Hoaxer, 23, claimed he was missing boy
Fresh heartache for US family after DNA test proves he ISN’T child who vanished at age six
‘Described his kidnappers’
A MAN who claimed to be a boy who went missing eight years ago has been unmasked as a hoaxer after a DNA test.
The man was found wandering the streets in Kentucky on Wednesday. He told police he was Timmothy Pitzen, who vanished without trace at the age of six in 2011.
He said he escaped from kidnappers in Ohio and ran for two hours before reaching the town of Newport. But DNA tests proved he was not Timmothy, the FBI’s Louisville office said last night. Police named the man as Brian Rini, a 23-year-old from Medina, Ohio.
Local media said Rini was released from the Belmont Correctional Institute a month ago. He had been serving time for burglary and vandalism.
Timmothy went missing after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, 43, picked him up from his primary school in Aurora, Illinois, in May 2011. The pair went to the zoo and a water park, but three days later, Mrs Fry-Pitzen – who had a history of depression – was found dead in a motel room in nearby Rockford.
In her suicide note, she wrote: ‘Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will care for him. You will never find him.’
Timmothy’s disappearance was one of the great unsolved mysteries in the American Midwest and led to a massive manhunt in 2011.
Rini told police on Wednesday that he had run across a bridge from the neighbouring state of Ohio.
Residents in Newport found him wandering the streets on Wednesday and told how his face was ‘bruised’ and he was ‘very scared and agitated’.
Fray Knight said his face was ‘red like he’d been punched’. She added: ‘He was real antsy, the police had to get him up to the car because he wouldn’t stand still.’
One woman said he told her he had been running for two hours to escape and that he had been ‘passed around’ since his disappearance.
Rini told police that his kidnappers were two men of ‘bodybuildertype build’. One had a spiderweb tattoo on his neck, the other had a snake tattoo on his arm.
He said they had been staying in a budget Red Roof Inn when he escaped, and described their vehicle down to the licence plate and a dent on the bumper.
Timmothy’s uncle Michael Jacobs told CNN last night: ‘I just got a text from a family member that it’s not him. I’m floored!’ Timmothy’s father Jim has always maintained his son was alive.
In 2015, he said: ‘I always wonder what [my wife] told Timmothy. Why hasn’t he tried to call? We taught him how to dial 911.’
A spokesman for Aurora police said last night: ‘Although we are disappointed that this turned out to be a hoax, we remain diligent in our search for Timmothy, as our missing person’s case remains unsolved.’