Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Utah Student Meets Mystery Person in Park, Vanishes & Did Missing CT Mom Write ‘Gone Girl’ Style Novel?

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

Beautiful Utah college student, Mackenzie Lueck, takes a Lyft to a park in the middle of the night. She allegedly meets a mystery person, gets into their car, and vanishes.AndThe lawyer for the husband of missing Connecticut mother of five, Jennifer Dulos, claims she wrote a 'gone girl' style novel, and implies she may have disappeared on her own.Nancy's Expert Panel Weighs in:Joseph Scott Morgan: Forensics ExpertWendy Patrick:   Trial Attorney John Cardillo:  Former NYPDDavid Mack:  Syndicated Radio HostAlexis Tereszcuk: Radaronline Editor Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On Thursday, June 20th, at approximately 4 o'clock p.m., we received a call from the Lueck family reporting that they had not heard from their 23-year-old daughter Mackenzie or Kenzie since early Monday morning the 17th of June when she texted her mother at 2.01 a.m. Mountain Time. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Joining me right now is syndicated talk show host Dave Mack, the missing University of Utah student. What can you tell me?

Start at the beginning. Mackenzie Luck, missing. Mackenzie arrived at the airport in Salt Lake City about 1 30 in the morning. She notified her parents she arrived. They sent a text at two o'clock in the morning. She called a Lyft driver to take her to a park, not to her home. That's the key here. Lyft driver arrives and takes her to the park where at about three o'clock in the morning, the last word we have, and all of this is coming from this Lyft driver, mind you, who the police have said is not actually a suspect right now.

All the information comes from him. He drops her off at a park at three o'clock in the morning. She meets somebody there that we have no clue who it is. we don't have any description of the make and model of the car or the individual and that's the last time mackenzie is seen okay let me just tell you right now i don't believe that because um first of all let me throw to wendy patchett right now trial lawyer author of red flags on amazon Let me understand this. Wendy, it doesn't make sense to me. This is a young girl who has never gone missing, is a college student making great grades,

you know, the apple of her parents' eye. She tells them she's going to the airport. She keeps them up to the moment about her comings and goings. And then at 3 a.m. she goes to a park to meet an unknown person. Those two things don't fit together to me. Help me, Wendy. Yeah, Nancy, you're right on the money. I watched the news conference in this case where they talk about no evidence of foul play. What you just mentioned is circumstantial evidence of foul play. The fact that a young lady with absolutely no reason to go off the grid in the fashion she did,

with midterms to take, a plane ticket to catch, a family to come home to, somehow makes the choice to take a lift to a park in the middle of the night instead of to her home. And then remember that that phone was turned off. So this is a case of intensive investigation that's continuing around the clock, every parent's nightmare, no doubt. I cannot wait, Nancy, to figure out a little more information. You know there's got to be cameras and things that caught cars coming in and out of that park

at that time of night. There can't possibly be that much traffic to try to make sense of this because you and I are on the same page here. So far, it doesn't add up. Take a listen to our friend Tim Dowd at the Salt Lake City PD. McKenzie was visiting family for a funeral in California last week and returned to Salt Lake City on a flight that arrived early last Monday morning at approximately 1.35 a.m. Mountain Time.

McKenzie then took a lift at 2.42 a.m. from the Salt Lake City International Airport to Hatch Park located at number 50 West Center Street in North Salt Lake City she arrived at Hatch Park at 2 59 a.m. detectives have spoken with the lift driver and learned that McKenzie was met at Hatch Park I'm not putting blame on the Lyft driver. Okay, they say for right now he has been cleared. So either he's telling the truth or he's not. That is what this is all going to hinge on. He says he drops the 23-year-old Utah student off at a park. He's picked her up at the airport.

She had ordered the car around 1 a.m. right when she touched down. Asked to be taken to an address in North Salt Lake. He says he dropped her off at the park where she meets a man she, quote, seemed happy to see. Gets in his vehicle. Has not been seen since she drove away with him. Why would he want to meet her at a park? I don't get it. Since that time, she's missed a wedding, a midterm, work, and has not been home to check on her cat. John Cardillo, weigh in. Well, look, that fact pattern is really, really unusual.

