Greek Police Probe Texts Sent After Briton, 38, Died in Athens Suitcase Case

Q: Why was a Scottish tourist never reported missing by her friends in Athens before her body was discovered stuffed in a suitcase?

There is no confirmed evidence yet that friends in Athens knowingly failed to report Elisabeth-Jane Ross missing. The more likely explanation, based on what authorities have said so far, is that police had not received a missing-person report in Greece before her body was found, and investigators are still trying to establish who she was staying with, when she was last seen, and what those around her believed at the time. Reports suggest Ross may have been staying with friends in Athens and was last seen on 15 July, but Greek police have also said she was not in their database and had not been reported missing locally. That gap may reflect uncertainty over her movements rather than neglect by friends. Investigators are still reconstructing whether she travelled alone or with someone, where she stayed, and who had contact with her in her final days. Another factor is the claim, reported by several outlets, that her mobile phone remained active after her presumed death and may even have been used to send messages intended to make it appear she was still alive. If true, that could have delayed alarm among friends or acquaintances and helped explain why no one reported her missing sooner. The case remains unresolved. Greek police are reviewing CCTV, flight records, hotel bookings and phone data, while liaising with British, Cypriot and other international authorities. Until that work is complete, any firmer claim about why friends did not report her missing would be speculative.

Q: With no visible wounds, how did Elisabeth-Jane Ross die, and who was secretly using her mobile phone after her death?

Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s cause of death is still unknown. Greek police say there were no visible wounds and no clear signs of a struggle, and post-mortem and toxicology results were still pending as of the latest reports. Investigators believe she may have been dead for about five to eight days before her body was found in a suitcase in an abandoned building in Athens, but they have not yet established whether she died from poisoning, suffocation, overdose, or another cause. The second part of the mystery is also unresolved. Greek media, citing police sources, reported that Ross’s mobile phone remained active after her death and that messages were sent from it to create the impression she was still alive. Once the case received publicity and her identification emerged, the phone was reportedly switched off. Police have not publicly identified who was using the phone. At this stage, investigators appear to suspect that the person who had access to her after death — potentially the person responsible for moving or concealing her body — was also using the handset. That remains a working theory, not a proven fact. Authorities in Greece, with help from Police Scotland, Interpol and other foreign agencies, are now focusing on reconstructing Ross’s final movements through CCTV, travel records, hotel data, witness accounts and phone analysis.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 1

More than 60 homicide officers are now tracing Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s phone after messages were sent to her father days after pathologists believe the 38-year-old had died.
Police say the texts—saying she needed to be alone—appear designed to delay a missing-person alarm, and the phone’s digital footprint has been located in Athens.
The inquiry has intensified after DNA from the suitcase yielded no suspect link and detectives still cannot identify the “American friends” Ross said she would meet in Kypseli after July 15.
Ross’s body was found in a suitcase on July 18 in central Athens; with no obvious injuries and initial exams inconclusive, fast-tracked toxicology tests are now central to establishing how she died.