Fotis Dulos’ family: State needs to ‘recalibrate’ investigation

FARMINGTON — The family of Fotis Dulos is calling on state officials to “recalibrate” the investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos by releasing key information about the woman who was last seen more than eight months ago.

Just days after Fotis Dulos’ death, his family issued a statement Monday night, seeking change and asking the media and the public to reconsider the rush to judgment to name the 52-yearold Farmington resident as the prime suspect in the disappearance of his estranged wife.

“We the family of this great man, feel let down by the state that pursued and harassed him and us relentlessly and with no mercy, without ever giving him or us a chance to speak the truth and to share, with a world that was too quick to call him a monster, our story,” read the family’s statement sent to Hearst Connecticut Media. “We feel devastated that a man, only 52 years of age, found himself in a dead-end where he saw taking his own life as the only way to be granted peace.”

The statement was released by Rena Kyrimi, the older sister of Fotis Dulos who flew from Greece to be by his side at a New York hospital before he died Thursday from an apparent suicide.

Jennifer Dulos disappeared on May 24 as the couple was going through an acrimonious two-year divorce. Within days of the disappearance, media reports from around the world were detailing the story of the 50-year-old mother of five who vanished as police searched homes and locations connected to her estranged husband’s business the Fore Group.

After being originally charged last year with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution, Fotis Dulos was arrested again in January on murder, felony murder and first-degree kidnapping charges.

The case has drawn broad attention and a spate of social media groups where followers comment daily on the case and discuss possible scenarios of how they believe he allegedly killed his wife, whose body has not been found.

In the statement, the family called on state officials to release Jennifer Dulos’ medical records and psychiatric evaluations, “offering the public a chance to juxtapose them to those of Fotis.”

“We demand nothing less than the whole truth,” the family said.

Dulos was a “caring and nurturing father, son, brother, and uncle, achiever, hard worker, fighter, loyal friend, accomplished sportsman, book worm, a great cook and unparalleled host,” the family said. “He would walk into a room and immediately light it up. He was the man everyone wanted to befriend.”

The family was considering burying him in Farmington, but have decided to take his remains to Greece because they “fear desecration of his grave.”

In a note left in his car, Dulos said he refused to “spend even an hour more in jail.”

Dulos was slated to appear in court last Tuesday for an emergency hearing, where a judge could have revoked his $6 million bond and sent him back to jail. Farmington police found him in his running SUV inside his garage that day when he failed to show up for the hearing.

According to arrest warrants, Jennifer Dulos was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera at 8:05 a.m. May 24, returning to her Welles Lane home after dropping off her children at a nearby school.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” and attacked her in the garage, the warrants indicate.

Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis were caught on video that night in Hartford dumping bags that were later determined to contain Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants. Fotis Dulos mentioned the bags in his suicide note, claiming that his criminal defense attorneys have an explanation that would exonerate him. Fotis Dulos claimed in the note that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of his estranged wife.

Troconis and Attorney Kent Mawhinney, who previously represented Fotis Dulos in the lawsuits, were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the case.