Get your news delivered straight to you by 7am - sign up to our new Morning Mail newsletter for FREE See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy VIVEK CHAUDHARY, SENIOR REPORTER and ANDREW JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Published: 00:01 BST, 31 July 2026 | Updated: 00:41 BST, 31 July 2026
Greek police probing the murder of a British woman are hunting mystery 'American friends' she was meeting three days before her body was found in a suitcase.Officers have been piecing together the movements of Elizabeth Jane Ross, 38, over the crucial 72-hour period prior to the discovery of her remains in Athens on July 18.They have established she was staying with Greek friends in the Keratsini district, the country's main seaport close to the city.However, she then told them on July 15 she was leaving to stay with Americans she knew in Kypseli – a more central part of Athens. Police have cleared the Greek group of any wrongdoing, with their efforts now targeted on tracing the Americans.Officials are also investigating whether the killer sent messages from Ms Ross's phone after her death in an attempted cover-up.One text on July 15 to a Greek friend read: 'I need some time – I'm going to a Greek island.'Messages to her family claimed that she 'needed some time to herself' and that she 'wanted to be alone for a while'.Investigators say the phone, which is still missing, was active in the Athens area until just before Ms Ross was formally identified on Wednesday.It was then 'mysteriously' switched off as her death was reported across the globe.Ms Ross' father, a lawyer from Edinburgh, told officers he had been receiving messages from July 15 to July 29.One Greek officer said: 'The phone was being used. Text messages were even sent, obviously with a view to making people believe she was still alive.'Elisabeth Jane Ross was found dead with her body stuffed inside a suitcase in Athens, Greece The initial examination of the body showed no obvious injuries or signs of struggle, while her identity could not be established at first as there were no signs of identification
