Carnival of Lies ////// Part 2

Summary

True Crime Garage — "Carnival of Lies ////// Part 2" (May 27, 2026)

Episode Summary

Main Theme / Purpose
In this immersive Part 2 episode, hosts Nic and The Captain continue their deep-dive into the haunting 1991 disappearance and murder of five-year-old Timothy Wiltsey from Sayreville, New Jersey. The episode meticulously unpacks recent developments in the case, with a sharp focus on the investigation’s shifting timeline, the mother Michelle Lodzinski’s changing stories, emerging evidence, and law enforcement’s struggle to separate fact from fiction. The hosts scrutinize Michelle’s credibility, police procedures, and potential red herrings, all while highlighting the lingering sense of mystery and the hurdles of solving a cold case with limited physical evidence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Suspicion Falls on the Mother

• Early Focus: Michelle Lodzinski quickly became the focal point for investigators due to her inconsistent accounts and behavior.
  • Red Flag: Michelle moved from her home about two weeks after Timothy’s disappearance, which Nic finds suspicious.

    "I've never liked it when the parents of a missing child move away, especially this early in the case." — Nic (05:20)

  • The Captain notes Michelle’s unstable lifestyle, frequent job and housing changes, and financial struggles that may have influenced her decision to move.

    "She's not stable, so she's changing jobs often, she changes her location of where she lives often. And also she's having financial difficulties." — Captain (05:20)

• Porch Light Project Reference: Nic links the idea of parents keeping hope alive for missing children to their Porch Light Project, underlining the enduring pain felt by families.
  > "[A] mom always leaves the light on for her kid... That's why we called it the porch light project." — Nic (06:38)

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2. Theories: Was Timothy Ever at the Carnival?

• Some investigators believe Timmy was never at the carnival, implying that Michelle may know more than she admits.

  "Some were simply convinced that Timmy was never at... that carnival that evening." — Nic (07:39)

• The possibility that whatever happened to Timmy occurred before Michelle went to the carnival is discussed at length.

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3. Michelle’s Social Circle and Demeanor

• Michelle encountered family at the carnival, but confusion surrounds which niece was present and their relationship to the missing boy.
• Her demeanor during the search is described as "oddly unemotional," but her father claims she is private and did show emotion in private.

  "[Her father says] that's how she's always been. She doesn't show a lot of emotion when she's around people... but behind closed doors... she was emotional regarding her son being missing." — Nic (09:25)

• The Captain points out the case is rife with ambiguities, with arguments "for looking at her as a suspect and not looking at her as a suspect." (10:24)

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4. Changing Stories and Failed Polygraphs

• Inconsistent Accounts
  • Michelle repeatedly changes her story about what happened the night Timmy vanished—from basic timeline variations to radically different versions.
  • Notably, her stories go from simply losing sight of Timmy at a soda stand/ride line to allegations that two men (and later, two men plus a woman named “Ellen”) abducted him at knifepoint.

    "Her story has changed from slight variations to extremely different versions of that same story." — Nic (11:04)

  • Police grow suspicious as her stories evolve.
• Failed Polygraphs
  • Michelle failed two polygraph tests, but the hosts caution that polygraphs are not conclusive, especially in emotional cases.
  • Reference to John Douglas, FBI profiler:

    "He would expect them to fail the exam because they hold a certain level of guilt even when they're innocent in the matter." — Nic (12:59)

  • Law enforcement focused on Michelle, interpreting these failures as evidence of guilt, but the hosts question the reliability of that assumption.

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5. Character Insights from Former Partners and Babysitters

• Former Fiancé: Describes Michelle as more of an "older sister" than a mother, citing an incident of neglect (allowing Timmy to play outside where he was bitten by a dog).

  "She was just not as attentive as he thought she should be..." — Nic (15:35)

• Babysitter: Accuses Michelle of wanting Timmy to leave with a strange man (her boyfriend Fred Bruno), whom Timmy allegedly feared.

  "She forced Timothy into a car... [the babysitter] believed that little Timothy was terrified of Bruno." — Nic (16:13)

• The hosts agree Michelle struggled with "stability" and possibly "maturity," with The Captain reminding listeners that Michelle was only 23 at the time.

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6. Critical Timeline and Evidence Timeline

• Park Alibi Questioned: Michelle claimed to have visited a park before the carnival—yet police say the lot was closed and found no witnesses to support her story.

  "The parking lot where she said she parked her car was actually closed that day." — Nic (18:48)

  • Only neighbor sightings precede the carnival event.
• Radically Different Stories: Michelle’s statements escalate from losing Timmy in a crowd to blaming men with knives, and finally to a convoluted tale involving a woman “Ellen” (possibly a figment).

  "What I can say with 100% certainty is this version of that same story, which is completely different, did come from Michelle..." — Nic (20:54)

  • FBI investigations fail to verify the existence of “Ellen” based on bank records and Michelle’s claim she was an acquaintance from her teller job.

  "At no point does a woman named Ellen cash a check at that bank when Michelle worked there... we are actually unsure if this woman even exists." — Nic (25:05)

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7. Police Stings and The "Ellen" Tale

• Police use Michelle’s boyfriend Fred Bruno for a monitored call and later bug his car to see if Michelle would divulge any incriminating details. (27:14)
• Michelle repeats the “Ellen” story and claims she withheld it due to fear of judgment.

  "She had originally withheld it at first because she feared that people would think that she was a bad mother..." — Nic (27:59)

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8. Mental Health & Behavioral Spiral

• Intense interviews result in Michelle walking out, displaying emotional fluctuations, and ultimately requiring hospitalization for malnutrition and a mental breakdown.

