Lead detective testifies about discrepancies in Troconis’ timeline on day of Farber Dulos’ disappearance
The lead detective on the Jennifer Farber Dulos' disappearance was cross-examined about interview tactics used on Michelle Troconis after one of the six jurors in her trial was replaced.
After a juror dropped out of the trial for Michelle Troconis due to an emergency trip abroad on Monday morning, a lead detective on the case testified that Troconis described Fotis Dulos’ ongoing divorce from Jennifer Farber Dulos — who disappeared in 2019 — as “two years of torture.”
“She described it as being a nightmare for her,” retired Connecticut State Police Det. John Kimball said Monday, his third day on the stand in Troconis’ trial in Stamford Superior Court.
For most of the day on Monday, which marked the 12th day of the trial, defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn continued his cross-examination of Kimball, combing through hours of the first two interviews Troconis gave to him and other detectives.
Before he took the stand, Judge Kevin A. Randolph announced that one of the six jurors in the trial “had to leave the country” due to an emergency and therefore left the jury.
The jury clerk notified the court that they had received a voice message from juror No. 62 on Monday morning, prompting the clerk to select an alternate juror to replace them.
The names of the three remaining alternate jurors were placed in a box, from which court officials drew a name to fill the gap — leaving just two remaining alternate jurors for the remainder of the trial.
Troconis is standing trial for allegedly plotting with Dulos, her former boyfriend, to murder his estranged wife, who disappeared after dropping her five children off at school on May 24, 2019. Dulos died in 2020 after attempting suicide at his Farmington mansion. Her trial is expected to take six weeks. Two alternate jurors were already dismissed.”
As Schoenhorn began his cross-examination on Monday, he asked Kimball, who was the lead detective on the case, about his and other detectives’ interrogation tactics when they interviewed Troconis in 2019, including their line of questioning around timelines found in the Farmington home Troconis shared with Dulos and a trip they took to Albany Avenue in Hartford the day Farber Dulos disappeared.
Investigators have zeroed in on those timelines, pointing out that the trip to Albany Avenue, caught on multiple Hartford surveillance videos, was left off of a timeline Troconis wrote that detailed her schedule on May 24, 2019.
Kimball told the jury that he found that omission odd.
“I found it to be strange because it was potentially incriminating information that was intentionally omitted,” he said.
Investigators have also pointed out discrepancies in Troconis’ account of whether she saw Dulos that morning — when investigators believe he killed his estranged wife in her New Canaan garage — and allege that Troconis knew more than she was telling them.
“We believed, given the totality of their relationship, that she would know more information than she was providing us,” Kimball said Monday.
But Schoenhorn pointed out that his client repeatedly said she didn’t know where Farber Dulos was or had any knowledge of crimes they told her Dulos had committed.
“She kept telling you she didn’t know, didn’t she?” Schoenhorn asked. Kimball said she did.
Sister says Troconis ‘not the right answer’ to disappearance as jury views second police interview
Schoenhorn also highlighted parts of Troconis’ interviews in which she offered to help look for Farber Dulos and aid in the police investigation.
“Not only did she say she didn’t know, she offered to help?” Schoenhorn asked.
“Didn’t she say she would dig holes, she would trek through the woods, she even drew some pictures for you?” he asked, and Kimball again said she did.
Schoenhorn pulled up one of those drawings for the jury to see, along with a photo of Troconis and Dulos at a Starbucks on the night of May 24, 2019. Troconis appeared to be holding a sandwich, which lined up with what she told investigators — that the couple went to a West Hartford Starbucks that night and she ordered a sandwich but threw it out because she didn’t like it.
After location data showed that Dulos was in that area hours after his estranged wife vanished, police and analysts combed through surveillance footage looking for any shots of the vehicles he was known to drive, including a Ford F-150 Raptor, a Chevrolet Suburban and a Jeep Cherokee. They found videos showing the Ford, driven by Dulos with Troconis in the passenger seat, driving down Albany Avenue with Dulos throwing items from the bed of his truck into trash bins and a storm drain along the road.
Investigators went through items they found in the trash bins and suctioned out the contents of a storm drain, finding a long sleeve Vineyard Vines women’s shirt, a bra, a white T-shirt, a bath towel, a boxcutter, two ponchos and zip ties — all stained with a blood-like substance. Many of those items have been shown to the jury.
