Fotis Dulos dies by suicide after murder charges in Jennifer Dulos case
Fotis Dulos, charged with the murder of his estranged wife Jennifer, died on Jan. 30 after inhaling carbon monoxide in his Connecticut garage, leaving a note proclaiming his innocence.
Suicide note claims innocence as Farmington murder case collapses
Fotis Dulos, the Connecticut man charged with the murder of his estranged wife Jennifer Dulos, died on 30 January after inhaling carbon monoxide inside his Farmington garage, according to abcnews.com. He was 51.
Before his death, Dulos allegedly wrote a handwritten note addressed to "all," obtained by ABC News from a source, in which he denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance and sought to clear the names of two co-defendants.
"I refuse to spend even an hour more in jail for something I had NOTHING to do with," he allegedly wrote in blue ink on a single sheet of notebook paper. "I want it to be known that Michelle Troconis had nothing to do with Jennifer's disappearance. And neither did Kent Mawhinney."
Jennifer Dulos vanished in May 2019 amid a bitter divorce and custody dispute. Weeks after her disappearance, Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis, 44, were arrested on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and hindering prosecution.
On 7 January, Connecticut State Police escalated the charges against Fotis Dulos to felony murder, kidnapping and murder. Troconis was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Mawhinney, an attorney and friend of Fotis Dulos, was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
According to a police report, Dulos was captured on surveillance footage disposing of 30 garbage bags across multiple locations. Items recovered from those bags included clothing belonging to Jennifer Dulos and plastic zip ties that subsequently tested positive for her DNA, as detailed in the arrest warrant.
In his alleged note, Dulos wrote: "My attorney can explain what happened with the bag on Albany Avenue. Everything else is a story fabricated by the law enforcement."
His attorney, Norm Pattis, had told the Stamford Advocate in July 2019 that "there's an explanation, but we're not going to give it" regarding the bags.
Police conducted a wellness check at Dulos' home after he failed to appear for a scheduled bail hearing on the Tuesday before his death. Officers observed him through a window, seated in his car inside the garage. He died two days later.
Following his client's death, Pattis announced at a press conference that he intends to file an "unusual motion" asking the court to continue prosecuting Dulos' estate — "to force the state to show its hand in a trial filled with evidence we think amounts to no more than innuendo and unsupported suspicion," Pattis said.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)