A blanket. A job never mentioned. A friendly cop. And a chid's sneaker that a mother couldn't identify. Some of the areas prosecutors will focus on in the coming weeks as the murder trial of Michelle Lodzinski in the death of her young son plays out.
NEW BRUNSWICK--After a break in the testimony, the trial of Michelle Lodzinski resumes on Tuesday, as prosecutors begin focusing on the sometimes bizarre behavior of the mother charged with killing her 5-year-old son nearly 25 years ago.
The trial so far has focused on identification--photos of the remains of the child, testimony of dentists who linked extensive dental work to the boy, and a tattered blanket that still represents the heart of the case against Lodzinski, 48.
On Friday, the former school nurse at St. Mary's Elementary School in South Amboy, where Timothy Wiltsey was attending kindergarten, testified that the boy was often late or absent. Mary Ellen Quirk described him as "very quiet and shy, but friendly, a very sweet little boy and very healthy."
Timothy was often late or absent from school
Quirk said she knew his mother, who she described as "quiet," who would just come in and drop off her son.
"There was not a lot of hugging," the nurse said.
Here are some of the major points that will play out during the trial in the coming weeks:
1. The blanket: At the heart of the Middlesex County Prosecutor Office case is a faded, blue-and-white blanket found yards away from the skeletal remains of Timothy Wilsey. Lodzinski and her mother said they didn't recognize it when the blanket was first discovered. However, Lodzinski's 14-year-old niece, who would babysit Timothy, had a visceral reaction when investigators showed it to her, said prosecutors, "bursting into tears when she saw the blanket and positively identified the blanket as coming from the defendant's home." Yet it contained no forensic evidence connecting it to Lodzinsk. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of hairs recovered from the blanket showed they did not come from Lodzinski,
2. Changing stories: Lodzinski's account of her son's disappearance changed repeatedly in the days and months after she first reported him missing. After first saying that he disappeared, she later claimed a woman named "Ellen," a former go-go dancer she knew casually, offered to watch Timmy while she bought a soda at the carnival. Later, she told detectives that Ellen and an unidentified man kidnapped the boy at knifepoint. And a former boyfriend told a police officer about a conversation he had with her, in which she told him she knew who took Timmy and saw him being abducted, but was afraid to call police in case they might injure him.
3. A job never acknowledged: When authorities asked Lodzinski to list her places of employment, she failed to say that she had worked at a business at Raritan Center, four-tenths of a mile from the spot where her son's remains were found. Investigators learned from a former co-worker -- who had a relationship with Lodzinski--that she often took walks around the area on her lunch breaks.
4. Sold into adoption? Authorities searched Lodzinski's financial records in June 1991 to determine whether she might have sold her son. Nothing was found.
5. The sneaker: Lodzinski had told police when Timothy disappeared in May 1991 that he had been wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sneakers. That October, a bird-watcher wandering a section of an industrial tract near the Raritan Center found a Ninja Turtles sneaker and turned it over to police. Lodzinski said she did not recognize it. But returning to the area in April 1992, a State Police detective worked his way down a steep embankment and spotted what appeared to be a skull, partially submerged in the Red Root Creek. An examination of extensive dental work to teeth on the upper portion of the skull soon confirmed the remains were those of Timmy.
6. Cause of death: Authorities have never established a cause of death for Timothy Wiltsey--his skeletal remains, discovered in a creek 11 months after his disappearance, held no clue as to when he died, or where.
7. The fake abduction: Days before she was expected to be served with a subpoena in a case involving a Union County police officer who had illegally looked up the license plate of investigators following her, Lodzinski disappeared before showing up the next day in Detroit, claiming she had been abducted by two men claiming to be FBI agents. She later admitted it was all a hoax.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.