As investigators knocked on the door of Jennifer Dulos’ New Canaan home in search of the missing mother of five early in the evening of May 24, a black pickup more than 70 miles away moved slowly down Albany Avenue in Hartford, its occupants dumping plastic bags in trash bins at city businesses and residences.
By the time New Canaan police discovered dark stains in the garage that turned out to be blood, the mystery man in Hartford shielding his face with a baseball cap traveled over four miles in the city’s North End, dropping trash bags in nearly 30 locations, including a storm drain before heading back to his Farmington home for the night.
But what the man in the baseball cap didn’t realize is that while residents may not have noticed him, the city-wide camera surveillance system in the Hartford Police Department Capital City Command Center or C4 had captured his every move, according to court documents released Monday that ended days of speculation that Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were somehow tied to the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.
Detectives realized the connection between the New Canaan case and the Hartford dump job when they obtained Fotis Dulos’ cellphone records that showed his phone was located on Albany Avenue at the same time the mystery man was dumping the garbage bags, court records said. Detectives rushed to Albany Avenue on the morning of May 31, a week after Farber Dulos was last seen dropping her kids off at school, and recovered several of the garbage bags that had been dumped.
The blood found on some of the sponges and clothes inside the bags matched the blood of Jennifer Dulos, who was involved in a two-year contentious divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband, according to court records.
Within 24 hours, police had charged both Fotis Dulos, 50, and Troconis, 44, with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. As the two were arraigned Monday in Norwalk Superior Court, the search for Jennifer Farber Dulos’ body continued with no end in sight. FBI agents spent the day searching in Waveny Park hoping to find Farber Dulos’ cellphone, sources said.
Meanwhile Troconis posted a $500,000 bail and walked out of court with her parents, her passport surrendered and wearing a GPS monitored ankle bracelet. Fotis Dulos went back to the Bridgeport Correctional Center, unable to make his $500,000 bond, according to his attorney.
“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 six-page arrest warrant affidavits said.
Attorneys for both Fotis Dulos and Troconis asked for a reduced bail arguing the filed charges didn’t warrant such a high bond but the judge kept them at $500,000 each after a prosecutor said more charges are expected in the case. Both faces charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Arrest warrant affidavits for Dulos and Troconis say New Canaan police went to Farber Dulos’ home at about 7 p.m. on May 24, several hours after she was reported missing, and found stains on the garage floor and on a vehicle in the garage. The next day, state police found blood stains and spatters inside the home and evidence of attempts to clean up the scene, the affidavits say.
Police later obtained footage from Hartford surveillance cameras, recorded on May 24, that showed a black Ford Raptor pickup stopping at more than 30 locations along a four-mile stretch of Albany Avenue between Baltimore and Edward streets. Items later recovered from trash receptacles in the area were stained with Farber Dulos’ blood, the arrest warrant affidavits say.
Video stills of the pickup matched characteristics of Fotis Dulos’ Ford Raptor, including a sticker on the rear window and a light-colored mark on the lower portion of the front bumper, police said. Also, the license plate on the truck appears to match the one on Dulos’ vehicle, court records say.
The video also showed a white male “matching the physical appearance of Dulos” emerging from the pickup and placing multiple garbage bags into receptacles, the affidavit says. One clip also showed a white female with a thin build leaning out the passenger side of the truck and either placing something on the ground or picking up an item, court records say. The female’s appearance was consistent with Troconis, police said.
Police hope surveillance video will continue to help them with the case. New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski Monday sent out emails and pre-recorded phone messages asking residents and business owners to save any surveillance video that captured street traffic between Wednesday, May 22 and Saturday, May 25. Those community members are asked to email a staff member, Kelly.coughlin@newcanaanct.gov , but not to send any video content.
“This investigation has established a timeline of when Jennifer went missing, and as part of this timeline, we seek video surveillance from homes or businesses that have cameras, which capture vehicular activity on roadways,” the chief’s email said.
Despite the video evidence police already have, Dulos and Troconis both declined to cooperate with the investigation, court records say. In court, the case against Dulos was continued to June 11. His attorney, Eugene Riccio, said he did not believe Dulos would be able to post bond Monday.
Citing the serious nature of the case, Superior Court Judge Stephanie McLaughlin refused to lower Troconis’ bond.
“She has no prior record,” her attorney, Andrew Bowman, said, arguing that his client’s bail should be reduced to $150,000. “She has a young child here in Connecticut. She represents no danger to the community. “
Shackled at the wrists and ankles, her shoelaces removed, Troconis did not speak during her appearance. Her parents, who were sitting on a bench outside the courtroom waiting to post her bail, refused to comment. While awaiting her next court appearance, Troconis will have to wear a GPS monitor on her ankle.
The case has attracted widespread media attention. A least three news helicopters from New York City circled over Waveny Park in New Canaan Monday afternoon, where FBI teams were searching for evidence. At a southbound rest area on the Merritt Parkway, motorists watched the commotion quizzically.
New Canaan police are investigating Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance as both a missing persons case and a criminal investigation and said in a release Sunday that “as the criminal investigation continues, additional criminal charges are expected.”
Jennifer Farber Dulos disappeared after dropping her children off at the New Canaan Country Day School. She and Fotis Dulos have been fighting for custody of their children, a case full of back-and-forth accusations.
Farber Dulos told a judge she feared her husband would either kidnap their five children and flee to Greece with his Argentinian paramour — or kill her.
Word of her husband’s arrest came as the focus of the nine-day investigation shifted to Hartford. In one video clip recorded on May 24, a man is seen inserting something into a storm drain grate at Albany Avenue and Garden Street, the warrants released Monday say.
