CINCINNATI (WCPO) — Federal agents and local police in the Cincinnati area are trying to verify the story of a boy who says he was abducted years ago.
WCPO reports that neighbors in Newport, Kentucky found a boy walking around Wednesday morning. They told police he appeared scared and bruised.
The boy told police he had escaped kidnappers who had held him for several years.
The station says FBI officials in the Louisville office said agents were working with police in several jurisdictions, including Aurora, Illinois, on a missing child investigation. It says area police departments have been asked to check Red Roof Inns, and hotel workers said police have requested guest lists.
The FBI said a DNA test is being conducted on the child.
Aurora police told WCPO’s sister station in Milwaukee that they are sending detectives to Cincinnati to investigate a strong tip about Timmothy Pitzen, a then-6-year-old Aurora boy who went missing in 2011.
Timothy seemingly disappeared after his mother, 43-year-old Amy Fry-Pitzen, was found dead by apparent suicide in a Rockford, Illinois hotel room.
The FBI has not confirmed a link to the Pitzen case. Aurora police said the DNA tests will take about 24 hours.
ABC News reported at the time that Fry-Pitzen had signed Timmothy out of his kindergarten class and then took him to a zoo and water parks including Wisconsin Dells before her death. Police in Aurora told ABC News she left a note stating the she left Timmothy with people who “would care for him and love him,” but didn’t name them.
The case drew widespread attention and searchers spread across Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, but were unable to locate Timmothy. “Crime Watch Daily” covered the case in 2017 and earlier this year the Amazon show “Fireball Run” also drew attention to Timmothy’s disappearance.
