Thirteen minutes later, he left without it.
Ross’s last confirmed communication was at 9:41 p.m. on July 15, when she called a close friend.
Afterward, relatives and friends reportedly received messages from her phone, but they became suspicious because the writing style appeared different from hers. The messages referred to isolation and a desire to remain alone, which they considered unusual for her personality.
