What we learned in Michelle Troconis’s trial as she’s found guilty of conspiracy to murder her lover’s ex-wife
After 27 days of dramatic testimony in the trial of Michelle Troconis, jurors found her guilty of all charges over the killing of her lover’s estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos.
The Connecticut mother-of-five was last seen alive on 24 May 2019 as she waved her children off to school in the wealthy enclave of New Canaan. And while her body has never been found, she has been officially declared dead – with police finding that she died a violent death at the hands of Fotis Dulos, the man she had filed for divorce from just two years earlier.
In January 2020, Fotis died by suicide after being charged with her murder, leaving his girlfriend Ms Troconis to take the fall.
Venezuelan socialite Troconis, 49, went on trial in January on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution, two counts of tampering with physical evidence and two counts of conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence.
On Friday 1 March, she was found guilty on all counts. After the verdict was read out, Troconis laid her head on the table as her defence attorney comforted her.
Her sentencing hearing is now scheduled for May 31. She could face up to 50 years in prison.
In a statement to WTNH, family members of Dulos said the verdict was “a crucial attribution of accountability” but “not a victory.”
“There can be no victory when five children are growing up without their mother,” the family wrote. “This verdict represents the meticulous collection, analysis, and presentation of evidence to illuminate an unconscionable series of crimes.”
“That immense body of evidence also serves to highlight the gaps that remain in this case — most important, that Jennifer Farber Dulos still has not been found,” they wrote. “We have lost a mother, daughter, sister, cousin, and cherished friend. Jennifer’s loved ones cannot bury her next to her father.”
Troconis had pleaded not guilty and insisted she did not know Fotis was doing anything nefarious as she watched him toss garbage bags into random bins, or as she helped him write up a timeline of their whereabouts on the day his estranged wife disappeared. Troconis decided not to testify in her own defence.
In closing arguments in the trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Stamford, the court heard from the state how she was a murderous conspirator who wanted her boyfriend’s estranged wife dead and helped him cover up her killing.
They also heard from the defence that she was an innocent bystander who unwittingly became ensnared in one of Connecticut’s most enduring missing person and alleged homicide
