A shocking new twist has emerged in the murder prosecution of Fotis Dulos, as his civil attorney’s wife claims that the two men also plotted to kill her in a complicated scheme reminiscent of the Hitchcock thriller Strangers On A Train.
In voicemail recordings released on Tuesday, Dulos is heard making plans to meet with attorney Kent Douglas Mawhinney’s wife just days before his own wife Jennifer disappeared on May 24 in Connecticut.
Before they were both arrested in Jennifer’s murder last week, Mawhinney represented Dulos, a luxury home developer, in the $2.5 million lawsuits that his mother-in-law had filed against him.
At the time, Dulos, 52, and Mawhinney, 53, were both involved in bitterly contested divorces, and Mawhinney faced criminal charges after his wife accused him of spousal rape last January. That case is still pending, and Mawhinney pleaded not guilty, insisting that the sex was consensual.
Mawhinney’s wife told police she believed Dulos was working with her estranged husband ‘to get rid of her,’ according to court documents — raising the possibility that the two men arranged some kind of sick trade, following police allegations that Mawhinney was supposed to falsely alibi Dulos the morning Jennifer disappeared, and may have even secured a makeshift grave in the plot.
Fotis Dulos walks free on $6 million bond last week . In new voicemails he is heard making plans to meet with his attorney’s wife just days before his own wife Jennifer disappeared
Civil attorney Kent Douglas Mawhinney is seen at arraignment. His estranged wife believes Dulos was plotting with Mawhinney to ‘get rid of her’
Jennifer Dulos (above) disappeared on May 24 and her body has never been found
Dulos briefly met with Mawhinney’s wife at Max’s Oyster Bar West Hartford on May 19, according to the warrant, and then contacted her on May 20 and May 21 — three days before Jennifer vanished.
In the new voicemail messages released by WTIC-TV, Dulos is heard trying to make plans to meet with Mawhinney’s wife.
‘Hi… this is Fotis Dulos from Fore Group. I just wanted to reach out to you. When you get a chance my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.’
In another recording he says, ‘Hi… It’s, uh, Fotis Dulos. Hope you’re doing well. Uh, it’s Sunday morning, mid-morning, and I’m just trying to touch base with you to see what the plan is so I can plan my uh afternoon, evening accordingly. OK. Call me back. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.’
Mawhinney’s wife’s attorney, Zenas Zelotes, said the voicemails were the start of a suspicious plot to get her to Dulos’ home in Farmington.
However, she was immediately skeptical, and didn’t understand why Dulos, whom she barely knew, was suddenly trying to mediate in her contentious divorce battle.
‘This is not a close family friend, this is not a relative, this is not the type of person who you would expect to reach out and try to mend a marriage,’ Zelotes told the Fox affiliate.
Fotis Dulos, seen with his crack legal team, is arraigned on murder and kidnapping charges
Fotis Dulos arrives home on Thursday evening escorted by two officers. He was released on bail two days after being charged in the murder of his wife Jennifer.
Dulos arrived at home in a different car that he left court in. He drove directly into his garage and then entered his house
In August, Mawhinney was charged with violating the terms of a protective order by using Fotis Dulos to contact his own estranged wife.
Arrest warrants released last week revealed that cops believe that Mawhinney, as well as Dulos’ 45-year-old girlfriend Michelle Troconis, conspired with Dulos to kill his wife Jennifer by allegedly concocting alibis for him.
Jennifer, a mother of five, disappeared from her home in New Canaan on the morning of May 24. Police believe she was murdered between 8.05am and 10.25am —but her body has never been found.
According to the warrants, cops believe that Dulos woke up at 4.20am, when his phone alarm went off, and drove the 70 miles from his home to Jennifer’s in a borrowed car with doctored license plates.
Both Troconis and Mawhinney were supposed to provide part of Dulos’ alibi that morning, investigators believe.
In police interviews, Troconis initially claimed that she and Dulos woke up at 6.40am and had intimate relations before she made breakfast. In subsequent interviews, her story changed when she was confronted with evidence, the warrants said.
Troconis also initially told police that she last saw Dulos that morning around 8.15, as he was meeting with Mawhinney in the home office at Dulos’ $4.2 million mansion in Farmington.
Michelle Troconis, center, is arraigned on conspiracy to commit murder charges last week
Jennifer (left) filed for divorce in 2017, and Fotis Dulos became romantically involved with Michelle Troconis (with him right at a work event)
Mawhinney’s own statements to investigators were ‘frequently vague or evasive, at times self-contradictory, and otherwise suspicious’ according to his arrest warrant.
Mawhinney initially said there was no meeting with Dulos that morning, then said a meeting had been scheduled but that he didn’t go.
In a second police interview, Mawhinney claimed that he’d suffered a concussion on May 25, the day after Jennifer’s disappearance, and had no memory of seeing either Troconis or Dulos on the day in question. He also said his phone had broken in the fall and had to be replaced.
Mawhinney continued to deny having contact with Dulos or Troconis on May 24 — despite phone records show that Dulos called his phone that evening, while police believe Dulos and Troconis were driving around Hartford disposing of evidence.
‘I don’t remember having contact with him [Dulos]. If there’s a phone call I guess I did. But I don’t remember having contact with Fotis,’ Mawhinney told cops, according to the warrant.
Police also connected Mawhinney with an apparent makeshift grave that was discovered soon before Jennifer disappeared, but never used to dispose of remains.
On May 18, about a week before Jennifer disappeared, members of the Windsor Rod & Gun Club in East Granby came across a hole two feet wide, six feet long and three feet deep in a restricted area of the grounds.
Witness Jay Lawlor said he uncovered an ‘area of disturbed ground’ while walking through woods with his friend Lee McKay during a hunting trip for his birthday.
He described the hole – which was covered by ‘two barbecue grill grates’, small branches and leaves – as ‘100 per cent a human grave’, arrest warrants state.
Attorney Kent Mawhinney was arraigned on conspiracy to commit murder charges in the case of missing mother of five, Jennifer Dulos, in Stamford Superior Court last week
Inside the ditch, Lawlor found a blue tarp and two unopened bags of lime. Quicklime is frequently used to prevent odor from decomposition that attracts flies and animals.
Lawlor and his friend, worried that someone would fall into the concealed hole, moved the leaves and grill covers hiding it so that it was clearly visible.
According to the warrant , Lawlor ‘shrugged off’ the strange find until he heard that Mawhinney, who helped found the hunting club and purchase the land it owned, was ‘involved in that Dulos case’.
Mawhinney, who at that point was no longer a member of the hunting club, allegedly asked a member about accessing the property, which is secured by fencing and a logging chain, in March and April. The warrant claims he was then told of a hidden key.
Cellphone records placed the lawyer near the site of the hole on March 29 and May 31, according to police.
Lawlor went back to the site in June and discovered the hole was filled in and covered ‘as neat as a pin’.
Investigators searched the area, and found evidence that the hole was filled in, but a thorough search revealed no human remains.
Mawhinney is currently being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center pending bail of $2 million.
Dulos walked free on $6 million bond last week, and Troconis also posted her bail of $1.5 million. Both are currently on house arrest and subject to GPS ankle monitor tracking.
Dulos, Troconis and Mawhinney have pleaded not guilty in the case. Dulos’ criminal attorney, Norm Pattis, has said he believes that the state’s case is exceptionally weak.
‘We categorically deny that Mr Dulos had any involvement in the disappearance of his wife, and we defy the state to prove that she is actually dead,’ Pattis said last week.
Pattis said that a jury would hear an explanation for the state’s forensic evidence — including bloody zip ties, gloves and other items — ‘from Fotis himself’, implying that the accused murderer plans to testify in his own defense at trial.
Dulos is due back in court on February 28. Troconis is due in court on February 7, and Mawhinney is set to appear on February 20.