  "She appeared to be having a mental breakdown as well." — Nic (32:47)

• Friends’ intervention highlights her deteriorating condition.

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9. The Sneaker Discovery: Timeline & Implications (34:08–43:59)

• October 26, 1991: Daniel O’Malley, a science teacher, finds a mud-coated white child’s sneaker (size 13) near a marsh at Raritan Center, an industrial area.
  • The shoe matches the style and size of shoes Timmy wore; stock numbers are correct.
  • Michelle is unable to confirm definitively whether it is Timmy’s due to the mud and time lapse.
  • Police seem to downplay the shoe’s importance, contrasting their general distrust of Michelle with their willingness to take her word on the shoe’s identity.

    "That seems weird to me. Yeah, you either trust somebody or you don't. Like, you can't pick and choose." — Nic (39:01)

• Follow-up Searches: The area is searched, and the lack of additional findings or thorough follow-up frustrates the hosts.
  • O’Malley’s persistence with the media brings attention back to the shoe as potentially significant evidence.

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10. Discovery of Remains & Links to Michelle’s Past

• March–April 1992: FBI refocuses attention on the Raritan Center area.
  • Investigators discover Michelle had worked at a fulfillment center nearby for six months, something she initially failed to disclose. (46:01)
  • Coworkers recall Michelle taking frequent walks in the area, a few blocks from where the sneaker was found.

    "So the discovery becomes more interesting, more troubling..." — Nic (47:06)

• April 1992: Police find a second sneaker matching the first, a pillowcase, and eventually Timmy’s partial remains (skull and bones) near a creek, along with a Ninja Turtle balloon and a large blanket.
  • Michelle’s reaction to the discovery is reportedly unemotional.

    "According to the FBI agent, Michelle was unemotional when told that the remains were found." — Nic (50:44)

• Medical Examiner: Timmy’s death is ruled a homicide, but due to advanced decomposition, the cause and time of death remain undetermined.

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11. Aftermath and Continuing Questions

• The close proximity of Timmy’s remains to Michelle’s former workplace (0.4 miles) becomes a major investigative focus. Michelle says she never knew of the specific road (Olympic Drive) and that she took walks around her workplace, not to that exact area.
• Items like the blanket and pillowcase found near the body cannot be connected to Michelle or Timmy via the family.
• Lab testing is inconclusive regarding trace evidence on anything recovered.
• The hosts end by noting the case remains a frustrating patchwork of ambiguous evidence, shifting stories, and lack of forensic resolution.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the initial suspicion:

  "Mom always leaves the light on for her kid. The good ones anyway, always leaves the front porch light on, letting the kid know we are here. We have been waiting for you to return."
  — Nic (06:38)

• On the failed polygraph:

  "If Douglas is right, she failed because of guilt... Are those questions that would be one would fail because they... hold some guilt in their hearts and on their minds?"
  — Nic (12:58)

• On shifting suspicion:

  "A neglectful parent is one thing. To murder your child is a whole different animal."
  — Captain (15:27)

• On the investigating police:

  "If I'm involved in a missing person's case and somebody tells me that they found a shoe that could be the shoe of the missing person... I'm going to be there day and night looking for something..." — Nic (42:25)

• On evidence and ambiguity:

  "It carries more weight. So now we do get lab testing, but really, dude, I think this just ends up being unanswered questions about these items that were found near the remains." — Nic (52:15)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Background & Overview – [03:21]–[07:39]
• Theory: Timmy Never at Carnival – [07:39]–[09:25]
• Michelle’s Social Circle & Demeanor – [09:25]–[10:34]
• Changing Stories & Polygraphs – [11:04]–[13:57]
• Character Findings (Fiancé & Babysitter) – [15:27]–[17:14]
• Timeline Breakdown & Park Alibi Issue – [18:48]–[19:09]
• Major Variations in Story (“Ellen” & Knife) – [20:54]–[24:15]
• Police Stings, Monitoring Calls – [26:08]–[27:59]
• Emotional Collapse and Mental Health – [32:21]–[32:49]
• Sneaker Discovery & Evidence – [34:08]–[43:59]
• Raritan Center Link & Discovery of Remains – [46:01]–[51:03]
• Aftermath and Unresolved Questions – [52:15]–[54:15]

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Episode Tone and Dynamics

• The hosts maintain their signature mix of intense focus, sharp skepticism, and self-deprecating humor (witness the running “butt phone” gags) while balancing empathy for Timothy and sharp critique of the investigation and Michelle’s credibility.

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Conclusion The episode closes with unresolved threads: shifting suspicions, physical evidence with no smoking gun, and a family — and community — still waiting for answers and justice. The hosts promise to return in Part 3 with further twists, underscoring the complexity of separating missteps from malevolence, and fact from fiction, in one of New Jersey’s most haunting cold cases.

Listen to this episode if: You are fascinated by “person of interest” cases, enjoy picking apart conflicting timelines, and want to understand both sides of a deeply divided investigation.

Transcript

[Nick]

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[Sam]

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[Nick]

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[Sam]

Shatterproof and the AD Council Sam.

[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick and with me as always, he's the deadliest catch without the crabs. Ladies and gentlemen, the Cat.

