🚨 THE PARENTS OF THE ACCUSED BOXER’S WIFE HAVE SPOKEN OUT AFTER THE D3ATH OF A BRITISH WOMAN… AND WHAT THEY REVEALED IS DRAWING WIDESPREAD ATTENTION
The footage is said to show Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, wheeling a suitcase through the streets of Athens which allegedly contained the body of British charity worker Elisabeth-Jane Ross.
Chilling CCTV shows man wheeling suitcase through Athens containing ‘body of British woman’
The parents of the wife of an Afghan boxer accused of murdering a British aid worker didn’t want their daughter to marry him, according to a close family member.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, is suspected of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, before putting her body in a suitcase and dumping it in Athens, where she was volunteering for a Christian-based NGO. He is now set to appear before an investigating magistrate in the Greek capital on Wednesday – nearly three weeks after Ms Ross’ body was discovered on July 18.
Close relatives of Ahmadzai’s wife Alaina Hall have spoken out about the man with whom she has a young son. Her aunt, Leanne Hall, said her pilot brother, Thomas, 65, and sister-in-law Susan, 61, always had grave doubts about their daughter’s choice of husband.
Asked about Ahmadzai, she said: “I’ve never met him, I’ve only heard about him. But I can tell you my brother and sister-in-law never wanted them to get married.”
View 4 Images
Elisabeth Jane Ross, also known as Lisa, was found by a homeless man on July 18(Image: Facebook)
‘He has admitted to carrying her body in a trolley’
The champion boxer met Ms Hall in 2016 at a refugee camp on Lesvos, Greece, where he taught himself English and began translating for a humanitarian organisation. Ms Hall, who grew up in Ringgold, Georgia, about 20 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, had been volunteering there.
Ahmadzai converted to Christianity in 2017 and moved to Athens in 2019. He began boxing in a park before helping to train refugee boys. He proposed to his wife in 2022 and their son was born in April.
But he has now become a suspect in the investigation into the death of Ms Ross, who was volunteering with a charity in the Greek capital.
George Kalliakmanis, honorary president of the police officers’ association in Athens, said: “He has admitted to carrying her body in a trolley to the site. Police have CCTV footage of him doing this on the night of July 16. He has also confessed to withdrawing €10,000 [£8,500] from ATMs using credit cards that belonged to her. But he has denied murder, which police do not believe.”
Mr Kalliakmanis added that Ahmadzai’s US-born wife Ms Hall, who is understood to have been friends with Ms Ross, was very helpful to detectives. Officers reportedly began investigating Ahmadzai last Thursday after she reported he had been behaving suspiciously and woke to find him missing and checked the location of his phone, which allegedly showed he was at Ms Ross’s apartment on Rethymnou Street in central Athens.
After reporting her husband to police, officers reportedly raided the family’s home on Saturday and found a replica pistol and a military-style knife. Ms Hall is said to have left the property with their baby before handing detectives ÂŁ2,185 and a new Apple iPhone she believes her husband bought with Ms Ross’s money.
According to the Daily Mail, 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.”
CCTV footage gathered by police allegedly shows Ahmadzai arriving by car at Ms Ross’s property on the evening of July 16. At around 10pm, cameras capture the man wheeling a suitcase along the road on which the abandoned car park where Ms Ross’s body was dumped is located. About thirteen minutes later, he is seen walking away from the derelict site without the case.
View 4 Images
Ms Ross, originally from Edinburgh, was volunteering for a Christian-based NGO(Image: Facebook)
Police investigate text messages
Forensic scientists believe Ms Ross, originally from Edinburgh, was likely asphyxiated following an initial on-site post mortem, which showed there were no evident signs of injuries on her body. But it is understood the autopsy was deemed inconclusive because of advanced decay. Further toxicological tests and analysis of vital organs are expected to determine the exact cause of death in the coming days.
Dad-of-one Ahmadzai is believed to have told police he discovered Ms Ross already dead in her bathroom. He has allegedly admitted to sending messages to the victim’s relatives and friends from her phone, pretending to be her.
Her last telephone call was reportedly made from her mobile phone on the night of July 15 – three days before her body was discovered by a homeless man who noticed a bad smell before spotting the case with what he described looked like a human limb poking out of it in an abandoned building in Kypseli, around two miles away from her apartment.
Text messages sent to family and friends were described as deliberately misleading by police, who believe they were sent in an attempt to delay Ms Ross being declared missing. One is said to have included the message: “I need some time. I’m going to a Greek island.”
Other messages allegedly sent to her family members reportedly claimed she needed time to herself and wanted to be alone for a while, while a post on her Facebook declared she planned to go to Turkey.
