On Friday, May 24, it will be five years since the disappearance and presumed murder of Jennifer Farber Dulos.
Her body has never been recovered, the case is still open, according to investigators, and memorials at relevant locations, including West Hartford still stand in her honor.
Jennifer's friends and family offered a comprehensive statement to mark five years. Part of the statement included notes about continued support for victims of domestic violence.
“We also urge those who can do so to donate to local organizations that support survivors of intimate partner violence, such as Interval House Hartford; and to organizations that work on behalf of missing and murdered women of color, such as the Black and Missing Foundation, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and many others,” the statement reads.
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It’s a theme that Jennifer's friends and family have echoed for years.
In an interview done March 7 with NBC Connecticut, Carrie Luft, a spokesperson for the friends and family of Jennifer Farber Dulos, offered expanded remarks on the same topic.
“(T)here are so many people whose stories are not being told, whose stories, when they go missing, don't get covered,” Luft said at the time, “I call on the media to make this coverage more equitable across races and ethnicities and genders.”
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She continued to reiterate support for victims.
“Tragically, for those people who are murdered by their partners, that their stories are not being told, I think that needs to change,” Luft said in March.
The Interval House in Hartford said the spike in domestic violence incidents experienced during the pandemic never came down. Here in Connecticut, in the last 12 months, 12 victims of domestic violence have been murdered.
“One is too many, and in a state where you can drive across in two and a half hours it's sort of a shocking number,” said Amanda Delaura, with the Interval house.
They confirm that domestic violence disproportionately impacts communities of color and indigenous people. Of the base they serve, roughly 30% are Black and 30% are Hispanic, and only 20% are white, per their latest statistics. Delaura said acute attention to resource access is critical.
“Across the board, we know it impacts everybody, but we really need to be helping those communities that don’t have the resources to pull themselves out,” Delaura said.
In April, Wallingford police investigated a case of a mother and baby killed in their home prior to a house fire on Geneva Avenue. A man, killed in the fire, while not accused of their death, was arrested on domestic violence charges and had a protective order banning him from the home.
At a vigil in early May, the victim’s family called for more to be done to protect victims of domestic violence.
“GPS and everything else to track somebody down and there’s nothing we can do for women?” said Sofia Perez, the victim’s aunt.
And in December, a pregnant New Britain woman was allegedly murdered by the baby’s father. Her family believes she was murdered because of a breakup.
"She just didn’t want to be bothered with him anymore, and that does not give him the right to take her life,” the victim’s aunt, Rev. Deborah Copeland, said.
The Mashantucket Pequot Nation also offered a position statement regarding missing and murdered indigenous people.
They said, “Violence against Native people isn’t a new phenomenon. The physical and systemic violence Native people have experienced at the hands of non-Native men since colonial times persist today.
"The statistics are alarming. Native Americans are more likely than any other ethnic group to be murdered, disappear, or experience different forms of violence and assault. Natives are murdered or sex-trafficked at rates far more significant than any other demographic. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), in some regions, Native people are murdered at rates up to 10 times higher than the national average. Moreover, the DOJ reports that non-Native men commit over 80% of violence against Natives.
"Unfortunately, many of these cases are either not investigated, poorly investigated, or remain unsolved, forcing families and communities to search for their loved ones independently. Further perpetuating Native people’s invisibility, these cases typically receive little to no media coverage.
"The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is committed to raising awareness on the epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous people. We stand in solidarity with our Native relatives who are awaiting the return of their loved ones, and we pray for and remember those we’ve lost. Moreover, we support the Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland, in her efforts through the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Missing and Murdered Unit, which focuses on investigating, resolving, and collecting data related to missing and murdered Native person cases. We are hopeful that this issue is receiving the attention it deserves.”
According to the Interval House, awareness is a critical first step to combating domestic violence.
“We need to make sure that everyone knows it can happen to anyone, you should not be ashamed and if you need help, ask for it,” said Delaura.
She added that awareness allows a broader and more equitable spread of resources and allows pathways to connect with resources.
Luft noted in her statement that even though five years have passed, there is still a need to call for action.
“If Jennifer's situation can help spur further legislation and or social change, she would be very much in favor of that,” she said in her interview on March 7.
The friends and family of Jennifer plan to observe the five-year mark privately.
Meanwhile, Michelle Troconis, the girlfriend of Jennifer’s estranged husband Fotis Dulos in 2019, will be sentenced for charges related to the death and disappearance of Jennifer on May 31st.
