From “Perfect” Marriage to Possible Murder: The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. I am so happy to have you here with me today as we discuss another case. Actually, a case that we have already discussed before a couple years ago. However, so much has happened that I really wanted to do an update. I have gotten endless requests to revisit the case, talk about everything that has happened since, and it's honestly one that I have been so excited about.

interested in and angered by that I was happy to revisit it and do a more, I think, complex deep dive into this case. Oh, and I forgot to say, if you are new here, then welcome. So happy to have you as well. And let's just go ahead and jump in because we have a lot to go over here. Actually, really quick.

Really quick, I just wanted to let you guys know that my Neck Mech Topaz blue long sleeve shirt has been restocked. You guys sold it out pretty quickly. You can find all of my Neck Mech merch at kendallray.shop. And as always, 100% of the profits are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And here's an interesting note about Neck Mech that you may not know. They have an online safety product for children 10 and under called InSight.

into the cloud. It's a series of videos for kids to watch and learn about online safety, which is crucial in today's day and age. Each episode of season one focuses on a different element of online safety from strategies for handling cyberbullying to recognizing and reporting unsafe and inappropriate interactions and content. Season two focuses more on preventing online exploitation, reporting and removing inappropriate content online. And both of

them are available to watch on the NetSmartz YouTube channel and that's NetSmartz with a Z. I will have that linked below. And as always guys thank you for all the support you show our campaign for the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. They are just always blown away by your generosity. Can't thank you enough. So again that will be linked below. Okay so jumping into today's case. I first talked about this one back in March of 2021. So it has been about three years since

Since I've talked about it, and like I said, a lot has happened, and a lot has happened really recently. There was actually a trial that just ended, and there's a lot to say about that. We're going to be talking about the disappearance and presumed murder of Jennifer Farber Dulos. And I was looking back at my suggestion form, which has like 90,000 submissions at this point, but when I first started it, this was the first submission that came through.

So it just feels important to revisit this case. So let's start out by talking about Jennifer. She was born Jennifer Farber on September 27th, 1968 in New York City. She had one older sister, Melissa, and together they were raised in an upper class neighborhood in Brooklyn Heights. Now, Jennifer's parents were incredibly hardworking and high earning individuals. So they

The girls definitely lived a privileged life. Their father, for example, was the youngest senior vice president in the history of Chase Manhattan Bank and later went on to start his own brokerage firm. As for their mom, she was a lifelong educator and worked as the director of education for Columbia University's Head Start program. So Jennifer and her sister definitely had two incredible role models for parents who encouraged them both to see the benefits of a strong work ethic.

And even if being super wealthy could have, you know, gotten to Jennifer, many say that it didn't.

Jennifer was known as being someone who was incredibly down to earth. She was also described as being someone who was slightly shy, a little reserved, but would warm up quickly in conversation. She was very friendly, but also soft-spoken. She was thoughtful about what she said, and her work ethic really spoke for itself. Jennifer was accepted to Brown University for college, where she graduated in 1990. And following that, she went on to receive her master's from NYU's

Tisch School of the Arts with the goal of becoming a writer. And throughout the mid to late 1990s, Jennifer was living in New York City, writing plays, dating boys, and living life as most people only dreamed of. But in 2003, her life changed completely when she ran into an old acquaintance at the Aspen Airport. It was then and there that Jennifer ran into Fotis

Now, Fotis and Jennifer knew each other from back in college, and they definitely weren't super close in school, but they weren't strangers either. He was a year older than her, and she remembered him as a guy that always hung out in the European crowd. And based off his name, I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that he was, in fact, European, specifically French.

Turkish and Greek. Fotis was born in Turkey, but he was raised primarily in Greece until he moved to the United States in 1986, where he went on to attend Brown and then went on to attend Columbia, where he got his master's in business. And like I explained, the two of them didn't really have much of a connection. They weren't ever that close back in school, and they really didn't have a connection until they had this chance encounter at the Aspen airport. And from the sounds of it, they

they really hit it off quickly after they came across each other that day. Jennifer liked how charming and handsome Fotis was and they began emailing back and forth all the time. However, there was a problem and that problem was that Fotis was married. He got married to a woman named Hillary in the year 2000 but accidentally

After running into Jennifer, his marriage didn't end up lasting much longer. They ended up splitting in 2004, and believe it or not, only a month later, he and Jennifer were walking down the aisle to say I do at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. Now, I know that there will be thoughts on this, and I do think it is...

a very quick turnaround after ending a marriage to get married that quickly. And I don't know the details as far as who really wanted this. And I know people have their feelings, but to Jennifer's credit, it was really important for her to get married and have a family. I think that was part of the rush. She was well into her thirties and she,

Having a family, having children was very, you know, a high priority for her. So I think that's sort of why it was done so quickly, although I don't really know. But something that she really liked about him was that he was also looking to settle down and start a family. And I think they were just ready to do that. Honestly, none of that is really that important to the case. But I just kind of wanted to go over that because I know people will have thoughts.

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Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human.

Thank you for calling Amica Insurance. Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of. At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Amica, empathy is our best policy. But there were a lot of things that Jennifer really loved about Fotis, especially that he was really driven when it came to work. He was a very committed type of person, very...

you know, a go-getter. And he was also very athletic and outgoing. And I think all of those things were very appealing to her. Now, the same year they got married, Fotis started his own real estate development company called The Four Group. And they specialized in luxury homes in Connecticut.

