Conn. man accused of killing wife dies
HARTFORD, Conn. — Fotis Dulos died Thursday, two days after he was rushed to a New York City hospital in the wake of a suicide attempt, perhaps taking with him forever the mystery of what happened to his estranged wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos.
Dulos — who was facing murder charges in the death of his wife — was pronounced dead at 5:32 p.m. EST, his lawyer, Norm Pattis, said outside Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
“It’s been a truly horrific day for the family filled with difficult decisions, medical tests and meeting the requirements to determine death,” Pattis said.
“As to those who contend that Mr. Dulos’ death reflects a consciousness of guilt, we say no. We say it was more a conscience overborne with the weight of a world that was too busy to listen and wanted a story more than it wanted the truth,” he said.
Pattis is taking the highly unusual step of asking the court to proceed with the criminal charges against Dulos despite his death so his name can be cleared. In a motion filed late Thursday, Pattis asked the court to substitute Dulos’ estate as the defendant in the case and proceed to trial.
“Mr. Dulos’ children should not be subjected to a lifetime coping with the fictional reality that their father murdered their mother in cold blood on the basis of baseless and rampant speculation,” Pattis said in the motion.” It went on: “Mr. Dulos right to confront these charges and to assert his innocence does not die with him.”
Dulos’ family from Greece arrived at Jacobi early Thursday morning to meet with doctors who have kept Dulos, 52, medically alive for the past few days until they could get to New York.
Faced with the possibility of going back to prison because of issues with his bail, Dulos took his own life. Sources said Dulos was in a vehicle inside the garage of his Jefferson Crossing home for at least an hour inhaling noxious carbon monoxide on Tuesday morning. He clamped a vacuum hose to the tailpipe of his Chevrolet Suburban and ran it into the vehicle.
Dulos was initially believed to be dead at his Farmington, Conn., home Tuesday but after nearly a half hour of CPR, a faint pulse was found and he was eventually taken by helicopter to Jacobi to use +their hyperbaric chamber.
Farmington police found Dulos after receiving a call to do a wellness check on him after he failed to turn up in Stamford Superior Court for a hearing to likely revoke the $6 million bond placed on him after he was arrested earlier this month for the murder of Farber Dulos, who has been missing since she dropped their children off at a private school in New Canaan on May 24.