A 50-year-old Connecticut woman in a fierce custody battle with her husband over their five children, who said she feared he might kidnap them and flee to his homeland in Greece, has been missing more than a week, with a search intensifying after blood traces were found in her home.
Jennifer Dulos left her home in New Canaan, a wealthy town 45 minutes from Manhattan, on May 24 to drop her children off at a private school and hasn’t been seen since, as authorities are trying to determine if foul play was involved.
Despite her disappearance, court battles over custody have continued with her husband, Fotis Dulos claiming in a filing the children were being kept under armed guard at their grandmother’s apartment in New York, The New York Times reported.
She vanished almost two years after filing for divorce and 13 years of marriage, during which they lived together in Farmington, Conn., about 70 miles northeast of New Canaan.
The split was bitter and contentious, the paper said, and she applied for emergency custody of her children, according to court records, complaining her husband was verbally abusive. He did not respond to the paper’s request for a comment and couldn’t be reached.
Her lawyer, Michael Rose, filed a petition seeking to take custody of the couple’s three sons and two daughters, aged 8-13. In a letter to the court he confirmed they were taken to her mother’s apartment in New York City and were being protected by an armed guard.
Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, could not be reached for comment. But in a statement released through a spokesman, Dulos’s family said: “Please be assured that Jennifer’s five children are safe and well cared for.”
Besides the divorce proceedings, Dulos, who runs a company that builds luxury homes, has been tangled up in a suit with the estate of Dulos’ late father, Hilliard Farber, who had given loans to Dulos so he could buy and flip properties for fast profits through his company, the Fore Group, the paper added, but that he didn’t pay back some $1.7 million he owed, the Stamford Advocate said.
INTO THIN AIR
With Dulos missing more than a week, police have stepped up their search, with the Harford Courant earlier reporting blood was found in her home, indicating that police feared she was the victim of a violent crime there.
Lt. Jason Ferraro, a spokesman for the New Canaan Police Department, would not comment on the report, citing the ongoing investigation, but that the case had not been classified as homicide as the probe was continuing.
“We’re running a missing persons investigation as well as a criminal investigation at the same time,” Ferraro said. “As those investigations expand and get more involved, obviously we’re looking at different leads.”
In less than 24 hours, police issued a Silver Alert for Dulos, found her black Chevrolet Suburban near Waveny Park and launched a full-scale search for the missing mother.
Dulos’ family released a statement that said, “Those who know Jennifer know her to be a devoted mother; an extremely thoughtful, reliable and organized woman; and attest that she would never, ever, disappear when she is responsible for the lives of five loving and energetic children.”
The Time said that court records show more than 400 filings, many of them about custody and visitation rights, with each parent accusing the other of making threats in front of their children.
Sources told the Courant it appeared the scene had been cleaned before detectives found it. It was unclear if investigators have tried to match this blood with Dulos’ DNA and the paper reported it was told that undisclosed other evidence showed there likely had been violence.
NOT A TRACE
Earlier, WFSB reported that law enforcement sources close to the investigation had said Dulos’ case is now being treated as a homicide. Ferraro said the search for Dulos crossed state lines to search a home in Pound Ridge, N.Y. The Courant said was associated with Dulos’ family.
Police spent nearly two days searching the sprawling Waveny Park before returning to Dulos’ neighborhood again.
Carrie Luft, a spokeswoman for Dulos’ family, told Good Morning America that, “It’s devastating, a heartbreaking situation. We are all incredibly concerned, but very hopeful she will come back to us safe and sound …and a great deal of what is keeping everyone going is the outpouring of support from the public.”
Fotis Dulos’ attorney requested a judge to allow his client to see his children. Michael Meehan, a Bridgeport attorney and court-appointed guardian at litem for the Dulos children, filed a motion for an emergency conference “regarding the safety of the children.,” the Advocate also said.
The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence released a statement that said court filings
“While news reports have offered the idea that this circumstance is a result of a custody dispute, there is more than sufficient detail in court documents to authentically describe this situation for what it is; domestic violence,” the coalition’s statement reads.
“Ms. Dulos offered to the court on more than one occasion that she was fearful of her husband who could be vengeful and dangerous. We know that domestic violence is a pattern of behavior that is centered on power and control. Abusers use various strategies to threaten, harass, control and intimidate their partner, including the practice of continuing this conduct through the family court process. When a victim is leaving a relationship and taking steps to move away from the abuse and coercion, this can be the most dangerous time.”
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