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A body found in a suitcase in an abandoned building in central Athens has been identified as that of a 38-year-old British woman, with Greek authorities saying she had been dead for several weeks.
Eleven days after the macabre find, police shed some light on the mystery of a body that until Wednesday had remained unidentified, after appealing to foreign law enforcement agencies.
“The remains, we can confirm, have been identified as belonging to a British woman,” one well-placed source said. “Her next of kin have been informed,” they said, adding it had been ascertained the victim had been born in Scotland in 1988.
The woman, whose body was found wrapped in cloth and placed in a bin bag inside the suitcase, was described as 5ft 4in tall with auburn hair gathered back in a bun. She was wearing a black T-shirt and shorts but had no tattoos or other distinguishing marks.
Police were alerted after a homeless man reportedly discovered the suitcase on 18 July in a derelict building in Kypseli, a district popular among foreign nationals in downtown Athens, according to the public broadcaster ERT.
The woman had reportedly flown to the region from the US, arriving in Greece, on 29 June, from Cyprus.
Greek homicide officers sent fingerprints to Interpol after drawing a blank on local databases. US authorities had provided evidence on the basis of the DNA that police released on Wednesday.
Detectives cordoned off the building on Evelpidon Street as they investigated the circumstances of the woman’s death.
Police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou had previously said CCTV was being examined to try to trace the woman’s movements before her death. Authorities were treating the incident “as a criminal act, given how the body was found”, she told Skai TV.
Airlines are also believed to have been approached as investigators try to reconstruct the Briton’s journey to Greece and determine if she was travelling alone. Officials in Greece and Cyprus were scouring flight logs and hotel bookings.
Local media, citing the results of a postmortem, said the victim had been dead for eight days before the discovery. There was “no evidence” of a struggle or signs of injury.
Greek officials did not rule out UK investigators also joining the inquiry.
The British embassy acknowledged it had been informed but made no further comment.
Greece is no stranger to British tourists dying in what is a popular holiday destination – often by drowning or as a result of road accidents – “but incidents like this are very rare”, officials said.