But what law enforcement has to do is wipe all the preconceived notions away. And so the parents see her as an honor student and a diligent daughter and someone who checks in. What law enforcement is looking at are the things the parents might not know. I'm not saying they're there, but they're going to look at does she have a history of drug use that the parents might not know about? Does she have a secret group of friends that the parents don't know about? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wendy Patrick. Okay. I'm not a shrink. That's true. But a 23-year-old girl with a job, a college career, who was planning a wedding, a midterm work, keeps a cat, keeps up with her parents, texting in throughout her trip. That does not sound like

a meth head or a dope addict to me. Yeah. And I think what John was saying is that's why you want to clear those possibilities at the beginning to make sure nobody comes back and says, oh, well, did anybody look at this? Law enforcement knows that doesn't fit the pattern. So they're going to, that's, that's the easy thing to do is to basically discount those explanations that might fit a different victim here. But once you get through that, Nancy, you're laying out all the right evidence here. How do you account for the fact that it looks like, at least at this point, this young woman made the choice to go to that park? So what explanation are we going to come up for that,

that doesn't involve somebody that she's meeting up with we don't know about. I got to tell you, thankfully, nowadays, digital footprints are easier to follow than real ones. And that seems to be the focus of law enforcement now is who did she arrange to meet there? And how can we figure out who that person was? Sure, we can find the car. That's great. But my prediction is we're also going to be able to find a digital trail of this meeting, the planning, and then we'll have a suspect. Here's our friend William Melagenes at Fox News. Listen. If there's just one part of this story that doesn't add up, where did she go at 1 a.m.

to an industrial, unfamiliar part of town? Even her friends say it's a mystery because she did not have a regular boyfriend. A week ago, Louie tells her parents she arrived safely in Salt Lake, where she's a student at the University of Utah. She takes a Lyft, not home or her sorority, but an area north of Salt Lake and hasn't been seen since.

No texts, no calls, no Facebook, car not moved from her apartment, luggage missing, missing work, a wedding, and midterm exams. For her not to reach out to me, Snapchat, Instagram, anything is very unlike her, very uncommon. She's usually in touch with me almost every day. She texted her family that she landed at the airport. She wouldn't have done that if she wanted to purposefully disappear. Kenzie, if you can hear this, we are all worried and looking out for you 24-7. So police are not saying where she went, but Lyft says her route contained no irregularities

and ended exactly where she stipulated. The driver continued providing rides that night, and police say they have no information that would lead them to believe that she has been harmed or is in danger, but they are concerned for her welfare. The bottom line, here you have someone who appears to be a serious student, a responsible daughter doing something a little out of character. What she was doing up there, who did she see? It's a missing piece. Police are not saying or not sharing. And I find it really hard to believe, John Cardillo, former NYPD, that the cops are saying the Lyft driver is cleared if he's not.

Because I think that's the kind of thing that is logged into a bigger network when they punch in your address. And when you order a Lyft or an Uber, you have to put in the address you want to go to. You're the one that puts that in. And hold on. From what I understand, from what Dave Mack has told me, we understand that cops are also looking. They know that she's single, according to her friends, but they're looking to see whether she was using dating apps or had some secret social media profile. How do you do that, John? You have to investigate everything so you eliminate them. So what they're going to look at now is just what you said, Nancy. They're going

to look at the digital trail of that particular Lyft vehicle. If that guy was only at that park for a few seconds, dropping her off, then picked up another fare a mile away, four, three, four minutes later, well, then we know that his timeline works. You remember, as a prosecutor, a timeline is everything in an investigation. So simultaneously, they're going to be looking at her cell phone records, everything about her cell phone, every incoming and outgoing call. Well, as a matter of fact, let's take a look at that. You're right, John Cardillo. Take a listen to our friend Tim Doubt at the Salt Lake City PD. Since being reported missing, detectives attempted to locate her through her phone, which has been turned off, and those efforts remain unsuccessful. Detectives have interviewed her friends and acquaintances

