Warrants: Fotis’ SUV seen near wife’s home
Docs could support police theory of multiple accomplices
NEW CANAAN — Fotis Dulos’ SUV was caught on video parked near his estranged wife’s home around the time she was killed and an unknown “bloodlike” stain was later found inside the vehicle, according to search warrants.
The evidence could support a theory investigators described throughout the more than 450 pages of search warrants that multiple people may have been involved in Jennifer Dulos’ homicide and cleanup of the May 24 crime.
Fotis Dulos, 52, has been charged with murder, felony murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in his estranged wife’s death. His former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 45, has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. Fotis Dulos’ close friend and former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, 54, has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
The search warrants, which
were unsealed Wednesday for the first time since the investigation began nearly eight months ago, was the only mention of a residential security camera capturing Fotis Dulos’ black 2015 Chevrolet Suburban in New Canaan.
The Suburban was caught on video parked on Thurton Drive, a quiet cul de sac less than a half-mile long with many new large affluent homes and expansive lawns. The back of the Welles Lane home where Jennifer Dulos lived can be seen through the trees from the wide turn-around at the end of the road.
According to residents in the area, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was in the neighborhood four times to discuss the Suburban and local police were also there twice.
One woman, who did not want to be identified, said New Canaan Police visited her home twice in the days following the incident. She said police originally asked for security footage from 7 p.m. May 23 through the following evening, and then they returned and asked for all of her available footage.
The residents were never told if any of their footage was useful and none of them knew when exactly the Suburban was on their street.
The search warrants also do not reveal the time or day the SUV was parked on Thurton Drive. Search warrants indicate that multiple people were likely involved in the deadly assault. But the presence of the SUV parked on the street could also mean there was an attempt to check out the area in advance of the alleged attack.
According to the documents, police obtained a search warrant on May 30 — six days after Jennifer Dulos vanished — and took 19 swabs, including one that was from a "bloodlike" stain and a WeatherTech floor liner that also had “bloodlike” stains from the SUV. There is no mention in arrest warrants whether the swabs or the stains were blood or connected to Jennifer Dulos.
When police obtained the video, they searched law enforcement databases and discovered Troconis had damaged the Suburban in an accident on Interstate 84 in Tolland on May 17, search warrants said.
The left front quarter panel of the Suburban was dented in the crash, police said in the search warrant. The Suburban parked on Thurton Drive was seen on the video with the same damage, the search warrant said.
The SUV had been brought to a Canton auto body shop on May 28, the search warrant said. The staff called Canton police to report the vehicle was there after seeing news reports about the disappearance, search warrants said. State police went to the auto body shop and seized the vehicle, which was brought to Troop L in Litchfield by May 30, the documents said.
Based on a series of videos obtained by investigators, police believe Fotis Dulos drove an employee’s red Toyota Tacoma to New Canaan the day his wife was killed, according to arrest warrants. The pickup truck was left on Lapham Road near Waveny Park, where police said Fotis Dulos rode a vintage bicycle to his estranged wife’s home, according to arrest warrants.
Police said Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” when his wife returned to her home around 8:05 a.m., after she dropped off their children at a nearby school, the arrest warrants state.
Police obtained video showing Jennifer Dulos’ black 2017 Chevy Suburban — that has a nearly identical appearance as her estranged husband’s SUV — leaving her home at 10:25 a.m. Police believe Fotis Dulos was driving the vehicle and his estranged wife’s body was inside, arrest warrants state.
Police indicated in several search warrants that it was “highly likely that multiple individuals were involved in the crime and the ensuing cleanup.”
Troconis provided an alibi for herself by taking selfies with the Stop & Shop robot in Simsbury and stopped to see two friends that morning, according to the arrest warrants.
Police believe Fotis Dulos was on the road back to Farmington in the red Tacoma by 11:12 a.m., when the pickup was captured on video traveling northbound on the Merritt Parkway in New Canaan, arrest warrants said.
The Tacoma was seen pulling into the driveway of 80 Mountain Spring Road, a property owned by Fotis Dulos’ real estate development company the Fore Group, around 12:25 p.m. It’s unclear who was behind the wheel.
About an hour later, Fotis Dulos was seen arriving at the property in the 2015 Suburban, arrest warrants said.
Troconis was driving a white Jeep owned by Fotis Dulos that pulled into 80 Mountain Spring Road in front of the 2015 Suburban, according to arrest warrants.
Troconis left the property in the Suburban at 4:03 p.m., and returned about 20 minutes later, arrest warrants said.
When the Fore Group employee arrived at 80 Mountain Spring Road to pick up his Tacoma at 4:58 p.m., he told police that Fotis Dulos and Troconis looked “surprised” to see him as they stood in the driveway, according to arrest warrants.
The couple told him they had been “cleaning,” but there were no cleaning products in their hands or nearby, he told police, according to the arrest warrants.
Fotis Dulos drove the Suburban back to his Jefferson Crossing home a short distance away, arrest warrants said.
Jennifer Dulos was reported missing around 7 p.m. that night around the same time police said two people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on video in Hartford dumping bags that were later determined to contain Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants.
Jennifer Dulos’ Suburban was found shortly after she was reported missing on Lapham Road near where the Tacoma was seen parked that morning, arrest warrants state. The SUV contained blood stains and was missing a rug, police said.
Jennifer Dulos’ blood was also found on one of the Tacoma’s seats, which Fotis Dulos had urged his employee to discard, arrest warrants state.