Murder of Caroline Crouch

Caroline Louise Crouch was born on 12 July 2001, the daughter of retired engineer David Crouch and his wife, Susan Dela Cuesta; she was a Greek student of British and Filipino descent who held British citizenship through her father. At age eight she moved with her family to the island of Alonnisos, where she grew up. At 15 she met Charalambos "Babis" Anagnostopoulos, and the two married in Portugal on 15 July 2019. By May 2021 the couple had an 11-month-old daughter, Lydia.

On the morning of 11 May 2021, police responding to a phone call from Anagnostopoulos found Crouch dead on the bed in the couple's home in Glyka Nera, a suburb of Athens. Anagnostopoulos was found tied and gagged beside the bed, and the couple's infant daughter was in the same room. In his initial account to investigators, Anagnostopoulos said that around 04:30 three hooded, armed robbers had entered the house through a basement window, killed the family dog, and gone to the couple's bedroom to demand money at gunpoint. He said Crouch, who knew martial arts, fought back when a robber pointed a gun at their daughter, and that the group's leader suffocated her before the robbers tied and gagged him and left. Police found that the memory card had been removed from a ground-floor surveillance camera.

The Hellenic Police's Crimes Against Life Department took over the investigation, and a reward of 300,000 euros was offered for information on the alleged robbers. A 43-year-old Georgian national was arrested at the Bulgarian border on suspicion of involvement but was found to have no connection to the case. Investigators found no sign of forced entry at the basement window and no fingerprints or DNA from the alleged intruders, and a review of security-camera footage from nearby properties turned up no trace of an escape vehicle. Digital evidence from the couple's phones, Crouch's biometric watch, and the surveillance system contradicted Anagnostopoulos's account: the camera's memory card had actually been removed at 01:20, not 04:30 as he claimed; Crouch's watch recorded her heart stopping at 04:11; and applications on his phone had been used during the period he said he was bound and gagged.

On 17 June 2021, police intercepted Anagnostopoulos during Crouch's memorial service on Alonnisos and brought him to Athens. After being confronted with the digital findings during questioning by the General Police Directorate of Attica, he confessed to murdering Crouch, saying the cause was recurring conflict between them, and said he had invented the robbery account so their daughter would not grow up without a parent. On 18 June he was charged with murder committed in a calm state of mind, killing a companion animal, false reporting, and false testimony; he was imprisoned on 22 June.

On 16 May 2022, a Joint Jury unanimously convicted Anagnostopoulos of murder committed in a calm state of mind, killing a companion animal, and the misdemeanors of false reporting and false testimony. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, an additional 10 years for killing the dog, a 20,000-euro fine, and a further 11 years and six months for misleading investigators. On 29 September 2023, the Mixed Court of Appeal in Athens unanimously affirmed the conviction, re-imposing life imprisonment, an additional 11 years and six months, and a 21,000-euro fine. Custody of the couple's daughter, Lydia, was awarded to Crouch's family; she later moved to Manila, Philippines, to be raised alongside her cousins.