Criminology - The Murder of Jennifer Dulos

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

In 2019, 50-year-old Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five children, disappeared. She was separated from her husband, Fotis, who had admitted to having an affair with a woman named Michelle Troconis. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance and murder of Jennifer Dulos. Fotis Dulos didn't appear very concerned that the mother of his children had disappeared. As police began to look into him, they found a mountain of evidence against Fotis and his accomplices. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 298 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good. I'm staying busy and doing some stuff around the house and getting out the outdoors. How you don't? I'm doing great. I had an interesting thing happened to me this week. I was asked to come in. to a local high school.

There's a teacher there who teaches a forensic science class, actually one and a two. And she uses the podcast as part of the class. So she asked me to come in for this leadership thing that they do. It was really amazing. I mean, these kids were smart. They asked a ton of great questions. And I just really had a lot of fun with it. That's awesome.

anytime you can help out, you know, the future leaders of America, it's a good thing. Yeah. No, I was glad I did it. I really was. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Cowgirl 521, Kelly Louise, LaDawn Turner jumped out at our highest level, and we had Madison Perkins. So a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it.

Thank you to everyone that goes out of the way to help the show. It really means a lot to us. and if you'd like to help support the show, you can go to patreon.com slash criminology to sign up. All right. Let's jump right into this week's case. And we're talking about a pretty high profile case. There was a custody battle, some jealousy, financial impacts.

But it was so tumultuous and so dangerous that it led to the disappearance and presumed murder. A 50-year-old Jennifer Doulos allegedly, at the hands of her ex-husband and his lover. Sometime in 2003, Jennifer Farber was living near Espin, Colorado. While there, she ran into a friend, Phodos Doulos, who she had met while they were both attending Brown University in Rhode Island, around 1986. They had lost touch, but found themselves easily catching up about old times.

Although they never dated while they were in college, Spark slew during this chance meeting more than 15 years later. He was in town because he was into competitive to the sports and had been there to ski. It seemed like fate had reunited them. At the time, Fodis was separated from his first wife, and Jennifer was single. It's not clear exactly when they officially started dating, but their relationship moved quickly. They had a lot of time apart to make up for her. In August 2004, just over a month after his divorce was legally finalized, Jennifer and Fodas married. She took his last name, and according to an interview with Fodis himself on

Dateline, they had two ceremonies, one in England where many of Fodas's friends and family lived, and another in New York for Jennifer's family. That same year 2004, Fodas and his sister, Renna, started a luxury home building company called Four Group, FO for FOTUS, and R.E. for Renna, who was an architect, together with the help of a vast amount of funding from Jennifer's father, Hilliard Farber. They created gorgeous custom homes. Four group even developed an entire road called Jefferson Crossing. It was really an exciting time for the couple. And they seemed to have a bright future together. The newlyweds lived together in Avon, Connecticut and began trying to start a family of their own. By 2010, they had four children, two twin boys and another set of twins. This time,

boy and a girl. And I have some friends morph who, you know, have twins. They're essentially grown now, but I remember what they went through. It was pretty tough, you know, raising twins to have two different sets of twins, though. I think that's a little bit unusual and would be a lot of work, no doubt about it. I'm trying to think back to the midnight feedings and stuff. I wonder if you'd want to hopefully they wake up at the same time and you take care of them all at once or are they going to wake up at separate times and you're going to never get a good night's sleep. But yeah, it could be a handful. Yeah, either way, it's going to be tougher. In September 2010, tragedy struck. Cleopatra Dulus, Fodos's mother was killed in an accident involving the family's

former nanny when she tried to move their large land rover to make it more accessible for everyone to get in. She thought Cleopatra had moved away from the vehicle, but she had actually bent down to inspect the headlights. The nanny, unfamiliar with this specific car, was trying to figure out how to turn on the headlights when she heard a noise. Sadly, it was the sound of the car hidden Cleopatra. She was badly injured and didn't recover. The next month, Jennifer and Vodas had another girl, who they named after Fodas's mother to honor her, though they called their youngest by her middle name. Jennifer would later write on her blog that this name wasn't exactly her choice. She wrote,

It's like when I argue that my daughter Clea and Noel could easily be Noel Cleopatra. And Photos said, if that were the case, he'd have nothing to do with her baptism or her life. Perhaps this blog entry was a glimpse into a side of Photos that Jennifer wasn't familiar with. In 2011, the Photos' 15,000 square foot family home was built at Ford Jefferson Crossing in Farmington, Connecticut.

The four group offices would also be at this address over one of the garages with a separate entrance from the home. It was ready for the Doulos family to move in by 2011. In September 2012, they hired a new nanny, Lauren Almeda, as well as her sister, Ashley. With five kids, they like to split the duties between a few different nannies. but after Lauren graduated college in May 2013, she became the full-time nanny for the family. She and Jennifer grew close. And she also saw Fodas as a mentor.

And she began to work at the four group when she wasn't busy with her nanny work. For the next few years, it seemed Fodas was busy with home building and Jennifer was busy with raising five children. It's not exactly clear. when the relationship started to deteriorate, but by March 2017, Jennifer suspected that Fodas had been having an affair, one that she thought had been going on for around a year on a vacation to Miami that same month. Jennifer's mother, Gloria, broke her foot. So they took Noel, the youngest child, back to New York with them, so that Gloria could see her doctor. Fodis, the four older children, and Lauren all stayed behind.

With Jennifer gone, Votis then moved Lauren and the children from their hotel suite to a single room at a different hotel. But the hotel switch wasn't for any kind of practical reason. It was because Fodas wanted to spend the night with his mistress, a woman named Michelle Triconis. It turns out, Jennifer's suspicions of infidelity by her husband were valid. The group all met up at a private water skiing club where both Fodas and Michelle were members. The two oldest children already knew her and hugged her, calling her Mitchie, her nickname. It was clear that they had known her for some time. This wasn't a new relationship.

The kids just didn't have any idea that their father was romantically involved with Michelle. By May of 2017, Jennifer and Fodas had agreed that their relationship wasn't working anymore. And by this point, Fodas didn't deny having an affair with Michelle. on the 30th, Jennifer filed an emergency motion for full custody of the five children after he threatened to take them degrees and never returned if Jennifer didn't give him everything he wanted in the divorce. For some reason, the emergency motion was denied despite Fodas's threats. Perhaps had that emergency motion for custody been granted to Jennifer and other precautions been taken, and what happened next might not have ever happened.

On June 19, 2017, photos called 911 to report that his wife and children were missing. He told the dispatcher that they had all headed to New York to visit the grave of Jennifer's father, Hilliard, who had passed away that January. But they hadn't returned, Jennifer wasn't answering her cell phone. It turns out that Jennifer and the kids were safe.

Jennifer had taken the children and fled to a home. She had prepared with Lauren's help, slowly moving items out of their home over time so that Fodas wouldn't notice before they made their final move. The day after his 911 call, she filed for divorce. She and the children ended up living at 69 Wells Lane in New Canning, Connecticut. By December that year, Michelle Triconis and her 12-year-old daughter had moved in with Fodas at Ford Jefferson Crossing. So we have a situation morph, one that we've seen, you know, multiple times in episodes that we've covered, you have a couple who seems to be really in love.

And financially over the years, they were doing very well. You think about a 15,000 square foot home. Okay, that's a big daddy. They had five children. But at some point, the relationship turns out. And it's not hard to think that a lot of that probably had to do with infidelity. on the part of voters. Yeah, I think that just goes to show, too,

that no matter how, well, you may be financially have a nice big home, nice cars, that problems and relationship can still pop up. And then when you've got children involved, that can always make a breakup like that even tougher because then you get into custody issues and things like that. So you can really add some fuel to the fire. Well, I think it's natural for people to look at,

you know, let's say a couple who's wealthy, they're doing really well and think, oh, wow, they got it made. Well, you know, they have the same problems that the rest of us do. Or they can have the same problems. Money doesn't mean that your relationships are perfect. It doesn't mean your life is perfect. In 2018, Jennifer's mother, Gloria Farber, filed two different lawsuits against FOTUS for unpaid loans. Fodas had received from her late husband Hilliard. She claimed that he owed $2.5 million, but Fodas claimed it was all just a gift from his wealthy father-in-law, and he didn't know anything.

By March of that year, Fodas had found himself with no custody of the children and no right to see them. In March 2019, he was given back the privilege to see his kids. kids, but only during supervised scheduled visitations. And during any visits, Michelle and her daughter were prohibited from having any contact with the Dulus children. If the visits took place at Fodos's home at Fort Jefferson Crossing, Michelle and her daughter had to leave the home.

They were living in until the children went back to Jennifer. This is something Michelle would later tell investigators was like torture. Jennifer was looking into moving to Colorado for a fresh start. Fodas had told her that the divorce was amicable, but to Jennifer, it was anything but. She wanted her life back, and she felt that going to Colorado might be good for her. There were multiple custody hearings in May 2019,

but nothing changed for Fodas. He still had to follow specific orders about how, when, and where he could see his children, with a court-appointed supervisor watching his every move during the visits. On May 22nd at 3.30 p.m., Votus arrived at Jennifer's 69 Welles Lane home for his scheduled visit with the children. He was an hour early and the supervisor wasn't due to arrive until 4.30. So Jennifer and Lauren turned him away and told him to return at the proper time, which he did.

And when he came back at 4.30, he took the children to Grace Farms, which has a recreation area and an indoor basketball court where they played together. Afterwards, they went back to Jennifer's, where Jennifer allowed Fotis to sit at a picnic table on the back patio, so he and the kids could eat the Greek salad, bread, and cake he had bought for them. During this trip, the children also admired, or at least pointed out, his newly shaved head, running their fingers across his scalp to feel the prickly short hair. After dinner, they played basketball in the driveway on a hoop Jennifer had just installed earlier that morning.

At 7.41 p.m., just a bit after the scheduled end time for the visit, Fodas headed back home to Farmington. It had been a largely uneventful visit. had tried to text photos while he was on this visit with his children. And when she saw that he hadn't read the text, she sent him an emoji of a middle finger. It seemed that Photos and Michelle were beginning to have some issues in their relationship and that she may have been jealous of the time he was spending with his kids. On May 24th, two days after this visit, Jennifer took the kids to New Cannon,

country school. At 7.57 a.m. she texted Lauren just before they all headed out. A neighbor's surveillance camera caught her 2017 suburban coming home at 805 a.m. At 1025, the same camera caught to suburban leaving. Around 1130 a.m. Lauren arrived home with four of the children. One of the girls had taken the school bus home with a friend. They had subway sandwiches that She had purchased earlier that morning and then got ready to go to their grandma Gloria's home in Manhattan. Once Lauren and the kids got inside the house, Lauren noticed a few things that were odd. Jennifer's bag was on the floor near the mudroom door. And while Jennifer simply might have taken the wallet out and not needed it,

it was still a pretty nice bag to be leaving on the floor. And it wasn't like Jennifer to leave stuff on the floor in the first place. Also, Jennifer usually on the go would quickly scarf down a granola bar and a cup of coffee. but Lauren noticed that both of these things were on the counter untouched. Lauren's first thought was that Jennifer had really been in a hurry to leave that morning. She did have a doctor's appointment in New York that morning, and the children also had orthodontist appointments. So Lauren figured that she had been running late and just skipped breakfast.

Lauren washed out the mug and put the granola bar away, but then she noticed that the paper towel holder was empty. When she went to replace it, she also realized that nearly an entire jumbo package of paper tails was missing. Instead of a 12-pack, there were just two rolls. She thought that was odd because she had just put the full package away the night before. And as she grabbed one of the rolls to put it on the holder, she wondered what the kids had gotten up to that needed 10 entire rolls of paper towels. These things began to all add up in Lauren's mind that something was off. In the garage, Lauren noticed that Jennifer's Rangerover was still parked there, even though Jennifer had told her specifically

that she planned to leave the suburban behind and drive the range rover to New York since it was easier to park in the city. Now, in addition to the other things that were off, the car situation began to nag at Lauren. At 12.43 p.m. before they left for New York, Lauren texted Jennifer. She was looking for Noel's iPad but couldn't find it and wanted to know if she could use one of Jennifer's for the long drive. Jennifer didn't reply, so Lauren decided to just take it so that she could drive the kids in peace while they stayed occupied. At 2.30, they arrived at Gloria's apartment, but still hadn't heard from Jennifer. Lauren was kind of worried, but also just wondering what could have been taking so long at the doctor. At 4 p.m., Lauren called Jennifer again.

She figured by this time, surely even a very busy mother with five kids, would have been able to sneak a text to the nanny. But the call went straight to voicemail, and it was at this point that Lauren couldn't ignore everything that had been off that day. And she knew that something was very wrong. But with five children with her, she didn't want to panic or worry them, so she tried to play it cool.

Lauren contacted a few of Jennifer's close friends, and no one had seen or heard from her. A little while later, Jennifer didn't show up to the orthodontist appointments the kids had. Not showing up for appointments was completely unlike Jennifer, especially when it came to her children. Finally, Lauren felt she couldn't put it off anymore. She needed to go to the police, and just before 7 p.m., Jennifer Dulles was reported missing

to the new Cannon Police Department. Not long after, her suburban was found parked on Lapham Road, near Waveney Park, about a mile south of her home. The lights were still in the on position. the battery was dead and the car had been left in reverse. There was what appeared to be blood spatter on the passenger side of the car. Just before 9 p.m., Lauren called Fodas basically at the request of the authorities since she had the children and Jennifer was missing. Fodas only asked about the kids and didn't ask about Jennifer at all.

He requested that Lauren have them ready for their scheduled visit on time in the morning. Lauren had refused to participate in the custody exchanges long before that due to how nasty Fodas had treated her. And this upcoming visit would be no different. Lauren had no plans of dropping them off with him. At 9 a.m. on Saturday the 25th, a detective from the New Canaan Police Department asked Fodas to come in and cooperate with the investigation. They agreed to meet around noon. but Photus didn't show up until almost 3 p.m. A detective asked him for his phone and Photos voluntarily unlocked it so that it could be placed on airplane mode.

He also revealed the passcode to the phone, 0-0-0-0. Despite not having a search warrant, the phone was immediately seized as evidence. Police were, however, able to get a search warrant about six hours later for the data on the phone. the next day around noon. Fodas showed up unannounced at Gloria Farber's apartment demanding to see the children. The building's doorman had already been warned not to let him enter. Around five hours later, Fodas texted Lauren from a new phone number asking her to give him an update on the children every three hours.

But once again, he didn't seem to have any questions about Jennifer or whether she had been found. And I found, you know, this so odd morph. I'm sure authorities did as well and people in Jennifer's life. I get it. The relationship went south. But this is still the mother of your five children. And you're not going to express even an ounce of concern for the fact that she seems to be missing. I mean, what kind of monster does that? And I know sometimes we put a lot in how somebody acts and what they say or don't say, how they don't act.

And it sometimes looks suspicious. And I know we can't always tell what somebody's thinking or what their motives are by how they act. But it definitely comes across as kind of cold and not caring and maybe suspicious. Yeah, I would think to police at the very least, it would be suspicious. because it just doesn't seem natural. I mean, even if you held a lot of animosity towards a person, at one point, you were in love and you still have five children together. You would think the thought of that person going missing,

there would be even at the basis level, some concern. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020.

Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Detectives came to believe that Jennifer had been the victim of a very serious assault in her garage. Blood was found on the park Rangerover. Some of it looked to be patterned like someone touched the car with a bloody gloved hand and spatter on the garage floor as well as the underside of the range rover. Detective showed Lauren photos of the garage and she was able to determine that two camping

pillows that the kids used and a bucket of cleaning supplies used by the housekeeper were missing. On the evening of May 31st, Photos and Michelle were at a private water ski club in Avon, Connecticut. attending a barbecue when they saw that news about the two of them was breaking. Based on the search warrant for his phone, authorities had determined that Photos had traveled to Albany Avenue in Hartford, where there is an extensive network of surveillance cameras and that he had thrown away multiple bags of trash and other items, including a weather tech floor mat in different trash cans along the road

on the evening of May 24th. When they realized what was happening, they immediately left the club. As they walked away, Fodas was witnessed to be already making a call, presumably to a lawyer. That same day, authority seized his Ford F-150 Raptor,

which was seen driving down Albany Avenue, the evening that Jennifer disappeared. The next day, arrest warrants were issued for both Michelle Triconis and Fodas, doulos for tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. They were both taken into custody without incident. Vodis's home at Fort Jefferson Crossing was searched on June 3rd. Not much was found, but one thing of interest was a set of handwritten documents. Michelle insisted they

were timelines, but authorities would call them alibi scripts. They covered May 24th from 6.40 a.m. to 5.10 p.m. There was one timeline written by Michelle that listed them waking up together and taking a shower. The timeline written by Photos mentions a call from his friend, a man named Andreas Tutsi Aretis. Neither timeline mentioned a trip to Albany Avenue. Both Michelle and Fotis were released on Bond 10 days after they were brought in. On October 26th, Michelle's things were removed out of Fort Jefferson Crossing. She and Fotis had officially broken up, though it's believed they hadn't had any contact since their arrest. The day after Christmas, Fodis asked to judge to dismiss the pending divorce case with

Jennifer, and to grant him full custody of the children. But less than two weeks later, Fodos was arrested a second time in charge with the kidnapping and murder of his estranged wife, Jennifer Dullos. Michelle Triconis was also arrested again, and this time charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Kent Mawinney, a lawyer and friend of Fodos's, was also arrested. He was trying to flee to Massachusetts, and he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. So, Morph, there's a couple things that, you know, I kind of want to, dissect. The first being FOTUS and how arrogant

he seems to be. I mean, here's a guy who, you know, is being looked at for the, the disappearance and possible murder of his wife. Yet he has the nerve to ask the judge for full custody. That really jumped out of me. And then you go back to this surveillance footage of him kind of driving along and throwing things away at multiple stops into different trash cans. Not a great look when your estranged wife has gone missing. And then lastly, these timelines or alibi scripts as the authorities called them, very interesting to me that

the two of them would sit down and write these up. I mean, doesn't it almost seem like they're trying to chronicle what they did in order to, you know, cover their, their behinds. Because I can tell you right now,

I don't sit down on a daily basis and just write down everything I do from hour to hour. Yeah, you go back to looking at somebody's actions, how they're reacting, how they're not reacting. if they're showing sympathy or questioning what happens to the mother of their children, and you can't make a lot from that.

But here on top of that, you've got him making these mysterious lists that are, you know, almost as if they're trying to get their story straight. So you can see why that's suspicious. But this case really seems like it went from zero to 60 quickly. You know, obviously he would have been looked at closely by police, but here they've got all kinds of different. surveillance stuff that's that's basically tying everything together and these charges came down quickly. Yeah, it really did seem like that was the case. But, you know, my thought is it's not always

just one thing. And I don't think it, it normally is. It's a culmination or a number of things that kind of all converge, right? So the surveillance video, the not asking, questions about Jennifer, these timelines, just, you know, you put all of that together. And it just looks horrible. And then I also thought it was very telling that it seemed as though Michelle and Fodas kind of had a falling out, didn't want to have anything to do with each other. The arrest warrants were very detailed and painted a clear picture of what investigators believe happened on and around May 24th, 2019, the star witness for the prosecution would be a man named Pavel Gumene, a former four-group employee. He had been working for photos before the company

was even founded and had worked his way from handyman up to project manager. He was granted total immunity for his testimony and cooperation because in order to tell the truth, About Fodos and Michelle, he would also have to implicate himself due to a few suspicious actions. Some people believe he's more involved than he has admitted, but others just think that all signs pointed to a potential frame job of him on the part of Fotus. About two weeks before Jennifer's disappearance, Fotis had asked Pavel if he could move his truck. The Toyota Tacoma was normally parked at Ford Jefferson Crossing during the work week, while Pavel used one of the four-group vehicles, but it was leaking oil and power steering fluid.

Supposedly, to protect the driveway in the garage, the Tacoma was moved from Fort Jefferson Crossing to 80 Mountain Spring Road, another four-group property. On May 23rd, Fodas told Pavel not to come into the office the next morning. That evening, Fodis met up with Kent Mulwini, based on phone pings and surveillance, footage at or near 80 Mountain Spring Road where the Tacoma is now parked. We don't know what they were doing there or why they met up. At 4.20 a.m. on May 24th, the alarm on Photos's cell phone went off. It was silenced at 421. This is much earlier than his normal wake up time, which was closer to 7 a.m. At 5.35 a.m.

Pavel's Toyota Tacoma. left 80 Mountain Spring Road. At 6.36 a.m. it was spotted on a traffic camera in the southbound lanes of Merritt Parkway, passing the Fairfield Rest Area. A bicycle can be seen in the bed of the truck. At 7.03 a.m., it was spotted again, still heading south on Merritt Parkway, this time passing the new Cannon Rest Area at 7.05 a.m. a school bus driving down Lapham Road recorded on its surveillance video an empty turnout on the side of the road. At 7.20 a.m., Kent's phone began to ping from the tower that covers four Jefferson crossing.

Just 20 minutes later, around 70 miles away, another school bus passed a turnout on Lapham Road. This time, that bus's security system recorded a Toyota Tacoma. parked there. This spot is just 100 feet from where Jennifer's suburban would be found abandoned later that evening. Around this same time, a man on a bicycle was captured on surveillance cameras passing 376 weed street. This would be on the route from Lapham Road to Wells Lane. Investigators believe that Fodis used the bike seen in the bend of the Tacoma to bike to bike to Jennifer's home where he waited for her to come home from dropping off the kids hiding the entire time. At around 8 a.m., Pavel took the four-group F-150 Raptor from his home in

Simsbury to work on a property in New Canaan. At 8.24 a.m., Vodas's phone received the call from his friend in Greece, Andreas, and it was answered by Michelle Triconis, who claimed that Kent told her to answer it. It lasted just 17 seconds. Just before 10 a.m. Pavel arrived at 61 Sturbridge Hill Road, the property he was helping to renovate for the four group. This is confirmed by the Raptor's OnStar tracking system. The truck was there until around 1230 p.m. At 10.25 a.m., Jennifer Suburban was seen leaving her home. In the police theory, this was Fodis driving, not Jennifer.

By this time, she had already been either killed or incapacitated and was being transported away from the crime scene by photos. The blood in the garage proved that this was where she was attacked. The shaved head, the children were admiring, was really preparation for this attack. He didn't want to risk leaving any of his hair in the garage. Somewhere there would be no excuse for it to be, since Jennifer never would have allowed him inside. The newly shaved head also happened to match the normal haircut of

Pavel Gumi Eni, whose truck he was driving that day and who also happened to be in New Cannon that very day. So perhaps Fodas wanted it to appear that Pavel was driving his own truck around and not him. Or perhaps if any witnesses saw anything, Pavel might be suspected. And this is where the belief by some comes in that maybe Fodas was trying to frame Pavel. At 10.38 a.m. Jennifer's phone pinged near Lapham Road where her car would be found abandoned. At 11.09 a.m., her phone was turned off. It stopped pinging and completely dropped off the network.

Just three minutes later, the Toyota Tacoma is seen driving north on Merritt Parkway. At 12.22 p.m., the Tacoma returns to 80 Mountain Springs Road. At 1.33 p.m., text on Photos's phone that went unread all day, were finally opened, and phone calls were returned. We can assume that Photos biked or ran the two miles from 80 Mountain Spring Road to Ford Jefferson Crossing, where his phone had been all day. There's a gravel access road that he was familiar with from dirt bike riding that runs between the two areas. It's believed after this, he and Michelle drove to 80 Mountain Springs Road. Just before 5 p.m., Pavel showed up at 80 Mountain Spring Road looking for his truck. He wanted to drive at home for the weekend, and he also wanted to take home his dirt.

dirt bike, which he kept at four Jefferson crossing, so that he could ride it over the long Memorial Day holiday weekend. Fodas and Michelle both looked surprised to see him. Fodas tried to convince him to keep the Raptor for the weekend, but Pavel wanted his own truck. It was easier to park, better on gas, and didn't have an extended cab, so it was easier to load his dirt bike. Fodas followed the Raptor and his suburban to Ford Jefferson Crossing and Pavel got in. They headed back to 80 Mountain Spring Road so that Pavel could drive his Tacoma home. When they arrived, Michelle Triconis had left and the key to the Tacoma, which had been in the passenger door just before Pavel and Fodas left was gone too. Fodas had to call her and tell her to bring the key back. Finally, Pavel got his key and left. He loaded the dirt bike into the truck at four Jefferson Crossing.

And then he drove home to Simsbury. Pavel left, and photos and Michelle were very busy. She was seen from neighboring surveillance cameras driving the four-group Jeep Cherokee back and forth from 80 Mountain Springs Road to Ford Jefferson Crossing multiple times. Smoke was seen coming out of one of the chimneys at Ford Jefferson Crossing at least three separate times, coinciding with the times that Michelle arrived and left them the Jeep.

Based on the surveillance, it seemed clear that evidence of some kind, was being disposed of in the fireplace. Just after these fires, the two drove to Albany Avenue and the Raptor. Investigators would later recover trash bags, cleaning supplies, and a t-shirt and bra stained with Jennifer's blood. The bra on shirt had been sliced down the middle.

And more, if I think this is what you have with a case that occurs in 2019. I mean, just think about all of the surveillance video. that we've talked about. Surveillance video coming from houses, businesses, a school bus, multiple school buses. These are the types of things that wouldn't have been available, let's say, in the 1970s. So the police have all this information that maybe before they would have had to try to get from eyewitnesses. And if there were no eyewitnesses, it's just stuff they wouldn't have known. But you'd have to say that a lot of this stuff is very damning.

Yeah, I think it definitely helped the police connect the dots and build a timeline here. And, you know, going back to the surveillance, as years go by it, she seems like it's more and more common. Even the buses in this case had surveillance systems on them. So it seems like it's going to be harder and harder for people to get away with stuff, the more that this stuff is readily available and out there. Yeah, and we keep talking in episodes about, you know, how many homes now have like the doorbell cameras and what's being captured on those. It's kind of amazing. But I think back to a lot of the unsolved cases that we've done. And it seems as though the problem that police often have is they don't have like that first

clue that tells them like in what direction to head. Well, with the surveillance video, they definitely have that. And it seems like it leads to them going down the correct avenues because they have a good place to start or multiple places to work from. Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset. This season let therapy be part of your spring cleaning. Clearing mental clutter, shaking off stuckness, and building something better. Grow therapy helps you get there. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 15th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you,

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On May 29th, the Tuesday after Memorial Day, Pavel returned to work. Fotis and Michelle took his Tacoma to the car wash and paid $250 for a full detailing. Something Fodos had never done for any employee before. Fodas also convinced, more like pressured Pavel, into changing the Tacoma seats. Pavel didn't want to, but Fodas wouldn't let it go. When Pavel said he couldn't find any. seats for a good price, Fodas told him to take the seats from a Porsche Cayenne. He had wrecked and wasn't using it. They didn't fit the Tacoma, but Fodas was insistent.

He also told Pavel to throw away the old seats. Though Pavel did remove the seats from the Tacoma, he kept them. The Porsche seats were just placed inside, making the truck basically unusable. A drop of Jennifer's blood was later found on the passenger seat fabric. If Pavel hadn't been open with detectives, it's pretty easy to see how it could have played out with him ending up being arrested. A man with his build and haircut, driving his truck in the town he would admit to being in that day, and then Jennifer's blood in his car. Instead, he contacted a lawyer who helped him legally navigate his cooperation with police. And I think this is just one more incident that kind of really stands out, right? This Pavel guy had worked for photos for a long time.

And when you know someone for a long time, you work for them for a long time, you know how they act. This wasn't a guy who just offered up to detail your truck and pay $250. And most people don't. Why would they? And then this whole insane. about changing out the seats in the truck and using seats for what is a very expensive car, Porsche Cayenne. Now I get it, it was wrecked, but, you know, using seats from that that don't even

fit. It's just all leading you to believe that something hinky is going on. Yeah, and you wonder if Pavel started to suspect that maybe he's being set up for something. you know, this whole involvement with his vehicle now. And now Fodas even has his hairstyle. Maybe he sensed he was going to be a patsy here. And that's why he decided to cooperate. But yeah, I don't know about you. But if somebody asked me to suddenly change my seats out,

it was offered to detail my truck for me, I'd be like, okay, something's, something's very fishy here. Yeah. And back to your question, I do think that he got suspicious. I think it's the reason why he kept the seat. from the Tacoma, even though Fodas wanted him to get rid of them. And then I think it's why he contacted a lawyer. He knew something very wrong was happening in that it could be at his expense.

For the other three people who didn't cooperate, Bond was set quite high, $6 million for Fodas, $2.1 million for Michelle, and $2 million for Kent. Michelle was the first to be released under the conditions. she wear a GPS ankle monitor and comply with the terms of house arrest. The next day, FOTUS was released on the same conditions. Immediately it was discovered that two properties FOTUS put up his clatter on the bond were in foreclosure.

On January 3rd, the terms of Fodas's house arrest were made more strict due to the bond issue and also because Fodas had violated the terms by leaving his home to tear down a memorial to Jennifer at the end of the road. And I don't know exactly, you know, all the ends and outs of bond and bail and all that. But it did seem very strange to me that even after it was discovered that these two homes he put up as collateral were in foreclosure. And after it was learned that he violated the terms of his house arrest by leaving and not just leaving, leaving to tear down a memorial to Jennifer, that he would. still be allowed to stay out.

And I think the whole leaving the home to take down the memorial is just one more thing that doesn't look good for Fodas. It seems again that he's not concerned about her and is even tearing down a memorial to her. At noon on January 28th, 2020, Fodas had a bond hearing, but he didn't make it. This was a pretty important hearing. Due to the foreclosure issue, his bond was expected to be. were votes and he knew he would end up going back to jail until trial or until he could come up

with a different way to put up the $6 million. Around 11.30 a.m. His lawyer started worrying when he wasn't responding to their calls and he hadn't shown up to prepare for the hearing. Authorities could see on the monitoring system that he hadn't even left the house, even though he was expected in Stanford over an hour away. Likely because everyone involved. He was. He was, knew the stakes and also the expected outcome of the hearing, a wellness check was immediately performed. Photos was in his 2015 suburban with a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the interior of the car. Next to him in the car were photos of him with his children, a Tylenol PM bottle, and a roll of electrical tape. There was also a note. He proclaimed his innocence and also wrote that Michelle and Kent were

innocent and that his attorney, Norm Patis, could explain why he was seen throwing away those trash bags on Albany Avenue. Officers performed CPR until an ambulance arrived, and news choppers circled overhead, catching the footage of them attempting to save Photos. But he was pronounced deceased long enough that his family and Greece were notified, and it was announced live on the news. But on the way to the hospital, a pulse was found. Eventually, Photos was taken in a life-star helicopter to Jacoby Medical Center in the Bronx, where they used a hyperbaric chamber to try and get oxygen back into his body to repair itself. But the damage was too great and it didn't work. Gloria Farber, who had been granted temporary custody of the children, made the decision to take

them to the hospital to be able to see their father one last time before he was taken off of life support. On January 30th, 2020, at 532 p.m., Fodos Dulles was officially pronounced dead. On March 3rd, The charges against FOTUS were formally dismissed since he could no longer face trial after ending his life. On June 1st, Gloria Farber's lawsuit against Fodas was settled in her favor. She was awarded $1.9 million from his estate. On October 19th, Kent Mulweney was finally released from jail after posting a bond of $246,000. He's also required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. and comply with the terms of house arrest.

On February 18, 2021, four Jefferson Crossing was sold for $1.8 million. The money went to Gloria Farber as part of the civil lawsuit judgment. By December 2021, Michelle Triconis was living in Colorado and traveling back and forth to Miami to see family in Connecticut for court dates, still wearing the GPS monitor on her ankle.

On October 3, 2022, Kent Moinney was re-arrested due to an issue with his ankle monitor. The wires were intact, but the surrounding cuff had been severed. Authorities believed he had tampered with the device, but he and his attorney denied this, instead stating that it had broken from being warned for two years. He was released from prison once again on December 15th. On April 6, 2003, Michelle Triconis was released from the condition of wearing a GPS monitor. On May 15th of that year, Kent Moinney was released from house arrest.

but he's still wearing a GPS monitor around his ankle to this day. A probate judge declared Jennifer dead in October 2003, citing evidence that supports the claim that Jennifer sustained non-survivable injuries, according to court documents. On January 11, 2024, the trial of Michelle Triconis finally began. She was officially facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, second degree hindering prosecution, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and two counts of conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence.

Due to the class of felony that her charges fell under, she only had the right to a jury of six people under Connecticut law. There were alternates, which was a very good thing because without them, there definitely would have been a mistrial. Early on, one juror told prosecutor Michelle Manning that they loved her. Another juror had been posting on social media that this case reminded them of the movie Gone Girl. A third juror had an emergency out of the country. All three were dismissed from jury service.

On February 23rd, the defense rested their case. They began deliberating on the 27th after a long weekend off. Over the next three days, they spent about 12 hours. total deliberating. They asked to see the testimony of Michelle's best friend, Claire Pettu Dupurin, who was on the stand for about 38 minutes, and also asked for some clarification on the wording of the tampering with evidence charge. Judge Randolph explained that accessory liability did not require physical contact, meaning just because she didn't physically throw any of those trash bags away on Albany Avenue. Being there with Fodas while he threw them away was enough for her

to be considered as an accessory legally. As the jury stated their verdict of guilty for each charge, Michelle slumped over onto the table and cried. Jennifer's body has still not been found. There's a potential clue in Kent Malwini's behavior, though. In March 2019, Malwini told a friend of his that he was interested in rejoining a gun club. He had helped establish many years ago. This friend told him about a hidden key to the logging,

chain blocking the club's entrance and told him to help himself. He was a co-founder, after all, Malwini's phone ping near the Windsor Rod and Gun Club in East Granby on March 29, less than two months before two members found what they called a human grate. The three-foot deep hole was six feet long and two feet wide. A tarp and multiple unopened bags of line were down in the hole, which was covered by barbecue grill grates and buried by leaves to hide it. The men removed the barbecue grates and kicked dirt in the hole to hastily fill it in so that no one would accidentally fall into it. On May 22nd, one of the men was at the club again and checked the hole. The bags of lime

were now gone, and the hole was now a pit of mud, half full of water. Malwini's phone pinged at the club again at 11 p.m. on the night of May 31st, just hours after Photos and Michelle, had been dumping bags on Albany Avenue. We don't know what he was doing there, of course, and presumably whoever had dug the hole would have noticed that it wasn't a secret when they went to retrieve the lime and saw the grates had been removed.

Assuming the bags of lime belonged to Photos or Molwini, it seems likely that they were taken to another hole in one of the many wooded areas in Connecticut. Many people following the case believe that Malwini knows the location of Jennifer's remains and are hoping the conviction of Michelle Draconis shocks him into revealing the location in hopes of a lighter sentence at his own trial. The sentencing hearing for Michelle Triconis is set for May 31st,

2024. The first date that the clerk found empty on the calendar was May 24th, the fifth anniversary of Jennifer's murder. Everyone involved agreed that that date would be inappropriate. And it was moved to the anniversary of the date that authorities see. the trash from Albany Avenue. Many believe that this first proposed date was a sign of some kind from Jennifer or from the universe that justice had been achieved. Before Triconis is sentenced, we should know what is going on with Kent Malwini's trial. His next court date on the docket is May 15th. And it looks like they may finalize the schedule for trial on that date. So

morph as we wrap up this case, you know, it's a complex case. It's a very interesting case. It's also a very sad case. There are so many times and dates and sightings due to the amount of surveillance video footage that it's almost mind blowing what police have to work with. I find it very hard to believe that Kent is going to come out of this thing. unscate. I don't believe that FOTUS would have had he gone to trial. We know that Michelle was found guilty on multiple charges. We're going to have to wait and see what happens to Kent, but I can't imagine it's going to be good. Now there's unanswered questions in this case. And obviously, Photis isn't around to answer some of the questions, but you have to wonder what was in it for Kent.

what was he getting out of it to help to put his freedom in jeopardy and go to prison? Was there some kind of financial gain? And anytime we talk about cases where there's multiple people involved, it always amazes me that one of them doesn't just step forward and say, hey, this is not a good idea. I don't want to be part of this. We can't do this. And it just shocks me when I hear of these cases where multiple people are involved in a crime like this.

Well, and I think it's a great question about, Kent, you know, when you look at FOTUS, you look at Michelle, it's pretty obvious to me what their motives were, but not as obvious when it comes to Kent Mulwini. He wasn't involved in the situation in the same way that Fodas and Michelle were. You know, his happiness didn't seem to hinge on the relationship, the custody, or anything to do with. with Jennifer. So it had to have been a tie with FOTUS. And you know, you mentioned money. That might have been it. I think we'll have to wait and see what comes out at trial. But I do want to go back to what you talked about with FOTUS because he never actually went to

trial. There are some things that may never be known. You know, kind of what you're left with is the prosecution's theory or what they put forth ahead of the trial. And I think the one person that can probably answer some of the questions is Kent Moini. And maybe he's holding some of that as an ace in the whole to get a lighter sentence to work out some kind of deal. And he'll reveal what happened, what he knows, what the benefit to him would have been. And most importantly, probably where Jennifer's remains are. And that's a great point because you know that her family wants to find her remains.

They want to have a service. They want to bury her. They want to have a place to memorialize her. And if Kent has that information, he might be able to use it. But that's something that, you know, we'll have to wait and see on. But I will say this. I never failed to be a mate at the steps that. some people will take when it comes to, you know, finances, custody, just jealousy,

things like that. And I go back to, you know, Fodas's demeanor after it was thought that Jennifer was missing. I mean, that was the red flag to me right there. It's like you don't even care enough to ask questions. Well, why is that? Is it because you hated her? or because you already knew the answers to the questions, therefore there was no need to ask the questions. You know, luckily it seems as though despite a lot of planning going into this and trying to cover it up and get away with it, multiple people involved, that kind of stuff, it always seems that in many of these cases, as well prepared as you think you might be, that you make mistakes and it's able to lead investigators to answer some of the questions. And, you know, in this case, there was just enough clues and breadcrumbs for the police to work with.

And we do have the answers that we do have now, thanks to that. And it's a good thing, right? Because without some of that stuff, you know, a lot of these would probably go unsolved. But that's it for our episode on Jennifer Doulos. Again, still some things to keep an eye on in the upcoming months. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating, you can leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends, word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on

X with a handle at criminology pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology, but Morph and I will be back with everyone. Next Saturday, night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.