Accused wife-killer Fotis Dulos tried to kill himself inside his Connecticut mansion Tuesday — just as he was due in court for a bail hearing that could have sent him back to jail.
Police said officers were dispatched to the Farmington mansion around noon on a “wellness” check after Dulos failed to show up in court.
They found him sitting in a vehicle inside his garage with “obvious signs of medical distress,” Farmington Police spokesman Lt. Tim McKenzie said at a press conference.
Initial reports were that Dulos had died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. But police said he survived the suicide attempt and was rushed to UConn Health hospital in Farmington.
“Typically, CPR will be performed for a period of time,” McKenzie said. “If there is any sign of life present, the patient would be transported to the hospital. And that’s what happened today.”
Police would not say if a suicide note was found at the scene.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Brian Foley said the investigation was “at the very beginning” and that there would be further updates.
Asked if he was alive, Pattis said, “He has a pulse.”
Dulos, 52, had been free on $6 million bond since Jan. 9 while awaiting trial on murder and kidnapping charges in the disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos.
She disappeared on May 24. Her body has not been found.
He was due in Stamford Superior Court for a bail hearing. His bond was in question because the insurer that backed it, Palmetto Surety Company, had raised concerns about the collateral that was put up, the Courant reported.
Dulos would have been ordered back to jail if the bond was revoked.
“Obviously, the potential for a bond revocation was devastating news to him,” Dulos’ attorney, Norm Pattis, said in an interview with NBC Connecticut.
But throughout he has been a fighter and resolute,” Pattis said. “So, this development comes as stunning news to me.”
However, celebrity bondsman Ira Judelson, who secured the $2 million bond for disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, is expected to back Dulos’ bond.
Dulos, a luxury home builder, was accused of killing Jennifer in her home after she returned from dropping off the couple’s children.
The two were in the midst of a bitter divorce battle.
Dulos allegedly stuffed Jennifer’s body in her Chevrolet Suburban and drove to New Canaan’s Waveny Park, where he had left an employee’s pickup truck.
He then apparently got into that truck and drove off.
The Dulos children’s longtime nanny, Lauren Almeida, told police she sensed something amiss when she returned to the house that day and “noticed Jennifer’s handbag was on the floor in the doorway” and her “unopened granola bar and mug of tea on the kitchen counter.”
Investigators say Dulos was later caught on surveillance video dumping garbage bags in Hartford the night Jennifer disappeared. The bags were later found to contain items stained with her blood, including a poncho, zip ties, work gloves, a sponge and clothing.
Dulos’ ex-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, is accused of conspiring with him in the murder.
A third defendant, attorney Kent Mawhinney, a friend of Dulos’, was charged with conspiracy in the case and is being held on conspiracy charges.
