HARTFORD, Conn. _ Law enforcement sources said Thursday that Michelle Troconis has been arrested a second time on tampering with evidence charges for her role in apparently cleaning up the red Toyota truck that state police believe was used in the murder of Jennifer Farber Dulos.
Troconis was seen walking into the state police barracks in Bridgeport with her lawyer, Andrew Bowman, Thursday afternoon. A day earlier, her boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, turned himself in to police on new tampering with evidence charges. Dulos was released after posting a $500,000 bond. It is unclear what bond Troconis was assigned.
State police officials said Thursday that Troconis made arrangements to turn herself in to authorities but by late afternoon, police had not yet released details of the arrest.
Outside the state police barracks in Bridgeport, Bowman declined to discuss details of the arrest but told reporters: "We have a judicial system in this country which is the foundation of our democracy. The most important parts of that system are the presumption of innocence and trial by jury so I'd like you to remember that Michelle's presumed innocent and she should be. We're prepared to let judgment rest in a jury's hands."
Both Dulos and Troconis already face charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. They are both free on $500,000 bonds on those charges. Those arrests stem from video surveillance on Albany Avenue in Hartford that shows a man police believe to be Dulos throwing garbage bags that had the bloody shirt of Farber Dulos and other items with her blood on them into trash cans. There also is a video showing Troconis getting out of the passenger side of a vehicle just before Dulos places a FedEx package that contained an old, doctored license plate into a storm drain.
Troconis was interviewed twice by state police following her arrest but police said she was less than forthcoming on the events of May 24 _ the day that Farber Dulos disappeared after dropping her children off at school.
It was only when she was interviewed a third time that Troconis told police more about what she knew and even then only under "pointed questioning," according to court records.
Under that questioning Troconis admitted that when the couple met at a Farmington home on Mountain Spring Road on the afternoon on May 24, she saw Dulos cleaning what he said was a "coffee spill" in the red Toyota Tacoma that belonged to another employee of the Fore Group. But when he handed her the stained rag, it did not smell like coffee, according to the arrest warrant affidavit for Dulos which was released Wednesday.
Troconis also acknowledged that she placed one of the "coffee stained" paper towels into a black garbage bag _ similar to the ones thrown away on Albany Avenue later that evening _ that she had brought with her to the house.
Troconis also eventually admitted that a few days after attempting to clean the truck, she followed Dulos to a car wash in Avon where he had it washed and detailed. Troconis initially denied her involvement until she was shown video surveillance of her following him in the Tacoma to the car wash.
When state police asked Troconis why she thought he was washing the car, she replied: "Well obviously ... all the evidence says because ... you showed me the picture of the blood in the door it's because the body of Jennifer at some point was in there," court records said.
Troconis was interviewed twice previously by state police investigators about what happened on May 24. During a first interview, those investigators wrote that much of what she offered was contradictory. After reviewing the surveillance footage, Troconis confirmed she was in the truck with Dulos on Albany Avenue on May 24, but that she didn't notice what Dulos were doing because she was on her cellphone.
The next day, investigators found hand-written notes in Dulos' Farmington home that appear to detail their supposed activities on May 24 and 25, including phone calls. But the notes also included information that Troconis later admitted was false.
"Detectives came to refer to these notes as the 'Alibi Scripts,'" the Dulos arrest warrant affidavit said.
