PA PA - Nicole Bryner, 3, Pittsburgh, 11 March 1982

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Brilliant news. How this piece of **** has been able to carry on with his life after what he has done. I read on one of the other Nicole threads that her mum suffered some kind of breakdown before her death and was found digging up her yard searching for her daughter etc.
 
My thoughts exactly - they dont seem to be the brightest people in the world do they? Surely his sister knew he admited to it all that time ago and has obviously stuck by him anyway so why should she change her opinion now?Probably assumed that as so much time had passed he would get away with it!
 
I read an article about her case. In the article, the reason given for the boyfriend not being charged at that time was the fact that state law prevented him from being charged without corroborating evidence (ie. a body). The law was put into place to protect mentally challenged or unstable persons from being charged or convicted of a crime that he/she didn't commit. Nicole's mother died in 2001. It's a shame that he is just now paying for it, but better late than never.
 
They say the case against Nicole's mom had to be dropped because Widman refused to testify. I don't see why he couldn't have been forced to testify. They weren't married so it's not like he could have claimed spousal immunity.
 
Yes thats right. Do you think that Nicoles mother digging in her garden for Nicole and having imaginary phone conversations with her etc shows any kind of remorse? I wonder why when she broke up with Widman did she never turn him in? She must have been involved in a big way herself.
 
Indeed, the case of Nicole Bryner struck fear in parents at the time because it appeared to be a child abduction crime.

However, investigators now say that was never the case from the very beginning.
http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_270221510.html

So, why the homicide charge against Timothy Widman now?

One reason is known.

A spokesman for District Attorney Stephen Zapalla cited a 1988 Superior Court decision, the Commonwealth versus Jay Smith, that basically said if someone is missing for seven years that person could be presumed dead even though the person's body has never been found
 
I wonder if now he knows there is no escape for him, Widman will now have the 'decency' to reveal the whereabouts of Nicole's body.
 
Cadaver Dogs Dig In Brookline Woods For Missing Girl

Bryner Disappeared 24 Years Ago



POSTED: 11:28 am EDT October 5, 2006


PITTSBURGH -- Police are continuing their search for a girl who disappeared 24 years ago when she was 3 years old.

Two cadaver dogs are digging in a wooded area near Whited Street in Brookline.

They are looking for the remains of Nicole Lynn Bryner.

Timothy Widman, the boyfriend of Nicole's mother, was charged with criminal homicide, even though Nicole was never found.


http://www.wpxi.com/news/10008038/detail.html
 
Pittsburgh police say they'll resume their search for the body of a 3-year-old girl they say was murdered in 1982.

Police used cadaver dogs yesterday, but could not find the remains of Nicole Bryner, who was reported missing from a supermarket by her mother in 1982.

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_278073450.html
 
I just cannot understand why a mother would lie to protect her boyfriend. This is absolutely disgusting that she would put a man before her own child. That poor baby.:mad: :banghead: :loser:
 
A Brookline man pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter for killing a 3-year-old girl, who was initially reported missing from a South Side grocery store in 1982.

In a plea deal with prosecutors, Timothy Widman, 52, was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison for killing Nicole Lynn Bryner on March 11, 1982.
Widman lived with Nicole's mother, Melody Thomas, when the child was reported missing from a Giant Eagle supermarket. He confessed to Nicole's death in June 1986 and was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Thomas, by then living in Texas, was charged with giving false information to police and hindering apprehension.


Prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charges a year later because they could not find the child's remains. At the time, case law dictated that a body was needed to prove homicide.


Widman told investigators he smacked the child to the floor after she bit his foot while he was napping on the couch. He and Thomas put the girl to bed and awoke the next day to find her dead, police said.


The couple buried the girl's naked body in a wooded area in Brookline, Widman told investigators. Thomas then reported her missing from the supermarket the next day. When Widman was arrested in 1986, he led police to a wooded area off Dunsten Avenue in Brookline where he said the child was buried. The area was searched extensively, but nothing was found.


Cold case detectives arrested Widman again in September after police obtained new information and took advantage of a change in law stating that a body does not have to be found.


Police searched the area again in the fall but Nicole's body was never found.
 
Mafitz said:
Why did they only give him 2 to 4 years for killing a child?
Click to expand...


Yea - only 2-4yrs??? WHY!?

Well - mom is not walking this Earth anymore and she will/has faced her maker.

This man needs more than just 2-4yrs. He might do 1/2 with good behavior?

What justice is that?

Rosco
 
Not much justice at all. The situation is odd, though: the guy confessed to involuntary manslaughter. There is no body, which means no autopsy and no way to make a case in court that it was deliberate murder rather than the accidental death he admits to. Then, of course, the mother helped him cover it up and she's dead and can't testify. So there is no way to try this cockroach masquerading as a person for murder. He pleads to involuntary manslaughter, which gets him 2-4 years.

He's been in an out of jail for years so it will likely be a revolving door once again.

At least her remaining family members know what happened to Nicole and the guy has a felony record for what he did. The Pittsburgh police have never let go of this case--it would have been easy to once the mother died.
 
Family Upset With Deal In Missing Child Cold Case


Nicole Bryner’s family says they are upset and angered over the deal.

“If he killed your granddaughter, and got two to four years, that's ok?” says Bryner’s grandmother, Harriet Persinger.

Persinger says for her and the rest of her family, there is still no peace or finality.

“He needs to tell us where she is, what he did with her body,” she told KDKA. “We could have closure. We could have a memorial service for this baby, my beautiful granddaughter, who never got any kind of life, because of a druggie.”
 
Does anyone know how all this has panned out?
 
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