Coffin carrying murdered Briton is taken to her funeral on Greek island she grew up on

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A coffin carrying the British mother killed by burglars in front of her 11-month-old baby is today being taken to her funeral on the the Greek island where she grew up.

Caroline Crouch was strangled by a gang of raiders who tied up her husband and stole more than £30,000 in cash and gems on Tuesday.

A black hearse carrying her coffin – which was covered with carefully placed white roses – could be seen this morning entering the ferry at the port of Volos, central Greece, on its way to the island of Alonisso.

Caroline will be laid to rest this afternoon on the island, where she grew up with her British dad David and Filipina mum Susan.   

Her husband, Charalambos ‘Babis’ Anagnostopoulos, 32, has flown from helping the police in Athens to be at the funeral in Alonisso – where shops and businesses will close as a mark of respect as the funeral takes place.  

Babis has spoken at length to detectives since the murder. They hope their inquiries will help to jog his memory for even the slightest details of the horrific attack that will lead them to the perpetrators.

Officers cannot work out why the robbers killed 20-year-old Caroline after husband Babis had directed them to his stash of money and he and his wife had been tied up as they had apparently already obtained what they came for and gained nothing from her death.

Babis was so tightly bound with tape around his neck that he lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen and the gang believed they had also left him for dead. However there was a tiny gap in his tape blindfold that enabled to see through a tiny gap in the tape and this enabled him to find his phone and call the police.

Nothing that has come to light so far shows any evidence that Caroline and husband Babis’ home in Glyka Nera wasn’t chosen at random.

But Athens detectives are still said to be looking into whether the attackers may have been given some inside information from someone who knew Caroline or Babis that would let them know that valuables including £10,000 in cash were in the house.

Police believe the gang carried out days of surveillance, Greece Prothema news website reported.

One line of inquiry is that an Albanian organized crime group that includes Greeks and other nationalities may have been behind the savage killing of the British mother.

The criminal gang is believed to be based in the western suburbs of the Greek capital and responsible for a series of extremely violent burglaries in which victims are subjected to vicious beatings, torture and often tied up with ropes.

The gang comprises of many members who alternate between burglaries and who avoid main roads to avoid being detection from CCTV, the profilers have concluded.

The first test results of samples of DNA taken from the scene – including traces of blood and skin taken from under Caroline’s finger nails – are expected later today.

Police have identified three similar burglaries in the same area in the last six months.

In each case the burglars entered via a window and used extreme violence on their victims.

The shocking site of Caroline’s lifeless body, pale and tied to a pole, with her 11-month-old daughter – Lydia – trying to wake her mother, has been described by the first officers at the scene, Ta Nea newspaper reported.

Police Union spokesman George Kalliakmanis said: ‘As soon as the police entered the room, they the girl [Caroline] frowning, pale and her legs were white, as a result they realized that she was dead.

‘The unfortunate girl’s husband was handcuffed, with insulating tape in his mouth and eyes.

‘At some stages it is believed that he suffered from lack of oxygen and lost consciousness.’

Next to her was her 11-month-old daughter who was ‘hitting her mother with her hands and trying to wake her up’, according to an officer identified only as Christos, who is himself a father. 

Baby Lydia was said to be ‘half on her, screaming and hitting her mother with her hands to wake her up’ when help arrived while her father was tied up, blindfolded and gagged on the floor.

Mr Anagnostopoulos, speaking outside the house yesterday, said he did not know Caroline was dead until officers arrived and took off tape that was covering his eyes.

He then left the house carrying baby Lydia and found his mother waiting, who took the child in a moment captured by photographers. 

A neighbour who was the first to be alerted to the tragedy after being called by Babis, described what happened as the baby was brought out.

She told MailOnline: ‘I came outside and I saw the police were here. Babis was in shock and could not speak.

‘Babis was holding the baby. I went inside and got a blanket to wrap up the baby. The grandmother came and took the baby.

‘Babis and the baby are being cared for by the mother.’

The neighbour added that Babis had been able to raise the alarm by using his nose to dial his phone and call the most recent dialled number, which was hers.

She took the early-morning call, but initially could not understand what was being said because Babis had been gagged.  

She said: ‘He was screaming, he was screaming but I could not understand what he was saying because his mouth was gagged.

‘I thought it was a medical problem. I went outside to investigate and I saw and then I knew it was much more important.

‘Earlier in the night I heard the dog barking but I thought he must be fighting with the cats, they have four cats.

‘I only wish I had come to investigate sooner.’

As more details of the tragedy emerged today, police continued hunting for the perpetrators including interviewing those with links to criminal networks.

It is thought that investigators are trying to track down 300 known gang members who have previously served time for burglary and been released from jail in the last three years to see if they can shed any light on the horrific crime. 

Meanwhile, extensive DNA testing is being carried out on the victims’ clothes as well as items used to bind and throttle the couple – such as a pair of trousers – in the hopes that it will provide more information on the killers.

Police point out that the thieves spent more than an hour inside the property demanding the couple hand over money and jewellery – even though Babis quickly gave them the location of £10,000 in cash hidden inside a Monopoly box – and believe they will have left enough evidence behind to identify them. 

Babis, a helicopter pilot, had earlier given a more-detailed account of the ‘nightmare’ ordeal, saying he begged burglars not to hurt his family before they held a pistol to his daughter’s temple.

Babis said he was asleep at his home near Athens on Tuesday alongside Caroline Crouch and baby Lydia when a gang of thieves broke in around 5am.

He told the police that the masked raiders – armed with handguns – tied him up on the floor and tied Caroline to the bed before demanding ‘where’s the money?’ in broken Greek.

