This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/nyregion/fotis-dulos-jennifer-dulos.html

The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 7 Version 8
Jennifer Dulos’s Husband Is Charged With Her Murder Jennifer Dulos’s Husband Is Charged With Her Murder
(about 4 hours later)
The estranged husband of Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five who went missing from her home in an affluent area of Connecticut last year, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with her murder. Almost from the moment Jennifer Dulos went missing from her home in an affluent Connecticut suburb on May 24, detectives have kept their focus on the estranged husband with whom she was locked in a bitter divorce battle.
The husband, Fotis Dulos, 52, was charged with two counts of murder and kidnapping, the Connecticut State Police said in a statement. As the police investigated, determining that Ms. Dulos had been the victim of a serious physical attack, the evidence against the husband, Fotis Dulos, appeared to mount. They traced his suspicious movement via cellphone records, found his blood in her home and uncovered footage of him dumping bloody evidence in trash cans.
Mr. Dulos’s girlfriend, Michelle C. Troconis, 44, and his friend and former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, were also arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, the state police said. Still, even as Mr. Dulos was arrested and charged twice in the case, the police never accused him of attacking Ms. Dulos.
Ms. Dulos’s disappearance in May led to a statewide search that had law enforcement agencies looking for her across much of Connecticut last year. Then, on Tuesday, seven months after their investigation began, the police descended onto Mr. Dulos’s house, took him away in handcuffs and charged him with murdering his wife.
The police flew helicopters and drones over a sprawling suburban park, solicited private surveillance footage and spent weeks rooting through a trash facility looking for evidence. Her remains were never found. Officials have not yet found Ms. Dulos’s body. In their arrest warrant for Mr. Dulos, they said that “to date, the whereabouts of Jennifer Dulos is unknown.” They did not provide details of how she was killed or whether a weapon was used.
All the while, people across the country were drawn in by the disappearance of Ms. Dulos, who had been in the middle of a volatile custody battle with her estranged husband when she was reported missing. Yet with the charges, officials finally provided their answer to a question that sent law enforcement drones, cadaver dogs and helicopters across Connecticut and captured widespread attention: What happened to Ms. Dulos, a mother of five, in the hours after she dropped her children off to school?
The case received national media attention and spurred a host of armchair sleuths to search online for clues and post frequently about them on social media. The state police charged Mr. Dulos, 52, with murder, felony murder and kidnapping. In the warrant, they said they believed that he had attacked Ms. Dulos at her home in New Canaan, Conn., and had restrained her with zip-ties while she was still alive.
“Although we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, for us there is no sense of closure,” said Carrie Luft, a longtime friend of Ms. Dulos’s who has been speaking on behalf of her family, in a statement. The police seemed to suggest that Mr. Dulos was motivated by financial need. They said in the warrant that he faced nearly $7 million in debt at the time Ms. Dulos was murdered, but that his children had trust funds of more than $2 million each.
“Nothing can bring Jennifer back,” Ms. Luft said. “We miss her every day and will forever mourn her loss.” Mr. Dulos would only have had access to that money if Ms. Dulos disappeared and he gained custody, the warrant said.
For months, investigators had been focused on Mr. Dulos. He and Ms. Troconis were charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in June. Another evidence tampering charge was later added, in September. “Dulos can reasonably be expected to have been aware of these facts,” the warrant said.
The two have pleaded not guilty to the previous charges against them and have been free on bond. Mr. Dulos’s lawyer, Norm Patis, said that Mr. Dulos “categorically” denied being involved with Ms. Dulos’s disappearance. He also criticized the charges, saying they outlined disparate theories for Ms. Dulos’s death.
Ms. Dulos, 50, was last seen on May 24. That morning, law enforcement officials said, she drove her children to a private school in New Canaan, Conn., a wealthy community located about 45 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. “It’s shocking that the state’s not sure what theory they’re pursuing,” he said.
The authorities began investigating Ms. Dulos’s disappearance after she failed to make several appointments in New York City that day, and her friends grew concerned. Officials also charged Mr. Dulos’s girlfriend, Michelle C. Troconis, 44, and a friend and onetime lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, with conspiracy to commit murder.
Investigators went to her $3.5 million home that night and found blood stains and spatters that led them to conclude that she had been the victim of a serious physical assault. They also discovered Ms. Dulos’s blood mixed with Mr. Dulos’s DNA on a faucet, as well as evidence of an attempt to clean up the scene. “Although we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, for us there is no sense of closure,” Carrie Luft, who has been speaking on behalf of Ms. Dulos’s family, said in a statement.
