Fotis Dulos borrowed the pickup truck of one of his employees the day his wife disappeared, went for a walk and before giving it back to its owner paid a thorough cleaning service of $ 250.
Then he convinced him to change the car seats. He listened, but retained the ancients. The Connecticut State Police would then use that evidence against Dulos, whom he has accused Tuesday of the murder of his partner, Jennifer Dulos , who has been missing for months, the NBC network reported.
Fotis Dulos's girlfriend, Michelle Troconis , 45, was also arrested Tuesday, accused of conspiring to commit a homicide. Dulos and Troconis are in custody with bail bonds of six and two million dollars, respectively.
Fotis Dulos, 52, and Jennifer Dulos, 50, were involved in a highly contentious legal dispute over divorce and custody of their five children . She disappeared after two years of fighting in family courts.
Mrs. Dulos was last seen on May 24 while driving her black Chevrolet Suburban truck. Connecticut police found the car later that day, abandoned with apparent bloodstains.
The red van
The red Toyota pickup that Mr. Dulos had borrowed the day his partner disappeared was captured by security cameras moving between Farmington, where his job was, and New Canaan, where Jennifer Dulos lived.
Investigators then discovered another surveillance video in which Dulos employee's red car was seen 100 feet from his wife's car.
“It is believed that Dulos operated the victim's vehicle, which was carrying Jennifer Dulos's body and other objects associated with the cleaning that occurred in the residence's parking lot,” reads the arrest warrant.
Authorities ruled out that the owner of the red van was involved in the homicide: data from his cell phone indicates that he was elsewhere. But forensic tests on the old seats he kept revealed that Jennifer Dulos's DNA was contained in a bloodstain on the passenger's seat, local media Stamford Advocate reported.
Additionally, Fotis Dulos DNA mixed with Jennifer's blood was discovered in her home.
A neighbor of Fotis Dulos told police that he had lent him an ax to cut wood, a month before his partner disappeared. Forensic experts recovered the cutting instrument and are in the process of examining it, the New York Post reported Wednesday .
Defense attorney Norm Pattis undermined the discovery of the ax, claiming that it would not have been left "in plain sight" for the police to find if it had been used to commit a crime.
Jennifer Dulos's family reacted with mixed emotions after the news of the arrest of her husband and her lover.
"Although we are relieved that the wait for these charges is over, there is no sense of closure for us. Nothing can bring Jennifer back. We miss her every day and regret her loss forever," they said in a statement.
"Justice!", Wrote the New Canaan Police Department on the social network Twitter after the news of the arrests.
Troconis admitted in August that he went with Fotis Dulos to wash the Toyota, according to the arrest warrants. When the police asked her why she thought that her boyfriend borrowed her employee's truck and paid him a $ 250 service, she replied: "Well, obviously ... all the evidence says that ... you showed me the image of blood at the door, it 's because Jennifer's body was there at some point. "
He also said that he had been lying when he previously said he was with Fotis Dulos on the morning of May 24 and that, in fact, he did not know where he had been.
An incriminating book
His initial claim was found in "alibi scripts" at the home of Fotis Dulos. Troconis admitted that she and her boyfriend had prepared the notes to account for their actions the day Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
The notes omitted "all incriminating behavior." Investigators have previously said that Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen in a surveillance video on May 24 in Hartford hiding items that were later determined to have the victim's blood.
In these apparently incriminating writings the name of a lawyer and personal friend of Fotis Dulos, Kent Mawhinney , 54, also appeared.
Troconis said the lawyer, who was also arrested Tuesday for conspiring to commit murder, had met with Fotis Dulos the day his wife disappeared. Mawhinney denied it, but data on the location of his phone show that he was in the house from 7:30 am to 8:20 am, the NBC affiliated station in Connecticut reported.
Additionally, members of a shooting club to which the accused lawyer belonged alerted the police of a pit they had found in the forest. The hole, which had the dimensions of a human tomb , was covered by brush that had been placed on grills steel slits. Knowing that Mawhinney had access to the site and was investigated for the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, they decided to inform the authorities.
Police searched the property with tracking dogs, but found no evidence of a corpse or something incriminating, Connecticut NBC reported.
Mawhinney had his court hearing pending on Wednesday after his arrest Tuesday on charges of conspiring to commit a homicide.
The court hearings of Fotis Dulos have been mostly brief. In interviews with the media, he talked about how much he loves and misses his five children, who are in the custody of Jennifer Dulos's mother, Gloria Farber.
Farber has requested sole custody of the children. Fotis Dulos has fought against and recently tried to dissolve his divorce case, arguing that he should not proceed since Jennifer Dulos has not been present at the hearings.
