Timmothy Pitzen: 5 Fast Facts About Missing Aurora Boy
Chicago (CBS) -- Timmothy Pitzen has been missing for almost eight years, and authorities in west suburban Aurora and the Cincinnati area are trying to determine if a 14-year-old boy found in Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday is the missing teen.
Here are five fast facts about the missing boy:
Timmothy Pitzen was born in 2004.
Timmothy was born to Amy Fry-Pitzen and James Pitzen on October 18, 2004. Amy had been having difficulties in her marriage and was suffering from depression before Timmothy went missing in 2011. She had left before, but never with Timmothy.
Timmothy's mother picked him up from school in May 2011 without telling his father.
Fry-Pitzen picked Timmothy up from Greenman Elementary School in Aurora the morning of May 11, 2011, unbeknownst to his father, who arrived to pick him up later that day. She then took Timmothy to Brookfield Zoo and then to Key Lime Resort in Gurnee, a hotel and water park.
The next day, Amy and Timmothy headed to the Wisconsin Dells, where Amy checked into the Kalahari Resort.
James called in a missing person report to Aurora police, who immediately entered Timmothy's name into a national database of missing children. Police did not issue an Amber Alert, because Amy had yet to commit a crime, and Timmothy was not believed to be in danger.
Amy and Timmothy checked out of the Kalahari Resort on May 13, which was captured on surveillance video.
Amy then drove about 170 miles toward Sterling, along the Rock River, about 80 miles west of Aurora, and then turned her cell phone off for the last time. Police were unable to confirm she had any ties to the area.
Surveillance cameras later caught Amy alone at a grocery store in Winnebago, west of Rockford.
Amy Fry-Pitzen was found dead in a Rockford motel room three days after she picked Timmothy up from school, but Timmothy was not with her.
Amy was found dead in a hotel room at the Rockford Inn on May 14, 2011, having slit her wrists. She left a note indicating Timmothy was safe and that she had left him in the care of unnamed people, but that no one would find him.
Police found Amy's SUV in the parking lot, and towed it back to Aurora to search for clues, including samples of dirt and growth investigators believed might show where the car traveled.
Several age progression photos have been released of Timmothy.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an age-progressed image of Timmothy in 2014, showing what he would look like at age 9.
In 2015, the NCMEC released another age-progressed photo of Timmothy, this time showing how he would look at age 10.
In 2018, the NCMEC released an age-progressed photo, showing what Timmothy would look like at age 13.
Almost 8 years after going missing, a 14-year-old in Newport, Kentucky claims to be Timmothy Pitzen.
On Wednesday, a woman in Newport, Kentucky, spotted a boy wandering alone. He told her he is Timmothy Pitzen, from Illinois, and had escaped from two white men built like bodybuilders, who had been holding him for seven years. The woman called 911, and the boy was taken to a hospital in Cincinnati.
Authorities in the Cincinnati area contacted Aurora police, who sent two detectives to interview the boy, and conduct a DNA test to confirm if the boy is Timmothy.
