By KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK — Joe Mulvanerton, one of the jurors in the Michelle Lodzinski murder trial, sat quietly and listened as she was sentenced last week to a 30-year prison sentence for killing her 5-year-old son, Timmy, in 1991 and dumping his body in a creek off Olympic Drive in Raritan Center, Edison.
“I’m satisfied that she won’t see the light of day for 30 years, but I was hoping she would get a life sentence,” he said. “It was a heinous crime … she was supposed to be his protector and she killed him.”
Mulvanerton, of Old Bridge, was the only juror at the sentencing hearing on Jan. 5 in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick.
On May 18, 2016, a jury panel of seven men and five women, found Lodzinski, 49, formerly of South Amboy, guilty.
Mulvanerton noted that he was not one of the jurors who deliberated the case, which worried him at the time because he strongly believed Lodzinski was guilty.
When asked what pieces of evidence in the three-month trial made him come to that conclusion, he said there were many pieces of evidence that stood out.
“Mainly the fact that she told so many different stories, she lied when she got called on one, she made up another lie,” he said. “The fact that the blanket that was proven to come from her house by several witnesses found so close to the body was another very strong factor.”
Mulvanerton said he vaguely remembered the case in 1991 before he was selected as a juror. After the sentencing, he introduced himself to Police Sgt. Scott Crocco of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, who re-opened the cold case in 2011. Crocco shook hands with him and said, “Thank you.”
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 skeletal 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 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 he 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.
Lodzinski has never confessed or made any admissions to law enforcement.
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.