Caroline Crouch Athens British mother strangled to death next to baby, Greek husband Charalambos ‘Babis’ Anagnostopoulos tied up as burglars rob family.
Greece has been left unnerved following reports of a 20 year old British woman being murdered in front of her baby daughter on Tuesday as she tried to hide from burglars who tied up her Greek born husband and hanged their dog outside their Athens house, according to police.
Caroline Crouch — was found beaten and strangled in her attic beside her 11-month-old daughter, Greek police said.
Her husband, identified as 32-year-old helicopter pilot Charalambos ‘Babis’ Anagnostopoulos, told police three hooded men armed with pistols had burst into their house in the Athens neighborhood of Glyka Nera at 5 a.m. and tied him to a chair while demanding money, the Greek Reporter said.
Once Babis who had been blindfolded and had his mouth duct taped, finally managed to free himself, about an hour later, the man found his wife lifeless next to their crying baby where they had been hiding in the attic, sources told the outlet.
Local news site Ta Nea said the killer crooks may have even turned their guns on the baby and threatened to shoot her if the mother did not reveal where the family valuables were hidden.
Burglars spoke in broken Greek and in a foreign language
They then strangled Crouch to stop her screaming — before escaping with cash and jewelry worth around $18,250, sources told the site.
‘The woman appears to have been strangled by the robbers in their bid to locate jewelry and cash the couple may have had in their home,’ a senior police investigator told the Times of London.
‘We are waiting for the coroner’s report to establish if there was any other type of assault.’
The husband told police he had pleaded with the robbers not to hurt his wife or their child.
Babis described how the burglars tortured Caroline for more than an hour, demanding the location of the family’s money and jewellery, thought to have been kept in a safe.
At one point the men speaking in broken Greek told Caroline that they would hurt the baby if she did not give them the location of the safe according to local media.
Police say the trio spoke a foreign language among themselves, which Babis was unable to identify.
‘Such barbarism is rare for Greece,’
At around 6am, Babis managed to reach a phone and called police, who rushed to the scene which is now cordoned off.
The baby appeared to be unharmed, with photos in the National Herald showing her being carried out of the crime scene wrapped in a blanket.
The family dog was also killed, and left hanging on the fence of the two-story house, police said.
The thieves appeared to be experienced and had likely been watching the couple for some time before Tuesday’s deadly raid, police told the UK Times.
Theodoros Chronopoulos, a spokesman for Greek police, described the attacks as a ‘heinous crime, committed with extreme ferocity.’
‘Such barbarism is rare for Greece,’ he added.
€300,000 reward offered
Detectives were going through local surveillance footage to see how the gang escaped, and whether they had previously staked out the area.
A fourth gang member may have kept watch outside the house during the deadly raid, according to Greek detectives.
Crouch, a student of the University of Piraeus, filled her social media with photos of her cuddling her baby.
Greeks are used to gangland killings, but the strangling of the woman in front of her child prompted shocking headlines. ‘Horror at Glyka Nera,’ wrote the website Proto Thema.
The Greek government has since issued a €300,000 ($465,000 USD) reward for information, Greek news outlet The Dawn reported leading to the thieves’ arrest.
