Dulos case built on technology

Police used phone data, video to trace suspects

STAMFORD — The family’s longtime nanny was the last person to have contact with Jennifer Dulos, minutes before police say the New

Canaan mother’s estranged husband attacked and killed her, according to newly released search warrants.

The more than 450 pages of documents detail the efforts New Canaan and state police made following the May 24 disappearance by using all means of technology to piece together the case.

The search warrants had been sealed since the start of the investigation nearly eight months ago. They were unsealed Wednesday — about one week after Fotis Dulos, 52, his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 45, and his close friend and former lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, 54, were charged in connection with the homicide.

According to the search warrants, Lauren Almeida, the nanny for the five Dulos children, received a text message from Jennifer Dulos at 7:57 a.m. May 24 as the mother was dropping off her children at school.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was already “lying in wait” for his wife to return to her

Welles Lane home when she was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera at 8:05 a.m., according to previously released arrest warrants.

In the days following the disappearance, Troconis asked a tech guru to copy her cellphone and computer data

to an external drive and wipe the equipment clean, the search warrants revealed.

The tech expert went to the police a few days later when he realized Troconis was a suspect in the Jennifer Dulos case, the search warrants said.

He also told investigators that Fotis Dulos had a Backblaze account used to back up computer information, the search warrants said.

At around the time Troconis was having her electronics erased, police obtained search warrants to get saliva and cheek samples from Fotis Dulos and Troconis to compare their DNA to the extensive blood splatter found in the garage of Jennifer Dulos’ home, according to the warrants.

By that point on May 30, police internally were referring to the case as a murder investigation, according to the search warrants.

Some of the blood samples found in the home were a match, placing Fotis Dulos at the scene, arrest warrants said.

Search warrants indicate that an iPhone in a red case was seized from Jennifer Dulos’ black Chevy Suburban when it was found near Waveny Park around the time she was reported missing at 7 p.m. on May 24.

The documents do not indicate if the phone belonged to Jennifer Dulos. The documents outline the steps police took to find information about her phone and her whereabouts, including obtaining search warrants for her phone records, iCloud account, OnStar car tracking account, Sirius XM music account and where her phone

pinged on nearby cell towers.

The information indicates her phone was in the area of the park at 10:38 a.m. the morning she disappeared and the last activity from the device was at 11:09 a.m.

Police also obtained search warrants for all phones associated with Fotis Dulos, including the iPhone his attorney was carrying when he walked into the New Canaan Police Department with his client on May 25. Records from the phone placed the device on Albany Avenue in Hartford around the time his wife was reported missing, the search warrants said.

Police obtained surveillance video of two people appearing to be Fotis Dulos and Troconis dumping bags of garbage containing items stained with the blood of Jennifer Dulos in trash bins along Albany Avenue around that same time, according to arrest warrants.

Troconis confirmed that still photos taken from the videos showed her and Fotis Dulos, the search warrants said.

Police also obtained search warrants requiring every major cellphone provider to turn over information on towers in the Hartford and New Canaan areas that night. Police also obtained warrants to review activity that may have occurred on Jennifer Dulos’ cellphone from May 24 to June 5.

The psychiatric doctor who had conducted a mental health evaluation on Jennifer Dulos as part of the custody proceedings involving the couple’s five children was also served with a search warrant, requiring him to turn over his findings. Police said that was needed to determine Jennifer Dulos’ mental health status when she disappeared, the warrants said.

Her bank records and credit cards were also examined.

Police also pointed out the 40-minute gap between the time the activity on her phone stopped and when a red pickup owned by an employee of Fotis Dulos was spotted leaving the New Canaan area the morning she disappeared, according to the search warrants.

Police believe Fotis Dulos used the truck to drive to and from New Canaan that day, arrest warrants have said. Police said Fotis Dulos parked the truck near where Jennifer Dulos’ SUV was later found and rode a bike to his estranged wife’s house that morning, according to arrest warrants.

The Fore Group employee told police Fotis Dulos urged him to discard the seats of the truck in the days following the disappearance, arrest warrants said. According to the search warrants, investigators took eight swabs of a blood-like substance from the vehicle and cut a swatch of fabric that also appeared to have a bloodstain. At least one of the bloodstains came from Jennifer Dulos, police said.

In the arrest warrants, state Chief Medical Examiner James Gill concluded based on blood found at the scene and other evidence gathered that Jennifer Dulos’ death was a “homicide of violence” that likely included traumatic blunt-force injuries such as bludgeoning and stabbing.

The warrant describes Jennifer Dulos being bound with zip ties during the alleged attack. Four ties were used, the warrant states, and two were found with Jennifer Dulos’ blood on them.

“It appears the zip ties were used to secure and incapacitate Jennifer Dulos,” the warrant reads. “It is reasonable

that Jennifer Dulos was alive at the time the zip ties were attached to restrain her movements and to prevent her escape.”

Attorney Norm Pattis, representing Fotis Dulos, said Wednesday that his office was reviewing the search warrants and was “relieved” by the findings.

“The state has dropped its theory that Mr. Dulos was motivated by animus regarding the divorce because it learned we were right — there was no such motive,” Pattis said. “I am stunned that police never asked to speak to Mr. Dulos. We may well have been able to persuade them to drop the case all together. We would have sat for an interview. We're looking forward to the trial and will press for one as quickly as possible."

However, according to the arrest warrants, police said Fotis Dulos did not cooperate with the investigation.

Fotis Dulos and Troconis, who were originally charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution, are now on house arrest following the latest arrests. They were each released on bond last week, while Mawhinney remains held in lieu of $2 million bond.

Pattis, who has claimed Jennifer Dulos could have staged her own disappearance, said the search warrants do not reveal new evidence to her whereabouts.

“A preliminary review of the warrant leaves us relieved and saddened,” Pattis said. “We’re relieved that there is nothing we didn’t expect or have heard about; saddened because it’s obvious the state police really have no idea what became of Jennifer. This remains an open case in our view.”