Detective reveals chilling warning to Michelle Troconis after murder of lover’s wife
‘Would you ever leave and go hide and not tell your 12-year-old daughter where you were?’ a detective asked Ms Troconis
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Your support makes all the difference.Police detectives harshly confronted Michelle Troconis while questioning her about Jennifer Dulos’s disappearance, interrogation tapes shown in Ms Tronconis’ murder conspiracy trial show.
Ms Troconis is standing trial in Stamford, Connecticut, for allegedly helping Fotis Dulos conceal evidence in his estranged wife’s murder.
Although a body has never been found, prosecutors believe Dulos attacked and killed Jennifer in her New Canaan home on 24 May 2019, and then drove with Ms Troconis around the city of Hartford to dispose of incriminating evidence. Fotis Dulos killed himself shortly after being charged in 2019.
Retired detective John Kimball took the stand on Friday and testified about the three times that Ms Troconis was questioned following Jennifer’s disappearance. In one of the tapes, Ms Troconis is heard telling police that she believed Jennifer was “somewhere, I hope, hiding,” and that she had once heard from Dulos that Jennifer supposedly once ran away from home as a teenager and supported herself with money from an inheritance.
Ms Troconis also said that Fotis Dulos had told her Jennifer suffered from borderline personality disorder.
But Det Kimball shut down Ms Troconis’s suggestions, noting that Jennifer was a loving mother to her five children and would not disappear without telling her family. Prosecutors have revealed in court that blood-soaked clothing items have been recovered from trash receptacles that Dulos and Ms Troconis visited on the day Jennifer vanished.
“Would you ever leave and go hide and not tell your 12-year-old daughter where you were?” Det Kimball said. “... and you got this information from Fotis? This is the man who killed this woman.”
A female detective in the room also confronted Ms Troconis for staying with Dulos.
“Fotis, the love of your life. The man you sleep with every night,” the female detective said as Ms Troconis broke down in tears. “So imagine what he could do to you ... [after what he did] to a woman he was married to for a long time, who he had five children with, two sets of twins.”
“Fotis lies to everybody, and the reason he lies to everybody is because he only cares about one person in the world - and that’s himself,” Det Kimball continued. “He didn’t care about his first wife, didn’t care about his second wife, and doesn’t care about you.”
Ms Troconis then said in tears: “I’ll do whatever you want, but I didn’t do it.”
On Tuesday, prosecutors showed jurors blood-soaked clothing recovered from garbage cans that Dulos and Ms Troconis stopped by while driving around Hartford. The evidence included a shirt, bra, zip ties, gloves, plastic ponchos and other things with what State Police Sgt Kevin Duggan testified was a “blood-like” substance on them.
Ms Troconis’s attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, has told CT Insider that Ms Troconis was distracted by her phone as Dulos repeatedly stopped near the trash receptacles and exited the vehicle to discard evidence. Mr Schoenhorn also argued in court that it was impossible for Ms Troconis to see the contents of the plastic bags because they were black.
“They were supposed to be going to Starbucks and you’ll see that’s where they eventually ended up,” Mr Schoenhorn said. “It’s not like it’s a long distance. So if you’re riding in the car, looking at your phone, doing whatever, you would not necessarily know. Whatever Dulos was up to, whatever he was planning, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Ms Troconis, 49, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.