GUILTY: Michelle Lodzinski Murdered Her 5-Year-Old Boy, Timothy

A Middlesex County jury has found the mother of Timothy Wiltsey guilty of his 1991 murder.

Michelle Lodzinski, now a resident of Port St. Lucie, was charged with the 5-year-old's murder in 2014 after the case was reopened with the discovery of new evidence. Lodzinski first said Timothy Wiltsey disappeared while they were at a Sayreville carnival, then said he had been kidnapped from there.

The verdict was reached one week short of the 25th anniversary of Lodzinksi reporting her son missing from a Sayreville carnival.  Prosecutors say the boy was never at the carnival and Lodzinski killed him elsewhere. His remains were found in 1992 in a marshy area a few miles away.

The jury foreman was dismissed from deliberations by the judge on Monday without explanation. The judge said only the matter was “personal and related only to him, and has nothing to do with the other members of the jury.”

Prosecutors have portrayed Lodzinski as a struggling single mother overwhelmed by the burden of caring for her child. She was 23 when Timothy went missing.

Gerald Krovatin, Lodzinski's attorney, focused on the lack of any hair or fiber evidence on the blanket that could connect it to Lodzinski or Wiltsey. He noted that one of the baby sitters had expressed anger at Lodzinski in the past over a custody issue, and said the recollections of the other two were suspect.

Jurors considered whether Lodzinski is guilty of murder, aggravated manslaughter or manslaughter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.