[Sam]

It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend

[Nick]

we are still sipping on Jetboat Citra Hazy ipa. The hazy portion of this IPA is what fills this baby out, giving it more body. The pine here is both great and necessary as it highlights the hop flavor and brings it up a bit. Garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of five. And here's a cheers to some of our friends with great flavor as well. First up, a double fisted cheers to Fab Cab and the Preacher man from Spring Grove, Illinois.

[Sam]

And a big we like your chip goes out to Stephanie from Omaha.

[Nick]

Here's a cheers to Caroline Brian from Benea, California. And last but certainly not least, we have a shout out to Sophie from Fond du Lac in Minnesota who says remember Captain, it's double or nothing and see you at crimecon.

[Sam]

Yeah, I'm going to have to bring some cash with me.

[Nick]

Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com and contributed to this week's beer fund. We were able to fill up the old garage fridge thanks to each and every one of you and for that we thank you.

[Sam]

Yeah bww, are you in beer run? Go to truecrimegarage.com sign up on the mailing list and make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. And Colonel, that's Enough of the B is ness.

[Nick]

All right, everybody gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. On Memorial day weekend in 1991, Michelle Ludzinski, then 21 years old, told police that her five year old son Timmy vanished at a carnival in Sarahville, New Jersey. She claimed he went missing while she was standing in line to get him a soda, prompting what would turn into a massive and nationwide search for the little boy. Now, as you can see from episode one, Michelle is a big part of the investigation, not just because she is the mother of the missing boy, but there are a lot of persons involved in the investigation who are suspicious of the mother and her statements regarding the night that her son went missing. Now, as said, a major red flag for me. Part of what we covered in episode one was her moving. Like I get what she's saying about moving away because of all the media attention and the cameras that were on her home at the time. But I've never liked it when the parents of a missing child move away, especially this early in the case. As the reports go, it was roughly two weeks, so about two weeks after the boy goes missing that she moves.

[Sam]

Yes. Normally I would agree with you, but we have. Michelle is not stable, so she's changing jobs often, she changes her location of where she lives often. And also she's having financial difficulties. So was this excuse to get out of whatever lease she was in or whatever because she was having financial difficulties?

[Nick]

Well, and that's a keen observation there, my friend, because if she were, as I imagine, probably living paycheck to paycheck, that means, look, the rent ain't going to pay itself, right? So if your son goes missing, your child goes missing, going to work is not your first priority. She may have had to call in a favor to the landlady and say, hey, can I, can I step out of this property because I'm not going to be able to make the rent anymore. I'm not working currently. We do know that she had relatives that she relied on often. So I'm assuming a move meant that she went to go stay with folks that could help her. So she's not leaving the area per se. But again, look, and this will actually go along with some of her statements later to police that I think doubles down on why it's a concern for me. And a bit of a red flag at the center of this to me, mom always leaves the light on for her kid. The good ones anyway, always leaves the front porch light on, letting the kid Know we are here. We have been waiting for you to return in part, Captain. That's why we. We called it the porch light project. Leaving that porch light on for those lost ones, keeping hope alive, that there will be somebody will return, somebody will be found, or there will be some form of justice for the wrongs that were committed against that person. Go to porchlightonline.org to learn more if you wish, or to participate. Some of the investigators were convinced of one major detail in this scenario that turns everything in this case upside down. Some were simply convinced that Timmy was never at the that carnival. He was never at that carnival that evening.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

Now, of course, if this is true, that leaves one simple fact. Whatever happened to him, whatever happened to Timmy to cause his disappearance happened before Michelle herself arrived at the carnival. And therefore she is responsible and she knows what happened to her son.

[Sam]

The other question I have is the individuals that she ran into that were they were related to her. Correct. Did she know that they were going to be there?

[Nick]

That's a good question. Because when I first started reviewing this case, one portion that was quite confusing to me was, remember, she was supposed to pick up a niece and take the niece to the carnival. Or as the story goes, one of the two people that she bumps into at the carnival is her niece. But so Michelle comes from a. A larger family. She's got a bunch of siblings. It's my understanding that the niece that she bumps into is not the same as the one she was supposed to pick up.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

The interesting thing here is the statement that the niece, the person that was with her when she bumps into Michelle, is also someone of. So that niece's name is Jennifer. The person with her is Jennifer's age, and also someone who had babysat Timothy, at least on one occasion. So the people she's bumping into know both her and her son. I find that to be rather interesting because they have insights into both the person that they find who is looking for her son and the person who is missing. People close to Michelle described her as devoted to her son, devoted to Timmy. Yet after the disappearance, investigators and to some observers, they were suspicious of her demeanor, believing that Michelle did not seem affected in the way that one would expect. Saying that she was, she showed very little emotion during the search for her boy. Now, her father does go on record saying that, that's my daughter. That's how she's always been. She doesn't show a lot of emotion when she's around people. She doesn't react dramatically to situations when she's in front of a crowd or around a bunch of people, but behind closed doors. He says that she is very emotional, and it's his statement that she was emotional behind closed doors regarding her son being missing.

[Sam]

But like I said, every point in this story, there's an argument for looking at her as a suspect and not looking at her as a suspect.

[Nick]

Then came the part of this investigation and the part of the story that is so very deep, difficult. It's her changing her accounts of the night in question. So I was hesitant, Captain, to go through that night as Michelle first described it as. It has changed a lot over time. Her story has changed from slight variations to extremely different versions of that same story.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

We will circle back to that in a bit. But the. The changing stories led to further questioning from police investigators and FBI, and further questioning of Michelle then led to her failing two polygraph examinations. So Michelle took two polygraph tests. One administered by the FBI. This was two days after the night at the carnival, and another about a week later. The second one was conducted by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office. As said, she failed both, according to officials. Test administrators described her as emotionally inconsistent and. And unusually focused on how she was doing during the exam. This one's tricky. This point of the case is tricky for me because we've had experts who administer these tests and say that when they are conducted properly, they're a very great tool. We've had law enforcement members, both FBI and police, who have stated that they can be a good tool and you could use them in a different. In a number of different ways in your investigation or when talking to a witness or a suspect, but not to put a whole lot of weight into if somebody passes or fails. Now back to something that John Douglas told us, legendary FBI agent, criminal profiler, told us that oftentimes when interviewing a parent, he said, especially a father. But he did say when interviewing a parent, he would expect them to fail the exam because they hold a certain level of guilt even when they're innocent in the matter. Because a. Because a parent naturally wants to protect their child. And if your child is missing or dead, you fail to protect them. So you are. You are guilty in that regard. What I'm curious about here, Captain, when we. We see certain cases where the police, once they seem to hone in on somebody, and it looks like they're really honing in on Michelle here, their stance on everything and even their posturing on everything, see, is all the. Always presenting that same argument that everything points to this person. Everything in our investigation is pointing to this person. So of course, her failing two polygraph examinations points to her being guilty and doing something to her son being responsible for why he's missing. But if Douglas is right, she failed because of guilt. I want to know what were the questions she failed on? Are those questions that would be one would fail because they. The person holds some guilt in their hearts and on their minds.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

Not because they did something wrong, but because they couldn't protect their son. Or were these questions that actually were would point to her being a good suspect for his disappearance and also to the average Joe? As we said, many watching on TV found her to be far too composed during her time with the media. We went through some of the good parenting statements from folks in episode one. Now, let's look at the other side of that coin. These are statements made to investigators and to the DA's office. This is from two men that dated Michelle and from a one of her babysitters. Now, she had a lot of babysitters. So let's keep in mind, I don't know. We don't know. It's never been reported if this was somebody who babysat often or if it was a once or twice thing. Now, of these men, this is from a man who for a short time was actually engaged to Michelle. So this is a former fiance. He was sharply critical of Michelle's parenting. He said he believed that she wasn't attentive enough to the boy. And he said that he thought that Michelle acted more like an older sister than a mother. He pointed to an incident that he claimed illustrated the lacks supervision.

[Sam]

Yeah, but a neglectful parent is. Is one thing. To murder your child is a whole different animal.

[Nick]

Well, and to be clear, using his words, he doesn't say neglectful. He says that she was just not as attentive as he thought she should be and that had lacked supervision for a youngster. This is so she. He's pointing to an incident when Timothy needed stitches after being bitten by a dog that lived next door. Okay. And the man who was the fiance at the time said that he had warned Michelle multiple times about letting the boy play outside in the backyard unattended, especially while the dog was out there and. And loose.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

From my understanding, that engagement ended well before Timothy disappeared. But criticism of Michelle's decisions did not come only from this one romantic partner. As we said from one of Timmy's babysitters. This babysitter described an occasion when she was watching Timmy late at night while Michelle was out. And according to her account, Michelle called that night, asked her to allow Timmy to leave with a man who the babysitter said that she did not know. So the babysitters tells mom no. So she refuses. Michelle doesn't like this. She returned home and according to the sitter, she forced Timothy into a car that was driven by Michelle's then boyfriend at the time, his name Fred Bruno. And the babysitter said that she believed that little Timothy was terrified of Bruno.

[Sam]

And we do have evidence that she

[Nick]

has a bad picker or trouble staying in a relationship.

[Sam]

Right. But again, this goes back to what I said. I mean, she's just, she's not stable in almost any aspect of her life.

[Nick]

True.

[Sam]

But some of that could just be maturity.

[Nick]

Well, she's 23. Right. We, we can't, we are looking at this as she's a mother, but we also still young. 23 is very young. Yeah, I told you, I've said on the show before I had a soft spot on my head till I was 26, maybe 27.

[Sam]

We're not.

[Nick]

No, no, don't you start. Okay.

[Sam]

So the doctor was still concerned.

[Nick]

That's right. Put on a helmet, sir.

[Sam]

Yes.

[Nick]

Michelle Luzinski's inconsistent accounts are what we need to get into. We said we would circle back to it. So the investigation into Timothy Wilsey's disappearance highlighted multiple inconsistencies in statements from his mother, Michelle. And as I said, some of them are slightly different versions of that story and others are dramatically, drastically different. So Michelle told investigators that she and Timothy spent that afternoon at Homedale park before going to an evening carnival. Right. The park police reported that the lot, the parking lot where she said she parked her car was actually closed that day. They said that they found no one who saw her and Timothy at that park.

[Sam]

Yeah, that's, it's, it's a little bit of a red flag.

[Nick]

It's suspicious, but it's also not, it's not 100% conclusive. Right. She could have just parked her car elsewhere. There could have been a discrepancy there and she. I'm sure we've, I'm sure I've been to a park or you've been to a park at one point and nobody else saw you there.

[Sam]

Well, especially if I wear all camo.