from school, and we have checked locations she was known to frequent. Detectives learned that McKenzie was scheduled to fly into LAX on Sunday morning, June 23rd, and worked with the Los Angeles Police Department to coordinate confirmation if she was on the flight, which she was not. Detectives have listed McKenzie in the national database as missing and are exploring all avenues of investigative techniques, including writing and serving various warrants, talking to friends and family, and checking social media. Since we took the report on Thursday, detectives have canvassed the area around Hatch Park multiple times to try and locate any video surveillance from businesses or

from residences that may have captured anything. Detectives are also knocking on doors in the area of the park to rule out that anyone there may have captured anything. Detectives are also knocking on doors in the area of the park to rule out that anyone there may have had contact with McKenzie or seen anything. Dave, what can you tell me about the search for McKenzie now? Right now, the search is actually spreading out around the park. The police have all their information coming from the Lyft driver. They've been able to get his routine or his schedule for that night. They've got it down to the point where they're in the park at about 3.01 a.m. So police are now searching for all types of video.

They're looking for surveillance video around the park area. They're looking for any type of business or residence that has a camera pointed near that park so they can try to verify the story they're getting from the Lyft driver that a man in a car picked up McKenzie. Tip line 801-799-4420. Repeat, 801-799-4420. crime stories with nancy grace a mother of five goes missing from the tony area of new haven i'm nancy grace this is crime stories thank you for being with us. And this is what we know. She, Jennifer Dulos, drops her children off at school. She's never seen again. Her car found abandoned.

Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Chaconis, have both been eyeballed by police in her disappearance. Her family says she was, quote, afraid for her life. That's what we're learning, that she was a, quote, nervous wreck after filing for a divorce from husband Fotis Dulos, her husband of 13 years. Now, according to police, over 30 items of clothing and sponges bloodied have been found on a four-mile stretch in Connecticut. That DNA apparently matching up to Jennifer Dulos but in the last hours we learn according to the husband's lawyers that the missing mom, Jennifer Dulos, writes a Gone Girl-style novel.

And as you will recall, the Gone Girl movie, hit movie, was all about a wife that staged her own disappearance and return. Long story short, straight out to RadarOnline.com's Alexis Tereszczuk, investigative reporter. What can you tell me, Alexis, about this missing mom, Jennifer Dulos, writing a Gone Girl-style novel? So her estranged ex-husband's attorney is claiming this. He said, without saying who gave it to him, he said they were given a dark, dark novel that Jennifer had allegedly written, and they said that it was a Gone Girl-style book. What that means is it's a wife who fakes her death and frames her husband for the death by leaving blood evidence in the house. And that's what they're saying, that they have found this

book that she, they say that she wrote this this missing mother of five five children at home and she writes a book about taking her death and then all of a sudden her husband's attorney has this book the husband's lawyer also claims that she jennifer dulos has had a history of disappearing what do you know about that this is what this attorney has said that she's had a history of disappearing. What do you know about that? This is what this attorney has said, that she's had a history of disappearing, but her family says that this isn't true. She has five kids. She's a devoted mother. She has been fighting in court for full custody of these kids. Everyone who knows her says that this isn't true. Yeah, Alexis, according to husband Fotis' lawyer, Jennifer wrote a 500-page Gone Girl-style script many years ago,

and he is now claiming she had a, quote, troubled past and, quote, struggled with drugs her whole life. That's interesting because he's had five children with her, and I don't recall him ever calling DFAX or causing any disturbance about the mom using drugs or ever having any problem leaving his children alone with her. Nope, none whatsoever. This is, according to her family, this is coming from out of nowhere, that these are really dirty tactics to blame a victim,

and they've never heard of any of this. And this novel that she wrote, she is a New York University NYU graduate in literature, and she loves to write, is what her mom has said so this is just an old story that she wrote now according to Jennifer's loved ones they say she was afraid for her life and was a nervous wreck their lawyers claim that this suggestion that she had written a gone girl novel is just a desperate attempt to slander Jennifer. Right now, cops have released footage from inside a Hartford trash facility.

