ΝΕW YORK – It has been more than two years since the last time anyone saw Jennifer Dulos, οn May 24, 2019, after dropping of her kids at school, the mother of 5 disappeared, only months before her 51st birthday. Her disappearance has led to an intense and ongoing police search, to a prosecution still unfolding in the courts, and to great popular interest -in the United States, as well as internationally.

Last week, the HLN network’s Real Life Nightmare program dedicated an episode to Dulos’s disappearance, mostly recapping what is known about it. Dulos had filed for divorce from her husband, Greek-American Fotis Dulos, in 2017. Since then, they had been battling in courts for the divorce, and the custody of their children. A few days after Jennifer Dulos’s disappearance, police arrested Fotis Duos and his then girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, charging them with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. In January 2020, Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis were arrested again, the former charged with murder, and the latter charged with conspiracy to commit murder. A friend of Fotis Dulos, Kent Mawhinney, was also charged. Since Fotis Dulos’s death from carbon monoxide poisoning following a suicide attempt at his home, in late January 2020, Troconis and Mawhinney, though no longer detained, are the only individuals against whom prosecution is still ongoing in connection to the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, who is considered dead, and whose body has not been found until now. Fotis Dulos maintained his innocence until his death, stating in his suicide note that he had nothing to do with the accusations against him. One of the reasons that police believe Jennifer Dulos is dead appears to be evidence of injuries, which a medical examiner concluded she could not have survived without receiving immediate medical treatment.

Real Life Nightmare is not the only media special to take on the Dulos disappearance. In addition to the obvious, extended news coverage across platforms, it has also been the subject of an NBC Dateline special, an Investigation Discovery documentary, and a Lifetime movie, among others.

As to what has been happening in and around the case itself, some of the more recent developments include a settlement between the estate of Fotis Dulos, his former criminal defense attorneys, and the family of Jennifer Dulos, which followed lawsuits about the retainer that Fotis Dulos had paid. Gloria Farber, Jennifer Dulos’s mother, has been awarded $2 million in a civil suit against Fotis Dulos, and is the largest creditor of his estate. The settlement, which was approved by a probate judge in July, required that more than half of an approximately $250,000 retainer would be returned to Fotis Dulos’s estate. It also included a non-disclosure portion under which Fotis Dulos’s former criminal defense lawyers cannot discuss or otherwise provide information on the case for any media publication before December 31, 2060. All parties to the settlement are also prohibited from discussing the settlement other than to confirm their consent to it. Fotis Dulos’s former criminal attorneys are allowed to cooperate with police and prosecutors.

On the legislative side, the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos contributed to the Governor of Connecticut signing into law a bill known as “Jennifers’ Law,” which expands the definition of domestic violence to include what is described as coercive control. The Law is known as Jennifers’ Law, in the plural form, because it has been named for Jennifer Dulos and Jennifer Magnano, who in 2007 was killed by her husband, in front of her children, following years of abuse.