[Nick]

Now we also pointed out that the last confirmed sighting of Timothy by someone other than Michelle was that neighbor who said that they had saw the two of them earlier that day. So we have that confirmed sighting, but the, the problem is after that, other than these two carnival Workers who didn't know Michelle, didn't know Timmy that said that. I think that's who I saw. We don't have anybody else saying that they saw Timmy and mom together that evening. Now, more than a week after Timothy disappeared, Michelle was interviewed by police in Sarahville and claimed that two men with a knife took her son and threatened her into silence. Wait, that's a much different story than I was buying a soda and turned around and he was gone. So let's go back to the original statement with I. I was hesitant to report what her original statement was because there's been multiple variations of that and I don't know where those variations come from. So in some of those variations, she and Timmy are in line together at the refreshment stand to buy a soda. She's waiting on change for the ten dollar bill, turns, and he's gone. The other variation of that is that she, he was in line for a ride and she didn't want him to lose his place. He wanted something to drink. The refreshment stand was, was right nearby the ride. She walks over just a few steps, hops in line to get the soda. After she gets her change for the $10 bill, turns back expecting to see him still in line for that ride, nearing the front of the line, and he's no longer there. So that's a slightly different variation, but I don't know where those. I don't know that both of them. I can't say with 100% certainty that they both came from Michelle. What I can say with 100% certainty is this version of that same story, which is completely different, did come from Michelle and it was a statement that she gave to police at the Sville police department a week after her son went missing. She says two men with a knife took her son, threatening her into silence.

[Sam]

That's bizarre.

[Nick]

When police challenged her on this, the report is that she walked out of the interview and that later that same day she returned to the police department with her sister and a friend and recanted her statement from that day.

[Sam]

But it makes you wonder, how was that questioning going? Was she volunteering this information up or were they. We've seen this happen multiple times where it's not an interrogation, it's a questioning that turns into interrogation where it's accusatory.

[Nick]

Yeah, right.

[Sam]

And the person starts going, I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to remember. And then they start tossing out these stories, I mean, sometimes claiming that they're the killer. Right. I'm trying to Remember, I'm trying to figure out, you know, so is it possible that that's what this was? And then she goes, well, maybe these two guys at knife point, kidnapped, you know, I mean, so.

[Nick]

Right. We've seen that in. In multiple cases. The yogurt shop case comes to mind. Yeah, but it doesn't end there, my friend. The next day. This is during a long, confrontational interview. So this is reported as being very long, very confrontational. She seemed to offer up a third version of the story. It still involves the two men, but now involves a woman. So she says two men and a woman took Timothy after the woman offered to watch him briefly while Michelle went to get sodas so he could keep his place in line for a ride that he wanted to go on. Michelle said that she knew the woman as Ellen. Now, she says what's tricky about this Ellen person is it's unclear if she claims to have known the woman by name or by a nickname or remembers her to be Ellen, because she describes this Ellen as a local go Go dancer who at one time was a customer at the bank where she had worked. At one time, she worked there as a teller. So this story's very complicated because she claims that this woman would cash her checks at the bank where she worked, and that's how she knew the woman. What's weird about this story, though, and I'll. I'll circle back to Ellen. It's weird on all kinds of levels.

[Liberty Mutual Announcer]

Yeah.

[Nick]

I don't know why I always say that. It's one thing that's weird. Idiot. I'm a. It's that soft spot. It never.

[Sam]

You know, it never.

[Nick]

Well, you said it healed. It did. Now you're changing your SP now, but it. It's brain damage.

[Sam]

Sometimes it opens back up.

[Nick]

But remember, there were teenage boys that said that they thought they saw a little boy with two men and a woman leaving the park, leaving the festival.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah, I was. That's what I was going to bring up.

[Nick]

So that is crazy. But then. Okay, so then the FBI is like, all right, well, let's figure out who this Ellen person is. And it's not their first investigation. So what do they do? They go to the bank who's going to have records of all of these transactions.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

But they only need to hone in on the time that she worked there. And I don't know how long she worked at this bank, but we. We went through. We'll go through some of her other work history later. But some of these jobs she only held for A handful of months. And what the FBI says is at no point does a woman named Ellen cash a check at that bank when Michelle worked there. So if this woman exists, either she has the name completely wrong, or she's. The woman doesn't exist.

[Sam]

Oh, it's a nickname.

[Nick]

And she made it up. So basically, the FBI, their statement is, we tried. We cannot locate Ellen in air quotes in any capacity, and we are actually unsure if this woman even exists.

[Sam]

Yeah, but then the eyewitnesses that see the two men with the lady and the child. But there's probably a lot of two men and a lady and a little child at the carnival.

[Nick]

Now, remember the boyfriend, Fred Bruno? Who? The babysitter said she thought Timmy was terrified of this guy. We. We need to point out here, like, Fred Bruno was beyond cooperative with police to the point of, like, trying to help them snare her in some kind of trap. Okay, so he's her boyfriend at the time. Police arrange with Michelle's boyfriend, Fred Bruno, to call her while they sat in and monitored the conversation, trying to get to see what she would say about her son being missing, what happened that night, and so on and so forth.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

During this call, she refused to discuss details by phone and told him she would talk to him by. But only in person. So the next day, the two meet up. Bruno picks her up. They're in his vehicle, but prior to him arriving, they planted a microphone in Fred Bruno's vehicle. He knows this. She does not.

[Sam]

Well, some people report that they shoved it right up his butt.

[Nick]

Now, during this conversation. So they talk about Timmy being missing. And during this conversation, what was recorded on that butt phone was that Michelle repeated the Ellen account and said that she had originally withheld it at first because she feared that people would think that she was a bad mother for leaving Timothy briefly with someone she barely knew.

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[Sam]

All right, we are back. Talk. Hands in the air.

[Nick]

You used to call me on my butt phone.

[Liberty Mutual Announcer]

Yeah.