And in that facility, you see a guy that looks a lot like the husband, Fotis Dulos, throwing away what many believe is evidence. Alexis, what can you tell us? Fotis, her ex-husband, was captured on video 30 times, depositing what the police have said and sources have said was evidence. It included bloody clothing, sponges that have been connected back to Jennifer.

This is all what sources are saying. And they have been searching the trash in this town. They are meticulously searching. This is a huge trash landfill, but they have said, the authorities have said, we know exactly what we're looking for. We know when it came here. We know where it is and we are finding everything. And they said, even the littlest bit of evidence they have, they're sending it to the medical examiner. They have dogs out there that are trained to search, to find body fluid, blood, anything human related, and they are going to find

everything they can to help connect them to this case. To syndicated talk show host Dave Mack. Dave, I want to start at the beginning. Where did she go missing? When did she go missing? She dropped her children off at 8 a.m. The next thing we know is that she missed an 11 a.m. appointment. At 12 noon, the cleaning lady came by and there was nobody home. So the police have tightened the timeline down to the last time she was seen. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Dave Mack, sorry, but I've got to isolate something you just said. She dropped the children off at school 8 a.m. And let me just tell you, these people aren't slouches. They live in a very upscale area, possibly one of the most expensive areas outside of 90210.

It's around the New Canaan area of Connecticut. And I learned, living in New York, that all the rich people would leave after work and take a train to New Canaan. I mean, they're really, really wealthy people. So I can't identify where the woman was living. The husband was living in a $4.3 million mansion, but they had split up. Long story short, this is where I'm going with this, Dave Mack. 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. With me, Dave Mack, Syndicated Talk Show host. Joe Scott Morgan, I need you on this one. You know, when I'm up making a cup of hot tea first thing in the morning at about 5 a.m.,

I do not expect a kidnap to go down. What I'm saying is I've been prosecuting for many, many years, and it's much more unlikely for a violent crime to occur first thing in the morning. Now, this is just anecdotal for me, but it's rare when you see a kidnap or a murderer or a violent crime occur first thing in the morning. What is that? I always say I felt perfectly, perfectly safe going out and hand delivering subpoenas first thing in the morning because all the dopers would still be asleep like vampires. So what is it? The crimes do happen, but it's very rare first thing in the morning.

Yeah, you're right, Nancy. drug task force like you had stated they will they will go and serve warrants at these violent offenders homes generally at that period of time because you know these people are not going to be out of the bed by that time oh oh h-e-double-l no because they've been up all night long breaking the law selling dough driving around town trying to steal things and arm rob you can set up a whole battering ram outside a doper's door at 6 a.m they they won't know anything's going on they they're dead to the world till about 3 p.m so can i just get a yes no on that joe scott yes so dave matt you're telling me she goes missing between 8 and 11 she either wanted to to disappear and get away from her life mighty early in the morning,

and we don't have any signs of her clothes being packed or a bus ticket, a plane ticket, nothing like that, do we, Dave? When the police actually went to her rented home in New Canaan, they found traces of blood and obvious signs that it had been cleaned up so that the maid could not realize what had happened. So I'm assuming they used luminol or something along those lines to determine that it was enough blood. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who is they? Who used luminol? I'm sorry, the police. The police all converged on her home to try to find her. And again, we've got an 8 a.m. dropping off at school. By 11 a.m., she misses an appointment. And by 12 noon, the maid says there's nobody here. When the police show up to investigate, they find traces of blood at such a level that they believe it had been cleaned up in an effort to conceal it from the maid when she arrived at noon. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Welcome back. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. In the last hours, a bombshell in the search of Connecticut mom, Jennifer Dulos, a mom of five we're now learning from sources connected to her husband she Jennifer wrote a quote Gone Girl style novel Gone Girl as you know a hit movie about a woman who orchestrated her own disappearance and it made to look as if her husband had murdered her wow okay he the defense lawyer is also suggesting jennifer has disappeared before and lived for years under a false name okay i find that really hard to believe with five children that she's living separately from them under

a false name. To Alexis, tereschuckradaronline.com, just give me a capsulization for those just joining us about what is the movie Gone Girl about? Who starred in it? Gone Girl starred Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, and she was his wife who faked her death. We didn't know that in the beginning of the movie. He just came home. She was missing blood. Everywhere police found lots of hidden evidence that would only point to him as the murderer. It ends up that she faked her death. She had run away.

