Sources: Missing mom’s blood-stained shirt found in trash
Items discovered during search after her disappearance
The items found in a garbage bin on Albany Avenue in Hartford as part of the investigation into the disappearance of New Canaan mother Jennifer Dulos included a Vineyard Vines T-shirt stained with her blood that police believe she was wearing the morning she disappeared.
Police also discovered a bra that they believe is hers as well as two mops and some sponges with small amounts of blood on them, according to law enforcement sources.
The items, found in a black contractor bag police recovered during their search along Albany Avenue several days after Dulos disappeared on May 24, are central to the investigation into what happened to Dulos — and what role her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, may have played in connection with her disappearance. Police have said there is video of Dulos throwing multiple bags into trash cans and dumpsters along Albany Avenue starting at about 7 p.m. on the day she disappeared.
Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Both are free after posting $500,000 bail. Dulos is scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on Aug. 9.
Authorities have yet to release an official accounting of what exactly was in the blood-coated bags or what they were looking for during a three-week search of a Hartford trash plant where some of the Albany Avenue garbage had been taken before police realized the bags had been dumped there. It is unclear if police have video or witness statements indicating what Farber Dulos was wearing the day she disappeared, but sources said family members have confirmed to police that Farber Dulos frequently wore a similar Vineyard Vines T-shirt.
Attorney Norm Pattis declined to comment on specific evidence police said they found during their investigation but he did confirm that prosecutors recently turned over discovery documents to him that include 26 CDs showing footage of the Albany Avenue trash dump. Pattis said the defense team has been unable to open some of the videos that reportedly show a man resembling Dulos dumping the trash. He has asked Stamford/ Norwalk State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo for new copies of several of the CDs.
“The State has alleged that Jennifer’s blood was in one or more bags. That is far more troubling than an item of clothing,” Pattis said.
Sources said police traced Dulos and Troconis to Albany Avenue through their phones which showed they were there around 7 p.m that night.
Thorough search
State police did a widespread search of the neighborhoods surrounding Albany Avenue a week after Farber Dulos disappeared — checking trash cans, people’s backyards and dumpsters. They were searching for any pieces of garbage that may have been taken away from the dumpsters along Albany Avenue.
The search then moved to the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority’s trash-to-energy plant in Hartford’s South Meadows. Since garbage pickup was delayed by one day because of Memorial Day, most of the trash from the Albany Avenue area had not been incinerated.
As many as 15-20 detectives a day worked at the plant, going through 30-35 tons of trash daily searching for evidence from trash dumped on Albany Avenue on the night of May 24. State police never said what they were looking for but part of what they were searching for is the rest of her clothes, sources said. They have not revealed if they found any possible evidence from that search.
Investigators knew the trash plant search would be time-consuming and possibly fruitless.
Sources said many of the garbage cans in that neighborhood had already been emptied before police arrived. Some of the trash was picked up by private contractors on a different day than the city’s trash day and not immediately taken to the trash plant or mixed with other trash.
The last stop police said Dulos made was at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Garden Street where authorities said he dropped a FedEx package into a storm drain. State police fished out the package a week later and found altered license plates in it belonging to a car Dulos used to own.
While Dulos was allegedly making his way down Albany Avenue, friends of Farber Dulos were calling New Canaan police to report her missing. Prosecutors have said investigators found evidence that an assault occurred in the garage of her New Canaan home but they have been unable to find her body.
Farber Dulos, 50, went missing after dropping her kids off at the New Canaan Country School between 8 and 8:30 a.m. on May 24.
Police said she missed two appointments in New York City that day and was eventually reported missing by friends around 7 p.m. Her black 2017 Chevy Suburban was found on a road near Waveny Park about 4 miles from her New Canaan home.
She and her estranged husband have been embroiled in a bitter two-year custody battle, a contentious case full of back-and-forth accusations of ignoring court orders, threatening each other in front of the children and allegations of threats to hurt the children or each other.
The couple’s five children have been staying at their grandmother Gloria Farber’s New York City apartment since May 24. This week, Farber filed a motion in family court seeking sole custody of the couple’s children.