An Aurora, Illinois, boy who disappeared in 2011 when he was 6 years old has apparently escaped two kidnappers who held him for the past seven years, according to an Ohio police report.
A 14-year-old claiming to be Timmothy Pitzen escaped an unknown Red Roof Inn, the police report filed Wednesday reports, and "kept running across a bridge" into Kentucky.
"Timothy [sic] described the two kidnappers as two male, whites, body-builder type build," the police report states. "One had black curly hair, Mt. Dew shirt and jeans & has a spider web tattoo on his neck. The other was short in stature and had a snake tattoo on his arms."
The kidnappers' vehicle, according to the report, was described by Timmothy to officers as a newer model Ford SUV with unknown Wisconsin plates and a second row. The Ford is white with yellow transfer paint and a dent on the left back bumper, the report states.
All surrounding police agencies with Red Roof Inns in their jursidictions were contacted and nothing was found, according to the report.
Earlier Wednesday, two Aurora detectives traveled to the area of Cincinnati, Ohio, for an investigation into a missing child, the Aurora Police Department said.
Aurora police did not confirm that the investigation in Cincinnati was related to Timmothy's disappearance, but according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Pitzen is the only child missing from west suburban Aurora.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Louisville tweeted Wednesday afternoon that it was coordinating, alongside the FBI in Cincinnati, with police in Aurora, Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky, as well as the Hamilton County sheriff's office, on a missing child investigation. The FBI also declined to confirm that the investigation was related to Pitzen's case.
The boy's disappearance has remained a mystery since Amy Fry-Pitzen took her son out of school and traveled to multiple Midwest water parks before she was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford motel room on May 14, 2011. A note left behind in the motel room said that Timmothy was safe and in someone's care, but the boy was never found.
This year would mark his 14th birthday.
Alana Anderson, Pitzens grandmother, said Wednesday she has heard that a boy claiming to be her grandson was in a childrens hospital in Kentucky after escaping his captors.
“We never forgot, never stopped thinking about him everyday, stayed in touch with the police,” she said. “It just went cold, and I just prayed that when he was old enough that he would remember us and contact us — that was kind of the best I could hope for for a long time.”
The last time she saw her grandson he was just over 6 years old. Asked if Pitzen would recognize her, Anderson responded, "I hope so."
The last boost in the case came in 2014, when a woman in the northern Illinois town of Rockton
USA Today
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