The estranged husband of Jennifer Dulos, a Connecticut woman who has been missing for months, was charged Tuesday in her murder, according to state police.
Fotis Dulos, (*************************************************************************, was arrested and charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping, according to Connecticut State Police. He is being held on a $ 6 million bond.
His girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 52, was charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit murder. She is being held on a $ 2 million bond.
Troconis’s attorney, Andrew Bowman, said that his client surrendered herself to authorities and that it was a difficult day.
“But she has always been extremely cooperative, and we’ll have to deal with these charges in court,” Bowman said.
A Connecticut lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, a close friend of Fotis Dulos, was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is being held on a $ 2 million bond. Mawhinney’s name appeared on alibi scripts written by Fotis Dulos and Troconis, according to an arrest warrant for Troconis.
Norm Pattis, Fotis Dulos’ attorney, had earlier told reporters outside his client’s house that he had just learned of the murder arrest warrant, according toNBC New York. Policehad swarmed the Farmington homeearlier Tuesday.
Jennifer Dulos’ family, through a spokeswoman, thanked Connecticut State Police and New Canaan police “for their tireless commitment and diligent, painstaking work that have led to these arrests.”
Fotis Dulos********** (Connecticut State Police) *************** we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, for us there is no sense of closure. Nothing can bring Jennifer back. We miss her every day and will forever mourn her loss, “the statement said.
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“Justice!” the New Canaan Police Department tweeted following news of Fotis Dulos’ arrest.
Pattis said he expects his client to post bail during his arraignment. He said he’s not sure what new evidence police have against Fotis Dulos, but “my hunch is that it was a long and thorough investigation. I believe they waited until they thought they could make their best shot and let’s see what it is.”
“We’ve sat for months waiting and listening to speculation, and now we get to address the proof, and we are confident about our case, and we are confident about our odds,” Pattis said. “We said long ago, ‘Bring it on.’ They did, we’re here, and we’re ready. “
Fotis Dulos and Troconis werearrested in early Juneand again in September in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos who was last seen in Connecticut on May 24 after dropping her children off at school. Both have pleaded not guilty to various charges.
(Download theNBC News appfor breaking news and politics *** Dulos and Jennifer Dulos, who was when she went missing, had beeninvolved in a drawn-out divorceand custody battle.
despite police saying they had evidence that proved Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” at Jennifer Dulos’ home the day she disappeared,he told NBC’s “Dateline” in Septemberthat he did not have anything to do with his wife’s disappearance and he believed she was still alive.
Pattis atone point alleged that Jennifer Dulos may have staged her own disappearance,like in the book and the film “Gone Girl.”
But police presented Troconis in August with a bevy of evidence, after she revealed she had not been completely honest with them in previous interviews .
Investigators said that Fotis Dulos, a real estate developer, had taken an employee’s red Toyota pickup and that pickup was seen in surveillance footage moving between Farmington and New Canaan, where Jennifer Dulos lived, on the morning she vanished.
Another camera caught the pickup parked (feet away from where Jennifer Dulos’ 2017 Chevrolet was found later that day, abandoned and with apparent bloodstains.
“Dulos is believed to be operating the victim’s vehicle which is carrying the body of Jennifer Dulo s and a number of other items associated with the clean-up which occurred in the garage of the residence, “the warrants said.Investigators have previously said that Fotis Dulos ‘DNA was found mingled with Jennifer Dulos’ blood in her house.
Fotis Dulos had returned his employee’s pickup and tried to convince the employee to replace the seats and dispose off the old ones. The employee did replace the seats, but he kept the originals, and in June, handed them over to police.
Forensic tests linked a blood-like substance on the passenger seat to Jennifer Dulos’ DNA, arrest warrants said.
Troconis admitted in August that she went with Fotis Dulos to have the Toyota washed and detailed, the arrest warrants said. When police asked her why she thought her boyfriend took his employee’s truck for the $ 728 service, she replied, “Well obviously … all the evidence says because … you showed me the picture of the blood in the door, it’s because the body of Jennifer at some point was in there. ”
She also said she had been lying when she previously said she was with Fotis Dulos on the morning of May 50, and that in fact she did not know where he had been.
Her initial claim was found on the “alibi scripts” in Fotis Dulos’ home. Troconis admitted that she and Fotis Dulos had prepared the notes to account for their actions on the day Jennifer Dulos went missing.
The notes omitted “all incriminating behavior.” Investigators have previously saidthat Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on surveys illance video
on May in Hartford stashing items that were later determined to have Jennifer Dulos ‘blood on them.
Fotis Dulos’ court hearings have mostly been brief. In interviews with the news media, he talked about how much he loves and misses his five children, who are in the custody of Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber.
Farber has filed for sole custody of the kids. Fotis Dulos has fought her efforts and recently tried to dissolve his divorce case, arguing it should not proceed since Jennifer Dulos has not been present in the hearings.
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