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Jennifer Dulos declared dead by judge more than 4 years after disappearance

“The inescapable conclusion is Jennifer is deceased.”

Jennifer Dulos. File

January 9, 2024

1 minute to read

Jennifer Dulos, the Connecticut mother of five who disappeared in May 2019 after dropping her children off at school, has been officially declared dead by a judge.

Judge William P. Osterndorf, of the Darien-New Canaan Probate Court, made the declaration on Oct. 24, 2023 in response to evidence that “supports the claim that Jennifer sustained non-survivable injuries,” according to documents obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

“To date, more than four years have passed and the body of Jennifer has not been located,” Osterndorf reportedly wrote in his decision. “Neither Jennifer’s mother, children, other family members and friends have been contacted by Jennifer since May 24, 2019. The inescapable conclusion is Jennifer is deceased.”

Police alleged that Dulos’s estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, attacked her in her New Canaan home, leaving behind a bloody crime scene, and driving off with her body. Fotis Dulos, who denied the allegations, died by suicide in January 2020 after being charged with her murder.

Fotis Dulos’s former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, is charged with helping him pull off the murder of his estranged wife; her trial starts this week.

Jennifer Dulos’s children have been living with her mother, Gloria Farber, who filed the petition last year requesting her daughter be declared dead to ensure the children can inherit from both their mother and grandmother in the event of the 88-year-old’s passing, according to Hearst. Typically, individuals have to be missing for seven years for them to be presumed dead.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.