▶ Police: ‘Scope’ of Dulos probe was unmatched.
NEW CANAAN — Police Chief Leon Krolikowski says there isn’t a day that goes by that he and members of his department don’t think about Jennifer Dulos.
The New Canaan mother of five vanished on May 24, 2019, setting off frantic searches throughout town — mostly focused at Waveny Park near where her abandoned SUV was found — and around the state.
Sunday marks one year since the 50-year-old was last seen returning to her Welles Lane home, where police say her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was “lying in wait” in the garage. Fotis Dulos, 52, was charged with murder, kidnapping and other charges when he died in January from an apparent suicide.
“Frankly, I think most everybody here thinks about the case every day,” Krolikowski said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. “The pandemic has overshadowed the case and given us something else to be concerned about.”
Krolikowski said the case has been the most complex in New Canaan — and perhaps the state — in the last 50 years.
In Krolikowski’s three decades on the force, including seven as chief, he said New Canaan police have never conducted an investigation of this “scope.”
“It’s unprecedented, the complexity and the way it reached across the entire state,” Krolikowski said. “I don’t think in Connecticut there has been a case as far-reaching as this. There was an incredible amount of teamwork and that led to the results we have today.”
But despite the searches in New Canaan, Hartford, Farmington, Avon and several other places, including the properties connected with Fotis Dulos’ real estate development company, Fore Group, Jennifer Dulos’ body still has not been found.
“None of us like to leave something open as long as this case,” Krolikowski said. “There’s no closure yet.”
According to arrest warrants,
Jennifer Dulos dropped off her five children at New Canaan Country School at 8 a.m. May 24, 2019. She was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera returning home a few minutes later.
Jennifer Dulos never made it to her doctors appointment at 11 a.m. that day in New York and phone calls from the family’s nanny went unanswered, according to arrest warrants. Two friends then contacted New Canaan police at 7 p.m. to report her missing.
“It pretty quickly was obvious that it wasn’t your typical missing person case,” Krolikowski said. “Very quickly we identified that by the totality of it and the facts that were known.”
Around the same time she was reported missing, her estranged husband and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were spotted on surveillance videos in Hartford, according to arrest warrants. Fotis Dulos made a series of stops along Albany Avenue, dumping bags in trash receptacles and a license plate into a storm drain, according to arrest warrants.
When police discovered the videos a week later, investigators retrieved some of the bags that they say contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants. They also found the expired license plate, which was registered to Fotis Dulos, the warrants state.
The next day, Fotis Dulos and Troconis were arrested for the first time on tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges.
By this time, the Connecticut State Police Western District Major Crime Squad, the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad, New York State Police, the State’s Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals Service joined the effort to find Jennifer Dulos.
“During complex investigations, it is smart to bring resources in early,” Krolikowski said. “Acting quickly to gather information often leads to finding critical pieces of the investigative puzzle.”
For months, “dozens and dozens of officers” from New Canaan and beyond continued the investigation each day by conducting more searches, examining evidence, reviewing video footage and looking into the hundreds of tips that were received.
New Canaan residents did their part in the investigation as well, turning over key pieces of home security footage, including video of what police say shows Fotis Dulos riding a vintage French bicycle from Waveny Park to his estranged wife’s home the morning she vanished.
“Our town is very supportive of our department, and as the tragedy unfolded and moved forward, there was an overwhelming amount of support, asking if there was anything we needed,” Krolikowski said. “In some ways, it affected the entire town.”
The investigation and forensic testing led to the most serious charges being filed in January. Fotis Dulos was charged with murder, felony murder and firstdegree kidnapping, while Troconis and his former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, were each charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
“It gave us some satisfaction that we had done a very comprehensive investigation and done all we could, and done things that would not be possible 20 years ago given the limitations of technology and evidence gathering,” Krolikowski said of the exhaustive investigation.
The new arrest warrants also revealed the state’s chief medical examiner’s determination that Jennifer Dulos suffered injuries that could not be survived without immediate medical attention.
Krolikowski hopes to bring full closure to the case one day.
“It’s still an open investigation,” he said. “There are still two defendants who need to see justice, and we won’t forget about the case. It will remain open and hopefully someday we’ll have closure as best we can.”
“None of us like to leave something open as long as this case. There’s no closure yet.”