Family and friends of Jennifer DuPras express relief after arrest of her killer and estranged husband

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The death penalty is on the table for a Kingsburg man, arrested yesterday for the murders of his estranged wife and her mother.

Action News talked to Jennifer's daughter and a few of her friends and they expressed a lot of relief at the arrest of Alan Dupras yesterday.

But as the case moves forward now, friends say they're left with a brand new empty feeling.

Even 9 months after her death, a lot of people still live with a Jennifer Dupras-sized hole in their hearts.

"She was a very cultured, very elegant lady," said Jennifer's best friend and co-worker at Washington Elementary Kelly Rosales.

She felt a wave of relief when Fresno County sheriff's deputies arrested Jennifer's estranged husband Tuesday.

"We all kind of had an idea of the responsibility and where it lie, but it was a little bit fearful too having him right around the corner from us," said Rosales.

But Rosales and the rest of Jennifer's inner circle know the arrest is just a first step.

Alan Dupras will make his first court appearance Wednesday on two charges of murder, two counts of arson, and a vandalism charge.

Those last three charges involve fires at the home where Jennifer moved after she filed for divorce and the French club where she was president, and legal analyst Tony Capozzi says they boost the murder case.

"It shows a revenge and a retaliation and a hatred, it seems to me, for going through this divorce, for some kind of personal relationship they had before that's really gone awry," said Capozzi.

But Capozzi says all the evidence we've seen is circumstantial.

We revealed that investigators know he shut off his phone around the time of the murders and used search engines to find out how to disable the GPS tracking device in his truck.

And although he denied being anywhere near the scene of the crime, detectives found surveillance footage showing his truck in the area.

"Unless there's some kind of explanation for that, unless there's some kind of an alibi for that circumstantial evidence, he's going to have an uphill battle in this particular case," said Capozzi

The death penalty is on the table for Dupras, but the DA usually doesn't make a formal decision on that until after a preliminary hearing.