Teen Found Wandering in Kentucky is Reportedly Boy Who Vanished 8 Years Ago

By Austin Schoonmaker | April 4, 2019

Nearly 8 years ago, Timothy Pitzen vanished while on a road trip with his mother. On May 11 2011, Amy Fry-Pitzen checked her 6-year old son out of elementary school for a mother-son road trip adventure that included stops at a zoo and water park. Three days later, the mother’s body was found, with the cause of death being an apparent suicide. She left a note behind saying “You’ll never find him.”

Now, police and the FBI are investigating a teen found wandering over the Ohio-Kentucky border who has identified himself as Timmothy Pitzen. A woman in the neighborhood called the police after the boy found her, telling her he had been running for several hours and that his stomach hurt.

"He was lost & scared," says a Newport woman about a 14y/o boy on the street today. Teen tells police he's Timmothy Pitzen. Pitzen disappeared in 2011 after being taken by his mother. In her suicide note she wrote he was safe but would never be found. @Local12 #TimmothyPitzen pic.twitter.com/SQsvUv9dFT

— Brad Underwood (@BUnderwood317) April 4, 2019

The 911 caller told dispatchers the boy came up to her car and asked if she could help, repeatedly saying “I just want to get home. Please help me.” She said he told her “he’s been kidnapped and he’s been traded through all these people and he just wanted to go home.”

When police arrived, the boy told them he was Timothy Pitzen, and that he had been held captive for seven years, most recently in a nearby hotel by two men with “bodybuilder” physiques. He described one of them having a spiderweb tattoo on his neck and the other having a snake tattoo on his arms. Police said the men drove a Ford SUV with Wisconsin plates.

DNA testing is currently underway to determine if the teen really is the long-missing Timothy Pitzen. The boy has since been taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, while officials hope to have the DNA results at some point today.

FBILouisville and @FBICincinnati are actively coordinating with the Newport PD, @CincyPD, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, and @AuroraPoliceIL on a missing child investigation. There will be no further statement made on this matter until we have additional information.

— FBI Louisville (@FBILouisville) April 3, 2019

Timothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, told a local TV affiliate the authorities have told her “very little.” She said “We just know a 14-year-old boy was found and went to the police. We don’t want to get our hopes up and our family’s hopes up until we know something. We just don’t want to get our hopes up. We’ve had false reports and false hopes before.”

Timothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, told CNN back in 2015 “I have one image. It’s the day I dropped him off at school and he’s off – running to class – and that’s the pretty much the last image I have in my mind of him.”