Connecticut
'My stomach just sank': Nanny describes frantic day Connecticut mother of five disappeared
A nanny who cares for five children whose mother went missing in Connecticut in 2019 recalled in court on Wednesday the frantic day Jennifer Dulos vanished, kicking off a search that eventually turned into a murder investigation.
The nanny, Lauren Almeida, testified in the trial of Michelle Troconis, who was the girlfriend of Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos. Troconis is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes on allegations that she helped Fotis Dulos cover up the killing of Jennifer Dulos.
Almeida said Wednesday she had four of their children with her — the other was at a friend’s — when she was supposed to meet up with Jennifer Dulos in Manhattan on the afternoon of May 24, 2019. She texted and called Dulos, but she didn’t respond.
“My stomach just sank. She never not answered her phone,” Almeida testified in Superior Court in Stamford, Connecticut.
Almeida went to a doctor’s office in Manhattan where Dulos had a scheduled appointment, hoping to find her there.
“And so when she wasn’t there, .. I was shocked but also like, OK, I have the four kids in front of me and don’t know what to do,” Almeida said. “I just walked outside, and I started to call people who could have heard from Jennifer.”
Police believe Fotis Dulos attacked Jennifer Dulos in the garage of her home in New Canaan, Connecticut, after she dropped off the children at school that day. Then, authorities said, he drove off in her own SUV with her body, which has never been found. Fotis Dulos denied having anything to do with her disappearance. He died by suicide in early 2020, shortly after being charged with murder.
Troconis has pleaded not guilty and denies the charges, which also include evidence tampering and hindering prosecution.
At the time she vanished, Jennifer and Fotis Dulos were going through contentious divorce and child custody proceedings that had limited his time with the children to once-a-week visitation that had to be supervised. Jennifer Dulos had moved out of the family home in Farmington, Connecticut, while Fotis Dulos continued living there with Troconis and her daughter.
The case drew widespread attention and was the subject of a made-for-TV movie. Jennifer Dulos was a member of a wealthy New York family whose father, the late Hilliard Farber, founded his own brokerage firm. She also was a niece by marriage of fashion designer Liz Claiborne. Fotis Dulos was a luxury home builder originally from Greece.
Almeida testified that she and Jennifer Dulos had become afraid of Fotis Dulos, after Jennifer Dulos in 2017 found out about his affair with Troconis. That year, Almeida said Fotis Dulos chased Jennifer Dulos outside the home with a piece of paper and had a screaming argument with her inside the Farmington home, where she ran into a room and he tried to barge open the closed door.
Fotis Dulos threatened to take the children to his native Greece and never come back, and he accused Almeida of kidnapping the children when Jennifer Dulos moved them and herself out of the house in 2017.
When Jennifer Dulos went missing, Almeida called friends and others who might know where she was. She also called hospitals, but had no luck. She called her mother, who tried to calm her down, she testified. Then she called New Canaan police.
“We told the police that a mother of five was missing and that she was in a very contentious divorce. And I knew that he (Fotis Dulos) had purchased a gun, and so I was afraid. And they were on it right away,” Almeida said.
Judge Kevin Randolph struck the comment about the gun from the record, after prosecutor Sean McGuinness said he was not claiming that Fotis Dulos had a gun. Troconis’ lawyer, Jon Schoenhorn, later called for a mistrial based on Almeida’s comment, but Randolph denied the motion.
Almeida, 32, continues to be a nanny for the five children, who have been living with Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, in Manhattan since their mother vanished.
Wednesday was the fourth day of the trial. Over the first days, police testified about blood evidence found in Jennifer Dulos’ garage and her SUV, which was found abandoned at a New Canaan park.
Among the evidence expected to be shown to the jury later in the trial is police surveillance video of Fotis Dulos and Troconis driving around Hartford later in the day that Jennifer Dulos disappeared. Fotis Dulos is seen getting out of his pickup truck and disposing of garbage bags at various locations as Troconis sits in the vehicle.
Police said they later recovered some of the bags and found clothing, zip ties and other items with Jennifer Dulos’ DNA on them. Some items had Fotis Dulos’ DNA on them, and one bag had Troconis’ DNA on it, police said.
Prosecutors are also expected to show the jury what police dubbed “the alibi script” — a document they say Fotis Dulos and Troconis prepared that detailed their actions and locations on the day of the killing and the day after. Troconis told police that Fotis Dulos’ lawyer had asked them to list their activities on those days.
ENFIELD, Conn. (WFSB) – Police arrested a Connecticut man on Sunday morning after he allegedly stole bottles and cans from a Connecticut Children’s Hospital donation bin.
Officers received a call at around 8 a.m. for a report of a larceny from a “Cans For Kids” donation bin at located on Raffia Road, according to the police department.
Police said they used used local surveillance cameras and municipal license plate readers to identify a vehicle and suspect.
Officials identified the individual as Joshua Wilcox of Broad Brook
With the help of Wethersfield police officers, Wilcox was found and detained. Enfield police arrested Wilcox and charged him with sixth-degree larceny and first-degree criminal trespass.
It was also revealed that this is the second incident involving Wilcox at the same location, police said.
No further details were released.
Eyewitness News will provide more details as soon as they become available.
Copyright 2026 WFSB. All rights reserved.
“(T)he applicant is proposing a minor building addition of 1,300 square feet to the basement level because the specialized proton equipment required a slightly larger support space,” said Allie Smith, an associate planner with the city’s professional planning and zoning department.
Smith is referring to what would be the second proton therapy cancer treatment center between New York City and Boston, after the Connecticut Proton center in Wallingford, which is scheduled to open later this year.
Proton therapy is considered advanced radiation treatment because it uses the positively charged particles to “target cancer with exceptional precision,” reducing damage to nearby healthy tissue.
The expanded building plans for Danbury Proton are the latest development in a prolonged effort to serve western Connecticut and nearby New York residents with the novel cancer treatment.
The project, which was set to break ground on a 3-acre site overlooking Danbury Municipal Airport this spring, is “very busy marketing and selling the bonds,” a spokesman said.
“We’re ready to break ground as soon as we close on the bonds,” said Drew Crandall on Friday. “We are in conversation with investors every day and we are making good progress.”
In March, Danbury’s City Council agreed to use its bonding power to help Danbury Proton get low-cost financing under a “conduit issuer” agreement. Around the same time, the city’s Planning Commission extended approvals for the project, which were scheduled to expire in July.
All that means that Danbury Proton expects to open its 17,000-square-foot facility at 85 Wooster Heights Road in late 2027 or early 2028.
“The day is coming when we will be treating patients with revolutionary proton therapy cancer treatment,” Crandall said in a newsletter to supporters last week. “Countless patients and their families will benefit from proton therapy.”
Several businesses and residents are displaced after a well-known donut shop in Clinton caught fire Saturday morning according to fire department officials.
Clinton Volunteer Fire Department officials say officers received reports of a fire at Beach Donut where they found heavy smoke and a fire extending to the attic.
They say people were evacuated while firefighters work to bring the fire under control.
One person was transported by Clinton EMS for evaluation.
The displaced residents are being treated by the American Red Cross and the fire is still under investigation by the Clinton Fire Marshal’s Office with assistance from the Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosives Investigation Unit.
The fire department received mutual aid from several fire stations and EMS from neighboring towns.
According to the Beach Donut Facebook, the business will be temporarily closed until notice.
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