And through this, he developed a beautiful six bedroom, 13,000 square foot home in Farmington, Connecticut, where he and Jennifer eventually lived. And when I say that this house was stunning, I mean, wow, it was not only stunning, but it was massive. And I can't say it surprises me, though, because not only did they have a lot of money, but Fotis was in the real estate business. So it makes sense why their home was so huge and so beautiful. And this home was decked

There was a gym, there was a library, two playrooms, a wine cellar, a four-car garage, and an entire office space where Fotis' business, the four group, was run from, and much, much more. And they ended up filling this very large home with a large family. Together, the two of them had five children, including two sets of twins. And for many, many years, Fotis

they seemed like the picture-perfect family who was living the dream. And while they are building their family, Fotis is building his business. He was growing the four group into what many believe was a successful multi-million dollar company. And while he did that, Jennifer stayed home to raise the kids while also continuing her passion for writing. On top

of being a stay-at-home mom, Jennifer was a writer for a website called Patch.com and also wrote and managed her own blog called Five Makes Seven. She had a good thing going for her. And like I said, there were many years where this family...

was believed to have it all where things were believed to be really good but while it may have looked like that on the outside it definitely wasn't always perfect in the beginning and then things just got progressively worse over time and jennifer did fall in love with photos partially because he was so dedicated and driven and passionate about everything he did but one

Once they had kids, she felt like he took this a step too far. Fotis was a very talented water skier, and as their kids got older, he put them in the sport as well. She said that it really affected their mental and physical health deeply, and that she often took the brunt of his volatile outbursts when she would confront him about it. And so when he began traveling a lot for his own water skiing competitions, Jen

Jennifer felt like life was easier without him around. When he was gone, it was like there was one less thing to worry about, you know? And...

It was that way up until about 2016 when Fotis' traveling did become something to worry about. And that's because around this time, Fotis began having an affair with a single mom named Michelle Traconis, who he met at one of his water skiing competitions in Miami. Now, Michelle Traconis was a Venezuelan ESPN reporter who reported on snow skiing. She was also a horseback rider and a competitive water skier. So someone who Fotis clearly had a lot in common with.

Not to mention, he thought that she was incredibly beautiful. And being the scumbag that Fotis is, an affair is believed to have started right away. And it sounds like he didn't even try to hide it from Jennifer. In fact, she figured it out pretty quick and she confronted him about it

in March of 2017, and he just straight up admitted to it. And when you know more about this guy, this is, I mean, upsetting, but totally not surprising at all. The reality was their relationship had gotten real bad over the years, had really soured. And Jennifer knew that this was the final straw and that it was best for her and for her children to leave Fotis. But

Leaving him was anything but easy. According to court documents that were filed at a later date, Jennifer expressed genuine fear for her safety and for her kids' safety when it came to leaving her husband. And this is sadly something that so many people go through. I know there are people out there, you know, watching this episode, listening to this episode that can really relate to how she's feeling. She wrote that filing divorce papers against Fotis will...

quote, enrage him. And she even said, I know he will retaliate by trying to harm me in some way. He has the attitude that he must win at all costs.

I am afraid of my husband. And this is incredibly chilling and eerie. But years before her disappearance, Jennifer actually foreshadowed what was to come in a blog post. Oh, Noel, which she's referring to her daughter. I know this too shall pass, but I fear I may be in a body bag by then. Love you, your mom. This is so disturbing to read. And it's devastating to think that Jennifer knew that

what horrible things her husband could be capable of. In one of her blog posts, she also talked about how her and her children slept better when Fotis wasn't there. And God, I just cannot imagine being in that type of situation. And again, I know that so many people out there can relate to how she was feeling in that fear. In fact, she was so confident that he was dangerous that on June 19th, 2017, Jennifer packed up her car with all

all five children and left their home in Farmington with the intention of filing an emergency injunction to retain custody of the kids and file for divorce. It's clear that leaving Fotis wasn't just about leaving the marriage. It was about getting her and her kids as far away from this man as possible. It's very clear she was terrified of what he might do. And so when she left, it's...

wild and disturbing but not surprising at all Fotis actually called 9-1-1 now he totally puts on the I'm so worried about them act and you know trying to play the father who has all this concern I mean just listen to it for yourself it's total bullshit uh yeah I'm worried about my uh wives and kids because they uh they left to go to New York and I haven't

I've been able to get a tax return. Okay. They were going to New York. What's the license plate on the car? I have to get those for you. Okay. Who's the car registered to? It's registered to my wife's name, Jennifer Dulos. Spell the last name for me. Dulos, D-U-L-O-S. Jennifer? G-A-E-N-N-I-F-E-R? Yes. Your hair or date of birth? September 27, 1968. Okay.

They're not answering their cell phones. How many kids? Two? Five. Five kids? Okay. And how long ago did they leave Connecticut? And they're supposed to be in New York tonight?

Yeah. I've been texting, and I see that the texts are being delivered, but nobody's responding to me. Okay. I'll send an officer over to speak with you, okay? You're at 4 Jefferson Crossing? Yes. Okay. What time do you think he'll be here? He should be there shortly. He's not too far, okay? Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Bye.

This call makes me so angry because I don't think Fotis was even capable of actually being worried about Jennifer. I think he wanted to send her a message that no matter what you do, I will come after you. You can't leave me. I will find you. It's a total power play. But all of these threats and the fear that Jennifer was carrying when it came to leaving...

That did not stop her from doing so. And so the next day on June 20th, Jennifer filed for divorce and to get full custody of the kids. And soon after this, she moved herself and her kids into a beautiful home in New Canaan, Connecticut, which is a little over an hour south of where she and Fotis had been living in Farmington. And in the weeks and months that followed, her and Fotis remained in a

horrible, contentious divorce battle. And I can't emphasize that enough. I previously mentioned a little bit about what Jennifer alleged in the divorce papers, but there's more. So

I want to go over that. On top of saying that she was afraid of Fotis retaliating against her and harming her, Jennifer also wrote about the affair that he was having with Michelle. And mind you, by that point, Michelle was not only working for Fotis' company, but she and her daughter had moved into the home.

