Suspect’s gal pal aids police in hunt for missing mom
The girlfriend appears to be cracking in the case of missing Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos.
Michelle Troconis returned Friday to the Farmington house she shared with Jennifer’s estranged husband Fotis Dulos and walked through the property with her lawyer and state police detectives, the Hartford Courant reported.
As part of the top-secret tour, investigators also spent time in the vast wooded area behind the residence, the newspaper said.
The mansion meeting came after Troconis, 44, visited her lawyer’s office Thursday and sat down with state police who arrived armed with audio-visual recording equipment, according to CBS New York. Troconis declined to comment as she left the office with her mom Marisela Arreaza, the station reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the girlfriend provided any valuable information that could lead to Jennifer’s whereabouts.
Troconis and Fotis, 51, have been charged with evidence tampering and hindering an investigation.
Police claim surveillance video and phone records show Troconis was riding around with Fotis the night Jennifer went missing, ditching evidence along a 4-mile stretch in Hartford.
Investigators later recovered clothing and sponges stained with Jennifer’s blood allegedly dumped by the duo.
Friday marked two weeks since Dulos (photo) vanished after dropping her five kids off at school May 24 amid a contentious divorce and custody battle with Fotis.
The children, who have been staying with Jennifer’s mom under armed guard in Manhattan, returned to classes for the first time Friday.
According to the Stamford Advocate, investigators have focused some of their search on a New Canaan property controlled by Fotis’ home building company where a neighbor allegedly heard a commotion early on May 25.
The loud sounds, described as banging metal, were enough to cause barking by nearby dogs, the neighbor reportedly said.
The house on Sturbridge Hill Road is about 3 miles from the rental home where Jennifer lived and where police allegedly found blood stains in the garage from a suspected assault.
A jet-setting businesswoman with ties to Florida and South America, Troconis is out on bond with a GPS monitoring device while Fotis remained locked up Friday in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Arreaza reportedly paid for her release after going through her own criminal case a few years ago.
Court records show Arreaza was previously indicted in Florida for allegedly paying “kickbacks and bribes” to get Medicaid beneficiaries as patients at her psychiatry practice.
Federal prosecutors said Arreaza personally singed an alleged kickback check for $9,000 made out to a coconspirator in 2013. A judge dismissed the charges after a pretrial diversion agreement was reached with prosecutors, online records show.
“Marisela Arreaza did not plead guilty to the federal fraud charges in Miami. Rather, she entered a pretrial diversion program without any admission of guilt by her, and the federal charges were dismissed,” her lawyer Howard Srebnick said in a statement to the Daily News.