Family and friends of Jennifer Dulos, who disappeared from her Connecticut home in 2019, are expected to deliver emotional testimony Friday as her late husband’s former girlfriend faces sentencing after being convicted of helping plan and cover up her murder.
Michelle Troconis, 49, faces up to 50 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, killed her in her New Canaan home and drove off with her body, which was never found. He died by suicide in 2020, shortly after being charged with murder. He had denied killing his wife.
Troconis was Fotis Dulos’ girlfriend and was living with him when Jennifer Dulos disappeared. Troconis was convicted by a jury in March of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Troconis, 49, maintains her innocence and plans to appeal her conviction. She is still being held at the state women’s prison. Her family and friends, who were angry and heartbroken after she was convicted, are also expected to testify at Friday’s hearing.
Family and friends of both Jennifer Dulos and Troconis prepared statements for the court prior to the sentencing. It was not clear which of them will testify, possibly including the Dulos’ five children, now aged between 13 and 18.
The sentencing comes five years and a week after Jennifer Dulos disappeared after dropping off the five children at school on May 24, 2019.
The case attracted widespread attention and was the subject of news documentaries and a TV movie, Lifetime’s “Gone Mom.”
Jennifer Dulos was a member of a wealthy New York City family whose father, the late Hilliard Farber, founded his own brokerage firm, Hilliard Farber. & Co., after leading Chase Manhattan Bank’s bond trading desk. She was also a niece by marriage of fashion designer Liz Claiborne.
“We miss her every day, in every way,” some of her family members and friends said in a statement last week from Dulos’ girlfriend, Carrie Luft. “For us, five years is not a milestone, but a sign of cumulative loss and longing. Life goes on, but at the same time the sadness continues, a shadow, a current, the presence of absence.’
Troconis, a dual U.S. and Venezuelan citizen, has described himself as the co-founder of horse riding therapy programs. She once had her own TV production company in Argentina and hosted a snow sports show for ESPN South America. Fotis Dulos was a luxury homebuilder originally from Greece.
Her attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, did not return messages seeking comment. When Troconis was convicted in March, he said he could not understand how the jury could have reached guilty verdicts.
Troconis’ family, including her parents and sisters, expressed the same disbelief.
“Choosing and designating my sister as the guilty person is not the right thing to do because she is innocent,” Claudia Troconis-Marmol said in tears outside the courthouse shortly after the convictions.
Authorities suggested that Fotis Dulos killed Jennifer Dulos because of growing frustrations he had with their divorce and custody proceedings.
At the time, Jennifer Dulos lived with the children in New Canaan, while Fotis Dulos stayed in the family’s 929-square-foot home about 70 miles away in Farmington.
Hours after Jennifer Dulos was last seen alive, Troconis was captured on surveillance video accompanying Fotis Dulos on a trip to Hartford, where he threw out trash bags in the back of his pickup. Police later found some of the bags after confiscating Fotis Dulos’ cellphone, reviewing location data and obtaining surveillance video from the locations.
In one of the most shocking moments in the Troconis trial, the prosecutor and state forensic experts showed a shirt, bra and zippers with blood-like stains on them that had been found in one of the garbage bags. Tests showed that the DNA on the items was most likely that of Jennifer Dulos.
Troconis told police she did not know what was in the bags or why Fotis Dulos dumped them in Hartford.
Prosecutors also said Fotis Dulos left his cell phone at his home the day Jennifer Dulos disappeared and Troconis answered a call from his friend that morning. They say this was proof that Troconis was involved in the plot and tried to help him create a false alibi. She denied the accusation.
Another defendant in the case, Kent Mawhinney, a friend of Fotis Dulos and his former attorney in a civil case, is awaiting trial on murder conspiracy charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Although Jennifer Dulos’ body was never found, a judge declared her legally dead last year. The Dulos children have been in the care of Jennifer Dulos’ mother in New York City since her disappearance.