That Jennifer and Fotis once shared and raised their own kids in. That's right, you guys. Fotis moved Michelle and her daughter into his home right after Jennifer moved out, which is so offensive and ridiculous. It's so hurtful.

But it's not surprising, and that is far from the worst of it. Jennifer said that Fotis even threatened to kidnap their children unless she agreed to his terms of the divorce. She also said that she was scared of him hurting her and even noted that he had purchased a gun.

earlier that year. And of course, Fotis denies all of this. He says that he did purchase a gun, but that it was purely for home security, which, whatever, may or may not be the case, but I don't fault Jennifer at all for thinking that that could be used against her or that he was a dangerous man because clearly he is. And for the next several months, Fotis continuously filed motions against Jennifer saying that she was disparaging him to their children when Fotis

The truth is, that's what he had been doing to her. He was also violating part of their joint custody agreement, which stated that the children were not to be around any new romantic partners that their parents may have. And not only did Fotis allow his children to be around Michelle, he also coached them into lying about it to their court-appointed psychologist. And because of this, in 2018, a judge...

revoked Fotis' rights and gave sole custody, sole physical custody to Jennifer. And not just that, but when he was allowed to be around his children, they had to be supervised visits and he also had to have all of his phone calls with them monitored. And as you can imagine, this pissed Fotis off. He did not like feeling like he had been wronged.

He did not like feeling like he lost in any way. That was a big thing to note about him. And of course, he tried to get this reversed, but he was unsuccessful. And that, as you can imagine, only added to his anger. That and the fact that he was also being sued

by Jennifer's mom. Now, let me explain. In February of 2018, Gloria, Jennifer's mother, sued Fotis for $2.5 million, claiming that she and her husband loaned him that money to start a business. And of course, it was money that she says he never paid back. Now, I will be circling back to this because it is very important, but overall, I think it's pretty easy to see that Fotis was now

being held accountable for his actions, which was something he did not like. And Fotis was the type of person to retaliate when he felt like he was losing and when he felt like he was backed against a wall, even if he was the person to put that wall there and do things that would push his back up against it. ♪

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Woo!

Welcome to another round of Drawing Board or Miro Board. Today, we talk brainstorms with UX designer Brian. Let's go. First question. You thought you'd see everyone's idea in the team brainstorm, but you've got a grand total of one. Drawing Board or Miro Board? Drawing Board. In Miro, the team can add ideas now or later. And with Privacy Mode, we can keep them anonymous until they're good to share. Correct.

And

And he's wild. For a limited time, visit miro.com slash brainstorm now and get a free business plan trial to unlock even more brainstorming tools like private mode and voting. That's miro.com slash brainstorm now.

And sadly, that leads me to what happened on May 24th, 2019. By this point, Jennifer and Fotis were two years into their contentious divorce battle and things didn't seem to be resolving anytime soon. Jennifer, by this point, was still deeply afraid of them and adjusting to raising their five kids early.

on her own, which is not easy to do. However, she did have support. And that brings me to introducing Lauren Almeida, who had been nannying the Dulos children since before the divorce and stuck with Jennifer in the months and years that followed. The two of them had worked really hard to make the adjustment for these kids as easy as possible, to really stick to their routines as much as they could and make life feel as happy and normal as they could during this time.

And May 24th was no exception to their normal daily routine. That day was a Friday, and like every other school day, Jennifer woke up, got her kids ready for school, and took them there. It was a half day at school, so Lauren was scheduled to come by the house and do some light housework and then go pick them up.

Meanwhile, Jennifer's plan for the day was to take her other car, a Range Rover, into the city for the day for a handful of appointments that she had and to be back later that evening in order to make it to the orthodontist appointment that she had scheduled for one of her kids. And the morning seemed like

To start out okay, a neighbor's security camera captured Jennifer leaving in her 2017 Chevy Suburban just before 8 a.m. to drop her kids off at school and returning home minutes later at 8.05. But after this, Jennifer went dark. And at 11.30, Lauren arrived at the house as planned. And immediately she noticed a few things were off. For starters, Jennifer's Range Rover was still parked in the middle bay of her three-car garage.

And this wasn't earth shattering, but Lauren remembered thinking it was weird because Jennifer had made a point to tell her that she would be taking that car into the city, which makes sense because obviously driving a Chevy Suburban into the city is not ideal. It's much easier to maneuver and park and stuff with the Range Rover. But like I said, that didn't seem to her like too big of a deal. She noted it, but, you know, moved past it quickly. But then there were a few other things that

seemed off as well. After that, Lauren noticed that Jennifer's purse was on the ground. And this was weird to her because Jennifer really did take care of her things, but she figured maybe she had just grabbed her phone, her wallet, whatever else she needed out of the purse and just took those items with her because she didn't want to bring an expensive purse into the city. Again, didn't think too much of it, but noted it. Then she noticed a half-eaten granola bar and an unfinished cup of tea on the counter, which...

again, wasn't super weird because this is how Jennifer started all of her mornings. And so she just assumed that she may have been in a rush that morning and didn't have a chance to finish her breakfast. But then she noticed something that was pretty strange, something that was harder to ignore.