Troconis, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence in connection to Farber Dulos’ disappearance and death, maintains that she did not know what Dulos was throwing out.
Troconis claims that when she got into Dulos’ truck, she thought they were just headed to Starbucks. She said that at one point she noticed that they were in a “creepy” area in Hartford, but that when she asked Dulos what they were doing there he told her to relax.
Schoenhorn has said that his client was on her phone, not paying much attention during the detour.
Kimball testified Monday that to get to those trash bins on Albany Avenue from their home at 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington, the couple would have had to drive past that Starbucks.
During his cross-examination, Schoenhorn asked Kimball whether other events of that evening, all after 5:10 p.m., were left off the timeline she wrote in addition to the trip to Hartford.
He asked whether the timeline left off things like Troconis picking her daughter up after a school production of Chicago the Musical, Dulos going on a jog that night and police officers arriving at the home that night to tell Dulos that his wife was missing.
None of those things were on the timeline, Kimball said.
Dulos’ whereabouts that morning were the subject of many questions Kimball answered Monday. He and Schoenhorn went back and forth about whether Troconis actually saw Dulos in the office that morning or if she just assumed he was there.
While prosecutor Sean McGuiness was doing a redirect examination of Kimball, the jury, again, saw part of the interview with Troconis. In it, she said her alarm went off at 6:40 a.m. on May 24, 2019, she went into their bedroom, saw him and then took a shower with him.
She originally agreed that she didn’t see him again until lunch, but when investigators tried to clarify that that meant she didn’t see him between 6:40 a.m. and about 1 or 2 p.m., she interrupted.
“No, no I went back to the office,” she said.
Around 8 a.m., she said she saw Dulos sitting at the far end of the office with one of his lawyers, Kent Mawhinney.
Later, Schoenhorn asked Kimball about what he said was a clarification. She didn’t see Dulos in the office but assumed he was there when she saw Mawhinney because she knew they had a meeting scheduled.
“She’s told you that one of the reasons she believed Fotis was in the office, was home, that morning was because she saw attorney Kent Mawhinney in the office that morning,” he said. “She later said she didn’t see Fotis in the office, but she was sure she saw Kent Mawhinney.”
“She changed her story,” Kimball replied.
Mawhinney is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is awaiting trial. He is also on the list of witnesses the state may call in their case against Troconis.
During his cross-examination Monday, Schoenhorn also asked Kimball about some of interrogation tactics that were used during the interviews. He asked if Kimball was using a deceptive interrogation tactic when they told Troconis that they had proof, or evidence, that Dulos wasn’t home that morning.
Kimball said that they had Dulos’ DNA on a faucet in Farber Dulos’ kitchen, but Schoenhorn rebutted that the fingerprints could have been transferred.
He also asked Kimball if it was their practice to have three to five detectives “peppering” a witness with questions.
“That’s not the best way to conduct an interview,” Kimball said.
Schoenhorn then asked about detectives’ claims that they found body parts in the Hartford trash bins.
Kimball said that their concern at the time was that body parts were thrown out. But Schoenhorn countered that detectives had gone through the evidence pulled from those bins.
Kimball said that yes, they had gone through the evidence they had received so far and no, they did not find body parts.
Schoenhorn pointed out that when investigators told Troconis that, “she got very upset and started crying.”
“Was that an interrogation technique to get a reaction?” he asked.
“The reaction that we’re trying to elicit is truthfulness,” Kimball replied. Kimball also testified Monday that Troconis eventually “indicated she had not been 100% truthful,” in her statements to police.
“That was after you told her you had proof that Fotis Dulos had not been home that morning?” Schoenhorn asked. Kimball said yes.
Around 4:20 p.m. on Monday, the state called Suzanna Sedenszki from Connecticut State Police, who testified briefly about the collection of video surveillance from 80 Mount Spring Road in Farmington, one of the properties owned by Dulos’ company, Fore Group, at the time. She was the last witness of the day.
The state is expected to call Connecticut State Police Sgt. Michael Beauton back to the stand first thing Tuesday morning. Troconis’ trial is set to resume at 10 a.m.