The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced today that DNA testing confirms that the teen found in Kentucky on Wednesday who claimed to be Timmothy Pitzen, a missing child, in not him.
© Obtained by ABC News A photo given to ABC News shows a man who was found wandering a Kentucky neighborhood on April 3, 2019, who told authorities that he was Timmothy Pitzen. Newport Police identified him as Brian Michael Rini, who is a 23-year-old from Ohio.
According to the chief of police of Newport, Kentucky, the individual has been identified as Brian Michael Rini, who is a 23-year-old from Ohio. Rini, who was then-thought to be a teenager, allegedly told police on wednesday that he was Timmothy Pitzen, who had been reported missing since 2011.
Pitzen disappeared after his mother, 43-year-old Amy Fry-Pitzen, picked him up from school in May 2011. It’s believed she took the boy to the zoo and a water park in Wisconsin before apparently killing herself in a hotel room in Illinois. Fry-Pitzen left a note saying her son was fine. Police investigating her death said she took steps that suggested she might have, as she said in her note, dropped her son off with a friend.
On Thursday, in the wake of the DNA test results, Pitzen’s maternal grandmother spoke about the devastation that their family is feeling.”It’s been awful. We’ve been on tenterhooks,” Abramson said to reporters, adding that the family has been “alternatively hopeful and frightened.” When asked about the person who claimed to be Timmothy, Abramson said that she thinks the man “obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was someone else, and [I] hope that they can find his family.”
Days after his disappearance, Timmothy’s father Jim Pitzen told ABC News he was convinced his son was still alive.
“To be clear, 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,” said FBI Louisville Supervisory Special Agent Timothy Beam in a statement.