She brought the teacup over to the sink to wash it. And that's when she realized that the paper towel dispenser was empty, which isn't super weird off the bat. But then she goes to the pantry to grab another paper towel roll and restock the roll holder. And then she notices that...

stack of paper towel rolls that she had just restocked the night before had gone from 12 paper towels to two paper towel rolls in less than 24 hours and this is obviously odd and she's trying to figure out what mess jennifer possibly could have had to clean up that would have made her use 10 rolls of paper towel so all of these things combined felt weird to lauren and she

began to worry. And that worry really became genuine fear when she starts trying to get in contact with Jennifer and isn't able to reach her. She sends her texts, all of her calls go right to voicemail.

And she knows something is up. For as busy as Jennifer was that day, Lauren says that in all the years she had worked for her, she never would have gone this long without replying and that she never would have ignored a phone call. Plus, she straight up just didn't show up for that orthodontist appointment for one of her kids that day. And that was...

out of character for her. Jennifer always showed up for her kids and if for some reason she couldn't, she obviously would have reached out to someone and let them know. So Lauren begins contacting Jennifer's friends hoping that one of them maybe was with her or knew what was going on, had heard from her something, but nobody had. She also contacted Jennifer's mom. She

She had no idea what was going on, so at 6.59 p.m., they reported her missing. And when officers first arrived at her house, they performed a standard search of the home, and while the inside of the house appeared to be free of concern, the garage was another story. Inside the garage, officers noticed what appeared to be several blood-like spatter stains to the left of the Range Rover, including what looked like a partial bloody shoe print. There were spatter stains on the side of the car, on the

hood of the car and the bumper, as well as the concrete floor next to it. It also looked like there had been a noticeable effort to clean whatever those stains were. And so Jennifer's home quickly became a crime scene. It was taped off, secured, and processed as such. The local police immediately called in for backup from state authorities and

Every inch of her property was combed through to try and make sense of what had happened here. And meanwhile, the search for Jennifer and her missing vehicle were well on their way, and one of those things was not too hard to find. Jennifer's 2017 Chevy Suburban ended up being found super quickly, abandoned only three miles from her home in a dirt turnoff on Lapham Road in Waveney Park. Her car was left running with its lights still on,

with the transmission in reverse and a blood-like substance was seen on the passenger seat. Investigators also noticed that the black WeatherTech mat that was meant for the trunk of the car was missing. Obviously, finding the car was a huge discovery. However, it led to more questions. If Jennifer's car was here...

then where was she? So the police, of course, reached out to Fotis, but he claimed he didn't see or hear from Jennifer or the kids that day. He did agree to come in the next day to speak to investigators. However, that was about as far as his cooperation went. The following day, May 25th, Fotis arrived at the police station with his attorney. However, he showed up three hours later than he

Then he said he would be there. And not only that, Fotis only stayed there for a couple of minutes. He did hand over his phone to investigators because they told him that they would be obtaining a search warrant to do so anyway. So at least he did that. But that was it. He didn't offer any additional information and he hightailed it out of there pretty quick. He showed no interest in the investigation, no interest in helping to find out what happened to the mother of his children.

Which to me is like, dude, how stupid can you be? If you're trying to not get caught for committing this murder, potentially, wouldn't you at least pretend to care? It just it makes no sense. So obviously investigators are getting real bad vibes from this guy right off the bat. So they wasted no time obtaining search warrants for his phone.

phone, for his house, for his car, basically everything. And in their efforts to pull together as much information as they could, they ended up finding several crucial things. Earlier, I mentioned that a neighbor's security camera captured Jennifer's Chevy Suburban pulling back into her driveway at 8.05 a.m. after she dropped her kids off at school.

Well, that same camera captured the car pulling out of the driveway at 10.25 a.m. However, they did not believe that it was Jennifer driving the car this time around. They believe it was Fotis who was driving the car. And they believe that between 8.05 and 10.25 a.m., Fotis...

attacked Jennifer, attempted to clean the crime scene, loaded her into the back of her car, which he then drove away from the property. And this theory was based on what investigators believed to be undeniable evidence that Fotis killed his wife and then took steps to conceal the crime. So let's go over what that evidence was. And there are

There's a lot of it. While processing Jennifer's home, multiple blood-like stains were found. This included the side, hood, and bumper of her Range Rover, in addition to spatter stains on the ground to the left of the vehicle. And these stains all tested presumptive positive for blood.

And while additional testing was done, it all came back as positive for human blood and as a match to Jennifer's DNA. And let me explain how Fotis fits into all of this. Inside the home, investigators swabbed several surfaces, including the kitchen faucet and the mudroom door handle. And testing revealed not one, but two sources of DNA. The first source obviously belonged to Jennifer.

the second source belonged to Satan's own Fotis Doulos. And if you're thinking that maybe there's a simple explanation for his DNA being there, I promise you there isn't. Before all of this happened, Fotis never once

stepped foot in Jennifer's home, and he admitted that himself, which to investigators really only leaves one explanation as to why his DNA was there. And that explanation being that Fotis killed Jennifer and then went inside of her home to clean up the scene. But don't worry, there's more evidence if you weren't fully convinced. Investigators also, of course, had Fotis' phone, which ended up being a very valuable source of information. There were some...

very incriminating things on that phone. Even though forensic data places his phone at his house during the 8.05 to 10.25 timeframe, which later they argue he left behind on purpose, his phone was not at home later that afternoon. Botis' phone placed him in the area of

And when I tell you that police jumped right into action to track down surveillance footage for this area, I mean they didn't hesitate for a second. And thank God, because had they not, they would have been able to track down surveillance footage for this area.

they would have missed some of the most crucial evidence in this case. It turns out that a 2014 Ford Raptor, a truck registered to Fotis' company, was caught on surveillance driving around the city making stops at several public trash cans. And in that footage, someone wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants who matches Fotis' description was seen exiting the truck, grabbing trash bags from the truck,

and then throwing them away. And you guys, it is reported that more than 30 trash bags were found. 30. And only three of these were caught on surveillance, only three instances of him throwing them away. But damn, that is a lot of trash to explain away. With Lucky Land Slots, you can get lucky just about anywhere.

