Michelle Troconis’s sister: Fotis Dulos was ‘monster’
Claudia Marmol, the sister of Michelle Troconis who was found guilty last month of conspiring to kill Jennifer Dulos, told CBS’s 48 Hours that her sister was also a victim of Fotis Dulos.
“Unfortunately, he fooled all of us,” Marmol told 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty. “At the beginning, he was this amazing guy. But it turns out, he was this monster.”
The 48 Hours special, “The Conspiracy to Murder Jennifer Dulos,” will be broadcast at 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
A jury convicted Troconis, 49, on March 1 of all six counts: Conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence, two counts of tampering with physical evidence and one count of second-degree hindering prosecution. Judge Kevin Randolph set Troconis’ bail at $6 million.
Court records indicate she has a hearing in the case on April 10. She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 31, at which point she could face up to 50 years in prison.
Troconis is also facing a contempt of court charge related to images of a sealed report she is suspected of having on her computer screen at one point during the trial. She is scheduled to next appear in that case on May 15, court records indicate.
The trial had been more than four years in the making. What started as a missing person case ballooned into a massive investigation that brought in several law enforcement agencies and captured media attention from around the world. The disappearance also inspired numerous documentaries, a Lifetime movie and a law that broadened the definition of domestic violence in Connecticut.
The night of the verdict, friends of Jennifer Dulos appeared in a two-hour Dateline NBC special. The friends shared memories of the New Canaan mother of five, and said her children are following her example.
Jennifer Dulos, 50, vanished in May 2019 amid a contentious two-year divorce and custody dispute with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, who quickly became a prime suspect in her disappearance. Troconis was living with Fotis Dulos, her thenboyfriend, in Farmington at the time.
Fotis Dulos died by suicide in January 2020 while facing murder and other charges in the case.
Jennifer Dulos was last seen on May 24, 2019, and though her body has never been found, a judge declared her legally dead last year.
During the eight-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing Troconis helped create an alibi for Fotis Dulos on the day his estranged wife disappeared. Troconis was also found guilty of helping Fotis Dulos clean a pickup truck that police believe was used in the crime.
However, Marmol remains adamant about her sister’s innocence.
“My sister is not the person that the media has portrayed, that the police and the state have wanted to portray,” Marmol told 48 Hours. “She would never, ever, ever harm anyone else.”
Surveillance footage presented during the trial showed Fotis Dulos driving his Ford Raptor along Albany Avenue in Hartford, dumping garbage bags with Troconis as his passenger the day Jennifer Dulos disappeared. Police later recovered some of these trash bags and found items that tested positive for Jennifer Dulos’ DNA, including a shirt and bra that also tested positive for blood.
Troconis’ attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, also stands by his client, saying she did not know what was in the bags.
“She had no idea what he was actually doing,” he told 48 Hours.
Fotis Dulos owned The Fore Group real estate development company and often discarded trash from construction jobs in public receptacles, Troconis told investigators after Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
Marmol told 48 Hours he had done something similar with her in 2018.
“He had done it in my presence,” she said. “So, it was very common for him to do that.”
Prosecutors also accused Troconis of burning evidence at the home she shared with Fotis Dulos on Jefferson Crossing in Farmington. Surveillance footage and cellphone data showed she went back and forth from Jefferson Crossing to a Fore Group property on Mountain Spring Road the afternoon of the disappearance.
When Troconis was at the Jefferson Crossing home, smoke could be seen coming out of the chimney during three separate times, footage presented at the trial showed.
Marmol told 48 Hours it was normal for her sister to light fires, regardless of the weather.
“Remember my sister lived in Argentina before,” Marmol said. “So, it’s very common to put the fireplace on and to just sit around. … And my sister would do it.”
Moriarty asked Marmol whether her sister would have shared information if she knew Jennifer Dulos’ whereabouts to make a deal in the case.
“Of course. … My sister would have said it,” Marmol said. “She would have stood up.”