The family of a missing Connecticut mother wants her declared legally dead—an unusual move that a judge says she'll have to study, ABC News reports. Jennifer Dulos disappeared in 2019 during a custody battle with husband Fotis Dulos, who was arrested for her murder in 2020 and died a few weeks later in an apparent suicide. But Jennifer's body was never found. Now the administrator of Fotis' estate wants her declared dead, because banks can access his money if she predeceased him; banks have said they want to pay the estate's creditors, per the AP. "The sooner we can get to the closure of Dulos' estate, the better it will be for everyone," says an attorney for Jennifer's mother, Gloria Farber. "The tragic truth of the matter is that Jennifer Dulos is dead."
But Judge Evelyn Daly says she might have to hold a full hearing with detectives and medical experts before deciding, the Hartford Courant reports. "It's fair to say you didn't provide the court with any related Connecticut case law precedent to make it clearly deviate from the seven-year statute" for missing persons, she told the estate lawyer, who is representing Jennifer's five children and her mother. Meanwhile, the Courant paints a portrait of the Farber/Dulos family locked in contentious financial squabbles. Their probate case has included fights over items as small as kitchen knives, and they can't agree how much of nearly $140,000 in legal fees Fotis' attorney should return. After all, Fotis killed himself before facing trial. (Fotis likened the case to Gone Girl.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