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Welcome to another round of Drawing Board or Miro Board. Today, we talk brainstorms with UX designer Brian. Let's go. First question. You thought you'd see everyone's idea in the team brainstorm, but you've got a grand total of one. Drawing Board or Miro Board? Drawing Board. In Miro, the team can add ideas now or later. And with Privacy Mode, we can keep them anonymous until they're good to share. Correct.

And

And he's wild. For a limited time, visit miro.com slash brainstorm now and get a free business plan trial to unlock even more brainstorming tools like private mode and voting. That's miro.com slash brainstorm now.

But of course, Fotis did try to explain it away. He comes up with this story that these trash bags were placed outside of his house and instead of contacting the police to come and get them, because obviously that is weird as fuck. Who is going to leave 30 bags of trash in front of your house? But anyway, he wigs out, he panics and he decides to throw them out.

I mean, what? I mean, come on. What kind of rational person would do this? Waste their time loading up 30 bags of trash and then going around the city, throwing them out wherever you can. Just seriously? And get this. Fotis wasn't alone. In the same footage, a woman who we later find out is Michelle Traconis can be seen laughing.

leaning out of the car where she appears to be wiping her hand on the pavement and it's not entirely known what exactly she was doing but honestly that didn't totally matter what matters is that Fotis appeared to have an accomplice in his attempts to get rid of all of this evidence and I'll talk about Michelle's role in all of this later because there's a lot to be said on that

But for now, let's talk about all of this evidence and what they found because they found a lot. Of course, as soon as investigators saw this footage, they beelined it to those trash cans and tried to get as much of it as they could. And sadly, they weren't able to get everything because some had already been picked up and taken to the dump, but they still recovered quite a bit. Of what was recovered, investigators found several items of evidence.

Now, this included a striped Vineyard Vines t-shirt and bra, both of which had been cut down the middle, zip ties, a towel, a sponge, two clear ponchos, a white shirt, all of which were bloody, by the way, as well as a bent mop or

broom handle, a razor, gloves, and a screwdriver. Investigators even shut down the Hartford trash plant in early June and brought in canines to try to uncover more. Meanwhile, a full-scale search was going on in Waveney Park in an attempt to locate Jennifer's body. And I'm talking about the FBI, canine dogs, helicopters, and dozens...

of boots on the ground. And this was a very much stop at nothing type effort that went on for quite some time. Even though they were handling this case as a disappearance at first, the evidence they found was enough for them to escalate this to a homicide. And that is not all the evidence. There are

There is a lot more. Back in Hartford, the same surveillance camera that captured Michelle leaning out of the car also captured Fotis shoving what appeared to be a white FedEx envelope down a storm drain. Well, believe it or not, investigators went to that storm drain and recovered the thing that Fotis was trying to hide. And it turns out that it was an envelope filled with license plates, specifically altered license plates.

license plates. At first, the plates appeared to read 5T6WBU, but when they ran those plates, there was no match to any vehicles in the Connecticut system. But then a detective was looking closer at them and realized that something looked strange about

about the characters on the license plates. And at closer inspection, they realized that someone had put tape on some of the letters and numbers to try and disguise them because the plate actually read 516-

W, D, J. So tape was put on the one to make it look like a T. It was also put on the D to make it look like a B. And it was also put on the J to make it look like a U. So when they figured out what the license plate actually read, they ran those characters through the system. And who was that license plate registered to?

Of course, Fotis motherfucking Dulos. And I'm guessing it'll shock none of you to hear that the DNA testing on all the evidence from the trash cans came back as a match to Jennifer. It was her blood on those items and her DNA all over Jennifer.

those bags, but it wasn't just Jennifer's DNA that they found. Both Fotis and Michelle's DNA were found on several items. Fotis' DNA was not only found on the outside of two of the trash bags, but also inside on the gloves that were recovered. So it's looking like this case is becoming a...

Major slam dunk, right? Michelle's DNA was also found on one of the trash bags as well as the tape that was used to hold two of the trash bags together. Unfortunately, though, investigators couldn't find every piece of evidence that they were looking for from their surveillance footage. Honestly, finding those license plates was so, so lucky considering they had been shoved down a storm drain. But there was one major piece of evidence that they were hoping to find and did not find.

And that was the black WeatherTech mat from the back of Jennifer's car that was missing. In one of those videos from Hartford, Fotis can be seen carrying what investigators believe is that mat,

up to a trash can. And when he sees that it's just too big to fit in the trash can, he carries it up to the side of a building adjacent to the trash. But like I said, it was unfortunately never recovered and it would have likely been a huge piece of evidence. And that's because if they had found it and specifically if it had Jennifer's blood on it, it would have been a huge piece of evidence.

it could prove that he was moving Jennifer's body in the back of the car. Luckily, though, there definitely was enough evidence here for arrests to be made. On June 1st, 2019, Fotis Doulos and Michelle Traconis were arrested on charges of tampering with physical evidence and hindering prosecution. Charges that

They, of course, pled not guilty to. Two days later, on June 3rd, they made their first court appearance for their individual arraignment hearings where they were each given a $500,000 bond. Michelle was able to post bail that same day, but it took Fotis a total of 10 days to come up with the money.

And if you're wondering why they weren't initially charged with murder, basically investigators wanted to wait for those charges until they had, you know, a really slam dunk case in their mind. They wanted to see how much more they could uncover.

and feel more confident about it. So they started with charges that they did feel confident that they could get a conviction on, but more on that later. So the next day, June 2nd, Michelle had her first sit-down interview with investigators where she denied any involvement in Jennifer's disappearance and any involvement in attempting to cover up the crime. When sharing her alibi, she said that on the morning of May 24th, she and Fotis woke up at 6.40 a.m., they showered, and

And then they had sex. And she was adamant that she absolutely 100%

saw Fotis at their house that morning, providing him with his own alibi. And to add to that, Michelle said that she knew that Fotis was home at 8.15 a.m. because he had a meeting with Kent Mawinney, which took place at their home office for the four group. Now, Kent is not only an attorney, but a close friend of Fotis that will end up playing a big role in all of this, but more on that later. But overall, Michelle's first interview with police was an emotional one.

with lots of talk of innocence and confusion over what the police were accusing her of. She had a lot to say about what they did that day, but before telling you more about her version of events, or should I say versions of events, I need to tell you about what was found inside Fotis' home that

the day after the interview because it plays a massive role in Michelle's story and how that story changes. Literally by chance during the execution of a search warrant, a detective was going through the trash when he uncovered a document outlining an

hour-by-hour replay of Michelle and Fotis' activities from the day of Jennifer's disappearance and the day after. And they dubbed these the alibi scripts. They were written in both Michelle and Fotis' handwriting, and it basically was a verbatim copy of everything Michelle had told investigators the day prior. Literally as if she had sat down and memorized this script. I mean, it was pretty obvious. But in her second interview on June 6th,

Michelle said that there was an innocent explanation for it. She says that Fotis told her they had to write all of this down at the direction of his attorney. According to her, he tells her that they have to write all of this down, you know, hour by hour, exactly what they did in the event that investigators asked them later on about their alibi, which does seem like a reasonable response to some. I mean, some people are really split on this and think that she's telling the truth. However...

Others, including myself, think that this was them trying to get their story straight. I mean, to me, it seems really obvious. And that's what investigators thought, too. Because for as detailed as the alibi script was, the information on it wasn't fully accurate. And if they were just trying to honestly record their alibis in the event that police needed them...

Why put fabricated information on it? And also, why leave important information out? And the biggest thing that was omitted from their alibi script was their visit to the Hartford trash dump. Literally, that whole part of their day was completely omitted from this hour-by-hour log of what they did.

Come on. And really, Michelle's whole story started to fall apart at this point. Even though she was initially saying that Fotis was 100% at home that morning, now she was starting to think that maybe he wasn't. And that was because investigators told her they had evidence to prove he wasn't home that morning. And only then did she start saying, oh, maybe I only saw him around 1 p.m. Quite a big difference. ♪

I'm Victoria Cash. Thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear. So go to LuckyLandSlots.com right now and play over 100 social casino-style games for free. Get lucky today.

What?

Welcome to another round of Drawing Board or Miro Board. Today, we talk brainstorms with UX designer Brian. Let's go. First question. You thought you'd see everyone's idea in the team brainstorm, but you've got a grand total of one. Drawing Board or Miro Board? Drawing Board. In Miro, the team can add ideas now or later. And with privacy mode, we can keep them anonymous until they're good to share. Correct.

And

And he's wild. For a limited time, visit Miro.com slash brainstorm now and get a free business plan trial to unlock even more brainstorming tools like private mode and voting. That's M-I-R-O dot com slash brainstorm now. So after she admits that she didn't see him until 1 p.m. that day, she also tells investigators that at some point Fotis told her that he wished she would disappear.

She being Jennifer. In this second interview, she also had to backtrack what she said about his so-called meeting with Kent. First, it was that the two definitely had a meeting in the four group office that morning and that she heard their voices having a meeting but didn't see them.

Then it was that she just saw Kent but didn't see or hear Fotis. There was also a strange 17-second phone call on Fotis' phone that Michelle ended up admitting to answering. Because if you remember, Fotis left his phone at home. This call was from his friend Andreas, and investigators believed it was deliberately scheduled for that time frame to try and make it look like Fotis was home that morning. And texts between the two actually show that on May 23rd,

he told Andreas what time to call him. They say, call me tomorrow morning at mine and we'll talk. 3.30 yours, at the normal. So, kind of confusing messages, but yeah, pretty clear that that was set up. But like I said, Michelle admitted to being the one to answer it, not Fotis. The phone rang and it was a call from a, well, it said Andreas in France.

And I think he was kind of programming that apartment for so long. To the other side of the room. Like if you're going to pick up the phone or something like that, I picked up. I don't want to say that to him. Then are you like, there's a phone ring or you're going to pick something with the phone or the call? Not the phone, the call. The phone.

As detail after detail seemed to change, it made already suspicious investigators even more wary when it came to Michelle's potential involvement in this murder. As for her own alibi, though, I will say that investigators were able to corroborate her story and prove that she...

couldn't have possibly actually committed the killing herself because Michelle spent that morning with two different friends and even photographed herself with a stop and shop robot and timestamps from those events would have made it impossible for her to have been involved in that way. But she was involved in other ways. So let's go through that. In all three of Michelle's interviews, she said that she spent part of her afternoon helping Fotis clean a house that he was planning to have a

a meeting in the next morning with a client. And this home was located at 80 Mountain Spring Road. And while her story varied slightly about what exactly she was cleaning inside the house, but it was what she said she was cleaning outside the house with Fotis that was especially interesting to investigators. And that was a red Toyota Tacoma, which belonged to one of Fotis' employees named Fogelman.

