Federal Bureau of Investigation

Blood Found Inside Home of Missing Connecticut Mom, Arrest Affidavit for Estranged Husband Reveals

Jennifer Dulos, a 50-year-old mother of five, disappeared on May 24 after dropping her kids off at school

What to Know

  • The estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mom, as well as his girlfriend, did not enter pleas at their arraignments Monday
  • Jennifer Dulos, a 50-year-old mother of five, disappeared on Friday, May 24, after dropping her kids off at school; she remains missing
  • FBI evidence teams flocked to Waveny Park again Monday; it's near the spot where the missing woman's abandoned black SUV was found

UPDATE: Search for Missing Mom Turns to Hartford Waste Facility

The blood of a missing Connecticut mother of five has been found on various items tossed in different locations, and blood spatter was found in her home, an arrest affidavit for the estranged husband charged in her disappearance reveals.

The document says the items left by Fotis Dulos, who has been in the midst of a contentious divorce and child custody battle with missing mother of five Jennifer Dulos, were found inside five trash bins and tested positive for his wife's blood.

Jennifer Dulos vanished more than a week ago, on May 24, after dropping her kids off at school. Her husband and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, face evidence- and prosecution hindering-related charges in her disappearance. They did not enter pleas at their initial arraignment on Monday, and the prosecutor said additional charges were expected.

According to the affidavit, when police responded to Jennifer Dulos' residence after she was reported missing, they found several stains on the garage floor and a vehicle parked in the garage with what appeared to be bloodstains as well as evidence of attempts to clean the crime scene.

Surveillance video captured a man matching the appearance of Fotis Dulos placing garbage bags "at over 30 locations along a more than four-mile stretch of Albany Avenue" in Hartford, with Draconis in a pickup truck. 

Clothing and other items with "blood-like" stains were recovered inside the garbage bags and were submitted to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Portection Forensic Laboratory and were found to contain Jennifer Dulos' blood, according to the affidavit. Still, there has been no sign of the mother.

A judge Monday kept bail for both Fotis Dulos and Troconis at $500,000, despite attorneys' efforts to get that amount reduced. Troconis posted bail, while Dulos remained behind bars. Both defendants agreed to GPS monitoring and to surrender their passports under the bail conditions. 

Neither of their attorneys spoke publicly and no pleas were entered. Both defendants are due back in court next week. Earlier, neither Fotis Dulos, wearing an orange jumpsuit, nor Troconis, who had on a long-sleeved striped shirt, said anything as they were led to police vehicles ahead of their arraignments. Troconis hung her head as she was lead, handcuffed, into the car.

Jennifer Dulos was reported missing around 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 24, after she missed several appointments. She had been driving a black 2017 Chevrolet Suburban, which was later found abandoned on Lapham Road, near Waveny Park, a site flooded by FBI investigators with evidence markers for at least the third time on Monday. 

Investigators have also searched a home in Farmington where Jennifer Dulos and her children, who range in age from 8 to 13 and include two sets of twins, had lived until about two years ago. She and the children left the Farmington home, about 60 miles north of New Canaan near Hartford, around the time Jennifer Dulos filed for divorce in June 2017. Fotis Dulos has continued to live at the Farmington house.

Court documents filed in the divorce case say Jennifer Dulos feared Fotis Dulos would harm her in some way in retaliation for her filing for divorce. Jennifer Dulos had primary custody of the children, with their father getting to see them every other weekend. 

Fotis Dulos was asking the divorce case judge to grant him custody of the children. In a motion filed last week, he said the five children are staying with Jennifer Dulos' 85-year-old mother in New York City and are being protected by an armed bodyguard. 

A hearing in the divorce case is scheduled for Wednesday after being postponed last week. 

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