Close to her workplace, but much has changed over 23 years. Watch video
EDISON -- The weather was grim, with a constant drizzle and a blanket of fog, but Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves insisted: He wanted to see for himself the scene where Timmy Wiltsey's remains were found 23 years ago.
Nieves hurried away from his New Brunswick courtroom, leading a caravan of cars -- including sheriff's officers, reporters, photographers, prosecutors and the defense attorney for the woman accused of killing Timmy -- into the Raritan Center.
The judge must decide whether a jury will be able to visit the marshy, wooded area for themselves, as prosecutors have sought and Lodzinski's attorney has challenged.
"Show us exactly where the remains were located," Nieves asked Sgt. Scott Crocco, the lead county investigator in the murder case against Michelle Lodzinski, as the group stood in the rain on Olympic Drive.
One by one, the lawyers and police, in polished dress shoes, stepped into a marshy area off the private road. The site Crocco pointed to was on a steep embankment leading down to a pond, ringed by trees. It was just a few dozen feet from the roadway, a small offshoot road in the massive complex of warehouses that stretches over South Edison.
Timmy was reported missing from a Sayreville carnival in 1991. Eleven months later, his skull was found at this site in the Raritan Center. Lodzinski worked at a fulfillment center in the Raritan Center.
Gerald Krovatin, the lawyer representing Lodzinski, argued at the scene that it looked nothing like what it did in 1992, when Timmy's remains were found by a birdwatcher. The area had been dammed, so on Wednesday it was a pond, instead of a creek. He is challenging the prosecution's attempts to have the jury see the scene for themselves.
To prosecutors, location is crucially important to the case against Lodzinski, a single mother accused of killing her son and then lying about it amid a frantic, nationwide effort to find him.
For example, prosecutors say, Lodzinski did not initially tell police that she worked at a fulfillment center just four tenths of a mile from the place where Timmy's skull was found.
After seeing the scene where Timmy's remains were found, the judge and lawyers then walked down Olympic Drive, perhaps a tenth of a mile away, to show him where Timmy's shoe was reportedly found. It was on the other side of the road, about 50 yards into the woods. Prosecutors will also try to show that Lodzinski initially lied about whether she recognized the shoe, one of several inconsistencies in her story.
Opting for cars due to the rain, the group then drove to a building at 375 Raritan Center, where Lodzinski worked at one point. The business, Florida Fulfillment, is no longer there.
Nieves had a cellphone app that allowed him to record the conversation with attorneys, preserving the trip for the record.
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Scott LaMountain told Nieves that the remoteness of the area where Timmy's remains were found, as well the proximity to Lodzinski's workplace, were crucial to an understanding of what happened to him.
Nieves has summoned 2,000 potential jurors for a case that could start in early January.
Earlier Wednesday, Nieves ruled that Lodzinski's statements to the FBI after her arrest in a bizarre kidnapping hoax would not be admissible.
Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.