New images reveal the inside of a vandalized mansion linked to Fotis Dulos, as Connecticut State Police spent hours at the property Thursday in their search for the dead developer’s missing wife Jennifer Dulos.
Investigators went to the extreme of emptying sludge from the septic tank of the $3 million Avon home, which they also searched inside and in a wooded area behind the property with cadaver dogs.
The house, which was gutted after it was damaged by flooding, is less than two miles from where Fotis was living in Farmington when Jennifer vanished after dropping off the couple’s five children at school on May 24, 2019.
Fotis was accused in police reports of lying in wait for her, attacking her in her home in New Canaan and then removing her body. Her remains were never found and he insisted until his January suicide that he did not know where she was.
New images reveal the inside of a vandalized mansion linked to Fotis Dulos, as Connecticut State Police spent hours at the property Thursday in their search for the dead developer’s missing wife Jennifer Dulos. The $3 million home (pictured) is located in Avon
Images from inside show the house show the vandalism, including graffiti on a fireplace
One image shows the home’s interior completely gutted after it was damaged by flooding
A stone fireplace is shown surrounded by exposed wooden studs inside the home
Another image reveals the home had a gun safe built into a concrete wall
Graffiti is seen spray painted on glass doors leading to the outside of the mansion in another image
A septic tanker arrived to drain the huge septic tank on the property on Thursday afternoon
The property’s current owner said investigators promised they would return.
‘I told them anytime, whatever they needed to do,’ says David Ford, the Stamford Advocate reports.
‘I brought them in every room and showed them every nook and cranny,’ Ford said. ‘I told them that ‘if you want to knock down a wall, go ahead.’
‘They left no stone unturned,’ he adds.
The empty property is not owned by Dulos, but his construction group had a contract to demolish it after it was damaged in a flood. No one has lived in it since late 2017. He and Jennifer rented it in 2010 briefly before Ford bought it.
In 2018, Ford hired Fotis’ company, Fore Group, to demolish it. It’s unclear when the demolition was due to begin or why it didn’t before Jennifer vanished. Fotis killed himself awaiting trial for her murder.
In June last year, police searched the property but they never obtained a search warrant to do it and instead gained entry by getting permission from the owner.
They did not bring cadaver dogs or forensic teams for the first search to look through the woods that are behind it or the septic tank, as they have done with other Dulos properties.
On Thursday, multiple cars were seen outside it and police with cadaver dogs.
The property sits far back from the road and neighbors and is next to sprawling woods. A septic tank company was spotted when it arrived to drain the 2,000 gallon, 16-ft deep tank on the property.
Jennifer Dulos vanished last May. Her estranged husband Fotis killed himself while out on bail for her murder in January
The property in Avon is owned by Dulos’ property development group. Rows of law enforcement cars were seen there on Thursday. Picture courtesy of NBC CT
The house backs on to a huge swathe of woods and is set far back from the road
The house is less than two miles from where Fotis was living in Farmington, Connecticut, when Jennifer vanished last May after dropping off their kids at school.
Fotis protested his innocence until his death, even writing in a suicide note that he hadn’t killed her.
His girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, were both charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Both are awaiting their next court date.
Fotis and Jennifer’s children are now being taken care of by her mother.
They were in the midst of a bitter divorce battle when she disappeared and Fotis claimed she had been keeping the children from him.
Jennifer had alleged in court documents that Fotis was aggressive towards her.
Their former nanny described him chasing her around the house on occasions.
Last year, police reports about the case revealed that DNA that belonged to Jennifer had been found in trash bags that Fotis allegedly dumped in public trash cans the night she vanished.
He’d borrowed an employee’s car for the day and, when it was tested, forensics teams found traces of her blood, according to the report.
Troconis initially lied to police on his behalf, claiming they had been together but leaked police reports claim she later changed her story and told police she had been covering for him.
In a statement released last month, Troconis, breaking her silence, said it had been a ‘mistake’ to trust him.
She insisted she still did not know what happened to Jennifer.
Fotis was also in a dispute with Jennifer’s family about money they claimed he owed them.
Throughout the course of their marriage, her late father lent Fotis millions to buy properties to develop them and then sell them on for a profit.
They had an agreement that he’d repay the loans once he’d sold the properties.
After Jennifer disappeared, her mother sued Fotis claiming he owed their family estate millions.
He said he was entitled to keep the money because it was part of a family agreement.
Dulos and Troconis were first charged last year with evidence tampering.
He and his attorney made comments that were widely criticized at the time, including the suggestion that she had killed herself in a Gone Girl-style plot and tried to frame him for her death.
Dulos’ company, the Fore Group, had debts totaling $7million when he died and he likely faced steep legal fees from his criminal case and his divorce and custody battle.
He was audacious in his public comments and gave an interview to a newspaper in his native Greece where he complained he’d been the victim of malicious prosecution.
The first set of arrest warrants described how Dulos allegedly lay in wait for Jennifer at the home she was renting and attacked her in the garage.
The documents state unequivocally that it is ‘strongly believed’ Jennifer was attacked in her garage then put in her own Chevrolet Suburban 2017 to be driven to the spot where the car was eventually found.
