Who Is Fotis Dulos? New Details On Missing Mom Jennifer Farber Dulos' Husband And Their Messy Divorce
She was scared of him.
Facebook When you and your wife are going through a very big, very contentious, very public divorce and you share five kids between the two of you, you do not want your wife to go missing. Sure, you might trash talk her at a bar, the two of you might get into the odd screaming match, but you don't actually wish her harm. Or...do you?
If a woman goes missing, the first line of inquiry for the police is the husband, the boyfriend and the exes. With the police now investigating Connecticut woman Jennifer Farber Dulos' disappearance as a potential homicide, more eyes are going to be turning to her ex-husband, Fotis Dulos. Here's what we know about the man and his connection with his wife prior to her strange disappearance. Who is Fotis Dulos?
1. His Arrest
When Jennifer Farber Dulos went missing on May 24th, the most obvious potential suspect was her ex-husband, Fotis Dulos. After finding her car on the same date as her disappearance, police began following leads. One of the first led them to Jennifer's house where they found blood that implicated Fotis and his new girlfriend, Michelle Troconis.
51-year-old Fotis and his 44-year-old girlfriend were arrested on June 1st on charges of tampering with evidence. The police believe that someone tried to clean up the blood they found at Jennifer's home. Both parties are being held on $500,000 bail pending a scheduled court appearance on Monday, June 3rd.
2. Jennifer Feared Him
When some couples divorce, they try to keep it as amicable as possible. We don't know how things started out when Fotis and Jennifer began their divorce proceedings, but it didn't take long to turn nasty. Soon, filing after filing to the county clerk made it clear that this was going to be a messy divorce, including restraining orders. Jennifer had one on Fotis when she vanished. In a letter to the court, Jennifer revealed: "I am afraid of my husband. I know that filing for divorce, and filing this motion will enrage him. I know he will retaliate by trying to harm me in some way. He has the attitude that he must always win at all costs. He is dangerous and ruthless when he believes that he has been wronged. During the course of our marriage, he told me about sickening revenge fantasies and plans to cause physical harm to others who have wronged him. For example, flying a plane over an ex-client’s home and dropping a brick on his house. I fear for my family’s safety and I believe him to be highly capable and vengeful enough to take the children and disappear."
3. His Obsessive Nature
Jennifer isn't the only one who was afraid of what her ex-husband would do if she didn't live up to his rigorous standards. Fotis was a passionate devotee of water skiing, and he competed in the sport all over the world. It was important to him that their children compete in water skiing as well, and Jennifer claimed that his training of the children was "dangerous and excessive."
"We are all terrified to disobey my husband,” she wrote in an affidavit. When detailing other times when the children felt unsafe, she described an encounter when one of their children did not feel up to water skiing and Fotis took the water ski and dashed it against some rocks in a fit of temper. Everyone gets angry sometimes, but this is establishing a pattern that's potentially dangerous.
4. His Lawsuit
But the evidence pointing towards Fotis isn't just based on stories of his bad temper. If you're looking for a motive, look no further than the lawsuit brought against Fotis by the estate of Jennifer's late father, Hilliard Farber. Jennifer's father's estate claims that Fotis owes them millions for short-term loans made to Fotis to help with his business. Hilliard's estate would often loan Fotis funds so that he could buy properties (he's a builder). Though he was initially paying them back in installments, the lawsuit claims that he eventually just stopped. Speaking out about these allegations, Fotis said that the money was never a loan, it was meant to be considered a gift. That's a pretty big gift!
5. The Custody Arrangement
If you're looking for another motive (not that you need to) the custody battle between the parents is definitely one. In fact, even after Jennifer disappeared, Fotis still had his lawyer issuing letters to the court regarding their custody arrangement. Rather than focusing on finding the mother of his child, he used her vanishing as an opportunity to try and regain full custody! “On Friday, May 24, 2019, Ms. Jennifer Dulos was reported missing. At the same time, her nanny…brought all five Dulos children to New York City to the apartment of Gloria Farber, Ms. Dulos’ 85-year-old mother. They have since hired an armed bodyguard and remain in New York. …My client has joint custody but is limited by your orders. However, at this point, the court needs to take action to provide my client with custody (or someone with the legal ability to act)," said a letter from his attorney.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's an experienced generalist with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, pop culture, and true crime. For more of her work, check out her Tumblr.