The attorney for the estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mother said after a court appearance Wednesday that his team is investigating a "revenge-suicide hypothesis" as the reason for her disappearance.
Jennifer Dulos, 50, has been missing since May 24, when the mother of five was last seen dropping off her children at school in New Canaan.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 51, who has been in a two-year custody battle with her, appeared in court Wednesday after Jennifer's lawyers accused him and his lawyers of violating a court order by releasing information about the couple's children that was to remain sealed.
The couple's children have been staying with Jennifer's mother in New York since she went missing.
"I just want to tell my children that they are constantly on my mind, and that I love them, and I miss them very much," Fotis Dulos said outside the court.
Norm Pattis, the lawyer for Fotis Dulos, told reporters on Wednesday that his team was "actively contemplating the revenge-suicide hypothesis as an explanation for her disappearance."
The claim by Pattis came days after he suggested that Jennifer Dulos may have staged her disappearance like the main character in the hit movie "Gone Girl."
"We have been provided a very dark 500-plus page novel Jennifer wrote,'' he said in a statement to NBC News. "We are reviewing it now. We are also investigating new information regarding $14,000 worth of medical bills regarding tests just before she disappeared. We don’t know what had become of Jennifer but the 'Gone Girl' hypothesis is very much on our mind."
In "Gone Girl," based on a book by Gillian Flynn, a woman fakes her own death as part of a plot to frame her husband.
Carrie Luft, a spokesperson for Jennifer Dulos' family and friends, said in a statement to NBC News that the draft of Jennifer's novel was finished in 2002, 10 years before "Gone Girl" was released, and has nothing to do with the story.
"Trying to tie Jennifer’s absence to a book she wrote more than 17 years ago makes no sense,'' Luft said in her statement. "Evidence shows that Jennifer was the victim of a violent attack in her New Canaan home. ... This is not fiction or a movie. This is real life, as experienced every single day by Jennifer’s five young children, her family, and her friends. We are heartbroken."
Pattis was asked about his "Gone Girl" theory outside court on Wednesday.
"Truth sometimes is inconvenient," he said.
Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, have pleaded not guilty to charges of evidence tampering and hindering prosecution after being arrested in connection with the case. They are both out on $500,000 bond and are required to wear GPS trackers.
Prosecutor Richard Colangelo told a court that DNA belonging to Fotis Dulos was found mixed with Jennifer Dulos' blood on the faucet of the kitchen sink at her home, which she was renting after splitting from her husband.
Police said that Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on surveillance video making stops at different trash receptacles in Hartford and discarding items that contained Jennifer Dulos' blood.
State and local police have been sifting through tons of trash with rakes for 15 hours a day at the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority in Hartford for weeks in an attempt to find any evidence that will help them locate Jennifer Dulos.
The search of the garbage dump comes because the trash had already been collected when authorities said they discovered the surveillance video evidence of Fotis Dulos and Troconis discarding items.
"We know what we are looking for," State Police Sgt. Ralph Soda said during a press conference Saturday. "We can't be specific because of the evidence. We can't release something publicly because there are things as far as what evidence and facts of the case that may be known to the suspect and the victim that no one else knows. That can't be released."