Five years after Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos vanished from her home, the case still grips the public — a chilling reminder of how the American dream can turn into a nightmare.
On May 24, 2020, the 50-year-old mother of five dropped her kids off at school in the upscale town of New Canaan and was never seen again. At the time, she was locked in a bitter divorce with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos. Despite massive searches, her body was never found.
“It’s sort of everyone’s suburban nightmare,” author Richard Cohen told Fox News Digital. His new book, Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story, dives deep into the investigation and the cracks in the seemingly perfect life Jennifer had built. Cohen said the media’s quick headlines barely scratched the surface of what was happening behind closed doors — a life of kids’ sports, parental rivalries, and social one-upmanship.
Before becoming a mom, Jennifer was a playwright in New York City and dreamed of building a life-sized dollhouse. Cohen said she was deeply invested in creating the perfect home life — something she was struggling to let go of when her marriage began to crumble.
According to police, Jennifer returned home from the school drop-off to find Fotis lying in wait in the garage. They allege he attacked her and drove away with her body. Blood evidence in the garage led investigators to conclude she had been murdered.
Seven months later, Fotis was arrested and charged with her murder. Three weeks after that, he was found unresponsive at his home in an apparent suicide attempt. He later died in a New York hospital, leaving behind a note proclaiming his innocence and insisting his lawyers had evidence to clear him.
Cohen told Fox News Digital he believed Fotis was a “psychopath,” pointing to financial motives. At the time of Jennifer’s disappearance, Fotis was $7 million in debt and, according to investigators, would have been able to access part of his children’s trust funds if she died. He denied those claims, but Cohen believes Fotis saw Jennifer — and her wealth — as a way to get what he wanted.
Fotis’s girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his friend, attorney Kent Mawhinney, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors said they helped him cover up the crime and create an alibi. Last year, Troconis was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mawhinney took a plea deal for a lesser charge of interfering with police and was sentenced to 11 months, time he had already served.
Jennifer’s body has never been recovered. She was declared legally dead in 2023, leaving her five children to grapple with a devastating reality.
“This woman in the prime of her life is killed and she doesn’t get to see her kids grow up,” Cohen said. “Her kids don’t get a mother, don’t get a father, and have a very tough legacy… There can never be justice, but there’s proper punishment — and it’s sort of the best that we can do.”