Woman Charged in Dulos Case Granted Permission to Leave State

The girlfriend of the estranged husband of a missing New Canaan mother has been granted permission to travel outside of Connecticut.

Michelle Troconis and her boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, are facing charges in the disappearance of Fotis’ estranged wife, 50-year-old Jennifer Dulos, and are accused of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. Both Troconis and Fotis have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Troconis’ legal team filed a motion Tuesday to amend her conditions of release, requesting permission for her to travel out of state from June 30 to July 17 to visit a person her attorneys say is not connected with the case. Troconis is currently required to wear a GPS monitoring device and stay within the state of Connecticut.

On Friday, a judge granted the request to leave the state and go to New York, but will require Troconis to remain at the house where she is visiting.  She will not be allowed to travel outside of that house.

The judge also ruled on another part of the motion, keeping in place a "no contact" order barring Fotis or any of his team from contacting Troconis, saying that Fotis' defense attorney has made comments to protect his client at the expense of Troconis.

Fotis’ attorneys have previously requested access to Troconis and permission for Fotis to speak with her and his children.

On Thursday, Fotis' attorney, Norm Pattis, released a statement, claiming that Troconis knows where Fotis was the morning Jennifer disappeared and that her testimony would help his defense.

"We are calling on the state to drop the charges against Michelle so that she is able to testify in Fotis’ defense. We’re asking that the charges against her be dropped so that she can feel free to testify without fearing the consequences,” the statement from Pattis said.

Jennifer Dulos has been missing since May 24 and was last seen dropping her children off at school. According to public filings, she and Fotis were in the midst of a divorce and custody battle over the couple’s five children.

According to court documents, when police went to search Jennifer's home after she was reported missing they found what was determined to be blood and investigators believe she was the victim of a “serious physical assault.” The case remains a missing persons case.

City surveillance cameras captured a man police said matched the appearance of Fotis throwing away bags of garbage along Albany Avenue in Hartford the day Jennifer disappeared, according to court documents. A woman matching Troconis’ description was also seen in the video.

Investigators have spent the better part of the last month searching for clues related to Jennifer's disappearance at locations all over the state.

Pattis has maintained that his client is presumed innocent.

On Monday, he claimed that Jennifer may have staged her disappearance like a character in the book "Gone Girl," citing a "very dark 500-page plus novel" that she had written. He has also floated a “revenge suicide” theory.

A spokesperson for Jennifer's family, Carrie Luft, dismissed the “Gone Girl” claim as "false and irresponsible allegations," saying that Jennifer's novel was written well before "Gone Girl" and was not a mystery tome.

"Evidence shows that Jennifer was the victim of a violent attack in her New Canaan home. As of today, she has been missing for a month," her family and friends said in a statement released Monday. "This is not fiction or a movie. This is real life, as experienced every single day by Jennifer’s five young children, her family, and her friends. We are heartbroken. Jennifer is not here to protect her children, and these false and irresponsible allegations hurt the children now and into the future."

As the search for Jennifer continues, police have dedicated a website, FindJenniferDulos.com, and an email address, FindJenniferDulos@newcanaanct.gov, to the investigation. Police have also set up a tipline, 203-594-3544.