On March 1st of 2024, Michelle Troconis was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution, and tampering with evidence in the May 24, 2019, disappearance and murder of Jenifer Dulos. What is remarkable about this case is that the State of Connecticut managed to secure a conviction without Jenifer's body (she still has never been found) and the fact that their main suspect Fotis Dulos was never convicted of murder. Fotis Dulos committed suicide on January 30th 2020.
While there is a ton of information in this case, it is not the point of my post to go over all the details of the case. While there are still appeals, Michelle has been convicted. After going over what the state presented, I happen to agree with them. Though I will refrain from making too many comments about what I think as another defendant, Kent Mawhinney is still set to go on trial here in Connecticut. Though I will leave the fine details to be argued, I will give some of the main points of this case. Mostly because I hope that someone might give information as to where Jenifer's body might be, and to give her family closure.
The day after the murder.
According to arrest warrants, on 25 May 2019 at 2:47pm Fotis Dulos arrived at New Cannon Police department to answer questions, somewhere around 3 hours after his scheduled arrival. It was there that police were able to seize his phone and put it into airplane mode to secure the data.
Using the location data that was stored in the phone, police were able to ascertain that Fotis's phone had been in the area of Albany Avenue later in the day on 24 May 2019. Which is the day that Jenifer Dulos went missing. Law enforcement searched the camera footage of the Albany Avenue area of Hartford and found a vehicle that looked like Fotis's Ford Raptor, and a person that looked like Fotis disposing of black trash bags inside of trash bins along Albany Ave. Some of the bags were found and contained items that not only were covered in blood, but also were possible used to clean up a lot of blood. Testing of the bloody items deemed the blood to be that of Jenifer Dulos.
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| From the arrest warrant, some of the items that were found in trash bags on Albany Avenue in Hartford. |
While I can understand why some may think differently, this is a really difficult thing to get around in this case. How did Jenifer's blood end up in a trashcan in Hartford the day that she went missing? Also, what are the chances of a woman's ex significant other disposing of trash bags in the same trash cans where they found her blood, and him having nothing at all to do with it? In any event, this that brought both Fotis and Michelle into the focus around Jenifer's disappearance.
Both Fotis and Michelle were arrested on June1st, 2019 and charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. This was just a week or so after Jenifer went missing. They were released on bond and both rearrested on January 7th, 2020. This time, Fotis Dulos was arrested for Felony Murder, kidnapping and murder, and Michelle Trococnis for conspiracy to commit murder. (Kent Mawhinney was arrested with them also, but I will get into him in another post.)
Fotis Dulos would commit suicide on January 30th 2020. Just a few weeks after being charged with her murder. This would also be the time that that Fotis's attorneys would get the discovery of the state's evidence against him.
The Trial.
Four years after Jenifer's murder on January 11th, 2024 the State presented its case against Michelle Troconis. While I won't go over all the details of the case, I think an overview of the State's opinion is in order to get a clear view of where Jenifer's body might be. Which is the actual point of my post.
It seems to be the State's accretion that Fotis and Michelle had together planned to cause harm to Jenifer Dulos on May 24th, 2019. The motive for this crime being that Jenifer had moved the kids away after it became clear that Fotis was having an affair with Michelle. Other assertions have come out of their custody hearings, Jenifer had made the claim that Fotis was also pushing the kids to become professional water skiers beyond what was thought to be reasonable. While I know that there are many other factors as to the why, the fact remains that Jenifer moved the 5 children to New Canaan a couple of years before her murder.
The State's case centers around the idea that Fotis, with the help of at least Michelle Troconis planned to use one of the Fore Groups employee's personal truck in a plot to kill Fotis Dulos's estranged wife, Jenifer Dulos. That employee being Pawel Gumienny and his truck, a 2001 Toyota Tacoma.
In court, the state presented evidence that Pawel's Tacoma was shuttled from 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington Ct to 80 Mountain Spring Rd also in Farmington Ct, late in the day on May 23, 2019. The day before, Jenifer went missing. For reference, the Fore Group operated out of 4 Jefferson Crossing, where Fotis and Michelle lived. 80 Mountain Spring Road was one of the Fore Group's development properties. Which was located just a few miles away.