He said the couple had a large amount of cash at home because they had recently bought a plot of land and needed to pay builders for work, and he revealed his hiding spot – inside a Monopoly box – quickly in order to spare his loved ones being tortured.

But the thieves demanded more money and jewellery, then pointed a gun at his infant daughter’s temple before suffocating Caroline when she started screaming, according to Greek media. 

‘I heard my wife screaming for help tied to the bed while I was tied to the floor,’ Babis is said to have told police. ‘We screamed not to be hurt. 

‘The baby was crying, my wife was crying and someone or some people were looking for the house to find more money and jewelry. Suddenly they left the room and I couldn’t hear my wife’s voice anymore.’   

Speaking to Greek TV outside the family home later the same day, Babis added: ‘I wish no one ever goes through what we went through last night. It was a nightmare. 

‘We begged the thieves not to harm us. We told them where the money was and asked them to leave us alone. The police will catch them.’ 

Police were called to the scene by Mr Anagnostopoulos who managed to get to a phone and dial the emergency number with his nose. 

Police have described the crime as the ‘most heinous’ they have ever investigated, and say it was carried out with a ‘brutality’ that is rare in Greece.

A £250,000 reward for information has been offered, and investigators are thought to be working on the theory that the gang was well organised, likely surveilled the couple before the raid, and somehow knew they were keeping a large amount of cash at home. 

Officers are questioning friends, neighbours and relatives of the couple to see if anyone was spotted hanging around the house in the days before the raid, or whether anyone had given away information about them keeping money in the house. 

Police are also investigating similar burglaries to see if they were perhaps carried out by a single gang, including a raid in the nearby Chalandri suburb of Athens back in December.

During that break-in, men speaking ‘broken Greek’ smashed their way into the lower floor of a house then forced the couple to reveal the location of their money while threatening their daughter with a knife.

One of the witnesses in that crime described the men as being Roma.

Another theory being worked on by police is that the most-recent burglary was committed by a gang who have spent time in jail, but may have been recently released and returned to their old activities. 

Investigators say Tuesday’s raid began around 4.30am when the gang approached the couple’s house and broke a security camera outside.

They then removed security pins from a basement window and climbed inside the property, where they found the family’s dog downstairs. Police say the husky was strangled using its own leash before its body was hanged from a stair banister. 

The men then made their way upstairs to an attic bedroom where the couple were asleep next to their child.

Babis was attacked first – with the men tying him to a bed post and covering his mouth with duct tape. They then set upon Caroline, a trained martial artist, and tied her up using a t-shirt.  

For around an hour they tortured the couple, demanding the location of the family’s money and jewellery.

It is thought that Babis quickly gave up the location of money he was holding for building works by pointing the thieves to a Monopoly box.

But this failed to satisfy the masked raiders, who demanded more money and jewellery. 

According to news site Ta Nea, Babis told police that the men – speaking in broken Greek – had told Caroline that they would hurt the baby if she did not give them the location of the safe. 

The men then pointed a gun at the infant, the site reports, causing Caroline to scream for help. She was then suffocated to keep her quiet, possaibly using a blouse or pillowcase. 

A medical examiner has said he believes Caroline would have suffered a ‘slow and torturous death’ and if she did fight back against the robbers, her DNA will be found on her finger nails. 

Grigoris Leos told the To Vima newspaper: ‘This crime has a noticeable difference with several others that take place after a robbery, as many times the robbers do not intend to kill. 

‘But in this case we are talking about a young girl and we are talking about people who were determined to kill this girl and if it is confirmed for a suffocating death we are talking about a slow and torturous death. Therefore, the perpetrator wanted to lead his victim to death.’

Mr Leos added: ‘They chose a type of killing that requires contact between the perpetrator and the victim. 

‘All this will have very rich genetic material, the perpetrators will have left fingerprints and if the girl really resisted, genetic material will be found on her nails, as well as in the dog that was killed.’

After taking the family’s valuables, the men fled. Babis told police that the trio spoke a foreign language among themselves, though he was unable to identify it.  

At around 6am, Babis managed to reach a phone and called police, who rushed to the scene which has since been cordoned off.

Babis and his daughter were taken to hospital, while officers began examining the house for evidence. 

Social media profiles reveal Caroline and Babis met in 2017 and were married in July 2019 in a ceremony in Portugal.

Caroline, who appears to have ties to the UK through her father’s side of the family, then gave birth to their first child in June last year. 

The pair lived in Athens, where Babis worked as an ‘air taxi’ pilot flying out of Athens international airport and a smaller airfield in nearby Megara.

Caroline was a student at the University of Piraeus, according to Greek media, though it is unclear what she studied. 

Caroline grew up on the Greek island of Alonnisos. A family friend quoted in the paper said she had a British father and a Filipino mother. 

‘I don’t know if she was born on the island or just raised there,’ she said. ‘She was a very beautiful girl and she was a very active child, doing lots of swimming and scuba diving.

‘Her mum was a sweetheart and she was so proud of her daughter. Her mum was saying just a few days ago how happy she was to be able to visit Caroline in Athens once in a while.’  

Caroline married Babbis in May 2018. In an Instagram post in July last year, Babbis wrote: ‘Happy Birthday to my awesome wife, closest friend, and best mom our daughter could have.’

A post a month earlier announced the birth of their daughter. Babbis said it was the ‘best day in a man’s life’.   

Police say it appears the robbers were experienced, and likely surveilled the couple for some time before the raid.

Investigators are now reviewing local CCTV cameras to see how the burglars got away and whether they were in the area before the raid.

They are also interviewing the couple’s neighbours and friends to see if anyone gave away information about the pair keeping large amounts of cash in the house.