Police, FBI trying to verify teen is Timmothy Pitzen, missing since 2011

CINCINNATI (WITI) -- Authorities were trying Thursday to confirm the identity of a teenager who told police he fled from kidnappers and is an Illinois boy missing since 2011. Later in the day it was confirmed the person is not Timmothy Pitzen.

A 14-year-old boy told police in Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday that he escaped two kidnappers in the Cincinnati area and ran across a bridge. He said his name was Timmothy Pitzen.

In 2011, then-6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen's mother picked him up at school in Illinois, took him to the zoo and a water park, and later killed herself at a hotel. She left a note saying her son was fine but that no one would ever find him.

Timmothy Pitzen's aunt said police are using DNA testing and that results could be known Thursday.

Police in Aurora, Illinois, sent two detectives 330 miles to the Cincinnati area, where the FBI and local police are investigating. The boy was taken to a Cincinnati hospital, but no information on his condition was released immediately.

There have been several false sightings of Timmothy Pitzen since 2011.

“We hope it's true,” his aunt, Kara Jacobs, told CBS2 TV in Chicago. “What's hard is the story that he escaped from captors, and your mind goes in too many directions that you don't want to think about.”

She said she had prayed over the years that he was with people “who would love him,” and it would heartbreaking if that hasn't been the case.