The estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mom and his girlfriend have been arrested in the case, police said Sunday.
Fotis Dulos, 51, and gal pal Michelle Troconis, 44, were taken into custody around 11 p.m. Saturday in Avon, Ct., according to the New Canaan police department.
Authorities are treating the case as a homicide.
Both suspects were charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution, authorities said.
Dulos’ estranged wife and mom of five Jennifer Dulos disappeared May 24. She lives in New Canaan.
The arrests came as Connecticut State Troopers on Sunday were meticulously scouring overgrown tracts of land owned by developer Fotis Dulos, searching for any sign of the missing mom.
Leading German Shepherds and armed with machetes to hack through weeds 5 feet tall in places, about 16 state troopers descended on Mountain Spring Road in Farmington, Ct. — where Fotis lives — early Sunday.
Authorities were focusing on 77 and 80 Mountain Spring Road but also seen eyeing adjoining vacant lots, all of which are being developed by Fotis Dulos’ Fore Group real-estate company.
The sites are just about 2 miles from the Farmington home Fotis and Troconis share.
One local said cops had first shown up even earlier Sunday but were forced to retrieve machetes to be better equipped for the painstaking search.
“This morning I heard the police say, ‘We have to go back and get the machetes. … The growth is too high,’” said the neighbor, who declined to be named.
Jennifer Dulos, 50, vanished shortly after dropping her kids off at school.
On Friday, cops could be seen sifting through trash cans, dumpsters and storm drains outside a Hartford bakery where Fotis had been seen on surveillance video, according to The Hartford Courant. It’s unclear when his visit to the area occurred.
At the same time, detectives were at the Farmington home quizzing the couple and serving a warrant for Fotis’s DNA.
Jennifer Dulos filed for divorce from her husband in 2017, and the court battle was ongoing — and bitter.
Fotis — who reportedly owed $1 million to his mother-in-law, Gloria Farber, from a business-venture loan — was a “volatile” cheater who harbored “sickening revenge fantasies” against those who crossed him, Jennifer claimed in her divorce petition.
He tried to visit his kids at Farber’s Upper East Side home on Wednesday night but was rebuffed by a private security team hired by Farber.
A pair of NYPD cops were spotted around 11:25 a.m. Sunday heading into Farber’s building, staying for about 5 minutes.
Fotis Dulos was being held on $500,000 bond at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, awaiting arraignment Monday at 10 a.m. in Norwalk Superior Court.
Troconis was still at New Canaan police headquarters, also held on $500,000 bond, authorities said. Her court hearing is scheduled for the same time, same place as Fotis Dulos.
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya