Fotis Dulos proclaimed innocence in note
Was found in car on day of attempted suicide
A handwritten note found in Fotis Dulos’ car when police attempted to rescue him from an attempted suicide at his home Tuesday proclaims his innocence and also says that neither of his co-defendants had anything to do with the disappearance of his estranged wife Jennifer Farber Dulos.
“If you are reading this I am no more,” the note starts. “I refuse to spend even an hour more in jail for something I had NOTHING to do with. Enough is enough.”
“If it takes my head to end this, so be it,” Dulos wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Courant.
The single-spaced letter is on one page of notebook paper and is neatly written.
In it, Dulos goes out of his way to say that neither Michelle Troconis nor Kent Mawhinney had anything to do with his wife’s disappearance. He also mentions some of his friends from Greece and Anna Curry, the North Carolina woman who spent time with him the past few months. She paid $147,000 to help him make the most recent bond after his arrest for murder, records show.
Dulos was charged on Jan. 7 with the murder of Farber Dulos, who went missing May 24. Dulos was free on a $6 million bond, but was due to appear in court on Tuesday, the day of the apparent suicide attempt, for a bond hearing that may have sent him back to jail. After being treated for severe carbon monoxide poisoning, Dulos died Thursday at a New York City hospital.
Both Troconis and Mawhinney face charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Both of their cases are pending in Superior Court.
The note also refers to Dulos’ five children, who Dulos had not seen since a May 22 visit to Farber Dulos’ New Canaan home. Two days later, state police allege he killed her at her home.
“Please let my children know that I love them, I would do anything to be with them, but unfortunately we all have our limits,” Dulos wrote. “The State will not rest until I rot in jail.”
Dulos is accused of murdering Farber Dulos by “lying in wait” for her in the garage of her New Canaan home after she dropped off her children at school, according to court records. Police believe Dulos attacked her in the garage of her home and drove off with her body.
The case, which included tales of a bitter and contentious divorce, the compilation of evidence from surveillance video and a high-stakes battle over real estate, has sparked widespread interest and attention.
But Dulos’ death throws a wrench in the criminal case against him.
Norm Pattis, Dulos’ lawyer, has filed a motion to continue the case even without a defendant or a body — but it’s an unprecedented request in Connecticut.
“Mr. Dulos insisted from day one that Ms. Troconis wasn’t involved and wanted a joint defense agreement with her. He always spoke of her with the utmost respect,” Pattis said in a statement to the Courant.
Dulos mentions one of the key pieces of evidence against him — surveillance videos on Albany Avenue that show him dumping garbage bags on the night Farber Dulos disappeared.
At the end of May, Hartford police and state troopers searched through trash cans along Hartford’s Albany Avenue. Police affidavits later showed that police had gleaned a trove of evidence from the bins, including the Vineyard Vines shirt that Farber Dulos was believed to have worn on the day she disappeared, and at least one garbage bag that contained DNA from Dulos, Farber Dulos and Troconis.
The day after the Albany Avenue search, both Dulos and Troconis were charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
“My attorney can explain what happened with the bags on Albany Avenue. Everything else is a story fabricated by the law enforcement,” Dulos wrote.
“I want to thank my family and friends that stood by me this difficult time,” he said. “Above all Anna Curry I am sorry for letting you down and not continuing the fight.”
The single-spaced letter is simply signed “Fotis.”