Late on Thursday, Greek police charged the husband of Caroline Crouch for her brutal murder on May 11 in Athens. Babis Anagnostopoulos confessed committing the crime.
Twenty-year-old Crouch was strangled to death in front of her 11-month-old daughter at their home near Athens on May 11. Anagnostopoulos initially claimed that the murder was carried out by robbers.
According to sources, the suspect told investigators that he killed Crouch after she threatened to leave him and take their 11-month-old infant with her following an argument.
“We had an argument that night. At one point she threw the child inside the crib and told me to get up and leave the house. He pushed me and punched me. I blurred, I killed her and then I staged the robbery,” he told police investigators.
He confessed to staging the scene of the crime to back his story to police that the 20-year-old was beaten and strangled by three robbers looking for cash and valuables, while he was tied to a chair and unable to help.
Officers also say the couple were bickering in the hours before her death, with text messages exchanged in English showing one had called the other ‘stupid.’
Earlier on Thursday, a memorial service for the victim had been held on the island of Alonnisos. After the service, the 32-year-old Anagnostopoulos was escorted by a homicide division group back to the Attica police headquarters in Athens (GADA) for additional testimony.
During a briefing on the case, police spokesperson Apostolos Skrekas said “There is new evidence which requires explanations. The investigation’s facts cannot be held up. For this reason, a homicide division group went to Alonnisos today.”
He added, “We waited, however, for the memorial service to end, and then the 32-year-old husband was transferred to GADA. This could have occurred yesterday, but we respected his wish to attend the memorial service.”
Anagnostopoulos has been testifying at GADA all day. According to reports, the new evidence is centered on three new findings:
- The biometric watch that Crouch wore on her wrist, which recorded a pulse at a time when her husband’s testimony should have shown that there was no sign of life for the 20-year-old.
- The timing of the removal of the memory cards from the security cameras of the house, which laboratory data, showit happened on different time than what Anagnostopoulos stated in his original testimony to the police.
- The “suspicious” activity recorded on his cell phone at the time of the murder, when he claimed to have been tied up and immobilized.
The Crouch murder took place at Glyka Nera, a rapidly-growing suburb in the northeastern part of Athens.
Greek police had been puzzled about details relating to Crouch murder
Greek police had been puzzled over several very important issues regarding the murder of the 20-year-old woman next to her 11-month-old toddler in the early hours of May 11.
The analysis of the crime scene did not confirm the allegation that robbers were involved in the murder. The evidence from that was negligible, compared to other robbery cases.
There were no fingerprints on the scene, no DNA samples to indicate struggle or sexual assault, no camera footage, no cell phone records.
The second issue that remained unanswered is the description of the robbery as given by the husband, Anagnostopoulos, and certain questions that arise from it.
A few days after the murder, Anagnostopoulos posted a moving tribute to his wife. He posted a picture of the couple on their wedding day on Instagram with the caption: “Together forever. Have a nice trip, my love,” in Greek.
The grieving husband stated that he is “sad that our daughter will grow up without remembering her beautiful mother, who was the joy of my life.”
Yet he said that he found hope that his wife will remain with him and their child forever, saying:
“But through her daughter, Caroline will always be with me and with all of us … You should always look after your loved ones and enjoy your time together.”
Crouch was a British national, but spent much of her life on the Greek island of Alonnissos.
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