Dulos search enters third month
A look at where the probe into New Canaan woman’s disappearance stands
NEWCANAAN – Jennifer Farber Dulos, a mother of five, was reported missing two months ago to New Canaan police amid a bitter divorce with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos. As police quietly continue their investigation, officials and court documents have shed some light on the disappearance, but questions remain.
Police officials have offered no update this week on the status of the case, other than to say a number of investigators remain dedicated to finding Farber Dulos.
Criminal cases continue against Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle
Troconis, but it is unclear if more serious charges in the disappearance will be filed, or if they will ever find the New Canaan mother. Jennifer Farber Dulos moved out of the Farmington home she shared with Fotis Dulos in 2017.
Custody of the children remains in the balance, but it is up to a family court judge in Stamford if Fotis Dulos can remain in the picture, or if they will stay with Farber Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber.
What we know
When and where she went missing: Farber Dulos was first reported missing just before 7 p.m. on May 24 by two friends who said she had missed some appointments in New York. The last time she had contact with one of the friends was right after she dropped off her children at the New Canaan Country Day School.
State police, in arrest records, later said that efforts by family and friends to contact Farber Dulos were unsuccessful before officers were sent to her home.
In the time since, investigators have not reported any sightings of the missing mother, nor have they confirmed any use of her cellphone. Her car was found not long after the initial missing persons report at Waveny Park, not far from her New Canaan home.
Where investigators have searched: New Canaan police went to Farber Dulos’ home on Welles Lane after she was reported missing. But attempts to speak to someone in the home were unsuccessful, so with the help of the family nanny, they gained entrance into the home, records show. Inside, they found several bloodstains on the garage floor and a vehicle parked in the garage. They also found attempts to
clean the crime scene, those records show.
The search expanded to Waveny Park, several miles from the home, where Farber Dulos’ Chevy Suburban was found the night she went missing. Investigators, within several days, went to Hartford after a man resembling Fotis Dulos was seen on surveillance video driving along Albany Avenue, depositing contractor bags in trash cans there.
Investigators found some of the bags that contained items covered in Farber Dulos’ blood. Some of the trash cans had already been emptied, so investigators shifted to a trash-to-energy plant in Hartford, where state police canine teams remained for over 20 days, sifting through trash.
Searches continued through New Canaan, and some investigators branched off to a Farber family home on Poundridge, N.Y. State police also searched Fotis Dulos’ home on Jefferson Crossing in Farmington and other areas nearby. State police dive teams visited a water skiing pond in Avon that was a spot frequented by the family as well as Fisher Meadows Recreation Area, located nearby.
A team of state police canines was also seen searching areas near Metropolitan District reservoirs in West Hartford. Investigators have not disclosed publicly if they found any evidence outside the home in New Canaan and the trash cans in Hartford.
Fotis Dulos and Jennifer Farber Dulos were locked in a bitter divorce:
The couple, who once lived together in Farmington, were in a two-year divorce that turned into a protracted custody battle before Farber Dulos was reported missing.
The proceedings started in June 2017 when Farber Dulos moved the children to New Canaan and she sought full custody. In court filings at the time, Farber Dulos said she feared for the safety of her and the children, noting that Fotis Dulos had a gun.
“I am afraid of my husband,” she said in a court filing. “He is dangerous and ruthless when he believes that he has been wronged. During the course of our marriage, he told meabout sickening revenge fantasies and plans to cause physical harm to others who have wronged him.”
A judge initially set a shared custody agreement that was later revised when, in defiance of judges orders, Fotis Dulos exposed the children to his girlfriend, Troconis, and instructed his oldest son to lie about it, records show.
The particulars of the custody orders shifted, at times barring Fotis Dulos from seeing the children. Under the latest order before Farber Dulos’ disappearance, Fotis Dulos was allowed to see the children for seven hours at a time, every other weekend. The particulars of this were argued during an April 25 hearing.
Since her disappearance, the custody battle has taken a new form with Gloria Farber, Jennifer Farber Dulos’ mother, who was granted temporary custody by a probate judge, filing a motion to intervene in the case. In a hearing in June, Heller declined to rule immediately on the matter, but ordered the children remain with Farber and Dulos not make contact with them while she considers the motion.
Meanwhile, an attorney for Fotis Dulos has asked a judge to stay all action on the hearing while Farber Dulos is missing.
Fotis Dulos faces financial troubles:
Fotis Dulos, the head of Fore Group, a luxury home builder, has faced financial troubles in recent years as financial support dried up from his father-in-law and a decline in the market for high-end homes in Connecticut.
Records reviewed by The Courant show that Dulos benefited from an influx of roughly $10 million from his father-in-law, but the money stopped when his father-in-law died. Recently, he has faced a lawsuit from the estate of Farber Dulos’ father, claiming that Dulos and his group failed to pay back more tahn $2.5 million owed in development financing.
