The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Family marks missing mom’s 51st birthday
NEW CANAAN — The friends and family of Jennifer Dulos are encouraging acts of kindness as a way of marking her birthday.
Jennifer Dulos, who turneed 51 on Friday, disappeared after dropping off her five children at school in New Canaan the morning of May 24.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were arrested on tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges about a week after she disappeared.
“We miss her more than words can say,” Carrie Luft, a close friend and family spokeswoman, wrote in a statement on Friday.
The family is encouraging others to show “gestures of kindness” in honor of her birthday, Luft said.
“Send a loving note to a friend, assist a person in need, tell a child they’re special,” Luft said. “Jennifer has now been missing for more than four months. The heartbreak goes on even as time moves forward.”
Luft also said the family and friends of Jennifer Dulos are “deeply indebted” to New Canaan and Connecticut State Police for their “tireless and dedicated” efforts in the case.
New Canaan police said in arrest warrants that two people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis were caught on video in Hartford the night of the disappearance. Fotis Dulos was also seen dumping bags that were later found to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants.
Police said Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a “serious physical assault” based on blood evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home.
New arrest warrants released this month provided a detailed timeline tracing Fotis Dulos’ movements the morning of the disappearance.
According to the warrants, police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” when Jennifer Dulos arrived home from dropping off their children at school around 8:05 a.m. on May 24.
Police said Fotis Dulos used a former employee’s pickup truck to drive to and from New Canaan that day. Police said he then urged the employee to swap out the seats of the truck and had the vehicle washed and detailed several days after the disappearance.
The employee eventually removed the seats, but turned them over to investigators who found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them, the arrest warrants state.
Fotis Dulos is free after posting two $500,000 bonds, but he has been banned from contacting his children, who have been in the care of Farber since the disappearance. Farber, 84, has been granted the right to intervene in the Dulos divorce and is seeking permanent custody of the children.
The family asks anyone with information about the disappearance to email FindJenniferDulos@newcanaanct.gov or call the New Canaan Police Tip Line at 2035943544.