With help from a Metropolitan District crew, police retrieved a FedEx mailer box that contained two Connecticut license plates. The plates had been altered with tape and adhesive to read “5T6WBU,” police said. The actual cancelled plate was 516WDJ, which had been on a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban belonging to Fotis Dulos, police said.
Police say cellphone records show that a phone belonging to Troconis “traveled along with (Dulos’ cellphone) throughout the Hartford area” on May 24 after 7 p.m.
At about 8:10 p.m., a residential surveillance camera next to his property on Jefferson Crossing in Farmington showed Dulos pulling his black Ford Raptor into the driveway, police said. He was wearing a light-colored T-shirt, the same type of shirt as the man seen dumping garbage bags in the Hartford video footage, police said.
Early Sunday, the investigation turned to a property on Mountain Spring Road developed by Fotis Dulos’ Fore Group Inc. real estate company. Investigators, who sources said had obtained search warrants, showed up in force at the property, which is listed for sale at $2.99 million.
At about 8:45 a.m., more than a dozen state police vehicles, including three canine units, converged in front of 80 Mountain Spring Road. A state police canine unit searched a wooded area in front of the house, then moved toward the house and driveway before going around the back of the house, where the state police forensics vehicle was parked.
Two police cruisers also remained through the course of the morning at Dulos’ Jefferson Crossing home, just five minutes up the road from 80 Mountain Spring Road. It is unclear if anything was seized during Sunday’s searches.
By the time investigators swarmed the property, Fotis Dulos was already in custody. He and Troconis had been taken to Troop L in Litchfield on Friday after police showed up at his Farmington home, where the family lived until Jennifer Farber Dulos moved to New Canaan with her children and filed for divorce in June 2017, sources said.
Detectives had a search warrant seeking DNA and hair samples. Fotis Dulos left the house with Troconis and drove in his own black SUV with a convoy of state police detectives to Litchfield to give DNA and hair samples. Once they were taken, Dulos was allowed to leave and wasn’t detained or questioned at the barracks, sources said. He and Troconis were arrested on Saturday at about 11 p.m. at a hotel in Avon, New Canaan police said.
Fotis Dulos’s Bridgeport attorney, Eugene Riccio, declined to comment on the arrest. Carrie Luft, spokeswoman for the Farber family, also declined to comment Sunday and asked that others respect the privacy of Jennifer Dulos’s family and friends.
A narrow timeline
Detectives have tightened the timeline for when they believe Jennifer Farber Dulos disappeared to roughly four hours on May 24, sources said. She dropped the children off around 8 a.m. at the school, and a cleaning lady entered the Welles Avenue home in New Canaan around noon that day and found no one home.
Farber Dulos missed 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. appointments that day, sources said. She was reported missing by two friends at 7 p.m. Sources said neither her cellphone nor her credit cards have been used since she disappeared.
The search for Farber Dulos initially centered in New Canaan in the area around her house and in nearby Waveny Park, where her black Chevrolet Suburban SUV was found after she was reported missing. State police have impounded that car. FBI evidence collection teams were in the park Monday.
As the search intensified over the last week, divorce proceedings continued. Michael Rose, the divorce attorney who is representing Fotis Dulos, filed a motion seeking a custody hearing because he said the children are under armed guard in the New York City apartment owned by Jennifer’s mother, and their father has no access to them.
Sources said that Fotis Dulos went to New York City May 26, two days after his wife was reported missing, and tried to see his children, but was rebuffed by security. Late Friday, Rose filed a motion seeking to cancel the deposition of Jennifer Farber Dulos as well as depositions scheduled for a doctor who has been meeting with the children, and the couple’s babysitter. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday in Stamford Superior Court.
The divorce proceedings have been taking place against the backdrop of another legal battle between Fotis Dulos and the estate of his estranged wife’s father, Hilliard Farber, who contends that Fotis Dulos owes his in-laws more than $2.5 million, according to court records. Hilliard Farber was a former senior vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank who went on to serve as a fellow at the Brookings Institute and form his own brokerage firm, Hilliard Farber & Co.
Farber would front his son-in-law money to buy properties and then Dulos would build high-end homes through his company, Fore Group Inc. He then would sell the houses and repay the debt, according to court records. The lawsuit alleges that Dulos stopped making those payments.
“Mr. Farber was extremely generous to his son-in-law over the years,” said West Hartford attorney Richard Weinstein, who represents Farber’s estate.
The five Dulos children were set to spend Memorial Day Weekend with their father, according to a relaxed visitation schedule a judge issued in March.
In a March 20 ruling, Judge Donna Heller changed what had been extremely limited access to the children for Fotis Dulos, allowing him every-other-weekend visits to the home in Farmington where they grew up. The judge changed the schedule even though she previously had called Fotis Dulos “a liar who willingly ignored court orders” by allowing his girlfriend access to his five children, despite a court order explicitly ordering him not to do that.
After several contentious months of hearings, and with reports from therapists and a guardian ad litem, Heller ruled Fotis Dulos could have supervised visitation rights with his children that included having the kids every other weekend, starting at the end of March. He was allowed to spend seven hours with the children in Fairfield County on Saturdays and six hours with them in Hartford County on Sundays, including at his Farmington home.
“The court finds it is in the children’s best interests that they have regular supervised parenting time with the defendant every other weekend,” Heller said.
The judge even accommodated the Easter holiday weekend, switching weekends so that the children would spend it with their father and his family. Dulos is a Greek citizen. The judge did place numerous restrictions on the visits from no discussion of the pending court case to no one-on-one conversations with any of the children unless a court-authorized supervisor was present. He also was barred from talking to his children in Greek to try and circumvent the supervisor’s presence.
Courant staff writers Neil Vigdor and Christine Dempsey contributed to this story
