Community Corner
Shocking Details Revealed In Case Of Missing New Canaan Mom
The arrest warrants of Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis paint a damning picture in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, a missing mom of 5.
NORWALK, CT — While the search for missing New Canaan mom Jennifer Dulos continues, her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, remained in custody Monday following his arraignment in Norwalk Superior Court on charges related to her disappearance.
Judge Stephanie McLaughlin decided to keep Fotis Dulos' bail at $500,000 in connection with his arrest over the weekend on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and first-degree hindering prosecution. His attorney, Eugene Riccio, was unsuccessful in having his 51-year-old client's bail substantially reduced.
Dulos' arrest warrant, which was released Monday, appears to show why the judge ruled as she did on bail, as authorities painted a potentially damning portrait of him and his 44-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, who also was arrested on the same charges over the weekend.
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Upon their first check of Jennifer Dulos' Welles Lane home in New Canaan on May 24, a police officer "located several stains on the garage floor and on a vehicle parked in the garage, which had the appearance of bloodstains," the warrant states.
Those multiple stains, and additional areas of splatter, tested positive for human blood, and there appeared to be "evidence of attempts to clean the crime scene."
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"Based upon the crime scene processing, investigators came to the consensus that a serious physical assault had occurred at the scene, and Jennifer Dulos was the suspected victim," the warrant states.
Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five, has been missing since May 24.
From the moment Dulos was contacted by New Canaan police, he has not cooperated with authorities in the search for his estranged wife, according to police.
Surveillance video obtained by police in the Hartford area showed one of Dulos' vehicles, a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck, drive through the city making several stops, and a man fitting Dulos' description tossing away bags of garbage and other items, some of which "appeared to be stained with a substance consistent with the appearance of blood."
In addition to surveillance video, authorities also conducted a "forensic download" of Dulos' iPhone X and obtained calling details from Troconis' cell phone. Information from those devices placed the two traveling repeatedly between properties Fotis Dulos' construction company owns in Farmington.
Authorities later recovered many of the discarded items, in addition to a pair of doctored license plates that Dulos was believed to have thrown away in a storm drain grate on the corner of Albany Avenue and Garden Street in Hartford. The canceled plates had belonged to a vehicle once owned by Dulos.
The recovered bloodstained items tested positive for his wife's blood, the warrant states.
At Monday's arraignment, Fotis Dulos bowed his head as he was taken out of a law enforcement transport vehicle entered the court sally port. He was dressed in an ill-fitting orange prison jumpsuit, his wrists and ankles in shackles. In court he never spoke, except occasional whispers to Riccio during the proceedings.
Troconis appeared before Judge McLaughlin on Monday, too. She was dressed in street clothes consisting of a close-fitting, blue, long-sleeved T-shirt with white stripes and black pants. She also did not speak in court but appeared to mouth a kiss to family members as she was led out of court.
While the judge also did not reduce Troconis' $500,000 bail, her attorney, Andrew Bowman of Westport, said his client would be able to post the cash bond.
Bowman had sought a reduction in bail to $150,000, which the judge denied. Outside of court, he confirmed that Troconis would make bond, but he declined to comment on the case.
As a condition of her release on bond, Troconis had to surrender her passport and agree to wear a GPS monitoring device.
Fotis Dulos was transported back to the Bridgeport Correctional Center following the hearing. Both his and Troconis' cases were transferred to Stamford Superior Court, and both are due back before a judge on June 11.
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