Venezuelan socialite Michelle Troconis was seen with now-deceased boyfriend Fotis Dulos in security footage showing him disposing of evidence in his ex-wife’s murder, her trial was told.
Dulos was seen in a white T-shirt and black baseball cap traveling down Albany Avenue in Hartford, Conn. on the day of his estranged wife Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance in May 2019, according to footage played in Stamford Superior Court Monday.
At times, the man could be seen getting out of his Ford F-150 to throw unidentified objects into multiple trash cans along the city street.
Police say Dulos and Troconis disposed of 30 bags of items that day and the still-missing mom of five’s blood was found on some of the objects inside.
Another video shown in court Monday appeared to show Dulos tossing an envelope into a storm drain, as a woman police say is Troconis temporarily reaches out of the vehicle and reaches down to the sidewalk near the sewer gate.
She claims she was simply trying to get rid of a piece of gum by wiping it on the sidewalk, according to the Hartford Courant.
But inside the FedEx envelope, police said they found two license plates.
Investigators then ran the plates, but “they came back nonexistent,” Police Sgt. Michael Beauton testified.
Officers then started to examine the plates more closely, Beauton said, and realized that some sort of adhesive had been used to alter the numbers and letters on the plate.
When removed, the plates matched an older model Chevrolet Suburban that was at one point registered to Dulos, prosecutors said in court.
They claim Dulos killed his ex-wife in her New Canaan home after she returned from dropping off their five children at school on May 24, 2019, but her body was never found.
Police have said Fotis Dulos waited for Jennifer to return home that morning, then attacked her in the garage and tried to clean up the scene.
He then drove off with her body in another SUV, which was later found abandoned at a local park.
Dulos was charged with murdering his ex, but took his own life aged 52 in January 2020.
Troconis, 49, now faces charges for allegedly helping him conceal the crime, including conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering and hindering prosecution.
She has denied the charges, and in court on Monday, her attorney Jon Schoenhorn argued that she had previously admitted to police she was with Dulos on Albany Avenue the day of his ex-wife’s disappearance, but denied any involvement or knowledge of any crimes connected to Farber Dulos’ disappearance or death.
In fact, in a video recording of Troconis being questioned by police, she said she did not know what Dulos was doing when he kept exiting the truck, claiming she spent most of the ride on her phone sending messages.
“We’ve never disputed the fact that Michelle was in that vehicle,” Schoenhorn said after court on Monday, according to the Courant.
He said the surveillance footage showed it is “absolutely clear that it was Fotis Dulos who dropped that FedEx envelope down” the drain.
“Bottom line is these are things Fotis Dulos did,” he said. “He’s not here to explain himself. I don’t think anybody is going to be able to explain what he was up to.”
He added that the evidence presented by the state so far does not prove his client was involved in the alleged crimes.
“The bottom line is I’ve yet to see anything to suggest that Michelle Troconis knew anything about what [Dulos] was up to,” Schoenhorn said.
Jurors have previously heard from the Dulos family’s nanny, Lauren Almeida, who claimed in court that the parents were initially “nice to each other,” but their relationship soon fell apart and eventually took a turn for the worse when Farber Dulos found out about her husband’s affair with Troconis in March 2017, according to the Courant.
Almeida claimed that Fotis would often intimidate Farber Dulos, and she became so scared that she fled from their Farmington home to file for divorce from the safety of a five-star Manhattan hotel and hired a bodyguard.
Police have also testified that they found what appeared to be blood on the black Range Rover found in the victims’ garage.
But the Troconis family continues to insist Michelle is innocent.
“We stand together as a family, ’cause that’s what we are, we’re in unity to support my sister,” Claudia Troconis said outside of Stamford court on Thursday.
“She’s a mother, a daughter, a sister, an amazing mother, and just an amazing human being,” she continued. “And we know that the truth will prevail and justice will be done because she is innocent … this has been unfair for the past four-and-a-half years.”
