Family and friends of Jennifer Dulos, who disappeared from her Connecticut home in 2019, are expected to give emotional testimony Friday after her estranged husband’s former lover was convicted of helping plan and cover up her murder.
Michelle Troconis, 49, faces up to 50 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Ms. Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, killed her in their New Canaan home and took her body, which has never been found.
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He committed suicide in 2020, shortly after being charged with murder. He had denied killing his wife.
Troconis was Fotis Dulos’s boyfriend and was living with him at the time of Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance. Troconis was convicted by a jury in March of conspiracy to murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Troconis, 49, maintains her innocence and plans to appeal her conviction. She remains incarcerated at the State Prison for Women. Her family and friends, who are angry and saddened by her conviction, are also scheduled to testify at Friday’s hearing.
Family and friends of Jennifer Dulos and Troconis are preparing statements to the court ahead of the sentencing, potentially including the Dulos’ five children, now ages 13 to 18, but it is not clear who will testify.
The sentence came five years and one week after Jennifer Dulos disappeared after dropping off her five children at school on May 24, 2019.
The case garnered widespread attention and was the subject of news documentaries and the Lifetime television movie “Gone Mom.”
Jennifer Dulos was born into a wealthy New York City family: Her father, the late Hilliard Ferber, ran the bond trading department at Chase Manhattan Bank before founding his own brokerage firm, Hilliard Ferber & Co. She is also the niece of fashion designer Liz Claiborne by marriage.
“We miss her every day, in every sense of the word,” several of Dulos’ relatives and friends said in a statement released last week by Dulos’ friend Carrie Luft. “To us, five years is not a milestone, but a mark of accumulated loss and longing. Life goes on, but with it comes grief, a shadow, a current, a presence of absence.”
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Troconis, a dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizen, previously ran his own television production company in Argentina and hosted a snow sports show for ESPN South America, and describes himself as co-founder of the horse therapy program.
Fotis Dulos was a luxury home builder from Greece.
Her attorney, John Schoenhorn, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
When Troconis was found guilty in March, he said he didn’t understand how the jury reached a guilty verdict.
Troconis’ family, including her parents and sisters, expressed similar disbelief.
“It’s not right to convict my sister because she is innocent,” a tearful Claudia Troconis Marmol said outside the courthouse shortly after the verdict.
Authorities have suggested Fotis Dulos killed Jennifer Dulos because of growing frustration over his divorce and child custody proceedings.
At the time, Jennifer Dulos was living with her children in New Canaan, while Fotis Dulos lived in the family’s 10,000-square-foot (929-square-meter) home in Farmington, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) away.
Hours after Jennifer Dulos was last seen alive, Troconis accompanied Fotis Dulos on a trip to Hartford and was recorded on surveillance video dumping garbage bags from the bed of his pickup truck.
Police subsequently seized Fotis Dulos’ cell phone, tracked its location, obtained surveillance footage from the scene and recovered several bags.
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In one of the most shocking moments of Troconis’ trial, prosecutors and the state’s forensic experts showed a blood-stained shirt, bra and zip ties found in a garbage bag.
Testing determined that the DNA found on those items likely belonged to Jennifer Dulos.
Troconis told police she didn’t know what was in the bag or why Fotis Dulos dumped it in Hartford.
Prosecutors also said Fotis Dulos left his cellphone at the home the day Jennifer Dulos disappeared and that Troconis answered a call from a friend that morning.
They argue this is evidence that Troconis was involved in the plan and tried to help create a false alibi – an allegation she denies.
Another defendant in the case, Kent Muhiney, a friend of Fotis Dulos and his former civil attorney, is awaiting trial on a murder conspiracy charge to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Jennifer Dulos’ body has never been found, but a probate judge declared her legally dead last year. The Dulos children have been in the custody of her mother, who lives in New York City, since her disappearance.
