Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five from Connecticut, went missing in May and her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, along with his girlfriend were arrested for tampering with evidence. Now, Fotis, his girlfriend, and his legal team are invoking a so-called Gone Girl theory to explain her disappearance — and Gillian Flynn, who wrote the book, is speaking out against the use of her novel to explain what happened.
Evidence was presented in court by the prosecution that Fotis's blood was found mixed with Jennifer's on the kitchen sink of the apartment she was renting and that Fotis and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were spotted by surveillance cameras at different receptacles around Hartford, CT depositing items that contained Jennifer's blood.
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Norm Pattis, attorney for Fotis, claimed in a statement to NBC News that the defense had possession of a "very dark" novel written by Jennifer. "We don’t know what had become of Jennifer but the 'Gone Girl' hypothesis is very much on our mind." Additionally, Pattis said his team was investigating $14,000 in medical bills Jennifer had recently incurred for "tests."
In a previous statement, Jennifer's family confirmed she graduated with honors from Brown University and earned an MFA in writing from NYU, calling her a "brilliant creative."
After Flynn got wind of this defense, she issued a statement condemning it.
"I’ve seen in recent coverage that Jennifer’s husband and his defense attorney have put forward a so-called 'Gone Girl theory' to explain Jennifer’s disappearance," Flynn said. "It absolutely sickens me that a work of fiction written by me would be used by Fotis Dulos’s lawyer as a defense, and as a hypothetical, sensationalized motive behind Jennifer’s very real and very tragic disappearance."
In Flynn's novel, adapted into a film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, a woman fakes her disappearance while media attention focuses on her husband as the prime suspect.
Pattis has made further allegations to various media outlets, including telling the New York Post that Jennifer disappeared previously and “lived for years under a false name” after an “intrafamilial dispute about money,” while alleging she suffered various psychiatric problems. A family source told the Post that she has no mental health issues and went to Aspen, CO and Los Angeles for a few years to write under her pen name, Jennifer Bay.
“It’s a classic act of desperation to slander the victim,” Anne Dranginis, attorney for Jennifer’s mother, Gloria Farber, told the outlet.
Jennifer's family ask that anyone with information on the case call the New Canaan police tip line at (203) 594-3544 or email FindJenniferDulos@newcanaanct.gov.