Pavel Gumiani. So here's what Michelle tells investigators. She says that on that afternoon, while she was helping him clean the house, he asks her to help him clean a coffee stain inside of that truck. However, all she says that she did when it came to cleaning up this coffee stain in the truck or what he tells her is a coffee stain is throw away the towels, add

As he's handing them to her while he's cleaning. But when she was asked about these dirty towels, she couldn't say that they smelled like coffee. And I think we can all agree that coffee has a pretty strong smell.

I mean, one of the strongest, you could argue. So the fact that she couldn't say that it smelled like coffee was very telling. All she could say was that the towels had dark stains on them. And could those stains have been blood? Well, inventive.

Investigators say yes, and eventually they had the evidence to prove it. To explain that, though, I need to rewind a little bit. At the start of the investigation, when investigators were canvassing for surveillance cameras, they came across footage of a red Toyota Tacoma traveling from Farmington, near where Fotis lived, towards New Canaan, where Jennifer lived. It was seen on multiple cameras traveling that direction, as well as seen parked on the side of the road near Waveney Park.

less than 100 feet from where Jennifer's Chevy would later be found. And in one of these videos, investigators made out the image of a bike in the bed of the truck. And while this is hugely important because in additional footage found from Jennifer's neighborhood from the morning of her disappearance,

It showed an individual dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt riding a bike towards her house at 7.30 a.m. And just three hours later, just before 10.30 a.m., Jennifer's black Chevy Suburban is seen driving in the opposite direction. And in case you forgot, 10.30 a.m.

10.25 a.m. is when investigators say they believe Fotis left Jennifer's house driving her Chevy with Jennifer in the trunk. Now, when it comes to the bike, investigators say they can confirm that it was Fotis riding it, even though he was wearing this hooded disguise. And that's because it turns out that this bike was a very specific bike. It was a European-style bike that Fotis

Fotis had in his childhood, and he actually had this bike shipped to him when he moved to America. And not only that, but that bike, that bike from his childhood, was missing from his property when investigators searched it. So here's the theory that investigators put together based on all the evidence I've gone over so far. On the morning of May 24th, 2019, investigators believe that Fotis took his employee's truck

and drove it from Farmington to New Canaan with the intention of murdering Jennifer Dulos. And if you're wondering how he got the car in the first place, it's an interesting story. Basically, Pavel normally would drive his truck over to Fotis' house on workdays...

and that's because the office for the Ford Group was located in Fotis' house, and he would drop the car off there, and then he would take a work truck out for whatever he had to do for the day. So this was pretty standard to him, but even though he normally drove it to Fotis' house on May 23rd,

Third, Fotis told him to bring his truck to a different four-group property the following morning, saying that it was, quote, leaking oil. Now, this might be a little confusing right now, but I promise once I get through everything, it's going to make more sense. So investigators theorize that after stealing his employee's truck,

Fotis put the bike in the trunk and drove it towards Jennifer's house, where he parked it a few miles away near Waveney Park. And this is confirmed by a school bus camera, which captured an image of the red Toyota parked less than 100 feet from where Jennifer's Chevy would eventually be found. From there, investigators say he rode the bike up to Jennifer's house, where he gained access to her garage and rode.

waited for her to return home. Once she returned, they believe he attacked Jennifer, took efforts to clean up the garage, and then put her body in the trunk of her car, which he then drove to Waveney Park. And they think that just by pure luck,

He was able to transport her body from the truck of her Chevy to the inside of the red Toyota Tacoma without being seen. And this is when investigators alleged that Jennifer's blood got inside the truck. Blood that they say Fotis and Michelle were attempting to clean up on the afternoon of May 24th at 80 Mountain Spring Road. You know, the stains that she tried to say were coffee stains, coffee.

But here's the thing. By the time investigators get access to the truck, those stains were gone because the seats were gone. It turns out that at 9 a.m. on May 29th, Fotis and Michelle took the truck to Russell Speeder's car wash and paid $250 cash to have it detailed. And big shock here, but Michelle actually lied to investigators at first, saying that she wasn't with Fotis when the car was taken in to get detailed, but...

Surveillance footage quickly proved that to be a lie. She absolutely was there. Footage from a neighbor's security camera captured Fotis driving the red Toyota away from his property on May 29th and following behind him was Michelle driving a rental car. The red Toyota then appeared at the car wash and Michelle admitted that...

While they waited for the truck to be detailed, she and Fotis went to see her lawyer. But of course, she said there was an explanation for them getting the car detailed. Because of course there is. Michelle said that she was under the impression that Fotis was helping Pavel sell the truck. That's why they were getting it detailed.

I mean, at least that's what she says he told her. But investigators, of course, don't believe that to be true. They believe that they were getting the car detailed to hide evidence. And when that didn't work, they resorted to plan B. And plan B was for Fotis to tell Pavel to replace the seats or sell the car entirely. And obviously, Fotis wasn't going to tell Pavel why he wanted him to do this. So instead, he made up an absolutely absurd story that I just

I've got to share this one with you because, wow, Fotis gave Pavel this really vague story about how on Mother's Day, which keep in mind was 12 days before Jennifer disappeared, that he gave her a hug and also pet her cat. And so he was worried that one of her hairs may have gotten on him and therefore ended up in the truck, which...

Maybe could make sense. Maybe. If there was any reason for Fotis to be driving that truck in the first place, and there absolutely wasn't, Pavel said that Fotis had never spontaneously taken his truck ever.

