For a day and a half, there seemed to be a breakthrough in the 2011 case when a young man found wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday identified himself as 14-year-old Timmothy Pitzen and claimed he had just escaped from two men who had held him captive for seven years.
However, DNA tests determined that the man was not the missing boy. Newport Police Chief Tom Collins identified the young man as Brian Rini of Medina, Ohio, a 23-year-old ex-convict.
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"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," FBI spokesman Timothy Beam in Louisville said in a statement, cited by Fox 5.
Timmothy, of Aurora, Illinois, vanished at age 6 in 2011 after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of kindergarten early one day, took him on a two-day road trip to the zoo and a water park, and then killed herself at a hotel. The mother left a note saying that her son was safe with people who would love and care for him, and added: "You will never find him." The boy have been missing since then without a trace.