Fotis Dulos, Husband of Missing Mom Jennifer Dulos, Dead at 52
Fotis Dulos, the husband of missing Connecticut mother Jennifer Dulos, died at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx two days after attempting suicide at his home Tuesday, his attorney said. Dulos was 52 years old.
Earlier this month, Dulos had been arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping in connection with the death of his wife, Jennifer, a mother of five who disappeared last spring. Jennifer’s body has not been found.
On Tuesday, Dulos was air-lifted to the hospital after he was found unconscious in his garage, having apparently suffered the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. He had just learned that he would be set to appear in court for an emergency hearing regarding an issue with his $6 million bond, which could have led to his bond being revoked and him being jailed. “The potential for a bond revocation was devastating news,” his attorney Norm Pattis said on Tuesday. Although reports initially suggested he was dead, he was listed as in critical condition until he passed away on Thursday.
Dulos had pled not guilty to his wife’s murder. Pattis told reporters that he did not believe his suicide constituted an admission of guilt: “We say it was more of a conscience overworn with the weight of the world that was too busy to listen and that wanted a story more than it wanted the truth.”
Jennifer Dulos was reported missing last May after missing a number of appointments in New York City. She was last seen dropping her kids off at school in New Canaan, Connecticut. Fotis Dulos’s DNA was later found in her home and her blood was found in her sink. Jennifer’s abandoned car was also found a few miles from her home, and her blood was found in the car.
Almost immediately, Fotis Dulos was considered a suspect in his wife’s disappearance, as the two had been embroiled in a highly contentious custody battle following their separation. In court documents, Jennifer Dulos alleged that her estranged husband had a violent temper: “I am afraid of my husband,” she wrote in an a 2017 affidavit. “I know that filing for divorce and filing this motion will enrage him. I know he will retaliate by trying to harm me in some way.”
Police later recovered surveillance footage in Hartford, Connecticut, of two people resembling Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis throwing out garbage in dumpsters around the city. (Troconis and Fotis Dulos’s friend Kent Mawhinney have also been charged with conspiracy to commit murder earlier this month.) Authorities later recovered gloves, cleaning supplies and clothes in the bags, reporting that Fotis’ DNA was found on the items along with that of his estranged wife.
Despite the preponderance of evidence pointing to his guilt, Fotis Dulos maintained his innocence in a September 2019 interview with Dateline; he said he had nothing to do with his wife’s disappearance, and that he believed she was still alive. (His attorney at one point suggested she had orchestrated her own disappearance in a Gone Girl-inspired scenario.)
In a suicide note found at his home, Dulos “declared his innocence of the infamous and heinous crimes that the State has accused him of,” his attorney said in a motion filed on Thursday to preserve evidence.