Teen who 'escaped two kidnappers' claims he is boy who vanished seven years ago
A 14-year-old boy who said he escaped from two kidnappers in Ohio claims he is from Illinois, where he went missing nearly eight years ago when his mother apparently took her own life.
According to police in suburban Cincinnati’s Sharonville, the boy said he had “just escaped from two kidnappers” he described as white men with body builder-type physiques.
The boy, who identified himself as Timmothy Pitzen, told police that after his escape from a nearby motel he “kept running across a bridge into” Kentucky.
It’s the same name of a six-year-old boy who disappeared in 2011 after authorities said his mother took her own life in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel.
The Chicago Police department is now sending two detectives to the Cincinnati area, with Aurora police still unsure if the boy has any connection to Pitzen.
Police believe Amy Fry-Pitzen, 43, picked up her son from school and took him to the zoo and a Wisconsin water park before she apparently killed herself on May 15, 2011.
Fry-Pitzen left a note saying her son was fine. Police investigating her death said she took steps that suggest she might have, as she said in her note, dropped her son off with a friend.
At the time, police searched for Pitzen in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.
“We’ve probably had thousands of tips of him popping up in different areas,” Rowley said. “We have no idea what we’re driving down there for. It could be Pitzen. It could be a hoax.”
Timmothy Pitzen’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, told WISN-TV Wednesday that authorities have told the family very little.
“We just know a 14-year-old boy was found and went to the police,” Anderson said.
Local outlet CBS Chicago shared a blurred image of a teen that they claim is the boy at the centre of the claims.
“We don’t want to get our hopes up and our family’s hopes up until we know something … we’ve had false reports and false hopes before.”
The FBI said in a statement that its offices in Louisville and Cincinnati were working on a missing child investigation with Aurora police and police departments in Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio. The FBI offered no other details.
Sharonville police said on the department’s Facebook page that the information about the boy’s reported escape was received by police in Campbell County, Kentucky.
“The City of Sharonville Police Department, like every other police agency in the greater Cincinnati area, was requested to check their Red Roof Inn hotels regarding this incident,” the Facebook post read.
“To the best of our knowledge, we have no information indicating that the missing juvenile was ever in the City of Sharonville.”
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
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