KILLED AT HOME
What happened to Caroline Crouch?
GREEK helicopter pilot Babis Anagnostopoulos confessed to murdering Caroline Crouch in front of her 11-month-old baby.
This is the story of the British mum who was brutally killed in May 2021.
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Who was Caroline Crouch?
Caroline Crouch was a 20-year-old Brit statistics student who moved to Greece when she was eight.
Caroline met her future husband Babis Anagnostopoulos on the island of Alonissos and the pair married in Portugal in 2019.
They welcomed their daughter Lydia in June, 2020.
What happened to Caroline Crouch?
On May 11, 2021, Caroline was tortured and strangled in front of her 11-month-old daughter at her house in an upmarket Athens suburb.
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Police found Caroline's lifeless body next to her crying daughter later that morning.
A police spokesman said he discovered Anagnostopoulos handcuffed to the floor near Caroline with duct tape over his eyes and mouth.
The family's pet husky was also strangled with its own lead and left on a fence.
Who is Babis Anagnostopoulos?
Anagnostopoulos is a Greek pilot who was arrested for the murder of his wife in 2021.
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On June 17, 2021, Anagnostopoulos confessed to her murder after she vowed to leave him.
He admitted to smothering her to death after more than eight hours of interrogation in the homicide department of Athens' police headquarters.
The authorities said in a statement: "The culprit is her 33-year-old husband who has confessed to the act."
Police described him as a "top class actor" after staging the elaborate crime scene and keeping up with the sick charade of grieving widower for over a month.
The disgraced helicopter pilot even drowned the family dog and hung its body from a stair banister to blame it on the burglars and strengthen his story, investigators said.
According to reports, Anagnostopoulos eventually broke down saying: "That night we had been arguing from early on."
Anagnostopoulos had initially told police that his wife had been murdered by burglars.
He claimed that the criminals tied him up and blindfolded him before putting a gun to his baby's head and demanding money.
The father said he had £10,000 cash in the house because he needed to pay builders for work they had completed on a plot of land the family had recently bought.
Speaking to reporters in the days after the incident, he said that he had only discovered his wife had been murdered when police officers removed the tape covering his eyes.
He was believed to have suffered hypoxia - a potentially fatal lack of oxygen - before wriggling free and calling the police in the early hours of May 11.
Anagnostopoulos told reporters that he "begged" the criminals not to hurt his wife and child.
He spent 38 days maintaining the charade, including hugging Caroline's mum at her memorial.
In a text message found on Caroline's phone, it had become apparent that the student had indeed threatened to leave the man she had first met as a teenager just hours before her own murder.
Anagnostopoulos was charged with murder, animal abuse, providing false testimony and filing a false police report about the robbery, and could face life in prison.
He said in court on June 22, 2021, through his attorney: "I wish I could go back in time but sadly I can't."
In May 2022, Anagnostopoulos was convicted of premeditated murder by three full-time judges and four jurors at the Athens Mixed Jury Court.
He was also found guilty of animal abuse and two counts of perverting the course of justice after his elaborate lies were unmasked.
Anagnostopoulos received a life sentence for the premeditated murder of Caroline and is now in Korydallos Prison.
He was also given 11 years and six months for brutally killing their dog and a fine of €21,000.
Who are Caroline Crouch's parents?
Caroline's mother and father moved to the Greek island of Alonissos when their daughter was just eight years old.
Her mum, Susan Dela Cuesta, runs a cleaning service on the island with her father who is a former British serviceman.
On May 17, 2021, Susan commented on the passing of her daughter, reports.
She said: "There are no words that can express my pain.
"So many people have spoken about Caroline and what a lovely person she was.
"But for me, her death is too raw for me to speak about her."
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Caroline's parents got custody of her baby, Lydia.
They promised to care for Lydia and that "memories of her mother will live forever".
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