Prosecutors in Connecticut’s infamous “Gone Mom” case presented evidence Tuesday that they say links defendant Michelle Troconis to the 2019 disappearance of her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos.
The evidence included a shirt, bra, zippers, gloves, plastic ponchos and other items containing what was a state police sergeant. Kevin Duggan testified that there was a “blood-like” substance on them. The items were recovered from trash bins in Hartford, where prosecutors say surveillance video shows Troconis sitting in a car with boyfriend Fotis Dulos as he threw trash into the same bins shortly after Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
Troconis, 49, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. She is accused of helping Fotis Dulos cover up the murder of his wife, whose body has never been found.
Troconis, who is not confronted with the waste in any of the videos, has pleaded not guilty and denied any involvement.
The case attracted a lot of attention and became the subject of the TV movie ‘Gone Mom’. Jennifer Dulos, 50, was declared legally dead in October. She was a member of a wealthy New York family whose father, the late Hilliard Farber, founded his own real estate agency. She was also a niece by marriage of fashion designer Liz Claiborne.
Fotis Dulos, a luxury homebuilder originally from Greece, died by suicide in January 2020 after being accused of murdering his wife.
According to Troconis’ arrest warrant, DNA from Jennifer Dulos and Fotis Dulos was found on items in the trash and Troconis’ DNA was found on some trash bags. That evidence is expected to come later in the trial.
The surveillance videos, from a town about 75 miles from Jennifer Dulos’ home in New Canaan, Connecticut, were recorded the night she disappeared but were not discovered for six days.
Video also showed Fotis Dulos placing what police said appeared to be a luggage mat near a building and dropping an envelope into a sewer drain. Prosecutors showed jurors Monday what they said were altered license plates found in an envelope in the sewer drain.
At the time she disappeared, Jennifer and Fotis Dulos were in contentious divorce and custody proceedings, limiting his time with the children. Jennifer Dulos had moved out of the family home in Farmington, Connecticut, and Fotis Dulos lived there with Troconis and her daughter.