Fotis Dulos declared dead
By: Jason Lawrence & Ellie Romano
Email: ERomano@abc6.com
Twitter: @ERomanoABC6
BRONX, N.Y. (WLNE)- Fotis Dulos, the man charged with the murder of his missing wife, has died.
“Fotis Dulos was declared dead tonight at 5:32,” attorney Norm Pattis said at a press conference.
Dulos was found unresponsive at his home in Farmington, Conn. on Tuesday after he failed to show up for an emergency bond hearing. Officers found him “slumped over” in the driver’s seat of his car in his garage.
He was taken to UConn Medical Center and then later airlifted to a hospital in New York, where he underwent treatment in a hyperbaric chamber for carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to Farmington police, his body will be taken to the Manhattan Medical Examiner to determine his cause and manner of death. The suicide investigation is ongoing.
“His family came in from Greece and decided today to donate his organs so that he will live on in some form in the assistance that he can provide to others in their own individual struggles,” said Pattis.
Dulos is accused of killing his estranged wife Jennifer Farber Dulos. She went missing in 2019 during a tense divorce and custody battle. Her body has not been found.
“This is a horrific tragedy all around,” Carrie Luft, the spokeswoman for the Farber family said following Dulos’ death. “Please respect the privacy of the families and loved ones involved.”
Pattis announced he still plans on defending his now-deceased client. He filed a motion asking to use Dulos’ estate as a substitute for Dulos in court.
“It will be a difficult challenge to persuade the state of Connecticut to go forward with a trial in the absence of a defendant,” said Pattis. “We intend to proceed on as if he were alive to vindicate him because we think he’s wrongfully accused.”
Pattis said Dulos’ suicide attempt is in no way an admission of guilt.
“We say it was more a conscious overborne with the weight of the world that was too busy to listen and wanted a story more than it wanted the truth,” said Pattis.
On Wednesday, search warrants were executed at Dulos’ Farmington home. Court documents reveal police found a note written by Dulos before the attempted suicide in which he maintained his innocence and claimed his lawyers have the evidence to prove it.
©WLNE-TV/ABC 6
