DNA testing was scheduled for a teenager who claimed to be missing boy Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011.
The teen was located in Newport, Kentucky, and told officials that he is Pitzen, adding that he had escaped the kidnappers who held him hostage for seven years, according to reports.
Sharon Hall, of Newport, saw the teen and thought he was trying to steal a car, adding that he appeared nervous.
When police arrived, the teen told them his name was Timmothy Pitzen, saying he fled two men who held him captive for nearly eight years. They were holding him at a Red Roof Inn, but he didn’t know which one, CNN reported.
The teen also apparently ran across a bridge into Kentucky, according to the report.
The caller added, “‘I just want to get home. Please help me.’ I asked him what’s going on, and he tells me he’s been kidnapped and he’s been traded through all these people and he just wanted to go home.”
“It’s terrifying not knowing where he’s at,” Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, told the outlet. “I keep hoping every day that he comes home.”
Timmothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, said she is hopeful.
“Well I’m very hopeful that it’s him and that he’s ok and he’s been in a good place when he was gone and that he’s going to come back to us,” Anderson said.
The boy described his two kidnappers as white men with body-builder type builds.
One suspect had black, curly hair, jeans, a Mountain Dew T-shirt, and a spider web tattoo on his neck.
The other is short in stature and had a snake tattoo on his arms, the Fox19 report said.
The FBI office in Lousiville said it is working with officials in Newport, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and Aurora on a missing child investigation on April 3, according to the report.
Last Seen
Timmothy was last seen in May 2011 when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, took her son out of school before taking him to resorts in the Wisconsin Dells resort area before she allegedly killed herself. She also allegedly left behind a suicide note that his family will never find him.“I was totally taken by the situation and sort of paralyzed at the time,” Jim Pitzen said, reported WKOW.
“[We] never stopped looking for him, thinking of him,“ Anderson said, adding that ”we love him and we’ll do everything to get him back to a good life.”