By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-06 18:37:51 | Updated at 2026-08-06 21:09:27
2 hours ago
An American couple who took in an Afghan migrant who's now accused of killing a British woman and stuffing her body in a suitcase in Greece have told of their disbelief over his arrest – and say he never gave them any trouble aside from teenage 'rebellion.'
The husband and wife, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail they were 'heartbroken' to learn from a mutual friend that Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, had been arrested over the murder of Elisabeth Jane Ross, 38, a Scottish Christian missionary who was in Athens volunteering for a charity.
The Christian couple said they cannot reconcile the sickening charges against Ahmadzai with the teenager who lived in their home for almost two years on the Greek island of Lesvos, where they were doing humanitarian aid work in the Moria refugee camp.
They effectively 'adopted' 16-year-old Ahmadzai, who was living and working in the camp as a translator for relief groups, in 2016 after he lost everything. His tent burned down in a fire that broke out during 'fighting' amongst the migrants.
'When camp burned down,' his adopted father told the Daily Mail, 'I brought him and a couple guys home at like five in the morning when I finally made it back and he stayed, the other guys left.
'We sort of kept him around, adopted him a little bit.'
Such was their closeness, the Afghan professional boxer called the couple 'mom' and 'dad' and they, together with their two now-adult sons, became his family.
He previously told how his new mother figure sometimes taught him English and other schoolwork and even shared photographs online of the Christmas gifts his adoptive family bought him.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, is accused of manslaughter, robbery and illegal gun possession, in connection with the death of Scottish Christian missionary Elisabeth Jane Ross
Elisabeth Jane Ross, 38, was found dead in Athens with her body stuffed in a suitcase
The couple housed him in Lesvos until they returned to their home in Atlanta, Georgia two years later.
They say they last saw Ahmadzai while visiting Europe in 2019.
Ahmadzai's 'adoptive mom' sobbed as she told of her devastation at the grave charges against him, which include 'intentional homicide,' robbery, and weapons offenses.
'When I heard the news, I couldn't imagine it to be true. Not in a million years,' she told the Daily Mail.
'It doesn't feel real at all. I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up and it was a nightmare, and it's over.
'I'm heartbroken. I can't make any sense of it.
'It's a heartbreak that you can't understand. It's like I have the heart of a mother for that now adult-sized boy.'
The couple insist Ahmadzai never showed any red flags that suggested he was capable of the brutal violence he now stands accused of.
CCTV appeared to show Ahmadzai dragging a suitcase in the streets of Athens
Ahmadzai was pictured being led out of the Athens Court House complex in Kypseli after a hearing on Wednesday
Asked if they ever thought he could do something like this, the husband replied: 'Absolutely not, no.
'I mean, he had issues like everybody does, but no.
'There could be some trying times with him, but it was usually more rebellion against authority or just him feeling sorry for himself.'
'Anything I say is speculation. But I'm pretty sure that the Sharif I knew as a teenager is not the Sharif of today.'
The man's wife insisted Ahmadzai's acting out was 'normal teenager stuff' adding that, like many refugees, he had experienced 'much trauma.'
Ahmadzai's life story was previously told in an autobiographical animated video - and soon in an upcoming memoir - From Hell to Home: How Loss, Exile, and Hope Built the Man I Became.
He shared how his entire family were wiped out in Afghanistan. His father and brother were killed by the Taliban before his mother, sister and another brother died in a suicide bomb attack.
Ahmadzai's wife Alaina told police she grew suspicious of her husband after she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15, and, after checking his shared location, she saw that he was at the victim's apartment
The couple married in 2023 and welcomed their first child in April this year
He later fled Kabul, the Afghan capital, spending 45 days walking through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey in freezing temperatures, which killed a fellow migrant he encountered on his journey.
After arriving in Turkey, he twice failed to reach Greece by boat, both vessels sinking, before he successfully landed on the island of Lesvos aged 16 in 2016 and entered Moria Camp.
The couple say they and Ahmadzai, who later converted to Christianity, met his future wife, American Christian missionary Alaina Hall, 28, who was volunteering with a relief charity in the camp.
They said long after they left Greece, Alaina and Ahmadzai became a couple in 2021, before marrying two years later and welcoming their first child in April.
The couple recall meeting Alaina's parents, Tom, 65, and Susan, 61, when they visited their daughter in Greece in 2016, but they did not get to know them or remember their names.
But they did learn the Halls allegedly did not want Alaina to marry Ahmadzai, echoing her paternal Aunt Leanne Hall's previous comments to the Daily Mail, but said they have 'no idea' why.
Ahmadzai is suspected of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross on July 15 before putting her body in a suitcase and dumping it in a derelict building in Athens.
He is currently being held in custody after he refused to enter a plea on Thursday.
Ahmadzai, a boxer, was an Afghan refugee living in a camp in Lesvos when he met an American missionary couple who took him in as a teenager
He later converted to Christianity and met his now wife, Alaina, 28, another American Christian missionary, who was volunteering with a relief charity in the camp
Earlier this week, Protothema reported that Ahmadzai told police in a statement on Saturday that he did not kill the 38-year-old, claiming he found her dead before panicking and taking a series of unjustified actions.
During the testimony, he said: 'I never did harm to anyone. I want you to understand me and believe me. I was just in a panic.'
Ahmadzai and his wife knew Ross through their Christian humanitarian work on Lesvos, where she volunteered with the same organization.
The apartment where Ross was staying was owned by their organization, Love Every Nation Athens, and the couple had a key to the property, police sources told the Daily Mail.
Alaina is reported to have raised the alarm with Greek cops after she allegedly told them her husband was behaving suspiciously, days after he vanished from their home one night and she traced him to an apartment where Ross, the victim, lived.
Her suspicions grew when Ross's body was found, causing her to flee the couple's home with their months-old baby. She is now thought to have gone to ground at a hotel in Greece.
The young mother appeared to lead a charmed childhood in her native Georgia, growing up in Ringgold, a town that straddles the state line with Tennessee and is famous for hosting Dolly Parton's wedding to Carl Dean in May 1966.
Tom Hall, a retired FedEx pilot, and Susan Hall raised Alaina and her older brother Aidan, 30, in a $500,000 home inside the exclusive gated community of Windstone Golf Club, which boasts an 18-hole championship golf course, a pool, a private lake and tennis courts.
Alaina appeared to lead a charmed childhood in her native Georgia, in Ringgold, where she was raised by Tom and Susan Hall
The family lived in a $500,000 home inside the exclusive gated community of Windstone Golf Club
The Halls split their time between their Ringgold home and a $750,000 three-bedroom cabin in the secluded Blue Ridge Mountains.
The family attend the First Baptist Church of Lakeview, in the city of Rossville, Georgia, and appear to be active members of their church volunteering community.
In 2012, the Halls went with on a youth trip to the Dominican Republic, with Alaina and her brother seen in newly unearthed pictures playing with local children, before later joining a mission trip to Haiti.
Alaina and her brother attended the Grace Baptist School Academy, a private Christian school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she rose to become Senior Class President by 2016, according to a post on the school's Facebook page.
At the time, Alaina planned to follow her brother to Berry College, a private liberal arts university in Mount Berry, Georgia, where he majored in engineering and played on the Vikings football team.
But it is unclear if she actually completed her education there because she travelled to Greece in 2016 and began volunteering in the Moria camp.
