A boy found wandering in Newport, Kentucky, claims he is a child from Aurora, Illinois, who has been missing since 2011.
- The boy claims he is Timmothy Pitzen, who went missing at age 6
- Illinois police are headed to the Cincinnati area to try and confirm his claim
- The boy has told police he escaped two men who kidnapped him
UPDATE @ 2:10 a.m. (April 4): A Newport, Kentucky, woman told our news partners at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati she saw the boy pacing near West Eighth and Columbia streets about 8 a.m. Wednesday. The woman, Crekasafra Night, said the boy's actions made her nervous.
A caller to 9-1-1 told a dispatcher, "He walked up to my car and he went, 'Can you help me?' I just want to get home. Please help me.'
“I asked him what's going on, and he tells me he's been kidnapped and he's been traded through all these people and he just wanted to go home,” the caller said.
Night and her neighbors saw bruising hidden by the boy’s hoodie. They said he appeared scared. They called police. Newport Police Chief Tom Collins said officers responded and the boy is at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The child told Sharonville and Blue Ash police two white males, with body-builder type builds, had been holding him hostage at a Red Roof Inn in the area, but he couldn’t tell police where.
One had black curly hair and was wearing a Mountain Dew shirt and jeans and had a spider web tattoo on his neck. The other was short with a snake tattoo on his arms. They were driving a white newer model Ford SUV with yellow transfer paint, Wisconsin plates and a dent on the left back bumper.
He said he escaped, kept running and crossed a bridge into Kentucky.
There are no Red Roof Inns near any of the bridges connecting Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Authorities in Campbell County, Kentucky, alerted surrounding agencies that have Red Roof Inns in their jurisdictions about the incident.
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According to Aurora, Illinois, police, Timmothy Pitzen was 6 years old when he went missing in 2011.
The FBI, which is assisting Cincinnati area law enforcement in trying to verify the boy’s information, has not been able to confirm any of it.
Aurora police said they are being very cautious about the reports the boy says he is Timmothy, as there were several false sightings in 2011, CBS-Chicago is reporting. Police have received several tips in the intervening years, but have found no sign of Timmothy.
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Law enforcement said they are working to positively identify the boy and are conducting a DNA test.
CBS-Chicago also is reporting that Timmothy was last seen with his mother, 43-year-old Amy Fry-Pitzen, the morning of May 13, 2011, when they checked out of the Kalahari Resort at the Wisconsin Dells. Timmothy’s father had reported them missing the day before.
The two apparently visited Brookfield Zoo two days earlier and checked into the Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurnee on May 11, 2011. No one heard from either of them until Friday afternoon, when Fry-Pitzen called friends and family and told them she and Timmothy were fine and not in danger.
Police said Timmothy also talked to at least one relative at the time and did not seem to be in distress.
Fry-Pitzen checked into the Rockford Inn on May 13, 2011, but Timmothy apparently was not with her. Her body was found in her motel room the next day.
She left a note indicating Timmothy was fine and she had left him in the care of unnamed people.
