With no evidence to connect her to the disappearance of her son, investigators who had already determined Michelle Lodzinski to be a suspect were going through her garbage searching for clues. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK--Two weeks after 5-year-old Timothy Wiltsey vanished, law enforcement officials had already agreed his mother--Michelle Lodzinsi--was the prime suspect in his disappearance.
Retired Sayreville Sgt. Richard Sloan, returning to the witness stand Thursday, said borough police, the FBI, State Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office met on June 11,1991, as the search for the missing child continued, and said all agreed by then that the focus was on Lodzinski.
In fact, the single mother's garbage was being picked up by the FBI and being searched for evidence, it was disclosed in testimony, as the trial continued before Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves in New Brunswick.
But it would not be until more than two decades later, long after Timothy's skeletal remains were discovered 11 months after his disappearance, that Lodzinski would be charged in August 2014 with his murder.
In court on Thursday, prosecutors continued to raise questions about Lodzinski's inconsistent and changing stories she told to police about what happened the day Timothy went missing at a traveling carnival in Sayreville on the night of May 25, 1991.
Initially, said Sloan, she claimed she lost sight of him after she went to pay for soda at a concession stand. Returning for an interview on June 7, she told investigators that she left the child with a former go-go dancer named Ellen she knew from when she worked as a bank teller in Sayreville while she went to get a soda. Ellen was with two men and a young child. When she returned, they were all gone. Police said they never found any evidence that there was a woman named Ellen.
Later, Lodzinski claimed Timothy had been abducted.
Now 48 with two teenage boys, Lodzinski has always denied any involvement in Timothy's disappearance or death.
Among those who testified yesterday was Theresa Packard McConnell, who owned the two-family house where Lodzinski had then lived with her son.
McConnell said she had rented to Lodzinski because her daughter, Tara, was in the same kindergarten class at St. Mary's Elementary School as Timothy and the two children were good friends. She recalled seeing Lodzinski and her son the Friday before he disappeared and they "both seemed very happy."
The night Lodzinski reported her son missing, she called McConnell from the carnival to tell her. McConnell offered to come down and search, but said Lodzinski told her not to come.
Later that night, she remembered Lodzinski coming home with two firemen to get a piece of clothing so specially trained dogs could get Timmy's scent to aid in the search.
"She told me 'I went to buy a soda at the concession. I was holding his hand. I let go of his hand and turned around to pay for the soda. When I turned back, he was gone,' " McConnell said.
McConnell said she helped Lodzinski and her friends get posters made up of Timmy to put up around town and volunteered in the community effort to help in the search for the young boy. She broke down remembering the night of April 23, 1992 when Lodzinski called and told her investigators finally found Timothy's remains in a swampy area of Raritan Center in Edison.
"I said it's not him, but she said it's him," McConnell testified. "I said I can't believe it."
A boy, a blanket and a cold case
She said Lodzinski's demeanor was calm, matter-of-fact as she told her and she attributed it to shock.
"I assumed because she wasn't crying, she was in shock," McConnell said. "Initially, I believed everything she told me."
But McConnell said Lodzinski refused to participate when a community group formed to help in the search for her son wanted to lay a wreath at the place his remains were found.
"She said she would never go there," McConnell said.
Lodzinski said her boyfriend said he would go in her place.
McConnell said Lodzinski gave him detailed directions on how to get to Raritan Center.
"She said she used to work there," she testified--a fact investigators did not learn until much later .
After McConnell began seeing newspaper articles detailing the conflicting statements Lodzinski gave police about her son's disappearance, she said she confronted her friend.
Lodzinski, she said, "had an answer for every question I had." But she no longer believed her.
McConnell also acknowledged under cross-examination by Lodzinski's attorney, Gerald Krovatin, that her then-husband, David, worked with the FBI investigation by taking Michelle's garbage to an off-site location where FBI agents picked it up and went through it for evidence.
"I never saw her cry over Timmy," McConnell told the jury. "The one time I saw her cry, she was having trouble getting her car loan. She cried over that."
The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Staff writer 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.