HARTFORD, Conn. _ Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing New Canaan mother Jennifer Farber Dulos, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon and charged for a second time with tampering with evidence, officials said.
Details of the arrest were limited, but state police said Western District Major Crimes Detectives arrested him about 2:30 p.m. EDT at his Farmington home, which is also the headquarters of his luxury home-building company.
After his arrest, Dulos was transported to Troop G in Bridgeport. Norm Pattis, Dulos' lawyer, said he had no information about the arrest.
Dulos, 51, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have been free on $500,000 bail since their arrest in early June for hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in connection with the May 24 disappearance of Farber Dulos. Dulos has been under GPS monitoring and barred from contacting the five children he shares with Farber Dulos.
State police detectives investigating the disappearance believe a serious assault took place in Farber Dulos' New Canaan home after they found blood splatter and stains, along with evidence of an attempted cleanup.
The night Farber Dulos went missing, a man resembling Dulos was seen on surveillance cameras dumping garbage bags along Albany Avenue in Hartford, arrest records show. A woman, who looked like Troconis, was spotted with the man in a truck, which investigators connected to Dulos, investigators said.
Detectives found some of the bags that were discarded, which contained items with Farber Dulos' blood, records show. Law enforcement sources told The Hartford Courant that among the items were a Vineyard Vines shirt they believed Farber Dulos was wearing the day she went missing, as well as a bra and two mops and sponges with a small amount of blood.
Sources said investigators have been searching for two pieces of evidence that may have been tossed out that night, including a knife that a Hartford man told the Courant he found in a bag, and a carpet, which was seen being left at a nearby Albany Avenue restaurant.
In an early court appearance, Stamford/Norwalk State's Attorney Richard Colangelo, arguing that Dulos remain in custody, said that investigators found Dulos' DNA mixed with Farber Dulos' blood on a kitchen faucet in the New Canaan home.
Dulos, in statements and numerous motions filed by his attorneys in the criminal case, has denied any involvement in the disappearance of Farber Dulos.
Pattis has asked Stamford Judge John F. Blawie to dismiss the case, saying there is insufficient evidence to proceed without other felony charges against him.
The case has garnered substantial public attention, which in part led Collangelo to seek a gag order, barring public comment on the case. Pattis, in a separate motion and in court, has said it's his right to fight the public's perception that Dulos is responsible for the disappearance. Blawie has yet to rule on either.
Farber Dulos was last seen after dropping her children off at their New Canaan school on May 24. Friends called New Canaan police later that evening when Farber Dulos failed to appear for appointments in New York City. Her mother, Gloria Farber, has had the children since Farber Dulos' disappearance.
The two were locked in a two-year divorce and custody battle when Farber Dulos went missing that included allegations of threats and fear of violence from both sides.
A judge has allowed Gloria Farber to intervene in the case and granted her temporary custody of the five children.
