Dulos case not included in 2019 crime stats
Disappearance was last year, but case wasn’t ruled a homicide until 2020
NEW CANAAN — Annual crime statistics from the FBI released this week show virtually no change between 2018 and 2019, but there was one noticeable omission: The Jennifer Dulos homicide.
The FBI Uniform Crime Report data for 2019 does not include the death and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who vanished May 24, 2019 after she was last seen returning to her Welles Lane home. Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, faced murder, kidnapping and other charges in the case when he died from an apparent suicide in January.
Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said the Dulos case was not deemed a homicide until 2020. He said Tuesday he is not sure if the 2019 report will be amended or if it will appear in the 2020 FBI report.
Incidents of domestic violence are recorded as aggravated assaults, said New Canaan Police Lt. Jason Ferraro, a spokesman for the department. Two of those were listed in 2019, with none recorded the prior year.
The report shows New Canaan had two assaults in 2019, up from none in 2018, and 101 property crimes such as theft in each of those years.
The 2019 report, as it did the previous year, lists 101 thefts or similar cases in town with a population listed at slightly more than 20,000.
“New Canaan is incredibly safe,” Krolikowski said, based on the data. “The vast majority of crime, save for a tiny percentage, is property crime, and that property crime is preventable.”
It would be as simple, as Krolilkowski has repeatedly said, as locking car and building doors, turning on alarms and securing valuables inside the house rather than leaving them in a car.
“It could usually be prevented by good common sense,” Krolikowski said.
Burglaries (14 in 2019 vs. 12 in 2018), theft (80 vs. 79) and theft from a motor vehicle (7, down from 10 in 2018) were nearly identical in 2019
and 2018.
Krolikowski said FBI statistics only record the most serious charge in an incident. Local stats showed 54 larcenies, down from 81 in 2018, and 32 thefts from vehicles, down from 26 the prior year.
New Canaan saw 15 bur
glaries and 10 stolen cars in each of the past two years, Krolikowski said, citing statistics kept by the department.
Krolikowski cautioned against online scammers, who monitor email transactions until they sense an opportunity to request mon
ey be wired, posing as a legitimate client of financial institution.
“There will be idiosyncrasies” in the scam emails, he said.
The pending installation of cameras in Waveny Park could impact crime by their mere presence, Krolikowski said. Every year, police see “four or five” cars broken into while parked there.
“Cameras will make people think twice before coming into the park,” he said, “and will help tremendously with investigations when someone does commit a crime in the park.”