A woman who saw Lodzinski at the carnival in Sayreville in 1991 said she was alone Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Laura Mechkowski told a jury Tuesday morning she and her family went to the carnival at Kennedy Park in Sayreville the evening of May 25, 1991 and decided to get them food.
At the concession stand, a young woman was in front of her having a conversation with a man behind the concession stand, but she didn't order anything, Mechkowski testified.
After Mechkowski ordered her food, the two women began to talk.
"We discussed the weather," Mechkowski remembered. "She was pleasant, happy."
That woman, she said she later learned, was Michelle Lodzinski, who is on trial for murdering her 5-year-old son Timothy Wiltsey 25 years ago. Lodzinski has claimed that her son went missing at that carnival.
But Mechkowski said she never saw Timothy at the carnival.
Later, Mechkowski said she saw Lodzinski as she and her family left the carnival. This time, Lodzinski was with an auxilliary police officer and looked upset.
"I heard sirens," Mechkowski, 50, testified on the fourth day of Lodzinski's murder trial in Superior Court. "I realized something had happened."
A day or so later, she learned that Lodzinski's son was missing.
"I called police," Mechkowski said. "I got a sick feeling. I spoke with her and she did not have a child with her. I was very upset. There was a child missing and there was no child."
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Lodzinski originally told police that after putting her son on some rides, she went with him to get a soda. She said when she turned around, Timothy was gone.
Timothy Wiltsey's remains were found 11 months later in a swampy area of Raritan Center in Edison, about 10 miles from where his mother reported him missing.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Timothy Wiltsey's father, George Wiltsey, testified the last time he saw his son was in 1986 when Lodzinski left Iowa with their 6-month-old son and returned to New Jersey.
Wiltsey said he tried to send items to his son, but Lodzinski told him she wanted nothing from him. He acknowledged under cross-examination that he hit Lodzinski while he was drinking and that his drinking and use of drugs might have contributed to her leaving.
He told the jury he learned about his son's disappearance on either May 26 or May 27, 1991 when the local sheriff's department came to his house and told him.
Lodzinski was charged with her son's murder in August 2014, but had been a prime suspect for years after providing several conflicting statements to police in the days and weeks following Timmy's disappearance from the carnival.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.