The search for missing Connecticut mother Jennifer Dulos has shifted to a $3 million home and its front yard septic tank in Avon. Jennifer lived there briefly with her husband and children in 2010.
The Hartford Courant reports that authorities are focusing on an abandoned mansion at 44 Sky View Drive as the one-year anniversary of her disappearance approaches. Jennifer Dulos lived in the home with her now-deceased husband, Fotis Dulos, and their children, according to two former employees of Fotis Dulos’ construction company, Fore Group.
At the time, the couple only had two children.
Eight years later, in January 2018, workers with the Fore Group were hired to clean out the mansion after the pipes burst. The outlet reports that no one has lived at the mansion since December 2017.
The current owner of the home, David Ford, allowed police to search the property last year in connection with Jennifer’s disappearance. Although authorities apparently visited the property, they never obtained a search warrant and didn’t search the home’s septic tank at the time, as they had done with searches at other properties. They also did not utilize cadaver dogs at the time.
“I told them, ‘whatever you need to do if it helps find the missing mother of five children,’ ” Ford said.
The property sits around 1.5 miles from Fotis Dulos’ Jefferson Crossing home. Cellphone records indicate that Fotis Dulos had movement between Jefferson Crossing and a property he had been developing off of Mountain Spring Road on the day Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
Investigators think Dulos drove to the Mountain Springs property in a red truck on May 24, 2019, to clean up after going to Jennifer’s house in New Canaan earlier that day to kill her.
Fotis Dulos’ former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, who spoke publicly this week for the first time since Jennifer’s disappearance, told police she saw her ex cleaning a red truck shortly after Jennifer vanished. The truck apparently belonged to an employee.
“To those who are quick to judge people they do not know. Let me say this: it is possible to misjudge others,” Troconis wrote in a Spanish statement this week.
“Whether or not Fotis Dulos was capable of doing the things the police and prosecutors accused him of doing, I do not know, but based on what I have learned in the last year, I think it was a mistake to have trusted him.”
Security footage captured Jennifer walking into her home at around 8:30 a.m. Authorities noted that Jennifer’s SUV left her residence at some point on May 24, but they think Fotis Dulos was behind the wheel.
Fotis and Jennifer Dulos were in the process of a tumultuous divorce and a bitter battle for custody of the five children when she disappeared. Fotis Dulos was named a suspect after investigators found security footage of both him and Troconis dumping items off at numerous different trash cans at various businesses.
Both Dulos and Troconis were arrested in June 2019 after authorities said the pair tampered with evidence. According to the arrest affidavit, investigators found, in part:
- Bags of blood-stained clothing and sponges that Dulos allegedly dropped into trash cans at businesses in Connecticut
- Stains of blood on Jennifer’s garage floor
- Blood spatter in numerous areas of Jennifer’s home
- Dulos’ DNA mixed in with Jennifer’s blood on her kitchen faucet
- Obvious attempts to clean up the scene
- Altered Connecticut license plates that belonged to Dulos
- Security footage of Dulos driving his Ford pickup to various locations, dropping trash bags into different public trash receptacles
- Security footage of Troconis “leaning out of the passenger seat of the Ford pickup and either placing something on the ground or picking up an item”
- Blood DNA that matched to Jennifer inside the red pickup truck
Fotis Dulos Arrest Warrant by Leigh Egan on Scribd
Police arrested the pair again several months later on additional tampering with evidence charges after they uncovered more information. Both were required to wear GPS monitoring until trial.
Fotis Dulos broke the stipulations of his bond after he reportedly walked outside of his property to take down balloons and other items, left near his expansive driveway, as a memorial for Jennifer.
In January, on the morning he was due back in court to answer allegations of breaking his bond agreement, Dulos killed himself via carbon monoxide while sitting in a vehicle in his garage.
Jennifer’s five children now live with her mother in New York.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Jennifer Dulos/Handout]
