Delores May Strilowich
Delores “Dee” May Strilowich,
80, of Ridgefield, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, September 16, 2020. She was the loving wife of the late Joseph A. Strilowich Jr.
Dee was born in Grants Pass, OR on July 29, 1940. She grew up in Lusk, WY where she went to Niobrara County High School. She attended business school in Rapid City, SD where she met Joe, her soul mate. They married in 1960, moved to Mamaroneck and then Pleasantville, NY and then settled in Ridgefield, CT in 1970 where they raised 3 children.
A resident of Ridgefield for the past 50 years, she was a Cub Scout and Girl Scout leader. In 1994, Dee was a Welcome Wagon representative, quickly earning the award of “Top Representative of the Year” in 1996. Dee & Joe then started their own business - Personal Touch Welcome, welcoming more than
10,000 families into their homes for 25 years. She was deeply involved in the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce where she received the Ridgefield Chamber Choice Award (participating in many new business ribbon cutting ceremonies), active in local networking groups, and was a member of the Ridgefield OWLs and Founders Hall. Over the years, Dee quickly became more than just the “Welcome Lady”; she was a mentor and a friend to everyone she met.
She retired in November 2019 and was excited to start the next chapter of her life. Dee was an avid reader, enjoyed making annual trips back to her hometown in Wyoming, and mostly loved spending time with her family and friends.
Dee is survived by her 3 children: Richard Strilowich and his wife, Lola; Kathleen Greto and her partner, Stephen Evans, Debra D’Amato and her husband, Lou and her half-sister, Connie Miller. Dee treasured her 3 grandchildren: Lindsay Edman Gaudioso and her husband, Corey, and Christopher & Emily Strilowich.
Dee was predeceased by her husband, Joseph A Strilowich Jr., adoptive parents Thelma and Harry Carlisle, natural parents Clifford & Elmira Blackmore, as well as her brother, Kenny Blackmore.
Graveside funeral services will take place at 10:00 AM on Friday, September 25, 2020 at St. Mary’s Cemetery; 110 North Street, Ridgefield; facial coverings and social distancing are required. There will be no calling hours.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, Ridgefield Founders Hall, or the Ridgefield Library.
Kane Funeral Home, Ridgefield is in care of funeral arrangements.
stated.
After speaking with investigators, Gumienny turned over the seats and tests revealed one of them contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood, according to the warrant.
Gumienny expects to be called by the state to testify if Michelle Troconis and Kent Mawhinney take their cases to trial, Urso said.
Troconis, the former girlfriend of Fotis Dulos, is on house arrest while charged with conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution.
Mawhinney, a former attorney for Fotis Dulos, remains jailed on $2 million bond while charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
They have each pleaded not guilty to the charges, but the criminal proceedings have been slowed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Mawhinney has not appeared in court since February and his next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 24. Troconis has only had one court appearance in recent months and is scheduled for a hearing on Oct. 1.
The investigators declined to discuss specific information because of the pending cases, but said they are continuing to pursue leads.
“This is definitely an active investigation,” Kimball said. “Every day, there is new information. We just got information in this morning. Some of the new information is more valuable than some other new information. There is definitely work that remains to be done in this case. We are very positive and very hopeful that we will be able to locate Jennifer and bring some closure to her family.”
Last weekend, when police discovered a woman’s remains in Watertown, Patten and Kimball immediately became interested. But it wasn’t Jennifer Dulos — a familiar letdown that occurs every time a body is found.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Patten said. “Our goal from the outset has been to find Jennifer. Any news that comes forward is always viewed hopefully. But there has been many ups and downs. There have been a lot of hopeful times and there has been a lot of disappointment.”
Kimball believes the amount of plotting that occurred leading up to the crime has affected their ability to find Jennifer Dulos.
“There has been several indications in this investigation that there was a lot of pre-planning,” Kimball said. “I would not be surprised if this was a case where we would not have a hiker happen upon something. I think it’s more likely that Jennifer is going to be located as a result of overt investigative efforts. … I think it’s very likely that she was placed somewhere where we’re going to have to find her rather than someone just stumbling upon her.”
New Canaan officer Thomas Patten had been a member of the department’s investigations unit for five years when he was called to the scene where a car belonging to the missing mother of five was found the night of May 24,
2019.
Within hours the 20year veteran of the department would be investigating his first murder.
“This by far has been the largest investigation I have been a part of,” Patten said. “This evolved into something on day one that I had never investigated before. New Canaan has never had a crime like this.”
Kimball had seen his share of serious crimes, but the Dulos case which has spanned at least two states and four Connecticut counties is by far his agency’s biggest investigation, he said.
“At one point I think we had every single unit working on the case,” Kimball said. “This taxed us to a large extent but we are committed to finding Jennifer.”
Kimball was assigned to work closely with Patten on finding Jennifer Dulos, who is presumed dead and hasn’t been seen since the morning of May 24, 2019.
New Canaan officers investigating a report that Jennifer Dulos was missing banged on the door of her home, with no results. But they also looked in the garage and saw blood stains on a Range Rover, Kimball said.
“They asked family and friends if she had hit a deer,” Kimball said. It was the work of New Canaan police who decided to investigate the blood stain further that launched one of the most extensive searches in state history, Kimball said.
“They had gone to the front door and got no answer,” Kimball said. “We wouldn’t be here right now if they had left it at that.”
It was Patten who called supervisors to report that they would need the state police to help in the investigation.
At around the same time Fotis Dulos and Troconis were captured on video driving in his black Ford Raptor on Albany Avenue in Hartford, warrants said. Fotis Dulos stopped at least three times on the busy street to dump garbage bags in trash bins located on the roadway, the warrants said.
One video showed the bed of the truck contained several bags as it turned onto Milford Avenue, Kimball said. When the truck turned back on to Albany Avenue a few blocks away, the number of bags was down to two or three, Kimball said.
There is no video of what happened to the bulk of the bags and they were never found, Kimball said. State police with the help of Hartford officers searching the trash bins about a week later recovered a few bags that had been left on Albany Avenue, warrants said.
One of the bags contained a Vineyard Vines shirt, which she was known to wear, and bra in Jennifer Dulos’ size, Kimball said. Both contained what appeared to be blood stains with her DNA. Both had been cut up the middle, much in the same way medical personnel cut off the clothing of a wounded patient, Kimball said.
Troconis’ attorney Jon Schoenhorn has questioned some of the details in the arrest warrants served on his client including the number of times the Raptor stopped on Albany Avenue. Kimball declined to discuss Schoenhorn’s allegations but said, “how many times is it OK to dump trash bags of your wife’s bloody clothes?”