A Middlesex County investigator testifies a tip reopened the investigation into who killed Timmy Wiltsey.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- A tip came in to Crime Stoppers in June 2011 about a case that made national headlines in May 1991 -- the disappearance and death of 5-year-old Timothy Wiltsey, Sgt. Scott Crocco told a jury Thursday morning.
Crocco, a supervisor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office's major crimes unit, followed up on the tip, which he said "proved not usable."
But that tip led to his office deciding to reopen the cold case in which Wiltsey's mother, Michelle Lodzinski, who was 23 when she reported her son missing from a Sayreville carnival on May 25, 1991, was the prime suspect after providing police at least four different versions of what happened to the boy.
Timmy's remains were found in a swampy area of Raritan Center in Edison 11 months after his mother reported him missing.
Crocco was testifying on the 13th day of testimony in Lodzinski's trial for her son's murder. She was indicted in August 2014.
The investigator told the jury how he reviewed all of the police reports from the various law enforcement agencies involved in the search for the boy, the evidence collected and all of the items that had been kept throughout the years.
Then he re-interviewed many of the witnesses who gave statements in 1991 or people who were around in 1991.
Crocco said he also showed certain witnesses items in evidence that had not been shown to anyone other than Lodzinski and her parents, including a blue blanket that was found by an FBI agent not far from where Timmy's remains were located.
The blanket was positively identified as belonging to Michelle Lodzinski by her niece, Jennifer Blair Dilcher, and Dilcher's best friend at the time, Danielle Gerder, Crocco said.
Crocco also said testing was found on a hair discovered by the New Jersey State Police Laboratory on the blanket and on a pillow case discovered by Timmy's remains. The hairs were compared to a sample of hair obtained through a search warrant from Lodzinski who was living in Florida until her arrest in 2014. The results were negative, he said.
The hairs were sent to a private laboratory in Pennslyvania, along with a sample of Lodzinski's hair and a saliva sample from Jennifer Blair Dilcher for a DNA test, he testified.
"The results were inconclusive," for Lodzinski and did not match Dilcher, Crocco said.
Crocco acknowledged that no forensic evidence was found on the items recovered during the search for Timmy's remains, including the blanket, the pillow case, pieces, and pieces of clothing, but he said in the cases of where the victims have been strangled or suffocated that he has investigated, "there is no biological evidence left behind."
The case will resume Thursday afternoon before Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.