{"id":720556,"date":"2026-07-31T08:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720556\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:19:12","slug":"tributes-pour-in-for-38-year-old-british-woman-found-dead-in-suitcase-in-athens-beautiful-loving-and-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720556\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in for 38-year-old British woman found dead in suitcase in Athens: \u2018Beautiful, loving and kind\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The distraught family of a British<\/a> woman who was found dead in a suitcase in Athens<\/a> remembered her as “beautiful, loving and kind” as the police<\/a> investigated whether foul play was involved in her death.<\/p>\n

The body of Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was discovered by a homeless man<\/a> in a derelict building in the Kypseli area of the Greek<\/a> capital on 18 July.<\/p>\n

Ross, an Edinburgh<\/a> resident, is believed to have died between five and seven days before she was found. However, investigators said that her phone remained highly active following her death.<\/p>\n

Her aunt Anne Bangham said the family “can’t believe this happened” as she paid tribute to her “beautiful” and “loving” niece.<\/p>\n

“It is horrific. We just can’t believe it. She was such a beautiful, loving and kind young lady,” she wrote in a post on social media. “I wish I could get my hands on whoever did it. She had not long arrived there to work. It will take a while to sink in.”<\/p>\n

\"Elisabeth-JaneElisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was found in an abandoned building in the Kypseli district of Athens on 18 July (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A woman who knew Ross from school wrote: \u201cLisa was a lovely girl, I went to school with her. Bless her and her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third tribute read: “RIP beautiful Lisa. I will always remember you for your beautiful smile, warmth, care and kindness you showed to everyone.”<\/p>\n

The Greek police have said they were awaiting toxicology results to determine the cause of her death and “ascertain whether foul play was involved”.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a string of text messages was sent from her in an apparent attempt to cover up her death before her body was discovered, police said.<\/p>\n

The texts sent from Ross\u2019s phone to her family on 15 July said that she \u201cneeded some time to herself\u201d and that she \u201cwanted to be alone for a while\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another message was sent from her phone, after police believe she had died, to a Greek friend she had been staying with days before she was found, the Daily Mail reported. <\/p>\n

It read: \u201cI need some time \u2013 I\u2019m going to a Greek island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross travelled to Greece from Edinburgh on 29 June and initially stayed with friends in the town of Keratsini, in the suburbs of Athens<\/a>, before meeting American friends in Kypseli on 15 July. Ross had been in Greece for about two weeks before she died, according to reports.<\/p>\n

She had travelled to Greece via Cyprus from the US, where her fingerprints were registered.<\/p>\n

Police were checking airline passenger information to determine whether she travelled alone and local accommodation registries for bookings under her name.<\/p>\n

First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, said the Scottish government and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) would support Ross’s family.<\/p>\n

He said: “This is an absolutely appalling case that has been reported overnight. And obviously I’m deeply concerned that such a tragedy has taken place.”<\/p>\n

The FCDO said: \u201cOur thoughts are with Elisabeth\u2019s family during this difficult time. We are providing consular support and are in contact with the local authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-720556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}