In the early morning hours of May 11, 2021, the quiet Athens suburb of Glyka Nera became the center of a story that would horrify a nation. A successful helicopter pilot, 32-year-old Babis Anagnostopoulos, told police a harrowing tale of a violent home invasion. He claimed a ruthless foreign gang had broken in, held their 11-month-old daughter Lydia at gunpoint, and demanded cash and valuables. He said that even after he complied, they ended the life of his 20-year-old wife, Caroline Crouch, and the family’s beloved dog, Roxy, before tying him up and escaping into the night.

The story was brutal and shocking. Babis played the role of the devastated husband perfectly, and the public’s sympathy poured out for him and his infant daughter. The Greek government offered a €300,000 reward, and police launched a massive manhunt for the supposed perpetrators. For weeks, the investigation went nowhere. The home’s CCTV system had been disabled, and there was no forensic evidence to be found.

To the outside world, Babis and Caroline had a fairytale life. He was a successful pilot, and she was a beautiful British-Filipina student with a passion for kickboxing and animals. They had met when she was just 15 and he was 27, marrying in 2019 and welcoming their daughter, Lydia, who became the center of Caroline’s world. But as the investigation stalled, police began to look closer at the life the couple shared, and the perfect image began to crack.

The first clue came from Caroline’s own words, written in a secret diary. The pages revealed a deeply troubled marriage, far from the idyll presented to the public. She described the relationship as “tumultuous” and wrote of her desire to leave Babis and take Lydia with her.

“I don’t know if I can continue to be with him,” one entry read. A couple’s therapist later confirmed her account, telling police that Caroline was actively looking for an apartment for herself and her daughter and that Babis had become controlling.

While the diary painted a suspicious picture, it was Caroline’s smartwatch that provided the irrefutable evidence that would blow the case wide open. The device on her wrist had been silently recording her biometric data, and it told a story that was completely different from her husband’s.

Babis claimed the burglars had ended Caroline’s life shortly after 1:30 AM. However, her smartwatch showed that she was alive and her heart was beating normally for hours after that. The data revealed a chilling timeline: at 4:05 AM, her heart rate indicated she was asleep. Minutes later, her pulse spiked dramatically, showing a period of intense struggle. Five minutes after that, at 4:11 AM, her heart stopped. The watch had recorded the exact time of her passing.

Furthermore, Babis’s own phone, which he claimed he couldn’t use while tied up, showed that he had been walking around the house during the time he was supposedly incapacitated. The digital evidence was undeniable. His story was a lie.

Thirty-seven days after the incident, police approached Babis at Caroline’s memorial service. Under the guise of needing him to identify a new suspect, they escorted him to the police station. There, they confronted him with the data from the smartwatch and his phone. After hours of interrogation, he confessed.

There was no gang and no robbery. He admitted that he and Caroline had been fighting. When she threatened to leave with Lydia, he took matters into his own hands. He admitted to smothering her with a pillow in their bed. To cover up his act, he concocted the elaborate home invasion story. He staged the scene, ransacking the house and tragically taking the life of their dog to make the break-in seem more violent and believable. In a final, chilling act, he placed their baby daughter next to her mother’s lifeless body before calling for help.

In May 2022, Babis Anagnostopoulos was sentenced to life in prison. The pilot who had fooled a nation was brought to justice by the silent, digital witness his wife had been wearing on her wrist. Custody of their daughter, Lydia, was granted to Caroline’s parents, who are now raising her far from the memory of her father’s terrible betrayal.