‘Doitall mom’ Jennifer Dulos still missing after 7 weeks

NEW CANAAN — Every morning the five Dulos children would tumble out of their mother’s black Chevy Suburban ready to greet the day, recalled Jeffrey Tremblay, the former head of the Lower School at Renbrook School in West Hartford.

“Her kids would come bounding out of the car ready to learn,” said Tremblay, who now leads the Levey Day School in Portland, Maine. “The children were very happy, they loved, loved, loved their mother.”

The memories of his time as the head of the Renbrook Lower School where the Dulos children attended bring him a sense of joy and now, also haunting sorrow, he admitted.

“My thoughts are with those kids and how great they are,” he said. “They were all just really good kids.”

Jennifer Dulos, 50, was last seen May 24 dropping off her children, two sets of twins and a younger daughter, at New Canaan Country School around the corner from the home she had been renting since filing for divorce from her husband in 2017.

Jennifer Dulos was reported missing later that night. Her Suburban was discovered unoccupied at nearby Waveny Park, and police concluded she was the victim of a “serious physical assault” after finding blood stains and blood spatter in her garage.

Seven weeks later, there’s still no sign of Jennifer Dulos. New Canaan police Lt. Jason Ferraro said Friday there was “nothing to report” when asked for an update on the investigation.

The children, now ages 8 through 13, have been staying with Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, as police conduct one of the most expansive missing persons investigations in state history.

The children’s father, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, are free on bond after pleading not guilty to tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges in connection with the disappearance.

Fotis Dulos was captured on the Hartford police surveillance system dropping bags of garbage into bins along Albany Avenue the night his wife was reported missing, arrest warrants said. Police recovered at least two bags they said contained clothing and sponges with the blood of the missing mother of five.

Like many of her close friends, Tremblay bristled at comments made by defense attorney Norm Pattis, who has suggested Jennifer Dulos staged a “revenge suicide” or faked her own disappearance as in the Gillian Flynn novel “Gone Girl,” to get back at her husband as the couple was embroiled in a contentious twoyear divorce.

“I would describe her as a doitall mom,” Tremblay said. “She was 100 percent present in her children’s lives. They were all well taken care of without a nanny, I never saw a nanny. She wanted to be present in her children’s lives, and she was.”

Tremblay got to know Jennifer Dulos when he came to the West Hartford private school in 2015. He left the school in 2017, around the same time Jennifer Dulos told him that she was moving to New Canaan to be closer to her family as she and her husband divorced.

It was his practice each morning to personally greet students as they arrived for school, he said. He’d shake the hand of each of the Dulos children and then make his way to the driver’s side of the SUV to speak to their mother.

“To hear that this happened after she dropped her children off just tears at my heart,” he said.

Tremblay said Jennifer Dulos dropped off and picked up her children nearly every school day. He rarely saw Fotis Dulos except for a few occasions when Jennifer Dulos was out of town.

“I think I saw him maybe twice,” Tremblay recalled.

Jennifer Dulos was present at every school function from musical performances, athletic events to learning showcases, he said.

“She was all about those kids, every single one of them,” he said. “She managed to give each of them individual attention, even though there were five.”

Tremblay said Jennifer Dulos “always looked extremely happy.” Tremblay said he and Jennifer Dulos remained in contact through Facebook and Instagram after each had moved away. It was on Facebook that he saw a post from a mutual friend highlighting a missing persons poster for Jennifer Dulos.

“I was devastated, I still am,” he said. “It’s absolutely shocking and terrifying at the same time.”

The thing that grabs at his heart the most is the image of the five children who each morning would gleefully exit their mother’s car to start the school day and pile back in each afternoon.

“My first thought is for her children,” he said. “They obviously loved their mom. The kicker for me is she would drop them off and pick them up every day. It must have been heart wrenching that first afternoon mommy didn’t pick them up. I just can’t imagine.”