An attorney for Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing New Canaan mother Jennifer Dulos, said his client’s girlfriend can provide an alibi to explain where Fotis was the morning his estranged wife disappeared.
What to Know
- New Canaan mother Jennifer Dulos has been missing for over a month.
- According to court documents, police found blood in her home and investigators believe she was the victim of a serious physical assault.
- Her estranged husband Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis face charges in connection with the case.
An attorney for Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing New Canaan mother Jennifer Dulos, said his client’s girlfriend can provide an alibi to explain where Fotis was the morning his estranged wife disappeared.
Jennifer Dulos has been missing since May 24 and her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with the case. In the arrest warrants, it states that 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.
Both Troconis and Fotis have pleaded not guilty and maintain their innocence.
In a statement released Thursday, Fotis’ attorney Norm Pattis claimed Troconis knows where Fotis was that morning and that her testimony would help his defense.
”Michelle provides Fotis a complete alibi for the morning of Ms. Dulos’ disappearance. Yet most likely she will not testify as along as the state presses its meritless claims against her. 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.”
Jennifer, who moved from Farmington to New Canaan after filing for divorce, was last seen while dropping off her children at school in New Canaan on Friday, May 24.
Local
According to court documents, when Jennifer was reported missing and police went to search her home, they found what was determined to be blood. Investigators believe she was the victim of a “serious physical assault.” The case remains a missing persons case.
Both Fotis and Troconis are out on bond, required to wear a GPS monitoring devices and stay within the state of Connecticut.
Troconis’ legal team filed a motion to amend her conditions of release Tuesday, requesting permission for her to travel out of state from June 30 to July 17 to visit a person attorneys say is unconnected with the case.
The same motion also requests 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.
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 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.
