Jennifer Dulos: Friends of missing Connecticut mom say she is the real victim and not her ex who killed himself
NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT: After no evidence surfaced about the possible whereabouts of 50-year-old missing mom Jennifer Dulos for months, her friends and acquaintances came forward in a new documentary about her disappearance to remind people that she was the real victim in the case and not her estranged husband Fotis Dulos, who was accused of kidnapping and murdering her in January and ended up taking his own life just days after posting bail in his arrest.
Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of Jennifer Dulos who vanished in New Canaan amid a contentious divorce case and child custody battle, was charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping on January 7, 2020, months after the mother-of-five disappeared on May 24, 2019. While on house arrest following the posting of bail, on January 28, 2020, Fotis tried to commit suicide by attaching his vacuum cleaner hose from the exhaust pipe to the inside of the car and rolling up his windows. He was initially declared dead at the scene before being revived and taken to the hospital. He eventually died on January 30, 2020. He left a note saying he was innocent without providing any details about where Jennifer could be.
In the documentary titled, 'Vanished in New Canaan: An ID Mystery' that aired on June 1 at 9 pm EST on Investigation Discovery, Carrie Luft, Jennifer's friend, said: "Jennifer's still missing. We need to find her. We need to piece together exactly what happened... Think it's important to remember that he is not a victim here. That he chose a course of action and the children are now left without both parents. This is a case of intimate partner violence. The victim here is Jennifer who is still missing. If people want to honor her, it's through kindness. She was incredibly kind and gentle and gracious. Jennifer will live on. She lives on through her kids."
Following his death, the prosecutors formally dropped all charges against Fotis but refused to drop charges against his girlfriend Michelle Troconis, and his lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, who were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. In his suicide note, Fotis had mentioned that Michelle and Kent had nothing to do with Jennifer’s disappearance either.
Legal analyst Ashleigh Banfield said: "This coward chooses to take his own life and not tell his own five children where their mother is... There are two people who very well might have valuable information. Michelle Troconis and Kent Mawhinney. And Michelle Troconis is a mother herself. For that matter, she should be telling the investigators everything that she knows. And for the sake of those five kids, I really hope she does."
Michelle did speak up last month, but only to reemphasize that she knew nothing about what happened to Jennifer Dulos, despite admitting during the interrogation of going with Fotis to Hartford where evidence stained with Jennifer’s blood was found. "It has been nearly a year since I first heard about the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos," she said in an audio statement released by her defense attorney, Jon L. Schoenhorn. "As a mother, I am saddened for the loss that these five children have suffered, being left without both parents in such a short period of time. But despite the way I have been treated by the police, I know nothing about Jennifer Dulos’ whereabouts or what may have happened to her. I know that under American law, I don’t have to prove my innocence, but actually to me it feels that way, during all this time while under public scrutiny."