Police obtain man’s DNA
Husband’s properties to be examined in search for woman
State police investigating the disappearance of New Canaan mother Jennifer Farber Dulos have obtained DNA samples from her estranged husband Fotis Dulos, sources have told The Courant.
Investigators also are temporarily suspending a search at Farmington properties associated with Fotis Dulos, including his home on Jefferson Crossing, sources said. The search is expected to resume Sunday.
The new developments in the case came after police obtained surveillance video of Fotis Dulos in a Hartford neighborhood where police conducted an extensive search for evidence Friday, sifting through trash cans and scouring dumpsters for several hours.
Jennifer Farber Dulos, who was separated from her husband and living in New Canaan, disappeared on May 24 after dropping her children off at the New Canaan Country Day School. She and her estranged husband have been embroiled in a bitter two-year custody battle.
Police say there have been no arrests in the investigation, which was continuing at multiple locations Saturday.
On Friday, at the same time detectives were at Fotis Dulos’ Jefferson Crossing home serving the warrant to obtain a sample of his DNA, several troopers and K-9 dogs were methodically searching trash cans, dumpsters, sewer drains and backyards in the Albany Avenue area for evidence. Sources said nothing was found in the search Friday.
Dulos and a female companion were both taken to Troop L in Litchfield on Friday night after police showed up at the Jefferson Crossing home in Farmington that his family used to live in until Jennifer Farber Dulos moved to New Canaan with her children and filed for divorce in June of 2017, sources said.
Detectives had a search warrant seeking DNA and hair samples. Fotis Dulos left the house with the companion and drove in his own black SUV with a convoy of state police detectives to Litchfield to give DNA and hair samples. Once they were taken, Dulos was allowed to leave and wasn’t detained or questioned at the barracks, sources said.
New Canaan police are investigating Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance as both a missing persons case and a criminal investigation, New Canaan police Lt. Jason Ferraro said.
“The criminal investigation into this case is continuing, and it does involve securing search warrants. No comment at this time will be offered on details relating to locations of search warrants or details of what items are listed on the search warrants,” Ferraro said in a statement Saturday.
Ferraro said police would not discuss any possible persons of interest or suspects in the case.
Police have not classified the case as a homicide, he added.
Neither Fotis Dulos nor his criminal attorney has commented on the case. Late Friday, his divorce attorney Michael Rose filed a notice withdrawing a deposition of Jennifer Farber Dulos that was scheduled for June 10, court records show, the second motion he has filed in the contentious divorce since she disappeared.
Until Friday, the search for Jennifer Farber Dulos had centered in New Canaan in the area around her Welles Avenue house and in nearby Waveny Park, where her black Chevrolet Suburban SUV was found after she was reported missing. State police have impounded that car.
Detectives have tightened the timeline for when they believe Jennifer Farber Dulos went missing to roughly four hours on May 24, sources said. She dropped the children off around 8 a.m. at the school, and a cleaning lady entered the Welles Avenue home around noontime that day and found no one home.
Jennifer Farber Dulos missed an 11 a.m. appointment that morning, as well as a 1 p.m. appointment, sources said. She was reported missing by two friends at 7 p.m. Sources said neither her cellphone nor her credit cards have been used since she disappeared.
The day after she was reported missing state police detectives entered the Welles Avenue house and found traces of blood, law enforcement sources said. It appeared the scene had been cleaned well enough to avoid discovery by the housekeeper, the source said.
It was not clear if investigators have matched the blood to Jennifer Farber Dulos through DNA testing.
As the search intensified over the last week, divorce proceedings continued unabated, with Rose, the attorney who is representing Fotis Dulos, filing a motion seeking a custody hearing because he said the children are under armed guard in the New York City apartment owned by Jennifer’s mother, and their father has no access to them.
Sources said that Fotis Dulos went to New York City last Sunday, two days after his wife was reported missing, and tried to see his children and was rebuffed by security. On late Friday, Rose filed the motion seeking to cancel the deposition of Jennifer Farber Dulos as well as depositions scheduled for a doctor who has been meeting with the children, and the couple’s babysitter. A hearing has been scheduled for June 5 in Stamford Superior Court, according to judicial records.
The five Dulos children were set to spend Memorial Day weekend with their father, according to a relaxed visitation schedule a judge issued in March.
In a March 20 ruling, Judge Donna Hell er changed what had been extremely limited access to the children for Fotis Dulos, allowing him everyother-weekend visits to the home in Farmington where they grew up. The judge changed the schedule even though she previously had called Fotis Dulos “a liar who willingly ignored court orders” by allowing his girlfriend access to his five children, despite the court explicitly ordering him not to do that.
After several contentious months of hearings, and with reports from therapists and a guardian ad litem, Heller ruled Fotis Dulos could have supervised visitation rights with his children that included having the kids every other weekend starting at the end of March. He was allowed to spend seven hours with the children in Fairfield County on Saturdays and six hours with them in Hartford County on Sundays, including at his Farmington home on Jefferson Crossing.
“The court finds it is in the children’s best interests that they have regular supervised parenting time with the defendant every other weekend,” Heller said.
The judge even accommodated the Easter holiday weekend, switching weekends so that the children would spend it with their father and his family. Dulos is a Greek citizen. The judge did place numerous restrictions on the visits, from no discussion of the pending court case to no one-on-one conversations with any of the children unless a court-authorized supervisor is present. He also was barred from talking to his children in Greek to try to circumvent the supervisor’s presence. Dave Altimari can be reached at daltimari@courant.com.