Estranged husband of missing Connecticut mom arrested on murder charge
Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of missing Connecticut mother of five Jennifer Dulos, has been arrested and charged with murder according to his attorney; Laura Ingle reports.
A Connecticut attorney and “a close personal friend” of Fotis Dulos, the estranged husband of a missing mother of five, was arrested this week after court documents revealed he may have dug a grave for her.
Kent Mawhinney, a 54-year-old practicing attorney from South Windsor, was arrested by Connecticut State Police Tuesday for conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the May disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.
ESTRANGED HUSBAND OF MISSING CONNECTICUT MOM ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH MURDER
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WVIT, Mawhinney was described by police as a “close personal friend” of Fotis Dulos, having previously represented him in a civil case with his estranged mother-in-law.
Kent Mawhinney, a 54-year-old practicing attorney from South Windsor (left), was arrested by Connecticut State Police Tuesday for conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the May 24 disappearance of Jennifer Dulos. Police said he was a a “close personal friend” of Fotis Dulos (right). (Connecticut State Police via AP)
Perhaps the most compelling evidence came nearly three months after Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
Jay Lawlor, a member of the Windsor Rod & Gun Club in East Granby, which was founded by Mawhinney, told police on Aug. 7 that he and a friend, Lee McKay, found a large hole on the property that “100 percent [was] a human grave.”
Lawlor and McKay were out hunting May 18 when they came across “an area of disturbed ground,” the affidavit states. There was a large hole that was about 2 feet wide, 6 feet long and 3 feet deep with grill grates on top to conceal it. The men also noted a large blue tarp and bags of lime nearby.
Unaware of any missing people at the time, the men did their best to cover the hole so no one would fall, then moved on.
Days later, a curious McKay returned to find the hole partially filed with rainwater, but the lime was gone. The next month, the hole was completely filled and covered “as neat as a pin” with shrubbery.
In June, an initial search of the apparent grave – which had been reported by Lawlor and McKay as odd, still unrelated to the Dulos case – found nothing.
In August, knowing Mawhinney’s connection to the club and later his connection with Dulos, Lawlor called police with concerns.
Police found no evidence of human remains after checking the site for a second time.
Investigators initially were flagged to Mawhinney when he became the alibi for Dulos and girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, the morning of the disappearance.
Michelle C. Troconis was initially arraigned on charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and first-degree hindering prosecution at Norwalk Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. Monday, June 3, 2019. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool)
Mawhinney initially denied meeting with the pair but told investigators in a subsequent interview that he fell on May 25 and suffered a concussion. He could not recall a meeting or phone contact with Dulos or Troconis the day before.
COPS SEARCH HOME OF MISSING CONNECTICUT MOM JENNIFER DULOS’ ESTRANGED HUSBAND
Phone records indicated that Dulos called Mawhinney the night his wife vanished.
“I don’t remember having contact with him. If there’s a phone call I guess I did but I don’t remember having contact with Fotis,” Mawhinney said, according to the affidavit.
His phone had to be replaced after it was damaged in the fall, Mawhinney also claimed.
The attorney has had previous run-ins with the law. He was arrested twice in 2019; he was accused of raping his wife on Jan. 21 and was later arrested for violating a protective order in connection to the first arrest.
He is being held on a $2 million bond.
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Dulos and Troconis earlier faced charges of evidence tampering and related offenses in Jennifer Dulos' disappearance, but on Tuesday the pair was charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Jennifer Dulos was living in the tiny town of New Canaan when she disappeared on May 24. Friends and family filled out a missing persons form after they were unable to reach her. She was last seen driving a black Chevy Suburban when she dropped her children off at their private school. Her car turned up in a popular park, where police found traces of blood and other evidence leading them to believe Dulos was the victim of a violent crime. Police also said they found evidence of attempts to clean up blood and that they would be treating their investigation as a homicide.
Fox News’ Barnini Chakraborty and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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