The case against Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis.
NEW CANAAN — It’s been more than three months since Jennifer Dulos vanished on the morning of May 24.
State police released an image taken from a neighbor’s security camera showing the 50yearold mother driving back to her Welles Lane home after dropping off her five children at their nearby school that morning. The image was captured at 8:05 a.m. and was the last time she was seen.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 52, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, were charged one week later with tamping with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with the disappearance.
On Wednesday, state police arrested Fotis Dulos again on a new tampering with evidence charge. After Fotis Dulos was released on $500,000 bond, state police released a 38page warrant containing explosive new information in the highprofile case and a detailed timeline of the day Jennifer Dulos went missing.
On Thursday, Troconis turned herself in at the state police barracks in Bridgeport. Troconis was also charged with tampering with evidence and released after posting $100,000 bond.
Here’s a look at the state’s case so far against Fotis Dulos and Troconis:
Blood stains on the garage floor
Inside the garage of 69 Welles Lane, a home Jennifer Dulos rented since filing for divorce in June 2017, New Canaan police said they found several stains on the floor and on a vehicle, which had “the appearance of bloodstains.” Police said they found evidence that Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a “serious physical assault.”
On June 3, two days after Fotis Dulos and Troconis were arrested, state police said they found handwritten notes inside their Jefferson Crossing home in Farmington. The notes, found in Fotis Dulos’ home office for his real estate development company, Fore Group, specified times and activities he and Troconis were apparently doing on May 24, according to the latest arrest warrant.
Pages included specific activities and times, incoming and outgoing phone calls, the warrant said.
Notes included information, later that police said was later proven to be inaccurate, and alibi witnesses, who were determined to be false, the warrant said.
Red Toyota Tacoma pickup
The vehicle was registered to the wife of Fotis Dulos’ project manager for his company.
Fotis Dulos had access to the truck since the vehicle and its keys were routinely left at his Jefferson Crossing home, the warrant said.
Surveillance footage on likely routes between Farmington and Lapham Road in New Canaan where the truck was captured on video parked on the morning of May 24 show a red Toyota Tacoma traveling southbound on the Merritt Parkway past the Fairfield rest area at 6:36 a.m. and the New Canaan rest stop at 7:03 a.m. that morning, the warrant said. The New Caanan rest area is 1.2 miles from where Jennifer Dulos’ 2017 Chevrolet Suburban was found abandoned, the warrant said.
At 7:05 a.m., footage from New Canaan school buses show a red Tacoma parked on Lapham Road, about 100 feet off a turnoff where the Suburban was found abandoned later that night, the warrant said. Other bus videos shows a red Tacoma parked there at 7:40 a.m. and 7:57 a.m., the warrant said.
At 8:05 a.m., Jennifer Dulos’ Suburban is seen in a residential video traveling on Wells Lane on her way back from dropping off her children at school, the warrant said.
“At the time this footage was recorded, (Fotis) Dulos is believed to have been lying in wait at 69 Wells Lane for his wife to return home,” the warrant said.
“The crime and cleanup are believed to have occurred between 8:05 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.,” the warrant said.
At 10:25 a.m., Jennifer Dulos’ Suburban is seen on a neighbor’s surveillance video traveling from 69 Wells Lane.
“(Fotis) Dulos is believed to be operating the victim’s vehicle which is carrying the body of Jennifer Dulos and a number of other items associated with the cleanup which occurred in the garage of the residence,” the warrant stated.
Data obtained from Jennifer’s cellphone is consistent with the mobile device moving from Wells Lane to Lapham Road, the warrant said.
At 11:12 a.m., video showed a red Tacoma traveling northbound on the Merritt Parkway passing the New Canaan rest area, the warrant said. The warrant, however, did not include information or video evidence of what occurred between 10:25 a.m. and 11:12 a.m.
At 11:25 a.m., the Tacoma is seen passing the northbound Fairfield rest area on the Merritt, the warrant said.
At 11:40 a.m., the Tacoma is seen traveling northbound on Route 8 in Derby, the warrant said.
At noon, the Tacoma is seen traveling eastbound on Interstate 84 in Waterbury, the warrant said.
A residential security system captured the Tacoma at 12:22 p.m. turning into one of the properties owned by the Fore Group at 80 Mountain Spring Road in Farmington.