All things happened to her. She ended up coming back before he got the death penalty as you all know jennifer filed for divorce in 2017 has been locked in an acrimonious legal battle for custody of their twin boys another set of twins boy girl and a daughter all the children very young between 8 and 13 years old jennifer had in court documents, I am afraid for my family's safety. Wow. To get an idea what she looks like, to me, she looks a little bit like Jennifer Garner. I'm trying to figure this all out. Alexis, what more can you tell us? For the last two years, Jennifer has been fighting Fortas for custody of her five children. In multiple court documents, she has claimed that she's afraid for her life.

She's afraid of him. He is somebody that she really feels like could really do harm to her and the children. And she has been begging a judge to give her custody of the children. Listen. 9-1-1, what's the location of your emergency? Yeah, I'm worried about my wife and kids because they left to go to New York, and I haven't been able to get in touch with them. Okay. They were going to New York.

What's the license plate on the car? Excuse me? What's the license plate on the car? I have to get this for you. Okay. Who's the car registered to? It's registered to my wife's name, Jennifer Dulos. Spell the last name for me.

Dulos, D-U-L-O-S. Jennifer? G-A-E-N-N-I-F-E-R? Yes. Your hair or date of birth? It's September 27, 1968. They were driving with, uh, with our baby fear. I can give you a whole car as well.

Okay, what kind of, hold on, hold on. What kind of car were they driving? It was a Range Rover. It was a Range Rover? Yeah. Hold on, let's see. Uh, black, 2016 black Land Rover Range Rover? Yep. black, 2016 black Land Rover Range Rover. You just heard part of a 911 call from 2017 where

the husband is calling police. Fotis Dulos, the husband. Okay, why is there a 2017 911 call? What is that, Dave Mack? Nancy, the Dulos marriage was very contentious, and Jennifer actually filed for divorce in 2017 2017 and that's when that call was made she actually left with the kids to New York but she went to get away from him to hide from him because she feared that when she served the papers according to what she wrote that he would be violent uh towards her so she actually knew this was going to happen it was all filed with the uh with the court and when he called when he called 911, he hadn't been served the divorce papers yet. He didn't know where his wife had gone.

He got the divorce paper after that 911 call. Let's take a listen to more of it. 911. When were they supposed to be there? They were supposed to be there. Hello? Okay. Okay, what's her cell phone number? Hello? I can give you the address as well of the apartment. Okay. But the road line is not answering.

They're not answering their cell phones. Okay, what's their cell phone number? It's 860-604. 604? No, 604. Yep. Okay. 9506.

Okay, you keep breaking up, sir. I need you to hold the phone to your face because I keep hearing you really far away. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just nervous. 860-604-9406 that's my wife's cell phone number okay and who's the other person that's with your wife and uh it's the baby today her name is lauren lauren laura do you know her last name yes He goes on to list all five children missing, five children all gone with her. This is after she files for divorce, but that was way back in 2017. To Dr. Patricia Saunders, psychologist joining us out of New York, what about it? That telephone call that Duluth made saying that his family was missing was the night before he was actually served the divorce papers. He sounds surprisingly calm on the 911 call. that Jennifer had made was she listened to years of sickening revenge fantasies from her husband,

planning harm, physical harm, to people who he felt had wronged him. So she had stated that she was afraid of her husband and that he would find some way to get revenge for her divorcing him. You know, Dr. Patricia Saunders, you know my husband, David, very, very well. And all the time I've known him, which goes all the way back to college, I've never once heard him talk about revenge, ever. I mean, you know, he's in business and business deals go up and business deals go down.

And sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I've never once heard him say i'm gonna get that guy her family says she was quote afraid for her life that's what we're learning that she was a quote nervous wreck after filing for a divorce from husband fotis doulos her husband of 13 years quote she knew how enraged he was that she took this step that is filing for divorce. Now, there's been quite an upheaval amongst the family because Jennifer is missing her vehicle found. To Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor of Forensic at Jacksonville State University, let me ask you a question. It seems to me that if she dropped her children off at school at 8 a.m. and then you find blood that seemingly is cleaned up in the home,

that says to me she came back from taking them to school. And I'm wondering if she stopped anywhere along the way, McDonald's for a cup of coffee, the grocery store, whatever's open at 8 a.m., came into the home. And that's when the attack occurred because her car by 11 a.m. has been found abandoned. Yeah, I think so too, Nancy. And I think that whoever's involved in this, they have to know her timing. They have to know that she would have taken those kids to school, and then they would have had to have had access to this area in which this blood is found. And this is going to be

essential. I don't know what you're saying about access. They could break in or get in with a credit card at the door for falling as she left the door unlocked. But as far as timing, I believe that's when the incident occurred. I mean, it had to if that blood wiped up is related to her disappearance. In the last hours, we learned that the husband has given DNA samples straight out to David Mack. There have been a lot of breaks in the case. husband Fotis Doulas and his girlfriend, Michelle Trokonis, who's where they were both taken into custody and charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in relation to the disappearance of Mrs. Doulas. Okay, that's not good. Because if they are in any way trying to cover up or tamper with evidence or keep police from finding evidence, why would they want to do

that unless they've got something to cover up? Now, a defense attorney will argue tampering with evidence or obstructing police does not a murder make. But if they're, what other reason would they cover up evidence or tamper with evidence or obstruct police in their investigation, Dave Mack? You know, what we've got now is we've mentioned many times about the blood being cleaned up at the new Canaan rental home that Mrs. Dulos was living in. Well, they've gotten the DNA broken down from that. And prior to his arrest, Mr. Dulos actually had given a DNA sample and hair follicle samples that they're running against some of the other evidence that they found. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, a blockbuster in the search for a

missing mom, Jennifer Dulos. Her family says she was, quote, afraid for her life. That's what we're learning, that she was a, quote, nervous wreck after filing for a divorce from husband Fotis Dulos, her husband of 13 years. Quote, she knew how enraged he was that she took this step that is filing for divorce. Now, there's been quite an upheaval amongst the family because Jennifer is missing. Her vehicle found not long after she had dropped her children off at school. Jennifer has gone missing. Surveillance footage catches the couple, husband, and girlfriend making 30 stops at trash receptacles in Hartford the night Jennifer goes missing.

We believe disposing of bags filled with items including Jennifer's blood-stained garments and bloody sponges. Fotis Dulos' DNA also found mixed with Jennifer's blood on the kitchen sink faucet in her home. Now hold on just a moment. His DNA found mixed with her blood on a kitchen sink faucet in her home. See, here's my problem with that, Alexis. Many defense lawyers will argue it's not uncommon to find an occupant's blood in the home, especially in the kitchen, if you cut your finger. All right. But they have been locked in a bitter custody dispute. Why is his DNA there? And coincidentally, exactly where her blood is. See, that's a problem for me. That's not where he lives. That's not a home he occupies. His DNA should not be on a kitchen faucet where her blood is, Alexis. And he hasn't lived in this house in two years. They don't live

together. He's not, they're not friendly. So there's no reason for his DNA to be in the house any longer. Obviously, it could be. It lasts a long time, but to be right there on the kitchen faucet, you wash that kitchen faucet 20 times a day every time you use it. And so there's no reason for his DNA to be there. And he and his girlfriend getting caught on video

30 different times disposing of stuff. Nobody normal that has nothing to hide is doing that. You're not throwing your trash out in 30 different places. That is very suspicious. Again, the lawyer for the husband claims that Jennifer Dulos penned a 500-page Gone Girl-esque manuscript, which he admits he has never read. They are now claiming that she has, quote,

quite an imagination and motives to hurt Mr. Dulos. You know, I find it really hard to believe that this mom would be away from her five children, that she has been battling so acrimoniously for so long. This 500-page manuscript, according to her friends, it, quote, has nothing in common with Gone Girl. It was a novel, like most of her writing has at the heart of it, about a loving relationship. That's what they say the novel was about.

