two had met the year before when the 16-year-old Lodzsinki had come to visit her brother. They began dating, and Michelle became pregnant. Six months after giving birth, Lodzinski returned to her home with her infant son as his father had become abusive; she also disliked the isolation of Iowa. George had nothing to do with his son (at Lodzinski's request, he later testified; she returned any mail he sent his son) after Timothy went back to New Jersey with his mother, and did not pay any child support. Lodzinski and her son lived with her sister and her husband in South Amboy for two years before she moved out to the first of three apartments in the same town she and Wiltsey lived in. She worked at a variety of low-paying jobs available to a single mother who had dropped out of high school in her late teens with minimal education and skills, primarily clerical and office work, plus retailing and as a bank teller. She declined to seek public assistance, instead accepting money from her father and at some points she working two jobs; she sometimes described herself to friends as a "weekend mom". Her landlady described her as "a hardworking single mother" Lodzinski often relied on friends, family or paid sitters to watch Wiltsey while she was at work, but sometimes those arrangements fell through, and she took him to work with her. Employers and coworkers recalled that she frequently came in late. On other occasions, when she had to come home late, she forgot to call her sitters. In January 1990, Lodzinski's sister and brother-in-law, on whom she had relied extensively for child care, moved to Florida, greatly complicating her arrangements. At one point, when Wiltsey was four, a brother in Minnesota took him in for two months so she could save money for his school tuition. Her friends and family recall that she was devoted to Wiltsey, taking him to the dentist regularly, taking him on camping trips and other vacations, and saving up enough money to send him to kindergarten at private St. Mary's School when he reached school age. Once he was in school she helped him with his homework and regularly bought him new clothes. Wiltsey had attendance problems: he was absent 25 days that year and came in late on another 63. Wiltsey was an issue between Lodzinski and two men