Burglars who murdered Brit mum were ‘looking for £86k’ & threatened to ‘kill baby’ unless they handed over exact amount
BURGLARS who murdered a Brit mum after holding a gun to her 11-month-old daughter's head were looking for £86,000 they thought was stashed in the home, cops believe.
Caroline Crouch, 20, was strangled to death by masked raiders during a dawn raid by a sadistic gang of thieves on her home last week.
Charalambos "Babis" Anagnostopoulos, Caroline's husband, was bound and blindfolded during the horrific ordeal at their home outside Athens, in Greece.
Detectives are now investigating if the criminals had been tipped off about the couple withdrawing £86,000 from the bank to purchase a plot of land in Drafi to build their dream home.
Babis', 32, recollection of the terrifying ordeal is helping investigators piece together the complex puzzle - after a hole in his blindfold allowed him to catch a glimpse of his wife's killers.
The gang repeatedly asked "Where is the money?!" after being directed to almost 10,000 Euros stashed in a Monopoly set amongst their daughter Lydia's toys in the basement, according to Greece’s Protema news website.
"I could hear them shouting and threatening Caroline, saying: 'We will kill your child if you do not tell us where the money is'."
Charalambos "Babis
Grief-stricken Babis told the publication: "I could hear them shouting and threatening Caroline, saying: 'We will kill your child if you do not tell us where the money is.'
"I could not see what was happening because I was facing the other way."
The continuous cries for money even after grabbing the £8,630 have led detectives to believe the robbers knew about the couple's property fund - but did not know the sale had already gone ahead, and the cash had already been moved.
Special forces head Stavros Mavroidakos told Mega TV: "It seems the perpetrators knew this but that they didn’t know that the sale had already gone through."
"They weren’t convinced when he gave them the money that was in the house and they kept asking for more."
Although he fell unconscious for nearly 30 minutes because the tape the gang had tied around his neck was so tight, he has managed to tell police key details regarding the thieves' appearances.
He described two of the burglar's as six-foot-tall, slim, athletic men wearing hoods who were joined by a short, fat man wearing a balaclava, who appeared to be the leader.
Babis told police the two tall men were armed with a silver Colt and a black pistol - which authorities say are unusual to find in Greece which may narrow down the search.
The 32-year old helicopter pilot has been called to give further testimony today by cops.
"We’ll be showing him more mug shots and will have him listen to tapes to see if he can make out the foreign language that he heard one of the culprits speak," an officer told the Sun Online.
"It’s very important that we get every detail down to how long they were in the house."
A Georgian man was arrested using a fake passport at the Greek Bulgarian border on Sunday on suspicion of being connected to the crime but speculation of the link appeared to be dwindling by Monday.
"He’s been connected to other similar break-ins but, so far, there is less evidence he was connected to the death of Caroline," the cop continued.
Special forces head Stavros Mavroidakos told Mega TV on Monday that investigators were also in the process of contrasting and comparing previous robberies and suspects linked to them in recent years.
Athens has been at the centre of a series of gangland attacks with homes in wealthier suburbs like Glyka Nera, where the young couple lived, being targeted.
"The inquiry is gong to be very wide and soon we’ll have results," Mavroidakos said. "There are cases where it is best not to talk about the evidence. These are difficult hours."
Detectives are following multiple lines of enquiry regarding the ethnicity of the gang behind the horror attack - following earlier claims they were thought to be Albanian.
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"There are two units involved in the inquiry following different leads," one well-placed cop revealed.
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"We are also working on the premise of the gang being ethnically mixed. Albanians, Georgians and Greeks may all have been involved. Organised crime knows no frontiers."
A reward of £250,000 has been offered for information into the young mum's death.