Michelle Troconis became a widely recognized name after she was convicted of conspiring to murder Jennifer Dulos, a Connecticut mother of five who disappeared in May 2019 and whose body has never been found. Troconis was the girlfriend of Jennifer’s estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, at the time, and prosecutors argued she helped him create a false alibi and dispose of evidence connected to the crime. A jury convicted her on all charges in 2024, and she is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence while continuing to fight her conviction. This article walks through who Michelle Troconis is, how the case unfolded, and where things stand today.
Who Is Michelle Troconis
Michelle Troconis is a dual citizen of the United States and Venezuela who was in her late forties at the time of her arrest. Before becoming known through this case, she described herself as a co-founder of horse-riding therapy programs and had previously run a television production company in Argentina, where she also hosted a snow sports program for ESPN’s South American network. She has a daughter, Nicole, from an earlier relationship, and she met Fotis Dulos, a Greek-born Connecticut home builder, while he was still legally married to Jennifer, though the couple had already separated at the time.
Who Was Jennifer Dulos
Jennifer Farber Dulos was born in New York City in 1968 and worked as a writer, having earned a graduate degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She came from a prominent and wealthy family; her father, Hilliard Farber, was a well-known Wall Street banker, and her mother, Gloria Farber, was known for her philanthropic work. Jennifer met Fotis through a shared connection to Brown University, and the two married in 2004, eventually raising five children together in Farmington, Connecticut.
The Marriage and Divorce
Jennifer filed for divorce from Fotis in 2017, and the proceedings quickly became one of the most contentious custody battles seen in Connecticut courts. Jennifer described her husband in court filings as controlling and volatile, and she expressed fear that he might attempt to flee the country with their children. Financial tension added to the conflict as well, since Fotis had borrowed heavily from Jennifer’s father to fund his real estate business, and after her father’s death, Jennifer’s mother sued Fotis over unpaid loans, a dispute that remained unresolved at the time of Jennifer’s disappearance.
Michelle Troconis and Fotis Dulos’s Relationship
As the marriage deteriorated, Fotis began a relationship with Michelle Troconis, and the two made little effort to keep it private, appearing together around their small Connecticut town even while Jennifer and the children still lived in the family home. By early 2019, Troconis and her daughter had moved into that same Farmington home with Fotis. A family court judge later found that Fotis had exposed the children to the relationship in violation of prior court orders, which only deepened tensions between him and Jennifer in the months leading up to her disappearance.
The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos
On the morning of May 24, 2019, Jennifer dropped her five children off at school in New Canaan and was never seen publicly again. When she failed to pick them up later that day, a missing person investigation began almost immediately. Investigators found a disturbing scene at her home, including blood evidence in the garage and signs that an effort had been made to clean it up. Police developed a theory that Fotis had confronted Jennifer in her garage after she returned from the school drop-off, attacked her there, and then drove away in her vehicle. Despite an extensive search, her remains have never been recovered.
The Investigation and Arrest
Investigators built their case using surveillance footage, cellphone location data, and physical evidence. Video showed Fotis, accompanied by Troconis, discarding trash bags around Hartford on the day Jennifer disappeared, and when investigators recovered some of those bags, testing reportedly found Jennifer’s DNA on items inside. During police questioning, Troconis was interviewed three separate times and gave what investigators described as inconsistent answers about whether she had seen Fotis at the house that morning. Fotis and Troconis were first arrested in June 2019 on charges of evidence tampering and hindering prosecution, with more serious charges following as the investigation progressed, including for Fotis’s friend and former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, who was also accused of involvement.
Fotis Dulos’s Death
In January 2020, Fotis was formally charged with murder and kidnapping in connection with Jennifer’s death. Just weeks later, police responding to his home for a missed bond hearing found him unresponsive inside a running vehicle, suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was taken to a hospital for specialized treatment but never recovered, and he was pronounced dead on January 30, 2020. He reportedly left behind a note maintaining his innocence. Because he died before trial, the murder case against him was dismissed, though the case against Troconis and Mawhinney continued.
The Trial and Conviction of Michelle Troconis
Michelle Troconis’s trial began in January 2024 and lasted about six weeks. Prosecutors presented the recovered evidence, surveillance footage, and her earlier police interviews to argue she had conspired with Fotis both in the plan to harm Jennifer and in covering it up afterward. Her defense maintained that she had been misled by Fotis, who she said presented himself as a man going through an amicable divorce. On March 1, 2024, a six-person jury found her guilty on all six charges, including conspiracy to commit murder and multiple counts related to evidence tampering. She was sentenced that May to 20 years in prison, suspended after 14 and a half years, followed by five years of probation.
What Happened to the Children
Jennifer and Fotis had five children together, three sons and two daughters, each given a name reflecting the family’s Greek Orthodox heritage. After Jennifer’s disappearance, a Connecticut judge awarded custody of all five children to her mother, Gloria Farber, finding that the children were already living with her and were emotionally bonded to her care. Several of the children later gave emotional statements during Troconis’s sentencing hearing, describing the lasting impact of losing their mother, and they have largely remained out of the public eye since being raised by their grandmother.
Where Michelle Troconis Is Now
As of 2026, Michelle Troconis remains incarcerated at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut, the state’s only prison for women. She has continued to challenge her conviction through the appeals process, including a habeas corpus case arguing that her original defense attorney provided ineffective counsel by allowing her to sit for police interviews without adequate preparation. That habeas trial took place in January 2026, and a judge later denied her petition, a decision she is now appealing while also seeking release on bond, a request that has repeatedly been denied. Her family has continued to publicly maintain her innocence throughout the process.
Conclusion
The case surrounding Jennifer Dulos’s disappearance and Michelle Troconis’s conviction remains one of the most closely followed criminal cases in recent Connecticut history. Troconis was found guilty in 2024 of conspiring with her then-boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, to murder his estranged wife and of helping cover up the crime, and she is currently serving her sentence while her appeals continue into 2026. Fotis died by suicide in early 2020 before facing trial, leaving central questions in the case, including the location of Jennifer’s remains, unresolved. Jennifer’s five children continue to be raised by her mother, and the case has left a lasting mark on how domestic conflict hidden behind an outwardly stable life is understood and addressed in Connecticut and beyond.
