Fotis Dulos is arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution at Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk. Photos / AP
Fotis Dulos is arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution at Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk. Photos / AP
In the summer of 2017, in the midst of a bitter battle for custody of her five children, Jennifer Dulos feared that her estranged husband's gun purchase would change everything.
"I am afraid of my husband," Dulos, of New Canaan, Connecticut, wrote in a custody affidavit. "I know that filingfor divorce and filing this motion will enrage him."
Dulos believed that her husband, aided by his girlfriend, may abscond with her children to Greece.
"He is dangerous and ruthless when he believes that he has been wronged," Dulos, 50, wrote, according to court documents obtained by Fox 61.
Dulos dropped off her children for school on May 24 - then vanished, triggering a wave of searches with drones, K-9s and state police combing the affluent town for signs she was alive.
On Sunday, her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was arrested alongside his girlfriend in an Avon, Connecticut, hotel. Both were charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and hindering prosecution. They are being held on US$500,000 bail each.
Fotis Dulos, 51, and Michelle Troconis, 44, were expected in court today and could face additional charges, AP reported.
A lawyer for Fotis Dulos did not respond to a request for comment. It was not clear whether Troconis has an lawyer, or whether she was the paramour referenced by Jennifer Dulos in court documents.
It also was not clear whether Fotis Dulos is being treated as a suspect in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos; a spokesman for the New Canaan Police Department did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
Jennifer Dulos was last seen on May 24 in New Canaan, police said. Investigators later found the Chevrolet Suburban she drove.
Friends and family were left reeling at her disappearance, as relatives rushed to take in her five children.
"She would never, ever, disappear when she is responsible for the lives of five loving and energetic children," they said in a statement. "Jennifer is gentle, kind, intelligent, and funny, and above all she prioritises the health and happiness of her children."
Jennifer Dulos.
Jennifer Dulos' marriage had disintegrated years before her disappearance. In court documents, she described an unstable relationship, with her five children caught in a fierce struggle and her husband harbouring a slew of "sickening revenge fantasies" against others, including a reference to dropping a brick on a former client's home from an airplane.
Fotis Dulos had a Greek passport in the past, and Jennifer Dulos wrote that she was concerned that her children would be taken there. In 2017, she moved into a rental home after Fotis Dulos said his girlfriend and her daughter would live together in the family home.
Fotis Dulos was scheduled to spend Memorial Day weekend with his children, the Hartford Courant reported.
His supervised visitation was relaxed even though Superior Court Judge Donna Heller called him "a liar who willingly ignored court orders," notably by allowing his girlfriend access to the children, the Courant reported.
The court also ruled that he could not have one-on-one conversations with the children unless a court-authorised supervisor was present.
Fotis Dulos is also involved in ligation with his estranged wife's father, Hilliard Farber, to whom Dulos owes more than US$2.5 million, the Courant reported.
Dulos would borrow money from Farber and flip high-end homes, but he ran up significant debt, the paper said, citing court records. A home associated with Dulos was searched by investigators yesterday.
Michelle Troconis is arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution.
