ATHENS – After his fabricated story that his wife was killed in a home invasion by three men, a Greek helicopter pilot has confessed and is due to face charges of murder when he appears before a public prosecutor.

Babis Anagnostopoulos, 33, is also expected to face a criminal charge of animal abuse for the killing of the family’s dog and giving false testimony to the police and casting suspicion on others for his actions, the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency ANA-MPA said.

He's accused of killing 20-year-old Caroline Crouch, a British-Filipino, allegedly because she said she was going to leave him and take their 11-month old child, media reports said.

After giving a tearful eulogy to her at a service on the island of Alonnisos, he was taken from there by police whose investigation was said to have found that while he claimed to be tied up during the faked invasion his fitness watch showed he was moving around. There also no DNA found on the woman, who was a black belt in kickboxing and who police were said to have thought, would have fought back.

An autopsy found she was suffocated to death.  Anagnostopoulos was held as a flight risk and police said he admitted to the killing after confronted by police with evidence from his watch and his wife's smart phone.