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As police investigated, determining that Dulos had been the victim of a serious physical attack, the evidence against the husband, Fotis Dulos, appeared to mount. They traced his suspicious movement via cellphone records, found his blood in her home and uncovered footage of him dumping bloody evidence in trash cans.
Still, even as Fotis Dulos was arrested and charged twice in the case, police never accused him of attacking Jennifer Dulos.
Then, Tuesday, seven months after their investigation began, police descended onto Fotis Dulos’ house, took him away in handcuffs and charged him with murdering his wife.
Officials have not yet found Jennifer Dulos’ body. In their arrest warrant for Fotis Dulos, they said that “to date, the whereabouts of Jennifer Dulos is unknown.” They did not provide details of how she was killed or whether a weapon was used.
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Yet with the charges, officials finally provided their answer to a question that sent law enforcement drones, cadaver dogs and helicopters across Connecticut and captured widespread attention: What happened to Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five, in the hours after she dropped her children off to school?
State police charged Fotis Dulos, 52, with murder, felony murder and kidnapping. In the warrant, they said they believed that he had attacked Jennifer Dulos at her home in New Canaan, Connecticut, and had restrained her with zip ties while she was still alive.
Police seemed to suggest that Fotis Dulos was motivated by financial need. They said in the warrant that he faced nearly $7 million in debt at the time Jennifer Dulos was murdered but that his children had trust funds of more than $2 million each.
Fotis Dulos would only have had access to that money if Jennifer Dulos disappeared and he gained custody, the warrant said.
“Dulos can reasonably be expected to have been aware of these facts,” the warrant said.
Fotis Dulos’ lawyer, Norm Patis, said that Dulos “categorically” denied being involved with Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance. He also criticized the charges, saying they outlined disparate theories for Dulos’ death.
“It’s shocking that the state’s not sure what theory they’re pursuing,” he said.
Officials also charged Fotis Dulos’ girlfriend, Michelle C. Troconis, 44, and a friend and onetime lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, with conspiracy to commit murder.
“Although we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, for us there is no sense of closure,” Carrie Luft, who has been speaking on behalf of Jennifer Dulos’ family, said in a statement.
“Nothing can bring Jennifer back,” Luft, a longtime friend of Dulos, said. “We miss her every day and will forever mourn her loss.”
Throughout their investigation, detectives had kept a focus on Fotis Dulos and Troconis. Both of them were charged in June with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Another evidence tampering charge was added in September.
The two have pleaded not guilty to the previous charges against them and were free on bond before their arrest Tuesday.
Jennifer Dulos, 50 , was last seen May 24. That morning, law enforcement officials said, she drove her children to a private school in New Canaan, a wealthy community located about 45 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
Dulos returned home around 8 a.m. Then, for hours, she did not respond to text messages or phone calls and failed to show up at several appointments in New York City, according to an arrest warrant for Fotis Dulos.
Around 4:40 p.m., Jennifer Dulos’ nanny, Lauren Almeida, learned that Dulos had missed her children’s orthodontist appointment, the warrant said.
“My first thought was that Fotis did something,” Almeida told police, according to the warrant.
Investigators went to Jennifer Dulos’ $3.5 million home that evening. They found blood stains and spatters that led them to conclude she had been attacked. They also discovered Jennifer Dulos’ blood mixed with Fotis Dulos’ DNA on a faucet, as well as evidence of an attempt to clean up the scene.
As they widened their search, investigators also found Jennifer Dulos’ car abandoned about 3 miles from the house near Waveny Park, a vast expanse that was initially the focus of the search for Dulos.
Cellphone records and surveillance footage would show that on the same evening, Fotis Dulos and Troconis drove to Hartford, Connecticut, where they dumped trash bags filled with evidence, according to arrest warrants.
Among the items were clothing, a kitchen sponge, a clear poncho and four zip ties that all contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood or traces of her DNA.
Police presented a summary of their evidence to Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, Dr. James R. Gill. He determined that Dulos had sustained an injury or injuries that would have been “‘non-survivable’ without medical intervention,” according to the warrant.
Detectives first spoke with Fotis Dulos the day after his estranged wife was reported missing. The couple had been locked for years in a bitter divorce battle that involved hundreds of court filings in which the two exchanged accusations as they argued about visitation rights and custody of their children.
The couple had been married for 13 years when Jennifer Dulos initiated divorce proceedings in June 2017. At the time, she immediately asked for an emergency order that would give her sole custody of the children, saying she worried that Fotis Dulos might hurt her or the children or that he might kidnap the children and take them to Greece, where he was raised.
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The prolonged legal battle brought mounting fees. Adding to the sum, Fotis Dulos was also involved in a lawsuit with the estate of Jennifer Dulos’ deceased father, Hilliard Farber, that accused him of failing to pay back more than $1.5 million in business loans.
In the arrest warrant for Fotis Dulos, detectives used cellphone records and surveillance footage to track Dulos from his home in Farmington, Connecticut, to Jennifer Dulos’ home, about 75 miles away.
In the warrant, police said they believed that Fotis Dulos had borrowed a red Toyota truck from a work colleague on the day that Jennifer Dulos was reported missing. They believed that he drove to New Canaan with a bicycle in the back seat and parked about 100 feet from the spot where Jennifer Dulos’ car would later be discovered.
Surveillance footage in New Canaan showed a man in a hoodie and dark clothes riding a bicycle, similar to one owned by Fotis Dulos, heading in the direction of Jennifer Dulos’ home, according to the warrant.
Police believe that Dulos attacked his estranged wife, then attempted to clean the crime scene between 8:05 a.m. and 10:25 a.m., according to the warrant. Then he drove the borrowed truck back to Farmington, the warrant said.
The employee who owned the truck, Pawel Gumienny, told detectives that Fotis Dulos later took it to be washed and detailed, which both surveillance footage and Troconis later confirmed.
Gumienny also said that Fotis Dulos told him that the seats in the Toyota needed to be replaced and eventually offered replacement seats from a different car, the warrant said. Police later found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them.
The swapped seats were one of many incidents described in the warrant in which police suggested that Fotis Dulos appeared to be trying to cover his tracks.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .