Murder of Jennifer Dulos

Jennifer Farber Dulos, a writer and mother of five, was last seen on the morning of May 24, 2019, after dropping her children off at school in New Canaan, Connecticut. She and her husband, Fotis Dulos, were in the midst of a contentious divorce and child-custody dispute; in her divorce filings, Jennifer had written that she believed he would try to harm her if she pursued the case. She missed two medical appointments scheduled later that day, and that evening two friends, including the family's nanny, reported her missing after failing to reach her.

Investigators who searched Jennifer's home found blood spatter in the garage and kitchen; DNA testing matched most of the blood to Jennifer, though blood on the kitchen faucet was a mixture of her blood and Fotis's. A neighbor's security camera recorded Jennifer's Chevrolet Suburban leaving the home that morning, and authorities concluded Fotis was driving it, along with Jennifer's body and cleanup materials. That evening, Fotis and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were recorded on video disposing of garbage bags containing bloodied clothing and cleaning items in Hartford; Fotis's DNA was found on a glove inside one bag. Investigators concluded that Fotis had arrived at the house by bicycle and lay in wait for Jennifer before attacking her in the garage. Jennifer's vehicle was later found abandoned near Waveny Park in New Canaan, and her body has never been found.

On June 1, 2019, Fotis and Troconis were arrested and charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution; both pleaded not guilty, and were arrested again on the same charges in September 2019. In August 2019, a shallow grave containing bags of lime and a tarp, but no body, was found on a secluded property owned by Kent Mawhinney, Fotis's friend and former attorney.

In January 2020, Fotis was arrested again and charged with capital murder, murder, and kidnapping; Troconis and Mawhinney were each charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Later that month, Fotis failed to appear at a bond hearing and was found unresponsive at his Farmington home after poisoning himself with carbon monoxide. He died two days later, on January 30, 2020, without having stood trial.

Troconis was convicted in March 2024 of all six charges against her, including conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering, and hindering prosecution, and was sentenced in May 2024 to fourteen and a half years in prison. Mawhinney was sentenced to eleven months in prison.

Because Jennifer's body was never recovered, a Connecticut court initially denied a family request to declare her legally dead, citing a required seven-year waiting period; in October 2023 another court granted an expedited declaration of death, citing the advanced age of her children's legal guardian. In 2021, Connecticut lawmakers passed "Jennifers' Law," a domestic-violence bill named in part for Jennifer, expanding the legal definition of domestic violence to include coercive control; it was signed on June 28, 2021.