View 4 Images
Sharif Ahmadzai has been arrested for the murder of Elizabeth Jane Ross
‘We believe there was a confrontation’
Police are still trying to establish the motive for the alleged murder. According to the Guardian, a police source said: “We believe there was a confrontation. But was that spurred by Ross discovering the Afghan rummaging through her things and stealing her credit cards, or was it a case of sexual assault or the Briton spurning his advances?”.
Ahmadzai reportedly told police he discovered Ms Ross’s lifeless body in the first-floor flat of an apartment block he helped manage in Exarchia, a popular bohemian district in central Athens. Investigators have confirmed Ms Ross moved to the apartment on July 10. It is understood she originally flew from Edinburgh to Athens on June 26 before initially staying elsewhere with Greek friends.
Ms Ross had been a regular visitor to Greece over the past seven years, volunteering as a missionary with NGOs helping refugees, homeless people and other vulnerable groups and had previously volunteered with the One Heart organisation, which specialises in providing medical support to refugees, particularly those from Afghanistan and Iran.
Police arrested Ahmadzai after collaborating with the UK’s National Crime Agency and Police Scotland and combing through CCTV footage from cameras in the area where the suitcase was found. The super lightweight boxer, is understood to have arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos by small boat in 2016 before converting to Christianity and marrying his wife in 2023.
The couple set up a ministry helping refugees in Athens and are believed to have known Ms Ross, who was also a Christian volunteer, through their work. They are said to have had a key to the flat she was staying in as it was owned by their organisation, Love Every Nation Athens.
View 4 Images
Ross’s lifeless body was found in the first-floor flat of an apartment block the suspect helped manage in Exarchia, a popular bohemian district in central Athens(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
What else is known about Sharif Ahmadzai?
Ahmadzai has previously told how he was born in Afghanistan to a military commander father who survived six Taliban assassination attempts before being killed in an ambush when Ahmadzai was aged three. When he was nine, his older brother Samuel was kidnapped by the Taliban and never returned. His mother, sister and younger brother were killed in a suicide car bomb six years later.
According to Ahmadzai, after his family died he used their money to pay smugglers to help him leave Afghanistan, before spending 45 days walking through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in freezing conditions. He was reportedly arrested multiple times, with police in Iran once opening fire on a group of migrants, killing 26.
From Turkey he made three attempts to get to Greece by sea. His boats sank on the first two journeys before he was finally successful. He arrived in Lesvos aged 16 in 2016 and entered a refugee camp where he taught himself English and began translating for a humanitarian organisation.
Ahmadzai has fought twice as a boxer in Athens, competing in the Super Light division. He lost his debut in June 2025 and won his second in March 2026, taking the vacant national title. He trains at the Panellinios boxing club in Kypseli, across the road from where Ms Ross’s body was discovered.
In an online post, he wrote: “I lost everything I had. I deserved a better life than this. So many of my dreams were killed. Life truly isn’t fair, but I never gave up, and I will never give up. God is on my side. He is not finished with me. And now, my biggest dream is to serve others with everything I have.”
Ahmadzai’s life was also documented in a cartoon video and a forthcoming book titled From Hell To Home: How Loss, Exile And Hope Built The Man I Became. He reportedly wrote in the book: “No matter how dark your story is, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”
‘Lisa will always be remembered for her unstoppable passion’
Ms Ross’ aunt, Anne Bangham, said of her death: “It is horrific. She was such a beautiful, loving and kind young lady. She had not long arrived there to work.”
Ms Ross, known as Lisa, has been praised for her “unstoppable passion” for helping those less fortunate. Senior pastors and the congregation at Destiny Church, Edinburgh, where she was a member of the church, have paid tribute to her.
In a statement, senior pastors, Andrew and Sue Owen, said: “Lisa will always be remembered for her unstoppable passion to help those who were less fortunate than herself.
“This passion and deep sense of calling sometimes took her to challenging places. Lisa was determined not to leave this world the same way she found it.”
They added their thoughts and prayers are with Ms Ross’s family, who have lost “a beautiful daughter and sister”.
Ms Ross had also been a member of City on a Hill church, in Edinburgh, for 20 years. Pastor Peter Anderson said she was a “precious” member of the congregation.
In a video posted on the City on a Hill’s Facebook page, he said: “It’s been a really tough week for our church. We have lost a precious church member, Lisa. She was a member of our church for 20 years, and a very, very precious girl, and it’s a real tragic loss.”
He described her as having a “big passion” for missionary work. He added: “Lisa’s life was actually all about mission. She served people and she cared for people all over the world.”
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said earlier: “Our thoughts are with Elisabeth’s family during this difficult time. We are providing consular support and are in contact with the local authorities.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We are aware of the death of a Scottish woman in Athens and are liaising with authorities in Greece. Officers are providing support to her family in Scotland.”
SOURCE: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sharif-ahmadzai-murder-elisabeth-ross-37511725
