Aurora Police Investigate If Boy Found In Newport, Kentucky, Is Timmothy Pitzen, Missing Since 2011
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Detectives from Aurora arrived in Cincinnati to check into reports a boy found wandering in nearby Newport, Kentucky, claimed to be Timmothy Pitzen, who has been missing for nearly eight years.
Newport police told CBS affiliate WKRC-TV a 14-year-old boy found wandering a neighborhood told officers he had been kidnapped and his name is Timmothy Pitzen. The boy was taken to a local hospital and later transferred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Cincinnati is across the Ohio River from Newport.
People who live near West eighth and Columbia in Newport saw the 14-year-old boy today.say his face was bruised and he was very scared and agitated. One woman says the boy told her he'd been running for two hours and that he had been passed around for seven years. @Local12 pic.twitter.com/WtrCOfPjEH
— Brad Underwood (@BUnderwoodWKRC) April 3, 2019
WKRC-TV reporter Brad Underwood said witnesses told him the boy's face was bruised and "he was very scared and agitated".
Police in Sharonville, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, were alerted by other law enforcement to check a Red Roof Inn.
The 14-year-old told police he was being held by two white men with bodybuilder builds. He said one man has black curly hair, a spider web tattoo on his neck, and was was wearing a Mountain Dew shirt and jeans. The other man is described as short with a snake tattoo on his arms.
The boy told police he was staying with the alleged kidnappers in a Red Roof Inn, but he didn't know where it was located. He described the vehicle the men were operating as a newer model Ford SUV with unknown Wisconsin license plates. It is white with yellow transfer paint, a dent on the left back bumper and a second row.
Authorities in Campbell County in Kentucky alerted surrounding agencies with Red Roof Inns in their jurisdictions about the incident.
Aurora police confirmed they were notified about the boy in Newport. Detectives from Aurora arrived in Cincinnati Wednesday afternoon and were meeting with FBI officials.
Timmothy's grandmother, Alana Anderson, of Antioch, said she hopes the boy found in Kentucky turns out to be her missing grandson.
"Don't want to say anything until I know for sure. I just don't want to comment until I know for sure, praying its him and he's okay," she said.
Timmothy has been missing since May 2011, when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, was found dead inside a Rockford motel room after slitting her wrists.
Six years old at the time, Timmothy was last seen with his mother around 10 a.m. on May 13, 2011, when he accompanied her as she checked out of the Kalahari Resort at the Wisconsin Dells. Timmothy's father had reported them missing the day before.
The two apparently visited Brookfield Zoo two days earlier and checked into the Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurnee on May 11, 2011. No one heard from either of them until Friday afternoon, when Fry-Pitzen called friends and family and told them she and Timmothy were fine and not in danger. Police said Timmothy also talked to at least one relative at the time and did not seem to be in distress.
Fry-Pitzen checked into the Rockford Inn on May 13, 2011, but Timmothy apparently was not with her. Her body was found in her motel room the next day. She left a note indicating Timmothy was fine, and she had left him in the care of unnamed people.
Aurora police said they are being very cautious about the reports the boy in Newport says he is Timmothy, as there were several false sightings of the missing boy in 2011.
Police have received several tips in the intervening years, but have found no sign of Timmothy.
Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an age-progressed image of what Timmothy would look like at age 13.