[Nick]

All right, let's get serious here, Captain. It's a serious situation.

[Sam]

When I put my phone up my butt, I like to put it on vibrate, just for the record.

[Nick]

Well, that's one way you can guarantee that no one at Crimecon will pick up your cell phone from our. Our. All right. The following day, we have Michelle. She's at the police station once again. She's being interviewed once again, and this time, the interview is reported to have taken about five hours. During this interview, she repeats the Ellen story, but she amended it a little bit, adding that at one. At one point, one of the men held a knife to her throat. And I tell you what, I've heard even more versions than this about these different stories. I think there was an account where at one time they had threatened to cut the boy's face if she didn't shut up. So when again, when challenged by police, she. According to police, she's the one that ended the interview abruptly telling police, hey, if you want to charge me with something, charge me. If not, I'm leaving. Part of this story is crazy. And this goes back to the idea of she moved. Because during that interview, what police would say is that she not only did she repeat the same account of the Ellen story, but she's also saying that they told her this, these mystery men and the woman, Ellen told Michelle that they would, they were taking the boy and that they would return him unharmed in about a month if she stayed quiet.

[Sam]

Yeah, but this reminds me of the case where the, the boys are missing and. But the dad says that he left them with somebody, but he won't tell people who he left them with.

[Nick]

Yeah, the case, that's another case out of Michigan.

[Sam]

Don't go to Michigan.

[Nick]

The Skelton boys.

[Sam]

Yeah, Skelton brothers.

[Nick]

This part is important that we report this as well because after this interview, her friends are concerned about her appearance, her well being. They drove her straight from the interview to the hospital and she was like malnourished, dehydrated. She appeared to be having a mental breakdown as well. So good for her friends. Maybe some of this is, plays into what she's saying during this interview.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

It's, it's really hard to say. She's going to, she's going to stick to this story, though, for a very long time, as we're about to see. Five days later, an investigator from the county prosecutor's office interviewed Michelle at her home with a similar result. She became increasingly hostile, gave short answers, then burst into tears, said her son was the most important thing in the world to her, and ordered the investigators to leave the home just before Timothy's birthday. So now we're in. Early August 1991. Renewed media attention followed his birthday. Michelle went and visited her sister in Florida. Remember her sister, one of her sisters is down in Florida. She went down to Florida to visit her sister for two weeks and during that time she sought counseling. Now we get to the sneaker part of this story. We have to get into the sneaker story. This is from the Home News out of New Brunswick, New Jersey. They ran an article by Jennifer Hutchinson dated November 19, 1991. Pay attention to that date, November 19, 1991. The headline was Missing boy's sneaker may have been located. The article included a map marking where a sneaker was found.

[Sam]

Yeah, but this sneaker is interesting.

[Nick]

Yeah, it's very interesting. So a brief description here. A white, a color white, child's size 13 sneaker was found in a swampy area of Edison, New Jersey. And the article says that that sneaker that was found may have been worn by the missing boy, Timothy, who's been missing since May 25, 1991. As the story goes, the discovery and then the handoff of this piece of potential evidence. October 26th. So almost a month before the news article October 26th, 1991. Daniel O', Malley, he's a science teacher at Bound Brook Junior and Senior High school. He says he found a mud coated sneaker while walking in a marsh near Raritan center, which is a large industrial park off of Woodbridge Avenue near Middlesex County College. So he brought the sneaker to the Sarahville police who were investigating Timothy's disappearance. And police summoned Timothy's mother, Michelle, to come to the police department to inspect the sneaker. So this is all going on in October. We'll get to why the news article came almost a month later here in a second. But what police say is that when she gets to the police department, she looks over the sneaker. She could not confirm that it was Timothy's. And we need to, I need to be clear about this. This is where parts of the story get very difficult because we don't get to have the privilege of sitting in on that conversation between mom and detectives. All we get is mom talking to the newspapers. So what we get is basically the detectives say, mom comes in and told us it wasn't Timothy's sneaker. Mom tells the newspapers. She's a bit vague, but she's kind of like, I can't confirm or I can't say that it is his. I can't say that it's not his. Which could also be what she told police.

[Sam]

Yeah, it's very difficult because I think simply, you go, these are newer shoes that she bought. How can she not recognize them?

[Nick]

True. But she's looking at this shoe in October.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Nick]

The boy went missing almost exactly five months prior. And she's simply saying, look, when, when they showed me the shoe, it was covered in heavy mud. And the time that's gone by since his disappearance, I can't confirm that it was Timmy's. So her, her version of how that went down is she says, I couldn't say it was his. I couldn't say that it wasn't his. Police tell the paper she said it wasn't his.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

Now, what we do know happened, this is fact. We can prove this. She did later return to the police station with another pair of Timmy shoes. And she said that she brought them to the police department to compare the soles of the shoes. Because she said, hey, look, my son, when he wears his shoes, he tends to wear down one side of the shoe.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And she said, when I was there looking at the shoe that you asked me to identify, I didn't think to look at the soles. So here's the sole of the Shoe. So here's some shoes that he wore prior. Can you compare them? Now, regarding the shoes that he was wearing at the time that he went missing, this is months before the sneaker was found. She did give police a shoebox. The empty shoebox for the pair of shoes that he was wearing. Okay, so the shoebox would describe the shoes. Right. It says green Ninja turtle. It was. So it was a green Ninja turtles box stating white color, white size 13, stock number 0758. The sneaker that was found was white in color, youth size 13. It shows Raphael, the one that wears the red color turtle on the. But it only shows his face from my understanding. Now, the stock number listed inside matches 0758. Now, a local shoe store manager did caution everyone cautioned police and said sometimes different styles from the same maker can share a stock number. But again, police discounted it as being Timmy's shoe, which seems bizarre to me. The stock number is the same. The description's the same. You're already not trusting mom by this time, so why then do you say to the papers later, well, she said it wasn't his, so we took her word for it. That seems weird to me. Yeah, you either trust somebody or you don't. Like, you can't pick and choose.

[Sam]

Well, you can.

[Nick]

Well, I guess. I guess they did, right?

[Sam]

They did. So evidence that you can.

[Nick]

They said that when they originally interviewed Michelle, she reacted strongly and October that the shoe was not her son's. She told the police during that conversation that Timmy's shoes had many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them, including villains. And the stamps showed their bodies, not just faces. So those details obviously would not have matched up with the shoe that found. Now, this Dan O. Ali dude, I. I like this guy. Other than. Other than Timmy, he's my favorite guy, My favorite person in the story. So o' Malley said he found the sneaker after he was attending a baseball card show with a friend that was held at the Raritan Center Exposition Center. At the Raritan Center Exposition hall in October of 1991. He and the friend drove down Olympic Drive. So this is described as a deserted, unlit road with no houses. They say that they parked at the end of this road and they walked into the swamp area, the. The marsh area to look at wildlife. They were both. They're both into wildlife, and so they just wanted to take a little walk in the area. While they're out there. He says he spots the shoe. And it seemed familiar to him because he had followed the story in the paper. So he Turns it into the police. Well, the newspaper gets the story from Dan o', Malley, not from the police, not from Michelle. They get the story from Dan o' Malley because he's like. He goes to the newspaper and he says, look, I'm a little annoyed. I turned this thing in a month ago. Nobody's talked about it at all. Nobody's called me to ask me about it. So I went to the newspaper. Well, police did say that the area near the Raritan center had been searched multiple times, saying that detectives had received phone calls from psychics. They had received at least one anonymous tip about the area. And, of course, the discovery of the sneaker prompted searches of that area. I have listed that this area was searched three times after the sneaker was found, roughly within the month that it was found. But these searches turned up nothing of importance. The tricky thing here, captain, and I don't mean to be overly critical, but I question how the thoroughness of these searches and how many resources and how much effort was put into them. I don't know. It's sometimes these things, these details in these stories really bother me. Because as bad as this case is a missing boy, as sad as that is, you have to look at it from an officer's perspective and a detective's perspective. While you don't want any kid to ever go missing, isn't this the stuff that you live for? Isn't this what you get up? Like, some of. Some of the people that work in this line of. Of work that go into these careers, they do it for the excitement. And if I'm involved in a missing person's case and somebody tells me that they found a shoe that could be the shoe of the missing person. Yeah, you're going to have to drag me out of that area. I'm going to be there day and night looking for something like, shit, this is the break we've. We needed. It's been five months. Regarding Michelle, she spoke with the newspaper as well. She expressed a lot of concern. She was concerned at the possibility that the sneaker might be Timothy's. She said, look, the thought of it being my son's shoe makes me very uneasy. She said, I want my son to be found. I want him to be okay when he's found. I want him to be wearing his sneakers when he's found. I don't want him scattered all over the place. And she added that if the sneaker is not his, she would be happy about that. That is really where the case rounds out and ends. The year of 1991. So now we move into 1992. In March of 1992, the case shifts toward the Raritan center that we just discussed. The ongoing investigation into the disappearance of five year old Timothy Wiltse reached a new phase in March of 1992, with law enforcement turning its attention more deliberately towards searches and physical evidence. By that point, the case had already accumulated interviews, theories, and repeated retellings of events. The investigators needed now something concrete, something that could anchor the story to a place, to an item or a timeline that could be tested and figured out if these items or timeline is true.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

So we have an FBI agent. The FBI's been involved in this, as we said, since the beginning. But an FBI agent assigned to the case decided, hey, you know what? We're going to interview Michelle again. And this time she did not come alone. She had an attorney present with her during this interview. When questioned, she did what she had done before. She reiterated the Ellen story, the same account that she had previously provided to investigators. Nothing about that interview, at least on the record, sounded to be new or a dramatic break in the case. Right. It was another official conversation, but her earlier narrative still stood. But here's where the case starts moving because the FBI agent did not stop with Michelle. So he interviews Dan o' Malley again, the guy who found the sneaker. And he wants to hone in on this Raritan center located in Edison, New Jersey. And that sneaker, if it did belong to the boy, obviously would be significant. Right? An object found in a location that demanded explanation. The agent began interviewing Michelle's friends and family again. And during those conversations, he uncovered a detail that reframed the geography of the case. Investigators learned that three years earlier, Michelle had actually worked, worked for six months at a fulfillment center located in that Raritan center complex. Now, what's even more troubling about this is prior to finding out this information, they had asked her to provide them with her work history. The work history that she provided did not have any mention of her working that six months at the Raritan center

[Sam]

complex, which I'm guessing six months at a job for her would be longer than most of her employment locations.

[Nick]

I guess in if, in her defense, I would say it was three years prior. But I again, if she's providing the best that she can, her work history, if they asked for it to include four years or five years, that should have been in there. And like you said, six months would be a big chunk of time during that, that time frame.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

So they go and they find some people that used to work with her, Some co workers and people that knew her during her time when she worked for the fulfillment center at the raritan center. And a couple of people said they had remembered that she was known to have taken frequent walks around the complex. Now that meant something important to their investigation because that fulfillment center sat within a few blocks of where the sneaker had been found.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

So the discovery becomes more interesting, more

[Sam]

troubling, Makes you want to do more searches.

