“THAT Caroline he died after a long and painful attempt to breathe,” said forensic science professor Haido Spiliopulu, who was at the scene of the crime in May 2021, in a mixed jury appeal.

The medical examiner ruled out the possibility that 35-year-old Babis Anagnostopoulos’ claim that the 20-year-old British woman’s death was the result of a “tight hug” was true. It was Ms. Spiliopulu who examined the body of the 20-year-old girl and took from her hand the “smart” watch she was wearing and handed it over to the police.

The watch turned out to be one of the most important pieces of evidence in the full disclosure of the case, as it recorded the last five minutes of Caroline struggling to take even one breath under the pillow that the pilot pressed against her face.

“Death came about 6 minutes after 4 am,” Ms. Spiliopulu testified, pointing out that “after 3-4 minutes, the brain begins to collapse.” The medical examiner said that the victim was probably surprised in the dream and therefore did not have time to react, “whereas otherwise the victim would have had to struggle for a long time to react. She would scream, I don’t believe she screamed, the whole neighborhood would hear her, he thought.

As he commented, Caroline was disfigured on the bed, and the medical examiner first wondered if it was another person. “I immediately concluded that death was due to suffocation. She was so swollen that she was unrecognizable against the background of her passport. His eyes were bleeding heavily,” Ms Spiliopulu said.