The employee returned to Fotis Dulos’ home at 4 Jefferson Crossing around 4:30 p.m. that day, but no one was there and his truck was missing, the warrant said. The man, who no longer works for Fore Group, then drove Fotis Dulos’ Ford Raptor to 80 Mountain Spring, the warrant said.
The worker found Fotis Dulos and Troconis at 80 Mountain Spring, which they told him they had been “cleaning,” the warrant said.
Fotis Dulos repeatedly asked the project manager if he would like to borrow the Ford Raptor for the weekend so he could keep the Tacoma, the warrant said. But when he declined, Troconis returned with his keys and the worker left the property, the warrant said.
The following week, the project manager was surprised when he realized Fotis Dulos had taken the truck for a car wash and interior detailing without his knowledge while he was working, the warrant said.
Fotis Dulos urged his employee to remove the seats that were in the truck, citing that they weren’t Toyotaoriginal seats, the warrant said. When the project manager didn’t change the seats, Fotis Dulos grew more insistent and “pushy” about the issue, the warrant said. On May 31, he offered to replace the seats with those from his damaged Porsche, the warrant said.
“(The employee) reported that (Fotis) Dulos had also told him to switch out the seats and get rid of them so they would not be found,” the warrant said.
The project manager eventually removed the seats, but kept them at his home without Fotis Dulos knowing, the warrant said. He later turned them over to investigators, who tested them and found “bloodlike substance” containing Jennifer Dulos’ DNA, the warrant said.
Troconis interview with investigators
Troconis met with investigators for a third time on Aug. 13 and admitted “she had not been truthful” in her prior two interviews, the warrant said.
She told police she did not physically see Fotis Dulos when she woke up around 6:40 a.m. May 24, the warrant said. She had previously told police the two of them had shared a shower that morning, the warrant said. On prior occasions, defense attorney Norm Pattis had claimed Troconis could provide an alibi for his client.
Troconis also confirmed Fotis Dulos had left his cellphone, which he usually carries for business and personal purposes, at his 4 Jefferson Crossing home that morning, the warrant said.
Fotis Dulos didn’t return home until some time between noon and 1:30 p.m. that day, Troconis said, according to the warrant. Later that afternoon, she helped him clean what he called “spilled coffee” out of his project manager’s truck, the warrant said.
“Troconis told investigators at one point (Fotis) Dulos handed her a stained towel he had been using to clean the truck and told her to place it into a plastic garbage bag, the warrant said. When questioned about the towel, Troconis claimed she could not remember the color of the stain, but she admitted the towel “did not smell like coffee,” the warrant said.
When asked about why Fotis Dulos had washed his worker’s truck five days after his wife disappeared, Troconis claimed her boyfriend told her that his project manager wanted to sell the car, so he brought it to get it detailed, the warrant said.
Under interrogation, however, she eventually said, “Well obviously...all the evidence says because...you showed me the picture of the blood in the door it’s because the body of Jennifer at some point was in there,” the warrant said.
Investigators then showed Troconis screenshots from the Hartford surveillance footage, which she allegedly said depicted her and Fotis Dulos on Albany Avenue. However, Troconis said she had no knowledge of what Fotis Dulos was doing as he dumped garbage bags, which were later found to contain Jennifer Dulos’ blood, the warrant said.
Bags in Hartford trash
Around the same time as Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, police said Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on surveillance video in Hartford. According to their original arrest warrants, Fotis Dulos was seen tossing garbage bags into more than 30 trash bins along a fourmile stretch of Albany Avenue . Tests revealed Jennifer Dulos’ blood was found on some of the bags, the warrants said.
Police said the bags contained clothes and household items, such as kitchen sponges, that were stained with blood, the warrants said.
According to the arrest warrant, a black Ford F150 Raptor caught on security video was traced to Fotis Dulos. The warrant also revealed Fotis Dulos and Troconis’ cellphones were in the Hartford area when the footage was captured.
One video clip showed a man inserting an item into a storm drain grate near Garden Street. Detectives later searched the area and recovered two Connecticut license plates that had been altered with adhesive and tape, the warrant said. The plate was connected to a canceled registration for a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban belonging to Fotis Dulos.
Kitchen sink
State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said Fotis Dulos’ DNA was found mixed with his estranged wife’s blood on the faucet of her kitchen sink.
Pattis has claimed the DNA could have been left when Fotis Dulos visited his children two nights before his wife disappeared.
Several witnesses from that night, however, claim Fotis Dulos never went inside the home during that gettogether, Colangelo said.