As they widened their search, investigators also found Ms. Dulos’s car abandoned about three miles away near Waveny Park, a vast expanse that was initially the focus of the search for Ms. Dulos. “Nothing can bring Jennifer back,” Ms. Luft, a longtime friend of Ms. Dulos’s, said. “We miss her every day and will forever mourn her loss.”
Mr. Dulos was arrested and taken into police custody at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Mr. Pattis. Throughout their investigation, detectives had kept a focus on Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis. Both of them were charged in June with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Another evidence tampering charge was added in September.
Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis were sent to separate Connecticut jails ahead of their arraignment hearings. Mr. Dulos was being held on a $6 million bond, and Ms. Troconis was being held on a $2 million bond, officials said. The two have pleaded not guilty to the previous charges against them and were free on bond before their arrest on Tuesday.
Officials said in an earlier arrest warrant that they believed that Mr. Dulos had been “lying in wait” for Ms. Dulos in New Canaan, and that he carried Ms. Dulos’s body from her home in her own car. Ms. Dulos, 50, was last seen on May 24. That morning, law enforcement officials said, she drove her children to a private school in New Canaan, a wealthy community located about 45 miles north of Midtown Manhattan.
The police first spoke with Mr. Dulos the day after his estranged wife was reported missing. The two had been locked for years in a bitter divorce battle that involved hundreds of court filings in which the two exchanged accusations as they argued about visitation rights and custody of their children. Ms. Dulos returned home around 8 a.m. Then, for hours, she did not respond to text messages or phone calls and failed to show up at several appointments in New York City, according to an arrest warrant for Mr. Dulos.
The couple had been married for 13 years when Ms. Dulos initiated divorce proceedings in June 2017. At the time, she immediately asked for an emergency order that would give her sole custody of the couple’s three sons and two daughters. At around 4:40 p.m., Ms. Dulos’s nanny, Lauren Almeida, learned that Ms. Dulos had missed her children’s orthodontist appointment, the warrant said.
In an affidavit, Ms. Dulos said that she was worried that Mr. Dulos would kidnap the children and take them to Greece, where he was raised. She also said she feared that Mr. Dulos, who had recently purchased a gun, might hurt her or their children. “My first thought was that Fotis did something,” Ms. Almeida told the police, according to the warrant.
Mr. Dulos denied the allegations. In the time that followed, the two of them traded accusations, with court proceedings in the custody case turning into a ceaseless litany of complaints, both deeply serious and seemingly mundane. Investigators went to Ms. Dulos’s $3.5 million home that evening. They found blood stains and spatters that led them to conclude she had been attacked. They also discovered Ms. Dulos’s blood mixed with Mr. Dulos’s DNA on a faucet, as well as evidence of an attempt to clean up the scene.
In an arrest warrant from September, the police said they believed that Mr. Dulos had borrowed a red Toyota truck from a work colleague on the day that Ms. Dulos was reported missing. The car was later found to contain traces of her blood. As they widened their search, investigators also found Ms. Dulos’s car abandoned about three miles from the house near Waveny Park, a vast expanse that was initially the focus of the search for Ms. Dulos.
Through surveillance footage, the police traced the truck traveling to New Canaan, where it was parked just 100 feet from the spot where Ms. Dulos’s car would later be discovered, the warrant said. Cellphone records and surveillance footage would show that on the same evening, Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis drove to Hartford, where they dumped trash bags filled with evidence, according to arrest warrants.
Cellphone records would show that later that evening, as the authorities were investigating Ms. Dulos’s home, Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis had driven to Hartford, according to arrest warrants. Officials have said that the pair dumped trash bags filled with evidence there, including clothing and a kitchen sponge stained with Ms. Dulos’s blood. Among the items were clothing, a kitchen sponge, a clear poncho and four zip-ties that all contained Ms. Dulos’s blood or traces of her DNA.
In August, Ms. Troconis admitted to the police that she placed a stained rag into a black garbage bag similar to the ones found in Hartford, according to an arrest warrant. She also told the police that she believed Mr. Dulos cleaned up the borrowed truck believed to have been used in Ms. Dulos’s disappearance. The police presented a summary of their evidence to Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, Dr. James R. Gill. He determined that Ms. Dulos had sustained an injury or injuries that would have been “‘non-survivable’ without medical intervention,” according to the warrant.
