14-year-old says he is boy who went missing in 2011, after escaping kidnappers

DNA test results expected today could prove a teenager who said he escaped from his kidnappers is the same boy who vanished nearly eight years ago. Timmothy Pitzen disappeared in 2011 when he was 6 years old. He was last seen with his mother in Illinois before she was found dead in a motel room after apparently taking her own life.

The FBI is now involved in this investigation, reports CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz.

A home video shows a carefree Pitzen just months before he vanished. Now nearly eight years later, there may finally be a break in the case.

According to a police report, a 14-year-old who identified himself as Pitzen said he fled to Newport, Kentucky, Wednesday after escaping “two kidnappers that have been holding him for seven years.”

“He looked like he had been beat up,” one witness said.

“He said that he was tired and he’s been passed around and he’s lost,” another said.

The teen allegedly told police he “had been staying at a Red Roof Inn” but he wasn’t sure where. He described the kidnappers as two white males with “body-builder type build.” One allegedly had a spider web tattoo on his neck and the other a snake tattoo on his arms.

Pitzen was last seen in May 2011. He was spotted on surveillance video at various parks and resorts days after his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, picked him up from his elementary school just outside of Chicago. But on May 14, Fry-Pitzen was found dead in a motel room of an apparent suicide. She allegedly left a note that said Pitzen was safe with people who loved him, but would never be found.

“She was definitely wrestling with the demons and the demons were winning,” Pitzen’s father, James Pitzen, said of Fry-Pitzen. In 2017, James Pitzen told Crime Watch Daily that his wife struggled with mental health issues, but he didn’t believe she would harm their son. “I can’t see her doing that, taking his life, that’s just not her,” he said.

“We always felt strongly that Tim was alive,” said Pitzen’s aunt, Kara Jacobs. She said they are overjoyed he may have been found, but also scared. “We’re still waiting to see if it is actually Timmothy,” she also said.

Pitzen’s grandmother Alana Anderson said they’ve never stopped looking for him. “I’m very hopeful that it’s him and that he’s okay… and he’s going to come back to us,” Anderson said.

Pitzen’s aunt said investigators told her they are performing a DNA test on the 14-year-old that will hopefully be ready this afternoon. The teen was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where he is being evaluated.