[Nick]

And did she hide the fact that she worked in that area when she was later asked about it directly? She didn't. She didn't try to duck or dodge the question. She did acknowledge, she said, yes, I did in fact work at that fulfillment center. So the, the omission itself becomes part of the investigation. Again, whether intentional or not, difficult to say.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

But the linkage would drive, the linkage would drive the investigators to the next step in the investigation. So the following month, in late April of 1992, a two day search near Olympic Drive. So during this two day time period, Law enforcement teams conducted a full search of a mostly marshy area near Olympic drive in the raritan center. It did not take long for the search to produce results. Investigators quickly located a second sneaker matching the first one that had been found. Not kid like the first one, Captain. It was Timmy's size. The report is the second sneaker was found roughly 150ft from the location of the first. The search teams also found a pillowcase at about that same location. Then, about two hours later, Searchers located something far more damning. At a point approximately 400 to 550ft further away from the sneaker location, they found a skull and 10 other bones. The remains were discovered in and around a truck tire that had been dredged from the bottom of r. Red root creek. The area continued to yield objects that felt haunting to the investigation. A ninja turtle balloon was found. So was a 10 foot by 3 foot blue and white blanket. This was found buried into the embankment, positioned about 15 to 20ft above the creek bed where the bones were located. So we got these shoes, a pillowcase, a tire in the creek, scattered bones, a balloon, a blanket. The identific, the identification.

[Sam]

Was she able to identify any of the other items?

[Nick]

That's interesting. I, I don't know how quickly she was notified or asked to identify these items. She does look at them at some point, but from my understanding. So what we get is the medical examiner, of course, is going to get involved and the skull is confirmed to be the remains of Timothy Wiltsey. This identification was made and confirmed through dental records. Right. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. But even with that ruling, the most critical specifics remained out of reach. Right. Due to the advanced decomposition. Decomposition. The time of death, location of death and medical cause of death could not be determined. So she's not there when he's found. She is later informed. So she's informed that night after they positively make the identification. According to the FBI agent, Michelle was unemotional when told that the remains were found. She was unemotional when questioned about a detail that investigators could not ignore. Why was his remains found 0.4 miles from a former workplace?

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

0.4 miles from a former workplace that you had initially not disclosed to police.

[Sam]

Absolutely. Now, and, and then also the changing of the stories, that's something that I think law enforcement is going to have a very hard time getting past.

[Nick]

I think, I think listeners of the show are going to have a hard time getting past that. It's, I mean, you're looking for your son. I don't care about a guy with a knife. Anyway. So now she did say, look, when they're questioning her and they bring up, look, you did not disclose to us that you had worked at this place and it's so very close to where we eventually found the skull of your missing son.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Nick]

She does say, and I don't think they could find anybody to refute this. She does say, yes, I took walks around the center, but I walked around the complex where I worked. It's 0.4 miles from where you found him. She, she says, I'm unaware that Olympic Drive. So this is the street nearest where the body was found. She's. I don't even know what that road is. I don't know that that road exists. Right.

[Sam]

So I think it's also difficult, interesting. Just to take her other locations of where she worked and to go, well, how far away was his remains from. From those locations as well. Because if one is 0.4 and the other one is 0.6 and the other one is 1 point whatever, then you go, well, maybe this is. That doesn't mean much of anything.

[Nick]

Exactly. And, and if the others are a great distance and this is not, then this is a one off and you, you. It carries more weight.

[Sam]

Right.

[Nick]

So now we do get lab testing, but really, dude, I think this just ends up being unanswered questions about these items that were found near the remains. Now, the physical evidence went to the FBI lab, but testing did not produce the hoped for breakthrough in the case. According to these reports, no trace evidence was found on the items recovered during the search. As for the blanket, the 10 foot by 3 foot blanket reports said that neither Michelle nor her parents recognized it as coming from their home, so they were shown the blanket. The blanket remained an object without a confirmed origin. After these questions posed to her parents and to Michelle, despite being found in a location that now carried an enormous investigative weight to it, the pillowcase raised its own unresolved question. It was not known whether the pillowcase was shown to anyone who might recognize it. We don't have any statements regarding the pillowcase, but the case really transformed. Obviously, the search moved from us from a sneaker found near an industrial complex to the confirmed recovery of Timothy Wilts's remains, along with objects found nearby that hinted at movement, concealment, or disposal. Yet despite that grim clarity, the investigation was still left straining for the connecting thread that would explain how the pieces fit together.

[Sam]

Twists and turns. What to believe, what not to believe. Evidence that points for or against Timothy's mother being the prime suspect. So much more to get to. Until then, be good, be kind, and don't look. Sam.

[Liberty Mutual Announcer]

Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance. And now we're customizing this ad for your morning commute to wake you up, which could help your driving. Science says that stimulating the brain increases alertness. So here's a pop quiz. How many months have 28 days. What gets wetter as it dries? What has keys but can't open? Locks? If you don't want to hear the answers, turn off this Liberty Mutual AD. Now 12 months. A towel. Piano. Enjoy being fully alert.

[Nick]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Kiana]

I'm Kiana, and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a thing, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about. About the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business, but Shopify is doing it to me because it's so easy to use. It's like, I can't stop. I'm addicted. Start your free [e-mail].