Murdered or missing? Questions remain in Jennifer Dulos case
(NewsNation) — Jennifer Dulos feared her husband. She tried to warn others that he was going to hurt her.
Then in May of 2019, while locked in a bitter divorce and custody battle with her husband, Fotis Dulos, Jennifer disappeared.
Her disappearance shocked the swanky town of New Cannan, Conn.
“I know that filing for divorce and filing this motion will enrage him,” Jennifer Dulos had warned. “I know he will retaliate by trying to harm me in some way.”
Jennifer Dulos dropped her kids off at school the morning of May 24, 2019. Her SUV can be seen returning home around 8 a.m. Police believe Fotis was inside the home waiting to kill her.
Blood found inside the home led police to believe Jennifer had suffered some sort of “non-survivable” injury. More blood was found in her vehicle, which was found abandoned at a nearby park.
Fotis was charged with murder after police say surveillance footage showed him transporting his wife’s body in the back of a truck before taking it to a car wash to clean it out. Two others were charged with conspiracy to commit murder for helping him, Fotis’ girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his attorney and friend Kent Mawhinney.
Prosecutors say surveillance footage shows Fotis and Troconis driving around the day of Jennifer’s disappearance disposing of various items and bags.
Fotis’ attorney says his client has done nothing wrong and even made a case that this case is built to be like that of the movie “Gone Girl,” in which a woman fakes her own death and frames her husband for the murder.
Jon Schoenhorn, the defense attorney for Troconis, says that,”Mere presence is not a crime, unless they can prove she knew what was in the bags and what he was up to.”
Police searched garbage collection facilities and dumpsters for any sign of Jennifer. Her body was never found, leaving her family still searching for answers.
“We feel the immeasurable loss of her person everyday,” a spokesperson for the family said. “We also delight in her presence and celebrate her spirit as they manifest in her five incredible children. Above all, we miss Jennifer more than words can express.”
As for Fotis, he will never get his day in court. He killed himself in January of 2020, leaving a note.
“I refuse to spend even an hour in jail for something I had nothing to do with,” the note read in part. “Enough is enough. Even if it takes my head to end this, so be it. I want it to be known that Michelle Troconis had nothing to do with Jennifer’s disappearance and neither did Kent Mawhinney.”
But the cases against Troconis and Mawhinney are continuing, regardless.
“There will be a number of things that are surprising and perhaps even shocking once we … are in front of a jury, or at least in front of a judge,” Schoenhorn said.