A DNA test disproved a man’s claim that he was an Illinois boy who went missing in 2011, said the FBI on April 4.
The man was found wandering the streets in Newport, Kentucky, said he was Timmothy Pitzen, who was 6 years old when he disappeared, reported The Associated Press.
He said that federal “law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today.”
According to NBC, Rini told police that he escaped two kidnappers who had bodybuilder-type builds. He said he was staying a the Red Roof Inn with his abductors and ran across a bridge from Ohio into Kentucky.
“I asked him what was going on, and he told me he’s been kidnapped and he’s been traded through all these people,” said a woman, who saw him. “He just wanted to go home. He needed help.”
She said he looked like he was beaten up and “had a really big bruise on his face.”
Sharon Hall, a local from Newport, saw Rini and thought he was trying to steal a car, adding that he appeared nervous.
The boy’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.
Rini described his two kidnappers as white men with body-builder type builds.
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.”