The girlfriend of Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mother, was arrested on Thursday and charged again with evidence tampering, authorities said.
Michelle Troconis was hit with the new tampering allegation about 24 hours after her boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, was arrested and charged with another tampering count, police said.
Troconis, 44, surrendered at state police barracks in Bridgeport on Thursday and then left without speaking to reporters. Dulos, 51, was released Wednesday after posting a $500,000 bond and is next due in court on Sept. 12.
An arrest warrant released Wednesday for Dulos revealed that investigators believe he waited for his estranged and now missing ex-wife, Jennifer Dulos, at her New Canaan home and attacked her on May 24.
Jennifer Dulos’ 2017 Chevrolet Suburban was seen on a residential security camera at 8:05 a.m., leading authorities to believe the “crime and clean-up” occurred between then and 10:25 a.m., when the SUV was seen leaving the house.
Dulos was “believed to be driving the victim’s vehicle … carrying the body of Jennifer Dulos and a number of other items associated with the clean-up, which occurred in the garage of the residence,” the warrant said.
Troconis’ lawyer, Andrew Bowman, insisted that his client is innocent.
“Remember that Michelle is presumed innocent and she should be,” Bowman said. “We’re prepared to let judgement in this case rest in a jury’s hands.”
She and Dulos had been free on bail since their arrest in early June for hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.
Surveillance footage showed Dulos and Troconis discarding items that had Jennifer Dulos’ blood on them. Prosecutors said Fotis Dulos’ DNA was found in his wife’s home.
Jennifer Dulos, 50, moved to New Canaan with her children in 2017, about 70 miles from where she lived with Fotis Dulos in Farmington.