Jennifer Dulos search reaches two months, but case a ‘long way’ from going cold

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NEW CANAAN — Wednesday marks two months since Jennifer Dulos disappeared, and every day without a break makes the case harder for investigators.

“The longer the case goes, the more difficult it is,” said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant who supervised homicide and missing persons cases in New York City. “But that doesn’t make it impossible.”

There’s no indication the case will go cold anytime soon, he said.

“I think we’re a long way off from that,” Giacalone, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said. “(Police) generally have a lot more information than what the media knows.”

Jennifer Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution in connection with her disappearance.

According to arrest warrants, two people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen making more than 30 stops in a four-mile stretch of Albany Avenue around the same time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing May 24.

Police said the videos also showed Fotis Dulos tossing garbage bags that were later found to contain his wife’s blood.

Cops have also searched properties owned by Fotis Dulos’ home-building business as well as ponds near his Farmington home.

The charges assume more serious crimes occurred, and suggest more serious arrests are on the way, Giacalone said.

“When you start hearing about tampering with evidence, I think that’s a signal there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that we’re unaware of,” he said.

He also pointed to the volume of evidence police have collected thus far, including more than 1,200 tips.

“Unfortunately, in a case like this, a lot of those tips lead to dead ends, but you’ve still got to go through them,” Giacalone said. “Eventually, I think they’ll get the break they’re looking for.”

John DeCarlo, a former Branford police chief who is now the chairman of the criminal justice program at the University of New Haven, said it’s important for police to keep the lines of communication open when conducting these types of investigations.

New Canaan police created a website, www.FindJenniferDulos.com, to share and solicit information about the case. There’s also a tip line — 203-594-3544.

New Canaan Police Lt. Jason Ferraro said the volume of daily tips has declined but there are “still a consistent number coming in each day.”

"It's still an active investigation," Ferraro said. "We're over 1,200 tips at this time. It's a tremendous amount of information."

Police Chief Leon Krolikowski has repeatedly said investigators will not rest until they find Jennifer Dulos — and expects more charges to be filed.

“When something like that happens, it upsets the whole community,” DeCarlo said. “It’s important for police departments to keep in contact and have an open line of communication with the public.”

“It just assuages a lot of the anxiety that this kind of crime, or any kind of crime, causes,” DeCarlo said.

Though the department isn’t large, that’s the norm, he said.

“From an investigative point of view, obviously New Canaan is going to be using the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Squad, and a lot of other departments.

“Even though New Canaan is not a big department, most of the departments in Connecticut aren’t,” DeCarlo said. “They are able to draw on resources of much bigger departments and much bigger agencies that they work with. And they’re very successful.”

Attorneys for Fotis Dulos have requested his wife’s medical records, claiming Jennifer Dulos racked up $14,000 in medical bills in the months leading up to her disappearance.

One of the lawyers, Norm Pattis, said the records could support his theory that Jennifer Dulos authored her own disappearance a la the novel “Gone Girl.” Pattis has also suggested that Jennifer Dulos might have perpetrated a “revenge suicide” plot. His theories have drawn sharp rebukes from Jennifer Dulos’ family and friends and “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn.

Giacalone also cast doubt on theories suggesting Jennifer Dulos willingly disappeared.

“Generally, it’s very difficult in today’s day and age to just disappear off the grid,” he said.

Investigators will have access to what he called the “forensic horsemen” — cellphone and internet records, and video surveillance.

So far, the most important evidence authorities have revealed — but not released — is the footage they say shows Fotis Dulos tossing the garbage bags.

“Video surveillance is so ubiquitous that people don’t realize it,” Giacalone said.

The discovery of the videos set off a frantic search in Hartford and an extensive investigation at a Hartford trash facility. While police did not say if anything was found at the dump, Brian Foley, the executive aide to James Rovella, who heads the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, including the state police, said the three-week effort was “worth it.”

Giacalone said it’s Investigations 101 for police to suspect someone like the estranged husband.

“In cases when wives or girlfriends go missing, the police always look at those closest to them first,” Giacalone said. “Suspicion falls on the significant other quite often. I don’t think this case is any different in that respect, but you have to let your evidence prove your theory right.”