increasingly hostile, giving short answers while retelling the same story. Lodzinski then burst into tears and, saying that her son was "the most important thing in the world to me", told the investigator to leave. Before Wiltsey's birthday in early August led to renewed media interest, Lodzinski went to visit her sister in Florida for two weeks, where she sought counseling. Physical evidence On October 26 that year, schoolteacher Dan O'Malley was birdwatching and exploring marshlands in the Raritan Center business park in Edison, across the Raritan River from Sayreville. He discovered a child's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sneaker. Recalling that Wiltsey had been described as wearing them when last seen, and thinking it unlikely that a child would have been walking or playing in an area so far from any houses, he took it to the Sayreville police. The sneaker was shown to Lodzinski, who told them it did not look like her son's. It was then stored as evidence. After weeks with no word from the police, O'Malley reported the sneaker to a local newspaper, The Home News of New Brunswick, resulting in a front-page story and FBI forensic testing. The newspaper report of a possible break in the case led Lodzinski to call police again and say that the sneaker might indeed have been her son's. She had earlier provided the box the shoes had come in, and the sneaker matched the specifications on the box's label as to what shoes had come in it. A search of the area in November yielded no further evidence. Forensic testing of the shoe was inconclusive. In March 1992, Ron Butkiewicz of the FBI, who had replaced the agent originally assigned to the case, interviewed Lodzinski, who this time had counsel present. She reiterated the Ellen story she had previously told; Butkiewicz recalled her as doing so without any outward emotion. The following month, he interviewed O'Malley, who showed him where the sneaker was found, and agreed it was unlikely to have come there from a local child. The following month, Butkiewicz read the newspaper story, contacted O'Malley, and they toured the location together. Upon re-interviewing Lodzinski's friends and family, Butkiewicz learned that three years earlier, she had worked for six months at a fulfillment center in Raritan Center, and taken frequent walks at the Raritan Center complex, within a few blocks of where the sneaker was found, information Lodzinski