A Connecticut probate court judge officially declared Jennifer Farber Dulos dead nearly three months ago after her mother filed a petition for the declaration.

Eighty-eight-year-old Gloria Farber write in her petition that the disposition of her daughter’s estate and the welfare of her five children would be adversely affected if she were to die without the legal declaration by the end of the seven years since Dulos disappeared, CT Insider reported.

Judge William P. Osterndorf, in the decision firled with the court on October 24, 2023, noted that Dulos’s body had not been found despite “extensive effforts” by local and state officials.

“To date, more than four years have passed and the body of Jennifer has not been located,” he wrote. “Neither Jennifer’s mother, children, other family members and friends have been contacted by Jennifer since May 24, 2019. The inescapable conclusion is Jennifer is deceased.”

Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his mistress, Michelle Troconis, were charged in relation to her disappearance and presumed death. Fotis Dulos committed suicide in January 2020 rather than face trial, and Troconis’s trial begins this week, as CrimeOnline reported.

Jennifer Dulos’s will left her state to her five children, according to CT Insider. The will was signed on April 26, 2017, and does not mention her husband. She filed for divorce almost two months later.

“As long as Jennifer’s status was undecided, then the children could not inherit from her or from her mother,” Farber’s attorney, Richard Weinstein, said. “We were concerned, obviously, with Mrs. Farber being 88 years of age, needing to wait the seven years.”

Farber has been caring for the children, who are now between 13 and 17, since Jennifer’s disappearance.

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[Featured image: Jennifer Dulos/handout]