Fotis Dulos: Estranged husband of missing Connecticut mother charged with murder

Mother of five went missing amid contentious custody battle with accused killer

Fotis Dulos is questioned during testimony in a civil case at Hartford Superior Court in Hartford (AP)

The estranged husband of Connecticut mom Jennnifer Dulos has been charged with her murder, nearly eight months after she first went missing.

Fotis Dulos was expected to be charged on Tuesday with the murder of his missing wife, alongside his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis. Kent Mahwinney, an attorney, was expected to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Hartford Courant.

Ms Dulos went missing on May 24, amid a contentious custody battle over the five children that she shared with her alleged killer.

She has not been seen since.

Mr Dulos was taken into custody by Connecticut State Police on Tuesday and his defence attorney, Norm Pattis, has said that his client “contends that he was not involved.”

This undated file photo from a missing persons flier provided by the New Canaan Police Department shows Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five who went missing in May 2019 (AP)

Ms Dulos, 50, was last seen in May driving a 2017 Chevrolet Suburban in New Canaan, Connecticut, according to police.

Authorities say her friends reported her missing around 10 hours after she began missing appointments and not returning phone calls or texts. Soon after she was reported missing, her car was found at a park near her home.

On that same day, Mr Dulos is believed to have borrowed a truck from one of his employees, which had been cleaned days later. Ms Troconis, the former girlfriend, later told investigators that he had the vehicle cleaned “because the body of Jennifer at some point was in there”, according to a warrant served in September when Mr Dulos was charged with evidence tampering.

The owner of the truck also told police that Mr Dulos had told him to replace the seats in his vehicle, and got “pushy” and angry when the replacement wasn’t made. At the time, Mr Dulos reportedly told him he was worried about the seats because he had hugged his estranged wife the day before she disappeared.

The employee ultimately kept the seats and provided them to police, who found a “blood-like substance” that contained the missing mother’s DNA, according to a warrant released by the Connecticut State Police in September.

The murder charges come even though the body of Ms Dulos has not been recovered.

On the day that she went missing, surveillance cameras captured footage of a man who looks like Mr Dulos getting out of his truck and placing “multiple garbage bags into various trash receptacles” in the Hartford area.

Detectives, searching through trash, later found clothing and household goods with Ms Dulos’ blood on them.

Mr Dulos had not been arraigned as of Tuesday afternoon, and the state has requested a $6 million bond. After their arrest in September, Mr Dulos and his former girlfriend were forced to turn over their passports.