Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing Connecticut mother Jennifer Dulos, has filed a motion to dismiss the divorce petition she filed before she disappeared in an effort to reclaim custody of their five children.
Fotis is currently awaiting trial on evidence tampering charges in relation to Jennifer’s disappearance. She has not been seen since May, when she was last seen alive dropping off their five kids at school.
Her body has not been found, but police have insinuated in charging documents that Fotis and his ex-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, dropped off garbage bags containing traces of Jennifer’s DNA in them that night.
He denies wrongdoing and has not been charged with her death.
Fotis Dulos has been charged with evidence tampering in his ex-wife Jennifer’s disappearance. On Thursday, he filed a motion to dismiss the divorce she filed for last year
Fotis court filing from December 26. He claims the case is now dormant because Jennifer is missing
When Jennifer vanished, the pair were in the middle of a contentious divorce which included allegations from her that she was afraid of him and that he was too strict with their children.
In the weeks after Jennifer’s disappearance, her mother Gloria Farber took guardianship of the couple’s five children.
On Thursday, Fotis filed a motion to dismiss Jennifer’s petition for divorce on the grounds that she has disappeared and has not filed any more paperwork for it.
It is unclear how it would affect him inheriting any assets of hers.
‘As such, the case is dormant and absent the participation of the Plaintiff to prosecute her case, it can no longer remain a viable action.
In the motion, Fotis asks to be allowed to look after their children again and accuses Gloria, his mother-in-law, of keeping them from him.
‘Ms. Farber has denied any attempts for the children’s aunt and her family from having any contact with the children, despite a long and positive history with these individuals,’ it says.
Jennifer Dulos vanished from this house in New Canaan, Connecticut, on May 24
Gloria is suing him separately claiming he owes their family $2.5million in unpaid loans which her late husband, Hilliard, gave him to develop his property construction business when he and Jennifer were a newly-married couple.
Fotis’ ex-girlfriend Michelle Troconis has ‘flipped’ on him and admitted to police that she made up his alibi, according to charging documents
Fotis says not only does he not have to pay them back any money, but that they owe him $1million.
He and Hilliard, he says, had an ‘excellent’ working relationship which involved money ‘going back and forth’.
Among Jennifer’s complaints in previous court records was that he had been having an affair with Michelle Troconis, his live-in girlfriend at the time Jennifer vanished.
Michelle has also been charged with evidence tampering but is thought to have turned on her boyfriend.
She told police in August that she lied in previous interviews, when she gave him an alibi, according to one arrest affidavit.
Fotis’ criminal trial will carry on next year.
He is awaiting a decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court on whether or not the gag order will be lifted.
Jennifer has not been seen since she dropped off their five children at school the morning she disappeared.
Her car was later found, but no trace of her has been.
Police believe her estranged husband ‘lay in wait’ for her at the home then left with her in some way.
He was later filmed allegedly depositing bags at various locations which, when tested later, contained traces of her DNA.
Fotis is being sued by his former mother-in-law, Gloria Farber, who says her late husband Hilliard (pictured together) gave him a $2.5million loan which he has never repaid