Elizabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was identified Wednesday after her body was found wrapped in cloth inside a suitcase in an abandoned building in Athens.
Ross, from Scotland, was discovered July 18 at Kypseli when a homeless person found the suitcase and was believed to have been dead for about eight days before discovery.
The homeless man came across the suitcase inside a derelict building on Evelpidon Street and alerted authorities, according to Greek public broadcaster ERT.
The rough sleeper reported following a putrid odour into the deserted structure which had remained vacant for two years and spotted a human limb protruding from the exterior of the suitcase.
Ross had travelled from Cyprus to Greece on June 29, her fingerprints were not found in Greek databases, and no relatives had reported her missing to Greek authorities, so investigators sent fingerprints to Interpol for identification.
On Monday, July 27, Interpol informed the Hellenic Police that DNA analysis confirmed the remains belonged to a British woman.
Greek media reported that she was born in Scotland in 1988 and had been staying with friends in Athens, who said they last saw her on July 15.
The cause of death remains a mystery.
A coroner had not yet been able to establish a cause of death, with no visible injuries identified, and the conditions of the remains made it difficult to determine how and when she died.
There was “no evidence” of a struggle or signs of injury.
Authorities learned that Ross’s phone had been used until recently, with messages then sent from her phone in an apparent attempt to confuse the search.
On July 15, text messages were sent to Ross’s family claiming that Elizabeth “needed some time to herself” and she “wanted to be alone for a while”.
A Greek police officer said: “The phone was being used. Text messages were even sent obviously with a view to making people believe she was still alive.”
Police have developed a theory about what may have happened.
A police official said: “She is Scottish, and we suspect she may have linked up with a homeless person here who lured her to the specific location and left her in the state she was found.”
Authorities were treating the incident “as a criminal act, given how the body was found”, a police spokesperson told Skai TV.
A police spokesperson said CCTV was being examined to try to trace Ross’s movements before her death.
Authorities believed Ross was visiting friends in Greece, but they had not heard from her for several days.
The Guardian newspaper’s Athens correspondent, Helena Smith, told the BBC Ross had been in Greece for about two weeks before she died.
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.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Our thoughts are with Elisabeth’s family during this difficult time.”
One Greek cop told the Sun: “To find a foreign national dead in a suitcase here in the heart of Athens is a first. In the history of Greek British relations, it is unprecedented,” while another official said ‘incidents like this are very rare’.
Airlines are believed to have been approached as investigators try to reconstruct Ross’s journey to Greece and determine whether she was travelling alone, with officials in Greece and Cyprus scouring flight logs and hotel bookings.
Police are also looking into local hotel bookings in Athens to see whether Ross checked in anywhere after arriving in Greece.
In the viral moment that sparked widespread police interest, the body of Ross was discovered by pure chance on a summer afternoon in one of Athens’ more densely populated neighborhoods.
The body of 38-year-old Elizabeth Jane Ross was found by a homeless individual on Evelpidon Street in the Kypseli area at around 1pm on July 18.
It is believed he spotted a human limb protruding from the exterior of a suitcase.
Greek officials did not rule out UK investigators joining the inquiry.