Search in Missing Mom Case Continues at Hartford Trash Facility

Part of the investigation into a missing New Canaan woman is centered on a trash facility in Hartford, where police are sifting through shredded material in the search for potential evidence in the case. On Wednesday night, state police said they will continue to come through mountains of trash as the investigate the disappearance of 50-year-old Jennifer Dulos. 

Connecticut state police have been searching at Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority in Hartford for evidence as they investigate the disappearance of the 50-year-old mother of five young children who has been missing since May 24. 

A source tells NBC Connecticut that troopers are specifically looking for evidence that might have been picked up by a garbage truck and shredded inside the facility days after Jennifer disappeared. 

According to court documents, surveillance cameras picked up video of a pickup similar to one owned by Jennifer’s estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, that shows the truck stopping more than 30 times over a four-mile stretch of Albany Avenue in Hartford and a man putting garbage bags in trash cans. The documents also say that state police found several bags they say contained clothing and a kitchen sponge that were covered in Jennifer Dulos’ blood. 

READ THE COURT DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE

Sources say the garbage that was discarded along Albany Avenue the night Jennifer Dulos disappeared and picked up by a garbage collector four days later has gotten through the shredding process. 

An employee of MIRA who saw the state police investigation said 20 state troopers have been using heavy equipment as they search through an area where shredded material is being kept. 

The slow and precise investigation includes sifting through shredded garbage that is stored as fuel for the power plant. Half a bucket full of material is spilled out onto a floor, according to a MIRA employee, and police are using K9s to sniff through it. 

Fotis Dulos and his 44-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, have both been arrested in connection with the missing person case and were charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and hindering prosecution in the first degree in connection to the missing person case. Fotis remains in police custody and has been ordered to have no contact with Jennifer’s family or his children. 

Troconis was released on bond. 

Jennifer’s mother, Gloria Farber, has filed for custody of Jennifer and Fotis’ five children but no change was made in custody during a status conference Wednesday. 

A hearing will be scheduled for another date. 

Anyone with information that will help in the investigation into Jennifer Dulos' disappearance is asked to call New Canaan police.