Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing New Canaan mother Jennifer Farber Dulos, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon and charged for a second time with tampering with evidence, police said.
Western District Major Crimes Detectives arrested him about 2:30 p.m. at his house in Farmington, which is also the headquarters of his luxury home-building company.
In an arrest warrant released late Wednesday, investigators outlined for the first time their theory of how Dulos might have killed his estranged wife, saying he ambushed her in New Canaan the morning of May 24, and how he later took steps to remove any potential evidence that might link him and a red Toyota pickup truck to his wife’s disappearance.
After his arrest, Dulos was transported to Troop G in Bridgeport. He was released Wednesday evening after posting a $500,000 bond and is scheduled to appear Sept. 12 in Superior Court in Norwalk.
“It’s an exhausting fight, I love my children, that’s about it,” Dulos said outside the state police building upon his release.
Pattis scoffed at the charges during a brief news conference with reporters alongside his client, arguing the new charge is based on very little new information.
“In the 12th round but in the State vs. Dulos this doesn’t even rise to the level of a jab.'' said Norm Pattis, lawyer for Fotis Dulos. "Fotis is neither bending nor breaking. We will enter a not guilty plea the first chance we get.”
Dulos, 51, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been free on $500,000 bonds following their arrest in early June for hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in connection with the May 24 disappearance of Farber Dulos. Dulos has been under GPS monitoring and barred from contacting the five children he shares with Farber Dulos.
State police detectives investigating the disappearance believe a violent assault took place in the New Canaan home of Jennifer Farber Dulos. At the home, police found blood splatter and stains, along with evidence of an attempted cleanup.
The night Farber Dulos went missing, a man resembling Dulos was seen on surveillance cameras dumping garbage bags along Albany Avenue in Hartford, arrest records show. A woman, who looked like Troconis, was spotted with the man in a truck, which investigators connected to Dulos, investigators said.
Detectives found some of the bags that were discarded, which contained items with Farber Dulos’ blood, records show. Law enforcement sources told the Courant that among the items were a Vineyard Vines shirt they believed Farber Dulos was wearing the day she went missing, as well as a bra and two mops and sponges with a small amount of blood.
Sources said investigators have been searching for two pieces of evidence they may have been tossed out that night, including a knife that a Hartford man told the Courant he found in a bag, and a carpet, which was seen being left at a nearby Albany Avenue restaurant.
In an early court appearance, Stamford/Norwalk State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo, arguing that Dulos remain in custody, said that investigators found Dulos’ DNA mixed with Farber Dulos’ blood on a kitchen faucet in the New Canaan home.
Dulos, in statements and numerous motions filed by his attorneys in the criminal case, has denied any involvement in the disappearance of Farber Dulos.
Pattis has asked Stamford Judge John F. Blawie to dismiss the case, saying there is insufficient evidence to proceed without other felony charges against him.
The case has garnered substantial public attention, which in part led Collangelo to seek a gag order, barring public comment on the case. Pattis, in a separate motion and in court, has said its his right to fight the public’s perception that Dulos is responsible for the disappearance. Blawie has yet to rule on either.
Farber Dulos was last seen after dropping her children off at their New Canaan school on May 24. Friends called New Canaan police later that evening when Farber Dulos failed to appear for appointments in New York City. Her mother, Gloria Farber, has had the children since Farber Dulos’ disappearance.
The two were locked in a two-year divorce and custody battle when Farber Dulos went missing that included allegations of threats and fear of violence from both sides.
A judge has allowed Gloria Farber to intervene in the case and granted her temporary custody of the five children. Farber and Dulos are locked in another contentious civil matter involving allegations that Dulos failed to repay millions in loans Farber’s husband made to Dulos’s company, Fore Group.