Mom Arrested in Son's Murder 23 Years Later

The 23-year-old cold case of the murder of 5-year-old Timothy Wiltsey may finally be solved. His mother, 47-year-old Michelle Lodzinski, was arrested in Florida this week—on what would have been Timothy's 29th birthday—and charged with killing her son, reports the AP. She initially claimed he had escaped her watchful eye at a New Jersey carnival in May 1991. His remains were found in 1992 near where Lodzinski used to work in Edison, NJ, according to the Star-Ledger. Lodzinski, who has been living with her two teenage sons in Port St. Lucie, is being held in Florida and is expected to be extradited to New Jersey.

Authorities had always considered Lodzinski a suspect but didn't have the "direct smoking gun" to go after her, says a prosecutor. Specific evidence that warranted reopening the case wasn't cited in the indictment report. Lodzinski had raised red flags with law enforcement by changing her story several times after Timothy's disappearance, and neighbors told the AP that her emotionless response to his death didn't seem to fit that of a grieving mom. She's also had a string of other arrests since Timothy's murder, including one for falsely claiming she was abducted and one for lifting computer equipment from an employer. Her brother-in-law—who tells the Stuart News via the Star-Ledger that Lodzinski is a "hard-working single mother"—says "they're just dragging up old dirt, that's all." (More Timothy Wiltsey stories.)