He just couldn't understand why he did that. And so Pavel explained all of this to investigators. Pavel was first interviewed on June 6th, and he told them everything. He told them about how Fotis had taken his car, how he pressured him into getting it detailed, and how he wanted him to replace the seats and more. And Pavel also told them that he...

did it in a way that made him feel like he didn't have the option to say no. In fact, Fotis actually gave him car seats from an old Porsche of his, a Porsche that was found abandoned at one of his properties. But the good news is, even though Pavel was told to get rid of those car seats, he didn't. He hung on to them in case investigators needed them. And like I alluded to before, after being tested, these seats confirmed investigations.

Investigators theory that the coffee stain inside the truck was really bloodstains. Now, the tricky part is what Michelle's lawyers would later argue, and that is that, sure, Fotis was knowingly cleaning up evidence. However, Michelle had no idea that that is what he was doing. And the same goes for the car ride through Hartford.

Michelle claimed that she was just scrolling on her phone and didn't pay attention to what Fotis was doing while she waited for him to take her to Starbucks, which surveillance cameras capture them doing after dumping all of the trash. She claims that it was only after she was confronted with all the evidence that she realized what Fotis had actually done. But admitting that she believed that Fotis killed Jennifer...

didn't help investigators with their case against her, a case that they were trying to build, because they would have to prove that she knew about the murder and knowingly was helping him dispose of evidence. And the story that she and her lawyers really stuck to was

was that she had no idea what Fotis had done, that he tricked her, and that she knew nothing about it. So jumping back into the timeline here, on June 5th, a judge ruled that all five Dulo's children would remain in the care of their maternal grandmother, who had been with them since their mom first disappeared. Lauren, their babysitter, was also still playing a major role in their lives, and I'm really grateful that she remained a constant for them during such a traumatic time.

And not long after this, Fotis was released on a $500,000 bond on June 11th. And like Michelle, he was required to wear an ankle monitor. And that same day, a large search effort took place at Water Ski Facility, where Fotis previously trained. Police units, canines, and dive teams all came in to search the pond and the nearby woods, but nothing was found. The sad reality is Jennifer didn't.

to this day, has not been located. And there have been numerous searches on multiple properties of Fotis' and, you know, places where he spent time and nothing has turned up. And if there's one thing I want to see happen in this case, it is for Jennifer's remains to be found so her family can...

you know get some closure and lay her to rest the proper way and that's why this week i'm going to be making a donation to a gofundme that is raising funds to help locate jennifer's body in an upcoming search this two-day search effort is set to take place in mid-april

with the help of a specially trained cadaver dog who has made a total of 36 recoveries in his career. They have a goal of raising $4,500 for this, and with the search date approaching, they have yet to reach that number. They are super, super close though, so I wanted to make a donation for the remaining amount needed to kind of close that gap and make sure they are able to secure this cadaver dog. And I'm so hopeful that maybe this will be it. Maybe they can actually recover her and...

bring her home to her loved ones hello everyone so clearly i am recording this little bit here on a different day if you are listening to the audio you probably can't tell but i am in a different outfit and that's because

I decided to break this episode into two parts, and that is because this case is so massive. I never really have an idea of how long my episodes are going to be before I actually record them. And once I did, I mean, it was just so long. This episode would be nearly two hours, and I already know there will be comments saying,

I don't mind if it's two hours. I know the data and I know that if an episode is too long, a lot of people end up tuning out. And I really want people to actually sit and listen to Jennifer's story to absorb it all. It's so much information to take in that I felt it's best to kind of give us a little break in between. Thank you. It is a lot, obviously, to edit really long episodes. We just needed a bit more time as well. I wanted to break this up.

But I really hope you'll tune into part two because there, believe me, there is still so much to go over and you absolutely have to hear where things are in the case as of now.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.

I'm Victoria Cash. Thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear. So go to LuckyLandSlots.com right now and play over 100 social casino-style games for free. Get lucky today.

Welcome to another round of Boardroom or Miro Board. Today we talk retrospectives with Agile coach Maria. Let's go. First question. You've spent two hours in a team retro, but the only input you've heard is Dave's. Boardroom or Miro Board? Boardroom. In Miro, Dave can't hog the space because everyone can add thoughts anonymously, online at the same time. Correct.

Next, you need the team to act on feedback fast. So you turn all those retro notes into Jira tasks. Miro all the way. And I can assign those tasks to teammates. You're nailing this. Now, you see hundreds of sticky notes from the retro. A real mess. But you organize them into five themes in just seconds. Miro, I basically get back an entire hour when I use its AI tools for clustering.

And she's done it. For a limited time, visit miro.com slash retro now for a free business plan trial to unlock advanced retro tools like private mode, voting, and two-way jira syncing. That's miro.com slash retro now. Welcome to another round of Drawing Board or Miro Board. Today, we talk brainstorms with UX designer Brian. Let's go. First question.

You thought you'd see everyone's idea in the team brainstorm, but you've got a grand total of one. Drawing board or Miro board? Drawing board. In Miro, the team can add ideas now or later. And with privacy mode, we can keep them anonymous until they're good to share. Correct. Next, you need the best way to explain your idea, but all you have is a few sticky notes. Drawing board or Miro board? Drawing board. In Miro, I could record videos, add text, images, links, and digital sticky notes, of course. Right again!

Now, you're looking for a past idea you thought was just genius. Only you could find... Oh, there it is. Drawing board or Miro. All our finished and unfinished work lives in one place. And he's won. For a limited time, visit Miro.com slash brainstorm now and get a free business plan trial to unlock even more brainstorming tools like private mode and voting. That's M-I-R-O dot com slash brainstorm now.