Digital Forensics Dispatch

Phone Evidence Questioned in Jennifer Dulos Case

August 20, 2019

Fotis Dulos and girlfriend Michelle Troconis have been charged with tampering evidence and hindering the prosecution in connection with the disappearance of Mr. Dulos’ wife, Jennifer. Norm Pattis, the attorney for Mr. Dulos, is seeking to have any evidence that was pulled from a cellphone owned by his client suppressed in the case of his missing wife, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Phone records pulled indicated location data for the phone and where it traveled on the day Jennifer Dulos went missing. The records led the New Canaan police to ask for assistance from the Hartford Police Department to gain access to surveillance footage from the extensive cameras that are located throughout the city. Surveillance video showed two people resembling Mr. Dulos and Ms. Troconis stopping along Albany Avenue about thirty times. The vehicle in the video also matched a vehicle owned by Mr. Dulos, and footage shows a man placing numerous garbage bags into bins along the street. The police were able to retrieve the garbage bags, which contained clothing and other items with Jennifer Dulos’ blood on them.

Warrants indicate that Fotis Dulos arrived at the New Canaan Police Department with an attorney the day after his wife was reported missing. While at the Department, an iPhone belonging to Mr. Dulos was seized by police. Pattis alleged that the phone was taken without a search warrant and that police refused to return the device.  In June, Mr. Pattis submitted a list of items that he  would like returned; on that list were two iPhones. The judge in the pre-trial hearing allowed for the return of a Jeep and a Chevy Suburban, but nothing else from the list.

The question moving forward is when a search warrant was obtained for the iPhone. If there was not an active search warrant when Mr. Dulos requested to have the phone returned to his possession, it is possible the evidence will be suppressed since it would have been obtained unlawfully. Additional hearings were  scheduled for August 19^th and September 13^th.

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