Back to Alexis Terezchuk, investigative reporter with RadarOnline.com. Explain what's happening now. So Jennifer's ex-husband and his girlfriend were actually arrested. They were taken into custody by the police in connection with tampering evidence and so misleading an investigation. That is the only charge that has been leveled against them so far. According to the husband's lawyer, that missing Connecticut mom of five, Jennifer Dulos, had written a Gone Girl script.

Why is that significant? A Gone Girl novel. Because Gone Girl is about a woman, a married woman, that stages her own apparent murder and disappearance, pointing the finger at her own husband. And then she miraculously shows up at the end, but you don't know till the very end he's about to be arrested for murder. We learned that, according to sources, the husband, Fotis Dulos, was very hard on the children, especially when it came to water skiing, forcing them to compete. Several of the children were nationally ranked ski competitors. And, of course, cops have searched a lake

where Jennifer Dulos' children were allegedly forced to water ski. To Alexis Sherezchuk, Alexis, what can you tell me about state police searching a lake in Connecticut where a strange husband of Jennifer Dulos allegedly forced their children to practice water skiing, including the use of sonar equipment to scan the lake off Old Farms Road in Avon, and that's a very wealthy suburb of hartford what can you tell me about forcing the children into competitive water skiing in her divorce documents jennifer claimed that her children no longer wanted to water ski they did not want to be competitive water skiers but they

were too afraid of their father to tell him that they didn't want to do it she says that he forced them to do it and in fact one time when one of her sons said he didn't want to ski anymore, the dad took the water ski and threw it against the rocks and broke it. She said even the children were afraid. They hated going there. So police descended upon this lake, searched it. They used top of the line equipment to see if there was any way that possibly her body could be in this lake.

They were looking for evidence there because it was something that was so connected to the family, so they searched there. Alexis, members of the Connecticut State Police and major crime units have been painstakingly digging through mounds of trash inside a trash facility. They've systematically sorted through over 600 tons of trash in a search for Jennifer Dulos. What can you tell me about that, Alexis Tereszczuk? The state police have said they looked on the videos where they saw Jennifer's ex-husband and girlfriend dumping the trash everywhere. They know exactly where this trash went, so they have tracked it down. They're at the big dumpster facility, and they are searching through it. They are very meticulous about it.

This isn't just having to search through pounds and pounds of trash that they don't know. They know this came from the area where these videos showed them dropping trash in these receptacles. So they are using dogs that have been trained to search for human remains, for blood, for any sort of anything that connects them to a crime scene, human remains. So they are using them and they are having actual people. They're searching there, like 12 officers, 15 hours a day are in there. These conditions are horrific.

This is just trash piled high to the ceiling. But they are looking for everything they find. Even if they think it's the smallest thing, they're sending high to the ceiling, but they are looking for everything, everything they find, even if they think it's the smallest thing, they're sending into the lab to make sure that they have covered every base because they're looking for any evidence of where Jennifer could be. If you have information about the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos right now, her children are being kept under armed guard with their grandparents. Please call the Canaan Police. Dial 203-594-3500. Repeat, 203-594-3500.

We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. What do you love most in the world? Your children. What will you do to protect them? Anything. I sat down with the smartest people I know in the world on matters of child safety,

finding missing children, fighting back against predators. And what I learned is so important, powerful, and information so critical. I want you to have it. I want them to have it. Go to crimestopshere.com for a five-part series with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child. Give that as a gift, not another onesie. Find out how to protect your child when you're out at the mall or the store or the grocery, in the parking lot, at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters and daycare, even online.

Join Justice Nation. Go to crimestopshere.com. This is an iHeart Podcast.