Sharif Ahmadzai, a 26-year-old Afghan professional boxer, has been arrested in Athens over the murder of British woman Elisabeth-Jane Ross, whose body was found in a derelict building on July 16.
Ms Ross, 38, who was also known as Lisa, was allegedly killed before her body was placed in a suitcase and dumped at the abandoned site. Detectives trawled CCTV footage that allegedly shows Ahmadzai leaving the apartment where Ms Ross was staying carrying a suitcase and dropping it where her remains were later found.
Ahmadzai reached the Greek island of Lesvos on a small boat in 2016. He later converted to Christianity and married US-born Alaina Hall in 2023, and the pair set up a ministry helping refugees in Athens. The couple are believed to have known Ms Ross, also a Christian volunteer, through their work, and held a key to the flat where she was staying because it was owned by their organisation, Love Every Nation Athens, police sources told the Daily Mail.
Wife's suspicions triggered investigation
Officers began probing Ahmadzai after his wife allegedly reported he had been behaving suspiciously on July 30. She said she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15 and checked his shared location, which showed him at Ms Ross's apartment.
Ahmadzai is understood to have told police he found Ms Ross already dead in her bathroom. He allegedly admitted using the victim's bank cards to withdraw cash and her phone to send messages to relatives and friends while pretending to be her.
His wife grew suspicious once Ms Ross's body had been found and left the family home with their baby to stay in a hotel. Ahmadzai reportedly gave her 2,550 euros and a new Apple iPhone 17 Pro, which she refused and handed to police, believing they had been bought with Ms Ross's money. Detectives raided the family home on August 1 and found a black metal replica Glock-style pistol and a black military-style knife, according to sources.
Boxing career and forthcoming memoir
Ahmadzai is a Super Light professional boxer who has had two fights in Athens, winning one and losing one. His life story has been documented in a cartoon video and a forthcoming book titled "From Hell To Home: How Loss, Exile And Hope Built The Man I Became." In it, Ahmadzai wrote: "No matter how dark your story is, there is always light at the end of the tunnel."
From war-torn Kabul to Lesvos
He was born in Afghanistan to a military commander father who survived six Taliban assassination attempts before being shot dead in a midnight ambush on his way home from an 18-hour shift, when Ahmadzai was three. When he was nine, his older brother Samuel was kidnapped by the Taliban and never returned. Six years later his mother, sister and younger brother were killed in a suicide car bombing, leaving him an orphan.
Alone in Kabul, Ahmadzai used what remained of his family's money to flee, spending 45 days walking through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in freezing conditions. He witnessed a fellow migrant freeze to death and was arrested multiple times, including during an incident in which Iranian police opened fire on a group of migrants, killing 26. In Turkey he made three attempts to cross to Greece by sea; his first two boats sank before he finally succeeded, arriving on Lesvos aged 16 in 2016 and entering the Moria refugee camp, where he taught himself English and began translating for a humanitarian organisation.
Meeting Alaina and starting a ministry
It was at the camp that year that he met Alaina, who was volunteering there. He converted to Christianity the following year and moved to Athens in 2019, where he began boxing in a park and later helped train refugee boys. He developed romantic feelings for Alaina in 2021 and proposed the following year.
His wife has said: "I had seen his growth and his heart for the Lord, and it was so attractive to me... We had both entered the relationship with intentionality; we both had the same heart and desire, to love the Lord and to serve people... There were challenges, and it definitely wasn't an easy road, but the Lord was faithful through it all."
The couple founded Love Every Nation Athens and finally obtained the paperwork to marry on April 29, 2023. Ahmadzai ran free boxing sessions five nights a week for unaccompanied teenage boys, while the couple distributed food bags and prescriptions weekly to refugee families and organised community events, sports sessions and other activities for young people across Athens.
Dispute over religion, police say
Police sources have said Ahmadzai told his wife he had argued with Ms Ross because she wanted him to join her "stricter" Christian group. He was arrested shortly after Ms Ross's mobile phone, which had been switched off for days, was suddenly turned on, allowing police to trace it to a residence in Athens where he was staying.
When questioned, his wife told officers they had been staying in Arachova, a mountain village around two hours from Athens, where she became concerned after her husband went missing. Using a shared location tracking app, she saw he was in an apartment on Rethymnou Street, where Ms Ross was staying and is believed to have been killed. A police source said: "The woman told us that her husband had confided in her that he was angry with the British woman. She was trying to influence him religiously and it became too much for him."
Ross's volunteer work in Greece
Ms Ross, who was from Edinburgh, had been a regular visitor to Greece over the past seven years, volunteering with NGOs helping refugees, homeless people and other vulnerable groups. She had previously volunteered with the One Heart organisation, which specialises in providing medical support to refugees, particularly those from Afghanistan or Iran.
She arrived in Athens on June 26 and initially stayed with Greek friends in the Keratsini district, the country's main seaport close to the city. Police confirmed she moved to Rethymnou Street in Athens city centre on July 2 and was volunteering with a Christian-based NGO working with refugees and other vulnerable groups.
CCTV timeline and next steps
CCTV footage gathered by police showed the Afghan man arriving by car at Ms Ross's ground-floor flat on the evening of July 16. At around 10pm, cameras captured him carrying the suitcase along the road where the abandoned car park is located, and 13 minutes later he was seen walking away from the site without it.
The last confirmed sign of life from Ms Ross was recorded at 9.41pm on July 15, when she called a close friend. Afterwards, her friends and relatives continued to receive messages from her, but grew suspicious they were not genuine because of the style of language, which included talk of going away and wanting to be alone, seen as out of character for her.
Ahmadzai is due to appear before magistrates in Athens on Wednesday.