Since Farber Dulos filed for divorce in June 2017, Fotis Dulos has amassed tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Family, friends say Jennifer Farber Dulos would not just disappear:
Following reports that she went missing, family and friends were quick to say that Farber Dulos, a dedicated mother, would never just disappear as they rallied the community for support.
“Those who know Jennifer know her to be a devoted mother; an extremely thoughtful, reliable, and organized woman; and attest that she would never, ever, disappear when she is responsible for the lives of five loving and energetic children,” those family and friends said in a statement on May 28.
As time passed, the family and friends of Farber Dulos continued to say she would never disappear on her own, as Fotis Dulos’ attorney was publicly saying the defense was operating under a theory it was a “Gone Girl” scenario, in which she mirrored a popular book in which the protagonist fakes her disappearance and frames her husband.
Fotis Dulos’ attorney, Norm Pattis, has also said he is working under a theory that this a case of “revenge suicide” and that Farber Dulos would do anything to keep the children away from Fotis Dulos.
Fotis Dulos and girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been charged by investigators:
Both Fotis Dulos, 51, and Michelle Troconis, were charged in early June with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution after investigators said video surveillance tapes showed a man resembling Fotis Dulos was seen discarding trash bags along Albany Avenue in Hartford that contained items with Farber Dulos’ blood the night she went missing, records show.
A woman who resembled Troconis was seen on the surveillance footage in the truck driven by the man investigators believe was Fotis Dulos, records show.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and were freed on $500,000 bail. Fotis Dulos was scheduled to face a judge on Aug. 2. Troconis has a court appearance scheduled for Aug 19.
What we don’t know:
Is Jennifer Farber Dulos alive?
Investigators have not classified the case as a homicide since Jennifer Farber Dulos was reported missing on May 24. They said in the weeks following that it was being handled as both a missing person case and a criminal case, which they said is not uncommon.
They have reported finding blood and bloodied items throughout the probe. First, they reported finding bloodstains and splatter in Farber Dulos’ home on Welles Lane in New Canaan, records show. They also reported finding items containing her blood that were thrown out in garbage cans in Hartford the night she went missing.
Where does the search continue?
The last public announcement about searches was when New Canaan police officials said on July 3 that a state police search of Metropolitan District reservoirs in Hartford was connected to the disappearance.
On Tuesday, New Canaan police Lt. Jason Ferraro said there was nothing new to report on the case.
What have investigators discovered?
Investigators have not disclosed much of what they have found during expansive sweeps of homes, parks and bodies of water in some form connected with the family.
In an arrest warrant charging Troconis and Fotis Dulos, investigators said they found bloodstains, blood splatter and efforts to clean up a crime scene in Farber Dulos’ New Canaan home.
Stamford/Norwalk State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr. told a Stamford judge in June that investigators found Fotis Dulos’ DNA mixed with Farber Dulos’ blood on a faucet in the New Canaan home.
In the same document, they revealed that they found bags with bloodied items that they allege were dumped by Fotis Dulos in trash cans in Hartford.
The trash discovery led them to a trash-to-energy plant in Hartford where they searched with police dogs for roughly three weeks, but when they concluded the search there, they did not say what they found.
They have not said what they found while searching Fotis Dulos’ Farmington home. They have also not said if searching a water ski pond in Avon turned up any evidence.
Will Fotis Dulos be able to see his children?
Family Court Judge Donna Heller has issued an order barring him from contacting his children until further notice. Gloria Farber, Jennifer’s mother, has intervened in the case to take temporary custody of the children. A probate judge has already named Gloria Farber temporary guardian of the children. She has been keeping them in her New York City apartment, official said.
Attorney Norm Pattis has filed motions seeking to bar Farber from intervening and also to stay the case and possibly dismiss it since the plaintiff Jennifer Dulos is missing and hasn’t appeared in court.
Heller has yet to rule on the motion, and the case is not due back in family court until Aug. 27 for a scheduled hearing.
Will there be more charges filed in the case?
It is unclear if the charges will extend beyond those filed in early June against Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Troconis.
Neither has been charged with any crimes associated with violence against Farber Dulos. No murder charges have been filed in the case, and investigators have not publicly classified the case a homicide investigation.
New Canaan Chief Leon Krowlikowski has said that he expects additional charges, but as of Tuesday nothing had been filed.
Is there an end in sight for this case?
Officials said on Tuesday that the search for Jennifer Farber Dulos continues with a number of New Canaan and state police detectives assigned to the case.
On Tuesday, officials said they have amassed more than 1,200 tips in connection to the case.
The prosecution of both Fotis Dulos and Troconis remains in the early stages. A number of motions have already been filed in the case, signaling a likelihood for a long court battle.
The divorce and custody case is also expected to take time to resolve, with no definitive timeline in which a judge will rule on a motion for Farber Dulos’ mother to intervene on the case.