Lauren Almeida testified that Fotis Dulos chased Jennifer Farber Dulos to a room. (Screenshot of Almeida on Jan. 17, 2024: Law&Crime Network; mug shot of Fotis Dulos: Connecticut State Police; image of Jennifer Farber Dulos: New Canaan Police Department)
The nanny working for murdered woman Jennifer Farber Dulos testified Wednesday that the suspected killer, Fotis Dulos, displayed a pattern of aggression after the victim learned he cheated with Michelle Troconis.
One such incident from 2017 involved Fotis Dulos chasing Jennifer Dulos to a room at their home and Jennifer pushing her body against the door to keep him out, according to testimony. Fotis allegedly acted calmer when he realized the nanny and one of the couple’s children were there. His demeanor changed from yelling to being “very soft-spoken,” said the nanny, Lauren Almeida.
“Jennifer, I just want to talk,” he said, according to Almeida’s testimony.
Fotis Dulos died by suicide after prosecutors in Connecticut charged him as the person who murdered his estranged wife at her New Canaan home on May 24, 2019, and successfully hid her body. He went to his grave professing innocence. That leaves his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, on trial for allegedly helping him plot and cover up the murder. His friend, Kent Mawhinney, also faces a pending case for murder conspiracy.
Troconis has since written off Fotis Dulos.
“Whether or not Fotis Dulos was capable of doing the things the police and prosecutors accused him of doing, I do not know,” Troconis said in a statement translated by her defense and obtained by NBC Connecticut in May 2020. “But based on what I have learned in the last year, I think it was a mistake to have trusted him.”
Her trial so far is focused on the early moments of Jennifer Dulos’ May 24, 2019, disappearance, and how law enforcement got involved.
Almeida’s testimony, which started on Tuesday, detailed the friction between the couple, which escalated in spring 2017, when Jennifer Dulos learned that Fotis Dulos had cheated on her with Troconis.
“He is having an affair and I have proof,” Jennifer Dulos said, according to Almeida’s testimony.
That proof was emails and receipts showing that Fotis Dulos and Troconis went on a trip to Utah.
“She was just like, ‘I knew it,”” Almeida said, describing Jennifer Dulos as soft-spoken.
Jennifer Dulos said she was going to talk to Fotis Dulos about the affair. Almeida testified that Jennifer later pulled her aside and said that Fotis confessed. According to testimony, Jennifer said she was going to try to be as civil as possible in light of them having five children.
Then Jennifer’s plans changed. Almeida, who officially worked for Fotis’ company Fore Group, agreed to join her and the children when she moved out of Fotis’ Farmington mansion.
“She was my friend, and I trusted her, and I wanted to trust her,” Almeida said. The nanny put in her notice with Fore Group for the end of May 2017.
She testified about a tense living situation. For example, she said that Fotis Dulos chased Jennifer Dulos with a piece of paper. He looked “angry” and she looked “scared and worried.”
Fotis also threatened to take their five children to his birth country of Greece and never return, according to testimony.
Almeida described being in the estranged couple’s presence as “tense and uncomfortable.”
According to her testimony, Jennifer Dulos had become afraid. “Her anxiety was really bad,” Almeida said. Jennifer lost weight and was afraid, expressing that fear often.
She planned on moving out with Almeida’s help by removing items that Fotis would not notice went missing; she was afraid of what he would do to her and the children if she filed for divorce while living under the same roof. She was “terrified” of Fotis learning of the secret move.
They finalized the move on June 19, 2017, Almeida testified. Jennifer Dulos told him that they were visiting her father’s grave in New York, but instead, they went to a hotel, where Jennifer hired an armed bodyguard to stand outside the room.
Almeida testified to receiving calls from Fotis Dulos that evening. She did not pick up. Fotis left a voicemail in which he accused Almeida of kidnapping the kids and that he was going to call the police.
“Which he did,” she said.
A family case ensued between Jennifer and Fotis Dulos. Almeida testified on Jennifer’s behalf in that matter. She said Wednesday that she saw Fotis outside in the hallway before testifying. While he was with his lawyers, he approached her, yelling at her and accusing her of kidnapping his children. She just walked away. He approached her later with his lawyer, apologizing and saying that he had been really upset, she said.
After the couple separated, Almeida initially took the children to Fotis Dulos’ home for visits, but on Sept. 20, 2017, he again angrily approached her, yelled at her, accused her of kidnapping the children, maintained that he was going to make sure Almeida was never going to see his children again, and he claimed the only reason she was there for Jennifer was because she paid off her student loan, according to testimony.
“Which is an absolute lie,” Almeida said of the loan claim.
She testified that after that, she said she never wanted to be around him again.
In the lead-up to Jennifer Dulos’ May 24, 2019, disappearance, Fotis Dulos had routine visitation with the children on Wednesdays. Almeida testified that on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, he arrived at Jennifer’s Wells Lane home in New Canaan at 4 a.m., which is 30 minutes early.
“Unbelievably unusual,” she said. “Fotis was late to everything including supervised visitation.”
On May 24, 2019, the day of the disappearance, Almeida had dropped by the home — she had access through the middle garage — and though she did not notice any bloodlike substances, she noticed that Jennifer had left a granola bar and tea behind. That was strange because it was Jennifer’s routine to have tea and granola every morning.
Almeida cleaned up the tea and put away the granola bar. She also noticed something else strange — that the pantry only had two paper towel rolls left even though she unloaded a dozen the previous day. Authorities have said that Fotis Dulos had cleaned up after the murder.
It was Almeida’s understanding that Jennifer was out that day for appointments, so she set to work bringing the children to their own appointments, but she became increasingly worried as the day went by and Jennifer remained out of contact.
She called Jennifer, who did not pick up.
“My stomach sank,” she said. Almeida and one of the missing woman’s friends soon called New Canaan police.
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