STAMFORD, Conn. — Investigators collected an alphabet’s worth of evidence seized from the garbage cans in Hartford on May 30, 2019, which gave them clues in the search for missing New Canaan mom Jennifer Dulos, who disappeared days before.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was charged in connection to her murder before taking his life in January 2020. Fotis’ one-time girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, is on trial for conspiracy to commit murder charges.
Witness testimony Tuesday walked the jury through how investigators processed the trash found inside Hartford's city cans Fotis stopped at on May 24, the evening Jennifer went missing.
City surveillance cameras found someone driving a Ford Tacoma with someone in the passenger seat, stopping by three trash cans along Albany Ave., according to testimony from Monday.
RELATED: Video evidence tracks Fotis Dulos around Hartford on day Jennifer disappeared | Troconis trial
The contents of the city trash can seized at the intersection of Albany Ave. and Green Street were telling of what was allegedly left behind. Each piece of evidence seized was assigned a letter, from A to U, during Tuesday morning’s session.
“That’s a black trash bag, which we opened and later found a long sleeve shirt and a bra…it’s cut, it’s a Vineyard Vines shirt, and it’s covered with blood-like substance along with the bra,” testified Sgt. Kevin Duggan, who was a detective for the Central District Major Crimes Unit at the time.
The court was shown the panchos that were seized as evidence and tested at the lab; the ponchos were clear with a blood-like substance on them when they were sent to the lab, but appeared gray when unpackaged in front of the court because of the fingerprint powder applied during lab testing, Duggan testified.
The two dozen or so items also seized included zip ties, a bent plastic mop handle, a sponge, and a broken razor blade from that bin. Most of the pieces of evidence were unwrapped from its packaging and presented to the court.
A different trash can had another shirt inside that police seized as evidence. This shirt was not unwrapped from its evidence packaging and presented to the court.
“It was a white t-shirt with what appeared to be a blood-like substance on the t-shirt and we found that suspicious,” testified Duggan.
Troconis' attorney Jon Schoenhorn said outside of court that the items shown have nothing to do with his client.
“Nothing that was in those bags will be shown to have anything to do with Michelle Troconis or that she knew what was in any of those bags,” Schoenhorn said in an interview with FOX61 outside of court.
Schoenhorn said Troconis was in the passenger seat making phone calls, thinking they were headed to Starbucks.
“If you were riding in the car, looking at your phone, doing whatever, you would not necessarily know whatever [Fotis] Dulos was up to, whatever he was planning, you just have to wait and see,” Schoenhorn said during the interview.
Since all the items went to the lab, Duggan could not testify what they were tested for and what those tests revealed.
During the afternoon session, testimony from a crime analyst for Hartford’s C4 unit and multiple former and current members of the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crimes Unit described efforts of tracking down video of the Ford Raptor traveling along parts of Albany Ave. that city cameras did not catch, as well as in Farmington and West Hartford during the 7 p.m. hour on May 24.
The trial is expected to continue for several weeks.
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Jennifer Farber Dulos, New Canaan mother of five, was last seen on May 24, 2019, dropping her children off at school. She was reported missing that evening, and an investigation was started.
Troconis is the one-time girlfriend of Jennifer’s estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, who was charged with Jennifer’s murder before he took his life in January 2020.
Troconis faces six charges:
- Conspiracy to commit murder
- Conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence – In connection to May 24, 2019
- Tampering with physical evidence – In connection to May 24, 2019
- Conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence – In connection to May 29, 2019
- Tamping with physical evidence – In connection to May 29, 2019
- Hindering prosecution
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