Michelle Lodzinski, a 47-year-old mom of two who lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of her first son — a murder that took place 23 years ago. Lodzinski who in 1991, when her five-year-old son Timothy Wiltsey disappeared, was a 23-year-old single mother in South Amboy, New Jersey, was always the top suspect in the case, police said. But until yesterday, they had no evidence that could justify arresting her.
But last week a grand jury in Middlesex County, New Jersey, handed down an indictment of Lodzinski on a single count of murder. Michelle Lodzinski was taken into custody on what would have been her son Timmy’s 29th birthday.
Police have not revealed what new evidence caused the grand jury to indict Lodzinski more than two decades after she was first suspected of killing her son.
On May 25, 1991, according to Lodzinski’s initial story at the time , she had taken her son to a Memorial Day Weekend carnival at John F. Kennedy Memorial Park in Sayreville, New Jersey, early in the evening. After taking him on several rides, she went to purchase a soft drink while Timmy held their place in line for yet another ride.
When she returned from the concession stand, Timmy was gone, she told police.
Investigators quickly began to poke holes in the Michelle Lodzinski account, particularly when they failed to find anyone who attended the carnival who could recall seeing Timmy there. Confronted by this information, Lodzinski offered a new story, telling detectives that two men had abducted her son at knifepoint.
When police reacted to her new version of events with skepticism, Lodzinski admitted that she fabricated the tale. When police asked her to finally tell them what she really knew about Timmy’s disappearance, however, she gave them yet another apparently false story, this time saying that two men and a woman had taken Timmy.
Despite her rapidly changing accounts, cops had no solid evidence against the mom and there were no reports that she had a history of abusing the boy. Timmy’s father, George Wiltsey, was not a suspect because he lived in Iowa at the time and did not participate in Timmy’s life.
There was no sign of Timmy until April 23 of 1992, when a skull identified as Timmy’s was found in a marshy area near Raritan Center, a large office park in Edison, New Jersey. Michelle Ludzinski once reportedly held a job in Raritan Center.
The grand jury indictment of Michelle Ludzinski states that she “did purposely or knowingly kill” Timothy Wiltsey sometime between the date of his disappearance, and the day when his partial remains were discovered.
Michelle Lodzinski is being held in Florida on $2 million bail and was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon.