Michelle Tronconis’ trial continues with more testimony around first days of Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance
The trial for Michelle Troconis is set to continue in a Stamford courtroom Tuesday morning, weather permitting, marking the third day of the long-awaited trial connected with the disappearance and death of Jennifer Farber Dulos, a New Canaan mother of five.
Troconis, the former girlfriend of the now late Fotis Dulos, is accused of conspiring with Dulos to kill his estranged wife, who disappeared in New Canaan nearly five years ago while the couple was embroiled in a heated divorce and custody battle.
Troconis is standing trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. Her trial began in Stamford Superior Court on Thursday, with Troconis’ family and Farber Dulos’ loved ones packing the courtroom.
During the first two days of the trial, state prosecutors Michelle Manning and Sean McGuiness began the trial by presenting evidence chronologically, starting back on May 24, 2019 — the last day Farber Dulos was seen alive.
The first person to testify was a New Canaan Police Department patrol officer who was one of the first officers to respond to the home at 69 Welles Lane that Farber Dulos shared with her five children. Investigators believe that Farber Dulos was killed in the garage attached to that home after dropping her children off at school.
The jury that will decide Troconis’ fate saw the 20-minute body camera footage from that first visit to the house when officers were investigating a newly called-in missing persons report.
The body camera footage shows Lt. Aaron LaTourette and another officer walking through the large family home, checking in cabinets and closets, going into children’s bedrooms and play spaces, and zeroing in on parts of the garage where officers spotted what they believed to be blood stains on the floor and a black SUV.
The video, shown in court, also showed the officers looking through Farber Dulos’ purse. Her babysitter had flagged police that it was unusual for her purse to be in the house when she was not there. In the bag, they found keys to her Chevrolet SUV which was found abandoned in a wooded area close to the nearby Waveny Park.
On that first day, the jury also watched a mostly silent one-hour video of a state police investigator walking through the house. Again, the video focused significantly on the stains in the garage.
Troconis’ defense team on Thursday and Friday repeatedly questioned the testing that is used to determine whether those stains were, in fact, blood. Defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn called some of the testing investigators “junk science” and case law shows the testing could result in false positives caused by certain cleaning products or rust.
On Friday, state police investigators testified about another red blood-like stain on a roll of paper towels on the kitchen counter and walked the jury through a diagram that mapped out evidence collection in the garage.
A broad list of witnesses
Over the next six weeks, state prosecutors are expected to call dozens of witnesses to the stand to help build their case against Troconis, who maintains her innocence.
A list of potential witnesses filed in court records includes 60 members of the Connecticut State Police force, 15 members of the New Canaan Police Department, two FBI agents, officials from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the state of Connecticut Department of Scientific Services.
Law enforcement officers from Stratford, Fairfield, Southbury, Hartford, Wilton, Farmington, Greenwich, Norwalk, the New York Police Department and other departments are also on the list.
Prosecutors may also call company representatives from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, a savings bank in Danbury, Apple and Google.
The witness list also includes some staff from New Canaan Country Day School, where the Dulos children were students, and a representative from the Home Depot asset protection department.
Prosecutors may also question a representative from the Public Works Department in Hartford in connection to a massive search of the city’s garbage after surveillance videos showed Dulos dumping items in trash bins along Albany Avenue in the city.
Those videos from Albany Avenue were at the center of the warrant for Troconis’ arrest and a focal point of interviews between Troconis and investigators that were shown during a days-long suppression hearing ahead of the trial’s start.
The video shows a woman who appears to be Troconis riding in the passenger seat as Dulos made repeated stops. In the video of interviews with investigators, Troconis said she was on her phone and did not know what Dulos was doing.
‘This is a trial for Fotis,’ Michelle Troconis’ family says after second day of her criminal trial
In a statement outside court on Thursday, Troconis’ family spoke out about the case, saying Troconis is innocent on all charges. On Friday evening, her father, Dr. Carlos Troconis, said he felt that so far, “this is a trial for Fotis and Fotis is no longer with us.”
Schoenhorn echoed a similar sentiment after the second day of the trial wrapped up.
“This has nothing to do with Michelle,” he said outside the Stamford courthouse Friday evening.
Dulos died after attempting suicide at the Farmington home he once shared with his wife, and later with Troconis, while charged with murder in connection to his wife’s presumed death.
Farber Dulos’ body has never been found. A probate judge declared her legally dead in October.
Whether the evidence the prosecution brings forth connects to Dulos, who Troconis was dating and living with in Farmington at the time of the alleged crimes, has yet to be seen.
McGuiness said that next week, the prosecution plans to present DNA evidence. He noted in court Friday that Troconis’ defense has requested a Porter hearing regarding that evidence, a hearing that is held to determine what evidence is reliable and relevant.
That hearing has not yet been scheduled.
The trial is expected to take about six weeks.