During a number of police interviews, Ms. Troconis said she could not account for Mr. Dulos’s whereabouts on the morning of Ms. Dulos’s disappearance, according to the warrant. Detectives first spoke with Mr. Dulos the day after his estranged wife was reported missing. The couple had been locked for years in a bitter divorce battle that involved hundreds of court filings in which the two exchanged accusations as they argued about visitation rights and custody of their children.
She also admitted that she and Mr. Dulos provided false alibis on handwritten documents in their Farmington home, the warrant said. The couple had been married for 13 years when Ms. Dulos initiated divorce proceedings in June 2017. At the time, she immediately asked for an emergency order that would give her sole custody of the children, saying she worried that Mr. Dulos might hurt her or the children, or that he might kidnap the children and take them to Greece, where he was raised.
The pages, which detectives referred to as “alibi scripts,” outlined their supposed activities and phone calls on the day that Ms. Dulos disappeared. The prolonged legal battle brought mounting fees. Adding to the sum, Mr. Dulos was also involved in a lawsuit with the estate of Ms. Dulos’s deceased father, Hilliard Farber, that accused him of failing to pay back more than $1.5 million in business loans.
The notes included events that Ms. Troconis later admitted had never happened and alibi witnesses who were “determined to be false,” the warrant said. In the arrest warrant for Mr. Dulos, detectives used cellphone records and surveillance footage to track Mr. Dulos from his home in Farmington, Conn., to Ms. Dulos’s home, about 75 miles away.
When Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis were first arrested, the charges were viewed as a major break in the investigation. But the months that followed brought no news of Ms. Dulos’s whereabouts and no indication of whether she was dead or alive. In the warrant, the police said they believed that Mr. Dulos had borrowed a red Toyota truck from a work colleague on the day that Ms. Dulos was reported missing. They believed that he drove to New Canaan with a bicycle in the back seat and parked about 100 feet from the spot where Ms. Dulos’s car would later be discovered.
All the while, detectives searched for evidence. They searched properties owned by Mr. Dulos’s luxury real estate development company, as well as a pond where Ms. Dulos said in court filings that Mr. Dulos had taken their children water skiing. Surveillance footage in New Canaan showed a man in a hoodie and dark clothes riding a bicycle, similar to one owned by Mr. Dulos, heading in the direction of Ms. Dulos’s home, according to the warrant.
The state police and a number of cadaver dogs spent close to a month searching a Hartford garbage facility for clues with no apparent breakthrough. The police believe that Mr. Dulos attacked his estranged wife, then attempted to clean the crime scene between 8:05 a.m. and 10:25 a.m., according to the warrant. Then he drove the borrowed truck back to Farmington, the warrant said.
Mr. Dulos has been free on two separate $500,000 bonds and has repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. The employee who owned the truck, Pawel Gumienny, told detectives that Mr. Dulos later took it to be washed and detailed, which both surveillance footage and Ms. Troconis later confirmed.
Since Ms. Dulos was reported missing, her five children have been in the care of Ms. Dulos’s mother, Gloria Farber, who has filed for custody of the children. Mr. Gumienny also said that Mr. Dulos told him that the seats in the Toyota needed to be replaced and eventually offered replacement seats from a different car, the warrant said.
Ms. Farber and Mr. Dulos have been locked in a custody battle for months as the investigation into Ms. Dulos’s disappearance continued. He switched the seats but kept the original ones in case they were needed by investigators, according to the warrant. The police later found Ms. Dulos’s blood on one of them.
The swapped seats were one of many incidents described in the warrant in which the police suggested that Mr. Dulos appeared to be trying to cover his tracks.
During interviews with investigators, Ms. Troconis admitted that she and Mr. Dulos scrawled out false alibis for the days around Ms. Dulos’s death on handwritten documents in their Farmington home, the warrant said.
She told them that the pages, referred to as “alibi scripts,” contained events that never happened and that she could not account for Mr. Dulos’s whereabouts the morning of the alleged murder, the warrant said.
Mr. Mawhinney was named on at least one of the alibi scripts, the warrant said, and Ms. Troconis said that he was present in Mr. Dulos’s home the morning that Ms. Dulos disappeared.
Mr. Dulos, Ms. Troconis and Mr. Mawhinney were expected to appear in court on Wednesday. Mr. Dulos was being held on a $6 million bond, while Ms. Troconis and Mr. Mawhinney were being held on $2 million bonds, officials said.
Since Ms. Dulos was reported missing, her five children have been in the care of Ms. Dulos’s mother, Gloria Farber, who has filed for custody.