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| At the top of the page is 4 Jefferson Crossing. Home of Fotis Dulos and his office for the Fore Group. The end of the line at the bottom of the page is 80 Mountain Spring Road. Just 2.12 miles apart. |
The State presented in court video of that same Tacoma leaving the property of 80 Mountain Spring Road the morning that Jenifer went missing, heading in the direction of the highway at 5:30 the morning of Jenifer's disappearance. Investigators managed to obtain video footage of what looks like the same Tacoma from rest stops on the Merritt Parkway. The red 2001 Tacoma is seen in Fairfield at 6:35 am, and again at 7:05 in New Canaan.
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| Though there is no definitive answer to which way he went this gives the approximate distance between Farmington and New Canaan. The area highlighted in Red is Fairfield, where the Tacoma was spotted around 6:35am on May 24th, 2019. |
The Tacoma, seen in Waveny Park in New Canaan on May 24th, 2019.
Investigators also obtained a short clip from a doorbell camera of a person on a bike heading towards 71 Wells Lane in New Canaan. This bike can also been seen in the back of the Tacoma in some of the surveillance video taken from the highway.
Jenifer Dulos was last seen dropping her kids off at New Canaan Country School, and then shortly after driving her Suburban back to her home on Wells lane on a neighbors' security camera at 8:05am.
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| Map showing how close Well's Lane is to the school where Jenifer dropped her kids off the morning of her murder. |
The Suburban is seen again leaving 71 Wells lane at 10:25 by the same camera. This is the same Suburban that would be found in Waveny Park, a few hundred feet from where the Tacoma was seen on surveillance footage.
From there the Tacoma is seen again on the Merit Parkway going in the direction of Farmington. Then seen again at about 12:30 pulling into 80 Mountain Spring Road in Farmington from the doorbell camera across the street from 80 Mountain Spring road.
Within an hour of the return of the Tacoma to 80 Mountain Spring Road, there begins a shuffling of cars back and forth between that address, and 4 Jefferson Crossing. From the doorbell camera residence across the street from 4 Jefferson Crossing, it is observed that multiple small fires are started in the home of 4 Jefferson Crossing despite it being a nice day outside. This is indicated by white smoke coming out of the chimney, sometimes coming out and sometimes not. Indicating to police that the fire was lit multiple times.
Around 4:30 Pawel Gumienny returned to 4 Jefferson crossing at the end of his work day. His plan was to take his Tacoma, and his off-road motorcycle, home for the weekend. When he showed up to Fotis's residence, no one was there and his truck was missing. Pawel then drove down to 80 Mountain Spring Road and found Fotis and Michelle with his truck. Moved from where he had parked it earlier in the week at 4 Jefferson Crossing.
Pawel would go on to say that they (Fotis and Michelle) looked surprised to see him. At some point after showing up, Michelle left with the keys to the Tacoma. Fotis offered to lend Pawel the Fore Group truck that Pawel had been using to commute to work, but Pawel declined. Telling Fotis that he wanted to take his Dirt Bike home to go riding over the long weekend. Fotis had to call Michelle and ask her to bring the keys back to the Tacoma.
Police obtained Ring doorbell footage of Pawel leaving in his Tacoma with his dirt bike in the back of the truck.
Starbucks
Law Enforcement was able to obtain video of Fotis and Michelle stopping at Starbucks on Albany Ave in West Hartford going in the dircetion of Hartford where the items that had Jenfifers blood on them were found.
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| The line shows the distance between 4 Jefferson Crossing at the bottom, and ending at Starbucks on Albany Ave in West Hartford. |
From the arrest warrant.
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| Law Enforcement observations of the movement of the Ford Raptor and what looks like Fotis and Michelle dropping items in trash cans. |
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| The area described in the Warrant The "dip" by the Walgreens is Milford Street. The last dot to the right is Center St where the Ford Raptor turned around. The dot to the left of that and slightly up is just marking Green St. Which is the list of items from the warrent that I posted before. |
Area's that have been searched for Jenifer's body.
Since the information has already been collected and presented way better than I could I will just give the link to the Reddit post on r/jeniferdulos.
This post covers all known areas that have been searched by both Private and Law Enforcment entities. So to bring you around to where this post started, where is Jenifer Dulos's body? Will she ever be found?
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