A retired detective from Arizona told a judge Friday that he was never told that an Arizona man may have killed a 5-year-old boy in New Jersey in 1991. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK -- A retired detective from Arizona told a judge Friday that he was never told that an Arizona man may have killed a 5-year-old boy in New Jersey in 1991.
Former Scottsdale police detective Thomas Van Meter contradicted testimony given to Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves last week by Damien Dowdle, who testified that Bernard Joseph McShane confessed to him that he lured a 5-year-old boy away from his parents at a big event in New Jersey and strangled him.
Dowdle testified that he told Van Meter about McShane's confession.
Dowdle told the judge that McShane told him he killed the boy by beaches and gambling. Eventually, Dowdle said he learned the murder was in Atlantic City, something he said he told Van Meter.
But, Van Meter said Dowdle never mentioned beaches, gambling or New Jersey. Instead, the retired detective said Dowdle told him that the boy was strangled in Georgia.
The retired detective said the first time heard the boy was killed in New Jersey was in October 2015 when he was called by a private investigator who had been contacted by an investigator from the public defender's office in Middlesex County.
Dowdle had contacted Gerald Krovatin, Lodzinski's attorney, to tell him McShane killed may have killed a boy in New Jersey and the story was similar to the story of Timmy Wiltsey's disappearance.
Dowdle testified last week that McShane told him it was in Atlanta City and he first thought it was Georgia, but that he later learned it could be New Jersey and told Van Meter. He said McShane told him the story while the two were cellmates at a county jail in Arizona.
Lodzinski is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 16, 2016. Her trial was originally scheduled for Jan. 12, but it was postponed, among other reasons, to allow Judge Nieves to hear from Dowdle and determine if he should be a witness in the trial.
Lodzinski was indicted in August 2014 after Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey ordered a review of all of the older homicide cases.
Timmy Wiltsey disappeared from a Sayreville carnival in May 1991, Lodzinski has told officials. His remains were found in a marshy area in Raritan Center in Edison 11 months after his disappearance.
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/01/uncertain_witness_says_former_cellmate_could_have.html
In the years following Timmy's death, Lodzinski's behavior was puzzling and bizarre, authorities said. In addition to changing the story she gave law enforcement, she was later arrested twice -- once for faking her kidnapping and again in 1997 for stealing from an employer.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.