With the murder trial against Michelle Lodzinski in its second week, prosecutors have begun poking at the inconsistencies in her stories in the days after she said her 5-year-old son vanished. But her attorney repeatedly questioned why police did not investigate workers at the carnival on they day she reported him missing. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK--The tape wound back the clock 25 years.
Former Det. Sgt. Richard Sloan could be heard speaking loudly, in sharp contrast to Michelle Lodzinski's quiet, gentle tone. In a soft, high-pitched girlish voice, she gave a statement to police about what happened on May 25, 1991--the night she claimed her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, disappeared from a local carnival after turning her back for a moment.
Sitting in the Middlesex County courtroom, Lodzinski's hands were clasped in front of her face as she listened to the interview recorded long ago, being played back to a jury in her ongoing murder trial.
Almost two weeks after telling Sayreville police that her son disappeared while she was paying for soda at a concession stand at the carnival, Lodzinski was now changing her story, testified Sloan, who has since retired. She told investigators Timmy hadn't gone mysteriously missing. He'd been abducted.
"They said they would harm him," she declared.
Lodzinski's changing stories about the disappearance of her son fueled intrigue and suspicion in the months after he vanished, and years after his skeletal remains were found in a marshy area of the Raritan Center almost a year later. With the trial against the 48-year-old single mother now in its second week, prosecutors began poking at those inconsistencies, with a series of witnesses who saw her at the carnival and spoke with her after reporting she could not find her only child.
Lodzinski's attorney, meanwhile, repeatedly questioned why the police did not investigate workers at the carnival, or even determine the name of the carnival operator.
Among those taking the stand Wednesday was Sayreville Police Lt. Timothy Brennan, who had been in the patrol division the day Lodzinski reported her son missing and helped in the search of the carnival grounds at Kennedy Park. He was the first police officer to talk to her.
"She was very calm," he said. "She did not appear to be very upset."
He recounted the story she gave of going to get a soda, telling police that when she turned around, the boy was gone. The police shut down the carnival rides and put Lodzinski on the public address system to call out to the boy.
"If you hear my voice, please Timmy come out," Brennan recalled of the evening.
The search was finally called off at 2 a.m. until daylight and he testified that he told his colleagues that it would be "very, very difficult" for him to tell the boy's mother that they had to stop the search. His voice choked up as he spoke in court. But he said it wasn't difficult. She "basically said okay," he told the jury.
Lodzinski's attorney, Gerald Krovatin, asked whether there was any investigation of the traveling carnival operators and those who worked the rides.
"Do you know the name of the outfit that ran the carnival?" asked Krovatin.
Brennan said he did not, nor did he check where it went after Memorial Day weekend in 1991.
"Did you investigate the background of the employees of that carnival?"
"No," he replied.
Sloan, who served as a police officer in Sayreville for 36 years, had been working in the juvenile bureau when Timothy went missing. Off duty, he got a call in the early morning hours of May 26 to help in the search effort. Lodzinski, he said, was seated in a car and appeared "calm, relaxed and cooperative."
In her first statement given at police headquarters, Lodzinski told him that she waited in line to get a soda and "she turned around and Timmy was gone."
But in a follow-up interview more than a week later, he began to question her statement because of inconsistencies, and said Lodzinski's demeanor changed. She appeared "angry, arms crossed" with no eye contact. Sloan said she said she didn't know where Timothy was.
Under direct examination from Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Scott LaMountain, Sloan said at one point Lodzinski angrily told him and the other detective in the room, "go ahead and charge me if you think you could."
Then she began to sob and told them: "They said they would harm him." Her son, she suddenly said, had been abducted.
After telling them about the two men, she wouldn't answer any more questions, but got up and told them, "you wanted to hear something so I told you this," and left, Sloan said.
Days later, the story changed yet again. In another statement to police, Lodzinski told them she had been approached by a woman named Ellen, allegedly a go-go dancer she knew who had cashed her welfare checks at the bank where she worked. Sloan said Lodzinski told them Ellen was with two men and agreed to watch Timothy while she got on line for a soda. When she returned, she couldn't find Ellen, the men or her son. She did not know the woman's last name or the town where she lived.
And then she told a fourth story. In another recorded statement to police played Wednesday afternoon, Lodzinski said one of the men threatened her with a knife and told her if she kept quiet she might see her son in about a month.
She told police she had not initially told them about Ellen because "I didn't want to get in trouble for leaving him with someone I really didn't know," Sloan testified. He said they tried to identify every Ellen receiving welfare in county, and contacted every local go-go club, but never found her.
Eleven months later, Timothy Wiltsey's remains were finally identified. The 5-year-old boy's skull had been found in a marshy area by the Raritan Center. Police brought in Lodzinski inform her about the discovery.
"There was no reaction," Sloan told the jury. He also testified that Lodzinski never told police she worked just a few blocks from where Timmy's body was found.
"She told us she never was on Olympic Drive and didn't know Olympic Drive existed," Sloan said.
Lodzinski faces 30 years in prison if convicted.
Staff writers Laura Herzog and Ted Sherman contributed to this report.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.