BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK — Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves handed Michelle Lodzinski a 30-year prison sentence for killing her five-year-old son Timothy “Timmy” Wiltsey in 1991.
Nieves sentenced Lodzinski, 48, formerly of South Amboy, to the minimum sentence permitted under the law at a hearing on Thursday, Jan. 5, in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick.
With 884 days credited towards her sentence, Lodzinski will serve her time until she is in her mid-70s.
On May 18, a jury panel of seven men and five women concluded a verdict of first-degree murder against Lodzinski after a trial that spanned three months.
Timmy was reported missing the night of May 25, 1991, at a carnival held at Kennedy Park in Sayreville. A massive search for him ensued after Lodzinski told authorities she had only turned her back on Timmy for a few minutes to get a soda at a concession stand when he disappeared.
Timmy’s skeletonized remains were found in the creek off Olympic Drive in Raritan Center in Edison on April 23, 1992.
In the days and weeks after Timmy was reported missing, Lodzinski told law enforcement officials at least four different versions of what had happened at the carnival.
Through testimony, law enforcement officials investigating the case in 1991 and 1992 have said Lodzinski was their primary suspect in Timmy’s disappearance.
The state’s position has been that Lodzinski attended the carnival herself that night, killed Timmy, and dumped his body in the creek off Olympic Drive in Raritan Center where she previously worked four-tenths of a mile from, because her son became a burden, preventing her from keeping a steady job and relationship.
Gerald Krovatin, who represents Lodzinski, has said his client loved Timmy and was a good mother to him.
He called the state’s case against his client circumstantial with no evidence.
Through testimony, law enforcement officials investigating the case in the 1990s have said Lodzinski was their primary suspect in his disappearance.
Lodzinski has never confessed or made any admissions to law enforcement or anybody.
No arrests were made at the time and the case became cold. An anonymous tip that came into the Crime Stoppers hotline in 2011 about the disappearance of Timmy prompted the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office to re-open the cold case in 2011.
