The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Investigation costs police more than $600K in OT
State, local police work about 9,000 hours
NEW CAANAN — The investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos has cost state and local police more than $600,000 for about 9,000 hours of overtime, according to the latest figures available.
Since the New Canaan mother of five went missing May 24, every state police troop except one, three major crimes squads and at least six specialized units have been involved in the search, according to Attorney Jay DonFrancisco with the Legal Affairs Unit of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees the state police.
The agency spent $557,609.21 to pay troopers 8,847.5 hours of overtime as of July 18, which was the last pay period, DonFrancisco said.
"These amounts are for overtime only and are the best effort calculation we have at this time,"
he wrote in an email. "There is some uncertainty from the early stages of the investigation before it was known how the investigation would unfold."
The specialized units included several K9 teams, Cyber Crimes, Emergency Services, Fire & Explosives, Counter Terrorism, Field Operations and the Training Academy, DonFrancisco said.
New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said his 47member department has accumulated about $50,000 in overtime and has spent “hundreds of hours” working on the case.
“At various stages of the investigation, up to 12 department members assisted,” Krolikowski said Thursday.
DonFrancisco and Krolikowski supplied the figures in response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by Hearst Connecticut Media.
New Canaan police Lt. Jason Ferraro said last week that there have been no new active searches for Jennifer Dulos and authorities
in recent weeks have been focused on examining evidence and sifting through the more than 1,200 tips and 80 videos they have received in the case.
Jennifer Dulos was involved in a twoyear acrimonious divorce and custody battle with her husband Fotis Dulos when she disappeared May 24 after dropping their children off at a New Canaan school that morning.
Police said there were signs Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a “serious physical assault” based on blood spatter and blood stains found in the garage of her home.
Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have each pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges in connection with the disappearance.
Around the same time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, two people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on Hartford video surveillance making more than 30 stops in a fourmile stretch of Albany Avenue around 7 p.m. May 24, according to their arrest warrants.
Fotis Dulos was seen dumping bags that were later determined to contain clothing and cleaning supplies stained with Jennifer Dulos’ blood, according to arrest warrants.
New Canaan police have denied Hearst’s FOIA request for the videos, which were discovered on May 31 — one week after the disappearance — after an examination of Fotis Dulos' cellphone revealed he was in Hartford the night his wife vanished, arrest warrants state.
The videos prompted a frantic search of the trash cans along Albany Avenue, where police recovered some evidence, including expired license plates once registered to Fotis Dulos that were stuffed in a FedEx envelope in a storm drain, according to arrest warrants.
State police then spent three weeks sifting through tons of garbage at a Hartford trash facility. While police did not say whether anything was found at the trash plant, Brian Foley, an executive aide to DESPP Commissioner James Rovella, who heads the state police, said the effort was “worth it.”
Rovella told legislators in February that he was hoping to cut $4 million from the state police overtime budget as the agency struggled with staff shortages.
State police have been involved in the case since nearly the beginning. State police K9s trained in electronic storage detection were used to search for Jennifer Dulos' cellphone in Waveny Park, near where her SUV was found the night of her disappearance.
State police divers searched a shallow pond in the park and other bodies of water in Avon, where Fotis Dulos took his children water skiing and a West Hartford reservoir adjacent to his Farmington home.