DNA tests have revealed that the man claiming to be missing child Timmothy Pitzen is, in fact, not him. The Ohio man who claimed he was the missing 14-year-old was identified as ex-convict Brian Michael Rini. The Medina, Ohio man is 23 years old.
On Wednesday, Rini claimed he was the missing boy from Aurora, Illinois. He went on to describe how he escaped his alleged kidnappers and made his way to Kentucky.
Unfortunately, his story appears to be completely fabricated.
The man found in a Newport, Kentucky neighborhood was clearly not the missing child. Rather, he was a man who’d recently been let out of an Ohio prison on parole. He’d recently served nearly 14 months of an 18-month sentence for vandalism and burglary.
“It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again,” said the boy’s aunt, Kara Jacobs. “Timmothy’s father is devastated once again.”
The boy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, expressed the notion that she was equally disappointed.
How the story unfolded is quite bizarre. Rini was found wandering around a neighborhood near the Kentucky-Ohio border. He said that his stomach hurt and that he’d been running for two hours. Police were called in, and when they arrived he claimed his name was Timmothy Pitzen.
He told authorities that two men had been holding him captive for the last seven years. The most recent location at which he was held captive, he said, was a Red Roof Inn. He did not know the location of the motel. However, he said he’d managed to escape and had subsequently run across a bridge into Kentucky.
He claimed he had two kidnappers and that they possessed a “bodybuilder type build.” He also even described the alleged kidnappers’ tattoos.
Back in May of 2011, Timmothy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, checked her son out of school. She said it was a family emergency. The two went on a lengthy road trip, visiting a zoo as well as a water park.
Three days later, Fry-Pitzen was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford, Illinois hotel room. She left behind a note that said her son was safe, but also that he would never be found.
“She felt that her life had come to an end and she was going to end her life and she didn’t want to leave him without good parenting,” explained Anderson, shedding light on the note.
At the time, Timmothy was 6 years old. The last anyone saw of him was at a Wisconsin water park, one day prior to his mother’s death. He is still missing to this day.
