Hilary Ormond

New Petition to Install Surveillance Cameras in Waveny Follows Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos

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Following the disappearance of a New Canaan woman nearly two weeks ago and subsequent searches of Waveny, where police found her car abandoned, a new petition to install cameras in the park is picking up hundreds of signatures online. New Canaan resident Hilary Ormond created the petition Tuesday through Change.org following the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who hasn’t been seen since dropping her kids off at school May 24. Police launched an investigation and quickly found her black Suburban parked near Waveny’s Lapham Road entrance. New Canaan Police on Saturday arrested Dulos’s estranged husband, and his girlfriend, in connection with her disappearance, and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been seen searching through the heavily used park daily. “I was inspired to create the petition because I wanted to turn my feelings of helplessness arising from the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos into something constructive,” Ormond said in an email, responding to questions from NewCanaanite.com.

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Legal Expert: Authorities Could Bring Murder Charge in Case of Missing Woman Even If She’s Not Found

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Should investigators come to believe the worst in the case of a missing New Canaan woman, prosecutors don’t necessarily need to produce a physical body in order to bring a murder charge, according to one prominent local legal expert. It’s a popular misconception that circumstantial evidence is weaker than direct evidence, according to New Canaan-based criminal defense attorney Matthew Maddox of The Maddox Law Firm LLC. Though it helps prosecutors to have the body of the deceased, Maddox said, circumstantial evidence is just as effective as direct evidence so long as its pieces are “linked to each other directly.”

“When you have a strong chain of circumstantial evidence that is uninterrupted from start to finish, the state can certainly produce proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Maddox said. “It is when the chain is frail or when and there is a break in the chain that the state has to explain away.”

Jennifer Dulos, 50, went missing May 24. A multi-agency investigation has been active since that day, though authorities have not yet found the mom of five. 

They did, however, find evidence of a violent assault in her New Canaan home, and her blood was found on items that her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 51, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, are believed to have dumped around Hartford on the day she vanished.

Around Town

Candlelight: New Canaanites Show Solidarity, Support for Jennifer Dulos [PHOTOS]

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Scores of New Canaanites on Monday placed candles out front of their homes in a show of support and solidarity for Jennifer Dulos. An idea that gained momentum on social media, the candlelight effort came hours after the missing New Canaan woman’s estranged husband, and his girlfriend, were arraigned on felony charges in connection with her disappearance. Residents of Farmington planned Monday to place candles in front of their homes as well. Many of those sharing photos are using the hashtag #mondaycandlesforjennifer. Jennifer Dulos in filing two years ago for both divorce and emergency custody of her five children described her husband of 13 years as dangerous, and expressed fears for her own safety and for the kids.

Around Town

Arrest Warrants: Estranged Husband, Girlfriend Dumped Bags with Items ‘Found To Contain Jennifer Dulos’s Blood’

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On the same day that police found evidence that Jennifer Dulos had been assaulted at her New Canaan home, phone location and video surveillance evidence shows that her estranged husband and his girlfriend steered a black pickup truck through north Hartford, making 30 stops to dump bags in trash cans and storm drains, including items that later tested positive for the missing woman’s blood, according to a state police affidavit. In an arrest warrant application for felony charges brought against Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis, Connecticut State Police Detective John Kimball said that investigators on May 24 searched Jennifer Dulos’s New Canaan garage after friends reported her missing and found “multiple blood stains on the garage floor which tested positive for human blood” as well as “multiple areas of suspected blood spatter” and “evidence of attempts to clean the crime scene.”

They determined “that a serious physical assault had occurred at the scene, and Jennifer Dulos was the suspected victim” and the following day seized an iPhone belonging to her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, during a meeting at New Canaan Police headquarters, according to Kimball, a 25-year veteran of the state police who works with the Western District Major Crime Squad. A forensic search of the device, conducted with help from the U.S. Marshals Service, helped investigators sketch out the following timeline for Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis for May 24:

1:37 p.m. The iPhone of Fotis Dulos, having left his home at 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington, entered a property owned by his construction company, Fore Group, at 80 Mountain Spring Road. 3:38 p.m. The phone traveled back to Fotis Dulos’s residence at 4 Jefferson Crossing. 4:17 p.m. The device arrives back at Jefferson Crossing.

Around Town

Estranged Husband, Girlfriend Charged in Case of Missing Woman

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Police on Saturday night charged the estranged husband of a missing New Canaan woman, and his girlfriend, in connection with her disappearance. New Canaan Police at 11 p.m. Saturday charged Fotis Dulos, 51, and Michelle C. Troconis, 44, both of Farmington, with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and first-degree hindering prosecution—eight days after she went missing. Jennifer Dulos, 50, has been missing since May 24. New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said in a press release issued Sunday morning that missing person and criminal investigations in the case both are “active and dynamic.”

“As the criminal investigation progresses, additional criminal charges are expected,” he said. “At the time of this release, Jennifer has not been located, and the search is ongoing. If Jennifer is located, we will provide additional information.”

Fotis Dulos and Troconis were taken into custody in Avon and transported to New Canaan Police headquarters for processing on the felony-level charges, on warrants reviewed by the state’s attorney and signed by a Superior Court judge.