Jennifer and Fotis Dulos seemed to have it all.
After a lavish 2004 wedding in Manhattan, the Ivy League grads moved to the posh, wooded enclave of Farmington, Connecticut. Living in a 6-bedroom, 13,000 square foot house built by Fotis, a luxury home developer, the couple started a family, with two sets of twins and a baby girl.
“Everything looked stereotypically perfect,” says real estate broker Rob Giuffria of Tea Leaf Realty in Farmington, who befriended the couple when he began working with Fotis in 2013.
A graduate of Brown University with an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School, Fotis worked hard to build his business while Jennifer — who also graduated from Brown and earned a master’s in writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, cared for the children.
Though she wrote a blog, “Her 100 percent focus was on being a mother,” says Giuffria.
To an outsider, life for the couple was good. “Great house. Gorgeous couple. Five kids. From outward appearances, it doesn’t seem like it gets much better,” Giuffria says.
But their marriage was a far cry from its picture-perfect appearance.
Court records depict a couple in the midst of a contentious divorce, which began in 2017 after Jennifer learned Fotis was having an affair with another woman, Michelle Troconis. Unhappy with her husband’s affair, Jennifer took the children that June and moved 70 miles away to New Canaan.
Jennifer also said in court documents that she feared for her life, especially after Fotis bought a handgun, though Fotis disputed the characterization that he was threatening.
On May 24, after dropping off her children at school in the morning, Jennifer vanished. She remains missing.
Subsequently, Fotis, 51, and Troconis, 44, were arrested and charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with the case.
Before their arrest, surveillance cameras captured footage of a man and woman matching their descriptions dumping garbage bags at 30 different trash bins in Hartford the night Jennifer went missing, court records show.
At least two of the bags allegedly contained clothing and sponges stained with Jennifer’s blood.
Released on $500,000 bail each, Fotis and Troconis have pleaded not guilty.
In his dealings with Fotis, Giuffria says he saw “zero” signs that anything was amiss.
“Fotis was a very tough negotiator when it comes to fees, but he was able to put deals together and hold them together. Professionally, the guy was pretty impressive.”
He describes Jennifer as a “very sweet lady. Just a very caring mother and just inwardly focused on the kids and the family.”
“It’s sad,” he says. “I feel for the kids.”