New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Tips pile up in search for Jennifer Dulos
NEW CANAAN — Hundreds of tips from around the world and nearly 100 security video submissions have helped guide a massive statewide search for Jennifer Dulos.
As the investigation enters a fourth week, authorities continue to focus on a Hartford garbage facility where police say trash was hauled after Fotis Dulos was seen tossing garbage bags the night his estranged wife disappeared.
Some of the bags recovered before they were taken to the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood, according to arrest warrants.
Fotis Dulos, 51, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, are free on bail after being arraigned this week on charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution.
Troconis is due back in court on July 18, while Fotis Dulos is scheduled to return to state Superior Court in Stamford on Aug. 2.
Troconis has met at least twice with investigators since she posted bail on June 3.
Norm Pattis, the controversial New Haven attorney hired last week to represent Fotis Dulos, claims Troconis has an alibi for May 24 when Jennifer Dulos disappeared. Pattis also claims Troconis passed a polygraph exam that showed she was not involved and does not know where to find Jennifer Dulos.
Andrew Bowman, a Westport attorney representing Troconis, has declined to comment about his client’s whereabouts that day.
According to their arrest warrants, Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on video surveillance driving on Albany Avenue in Hartford around the time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing. Fotis Dulos was seen tossing garbage bags into more than 30 trash bins in a four-mile span that were later determined to have his estranged wife’s blood on some of them, the warrants said.
For the past two weeks, the state police search-andrescue K-9 unit has been sifting through piles of garbage at the trash-toenergy plant where the materials are shredded before they are burned. The K-9s are specially trained to sniff biological materials such as blood and bodily fluids.
On Friday, the state police dive team returned to Avon to search a pond at Fisher Meadow on Old Farms Road. Earlier in the week, investigators searched a nearby pond known for water skiing where Jennifer Dulos claimed in divorce documents her husband pushed their children to “dangerous” limits to compete at a high level.
Jennifer Dulos was last seen around 8 a.m. May 24 after dropping her five children off at New Canaan Country School. After missing several doctors appointments in New York, she was reported missing around 7 p.m. that night.
Police said they found blood spatter and signs of a “serious physical assault” in the garage of her home on Welles Lane. During Fotis Dulos’ arraignment this week, State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said the husband’s DNA was found mixed with Jennifer Dulos’ blood on a faucet in her kitchen.
Fotis Dulos’ black Ford Raptor pickup truck was seen in New Canaan the day his wife disappeared, but it was driven by an employee of his real estate development company, the Fore Group.
An attorney for the man, who no longer works for Fore Group, said his client has cooperated with police and has been ruled out as a suspect.
The man was working on a Sturbridge Hill Road home where neighbors said they heard the loud sounds of metal banging around 5 a.m. the day after Jennifer Dulos went missing.
Investigators searched the metal dumpster outside the home last week and executed an emergency search warrant hours later at Fotis Dulos’ Jefferson Crossing home in Farmington. Investigators were seen leaving the home that night with two boxes.
After being released this week on bail, Fotis Dulos returned to his home on the private road in Farmington where media has remained stationed at the corner.
Pattis has argued his client has already been convicted by the way he has been portrayed and his legal team has hired a private investigator to help clear Fotis Dulos’ name.
"The state has wedded itself to the proposition that he’s the killer,” Pattis told WPLR’s Chaz & AJ. “We are challenging that proposition and we are seeing where the evidence leads in our view."