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Pair Charged Over Missing New Canaan Woman Plead Not Guilty

Fotis Dulos, center, is arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution.
Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool
Fotis Dulos, center, is arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution.

The two people being charged with evidence tampering in the case of a missing New Canaan woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Stamford Superior Court.

Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, both pleaded not guilty to two felony charges related to the disappearance of Dulos's estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos. She's been missing since late May.

The Hartford Courant reported that the husband's blood was found on Jennifer Dulos's kitchen faucet, mixed with her blood. Prosecutors said there was no reason for his blood to be found there.

Norm Pattis is a lawyer representing Fotis Dulos in the case.

"I would ask everyone to put aside the easy narrative here, that an angry ex-spouse took matters into his own hands to resolve a custody dispute,” Pattis said, speaking through a WFSB live-stream after his court appearance. “That didn't happen. Having said that, I don't know what happened."

Multiple media reports have indicated that Troconis, Dulos's girlfriend, has been cooperating with police in the investigation.

Police have said there's video evidence of people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis driving around Hartford's North End, making several stops, and occasionally dumping things into garbage bins or storm drains that police said were tainted with Jennifer Dulos's blood.

Pattis said it's not clear that the person in the video is his client.

"I think we can account for his whereabouts for almost all of the time,” he said. “The narrow window that it would have taken for him to drive down here and accomplish things would make it impossible for the crime to have been committed by him."

Jennifer Dulos is a mother of five. She and her estranged husband had been engaged in a bitter divorce since 2017.

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David covers education and related topics for WNPR, and also mentors high school seniors who attend the Journalism and Media Academy magnet school in Hartford as part of Connecticut Public Broadcasting’s Learning Lab initiative.