In the car, they found her phone which had been active in the location where the car was for 40 minutes before suddenly going offline.
In those 40 minutes, Fotis – who had earlier been seen in Connecticut driving an employee’s car – was nowhere to be seen.
Three minutes after Jennifer’s phone went offline, he was seen turning back onto a road, in the same employee’s car he’d been driving earlier.
The search warrants do not give any indication of what may have happened to Jennifer’s body.
When authorities searched Jennifer’s home they found blood in the garage – which had been previously reported – but exactly where in the garage remained a secret until now.
The new documents list that blood was found on the concrete floor of the garage, two garbage cans in the garage and on the passenger door of a Range Rover parked inside.
Dulos girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, who he was living with at the time, and his attorney and friend, Kent Mawhinney, are still facing conspiracy to commit murder
Jennifer’s rental home in New Canaan where police believe she was attacked in her garage
Police also found shoe impressions and said that someone had tried to clean up the blood.
Authorities also said they found traces of blood on a cellphone and a tablet that were discovered in the master bedroom of the home.
A page from the hundreds of warrants show the list of the blood stains found inside Jennifer’s garage
The search warrants reveal the lengths police went to before bringing the charges.
They have asked for countless phone records, access to Jennifer’s iCloud account and GPS information from inside her car which they think will answer the mystery of what happened to her.
The documents also reveal more about the many interviews that have been carried out between Jennifer’s disappearance and this month, when Dulos and Troconis were charged with murder.
They include one with a technician who worked for Dulos’ construction company who helped Troconis back up the contents of her phone onto a hard drive for her to give to her lawyer.
She told the technician that she wanted to avoid having photographs of her daughter on the internet and that she had already removed her Facebook page.
Surveillance footage (pictured) shows the last known images of Jennifer driving home, where police say Dulos ‘lay in wait’, after she dropped her children at school at around 8am on May 24
Dulos is shown on May 29 withdrawing $500 cash before visiting a car wash to clean his employee’s car on the day Jennifer vanished
At the time, neither Troconis nor Dulos had been charged.
Dulos in January. He maintained his innocence until he killed himself
The technician said he said: ‘It must be really weird for Fotis with Jennifer missing,’ and that she shot him a ‘weird look’ in response
He said he thought nothing of the interaction until after their arrests.
Other interviews were conducted with the couple’s nanny, Lauren Almeida, who said Jennifer was ‘very afraid’ of her husband.
Almeida recalled an incident in June 2017 when she said she found Jennifer crying in the driveway.
Jennifer told her Fotis had just tried to run her over and that she had to jump out of the way.
In the same summer, she said she watched Fotis ‘chase’ Jennifer through the house. Jennifer barricaded herself in her bedroom while Fotis pounded on the door, she said.
She said he calmed down when he realized she and one of the children were also in the room.
Almeida said Jennifer told her she did not want to call the police, however,because she was ‘very afraid’ of her husband.
She said he threatened to take the children with him to his native Greece. Jennifer’s lawyer also told police that a week before she vanished, Fotis lost another attempt to try to win unsupervised visits with the children.
On the night of Jennifer’s disappearance, even after he had been notified that she was missing, Fotis called the babysitter and asked her if she would still be able to bring the children to him the following day. It was unusual, she said, because she was never normally involved in picking them up or dropping them off.
She said that she was waiting on instructions from the police but he texted her later, asking for an update.
Fotis Dulos is transported into Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx on Tuesday after attempting to kill himself with carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage in Connecticut before a court appearance
Fotis was found in his car inside his garage. The exhaust pipe he used to try to kill himself is shown attached to his vehicle
There are multiple examples of occurrences when either Jennifer or Fotis called police for a domestic disturbance.
There is also reference to a gun that was owned by Fotis but which police wished to secure. The whereabouts of the gun is unknown, the warrants state.
Almeida was interviewed on May 25, a day after Jennifer vanished.
She revealed then that on the night of Jennifer’s disappearance, even after he had been notified that she was missing, Fotis called the her and asked her if she would still be able to bring the children to him the following day.
It was unusual, she said, because she was never normally involved in picking them up or dropping them off.
She said that she was waiting on instructions from the police but he texted her later, asking for an update. Fotis went in for a voluntary interview the same day but froze up when police said they planned to seize his phone.
He then left without answering questions.
The warrants suggest that some crime took place at a property owned by Dulos where he asked Troconis to meet him in the hours after Jennifer vanished.
He told her to bring cleaning supplies to the property – specifically a Swiffer, Clorox and paper towel.
Later, the pair drove to what Troconis described to police as a ‘creepy’ area of Connecticut where Dulos insisted on getting out of the car several times to drop bags in trash cans. It was unusual for him, she said.
Two people who match their description were seen on surveillance cameras making those stops.
A woman who also fits Troconis’ description was spotted dropping off a bag at a different trash can.
Police believe Kent Mawhinney, who was representing Fotis in a civil case against his estranged wife’s family as they sued him for $2.5million in unpaid loans, was going to help him by providing an alibi for him on the morning of Jennifer’s disappearance.
They also spoke with Mawhinney’s wife who fears the pair were plotting something against her because she had reported her husband for rape.
He had denied the charges, insisting their sex was consensual.