Michelle Lodzinski Trial Begins For Murder Of 5-Year-Old

Trial begins today for Michelle Lodzinski in the decades-old unsolved death of her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, according to New Jersey Online. Lodzinski claims that her son was abducted at a carnival in New Jersey in 1991. She gave conflicting versions of the event to police, saying when she went for a soda two men abducted Timothy. Her story later changed to a man and woman took him. She changed her recollection of events again later to say that Timothy was kidnapped at knife-point by a woman in a red car.

Timothy’s skeletal remains were found a year later in 1992, dumped in an area near where Lodzinski worked. A blanket was found near his body but without any DNA evidence or eyewitnesses, the case remained unsolved for years. Determined detectives have never forgotten about the little boy’s tragic end, and they didn’t believe Timothy ever went to the carnival. No witness was able to identify Lodzinski or Timothy as being there. Instead, detectives believe that his mother killed him and dumped his body with the blanket.

Three years after Timothy’s death, Michelle Lodzinski faked her own kidnapping and was arrested, according to the New York Times. She claimed that two men who identified themselves as FBI agents, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to drive from New Jersey to Detroit where they set her free. She said they had been harassing her prior to that. She later admitted it was all a hoax. Judge Nicholas H. Politan said it was “rather bizarre.” Her lawyer told the judge that she had been having a difficult time and was going to counseling “to try to work it out in her own mind.” She was also arrested for stealing from her employer.

The latest: Michelle Lodzinski trial underway https://t.co/aa9CmOlylt via @MyCentralJersey

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The case had been revisited after an ex-con, Damien Dowdle, came forward with some information about the murder, claiming a cellmate had told him he killed a little boy, and Dowdle thought it might have been Timothy Wiltsey. Detectives re-interviewed Lodzinski’s niece, who identified the blanket as belonging to Lodzinski’s home. She said she had never been shown the blanket prior.

An indictment for Michelle Lodzinski came in 2014, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. Twenty-five years after the death of Timothy Wiltsey, Lodzinski was arrested for the murder of her son. She had been working as a paralegal in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Defense lawyer, Gerald Krovatin, claims there is no evidence against Michelle Lodzinski. He portrays his client as a doting mother. “There is probably nothing more horrible to contemplate than the death of a child, any child, especially your child,” he told the jury. He went on to say that the only thing more horrible was to be accused of the murder of your child.

“Evidence will show that that Michelle Lodzinski loved that little boy more than life itself.”

Krovatin said she kept a photo of her son next to her bed for the last 25 years and she treasured his purple kindergarten graduation gown. Timothy was set to graduate a week after his disappearance.

Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua argued that murdering her son was how Michelle Lodzinski chose to resolve “her biggest burden,” according to the Associated Press. Bevacqua said that Lodzinski resolved her financial and relationship problems by killing Timothy.

“A killer’s instinct is to lie. That is Michelle Lodzinski. Timothy Wiltsey was dead at five years of age. His body dumped in a creek, an isolated creek as though he was an unwanted piece of trash. Who would do this to Timmy?”

The murder trial of Michelle Lodzinski is expected to go into the summer months. Lodzinski is being held on a $2 million bond.

[Image via Pool NJ Advance Media/Associated Press]