Timmothy “Timmy” James Pitzen was born
on 18th of October in 2004 in Aurora, Illinois.
In 2011 his dad, James Pitzen, dropped Timmothy
off at school like every other day. There
was nothing that indicated to James that this
was the last time he would see his son. James’
wife and Timmy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen
picked her son up from school and never returned.
The married couple were about to get divorced
before Amy took her son on a last trip together.
It’s been over eight years since the disappearance
and to this day, there’s questions if Timmy
is still alive and where Timmy might be.
On 11th of May in 2011, James Pitzen drops
his 6-year-old son Timmothy off at Greenman
Elementary school in Aurora, Illinois. Less
than 20 minutes after Timmy was dropped off
by his father, his mother Amy, calls the school
saying there was a family emergency and she’s
coming to pick Timmy up. At around 8:15, she
arrives at the school and leaves with Timmy
in her blue 2004 Ford Expedition SUV. At 10:00,
Amy drops her car off at an auto-repair shop.
A shop employee gives Amy and Timmy a ride
to the Brookfield Zoo, where they spend the
day while her car is being repaired. At 3:00pm,
Amy and Timmy arrive back at the shop to pick
up the car.
Amy then drives to KeyLime Cove Resort in
Gurnee, Illinois, where she and Timmy spend
the night. Meanwhile, Timmy’s father James
is on his way to pick his son up from school.
He’s taken aback when he finds out that
his wife picked Timmy up shortly after he
had dropped him off. He had no knowledge of
any trips or family emergencies. James repeatedly
attempts to call his wife Amy, each time reaching
her voicemail.
Amy and Timmy leave the KeyLime Cove resort
the next morning. Still having no idea of
their whereabouts, James reports his wife
and son missing. Amy then drives around 160
miles northwest to Wisconsin Dells, checking
into the Kalahari Resort, where security footage
shows them checking in.
Later that day, having not packed anything
for Timmy, Amy goes to a shop to buy toys
and clothes for him as well as fuel.
At 10:00am the next morning, security footage
shows Amy and Timmy leaving the Kalahari Resort
together. Timmy’s seen holding his mother’s
hand whilst leaving the resort. This is the
last security footage recorded of the 6 year
old. They then drive around 120 miles south
to Rockford, Illinois.
At around 1:30pm, Amy calls several family
members in the car – although not her husband.
She tells them she and Timmy are fine and
that they would come home in a couple of days.
Strangely, Amy also calls her brother-in-law
and says: “Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs
to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy
is safe”.
James, perplexed by the whole situation, can’t
figure out why Amy would call his brother
but not call him back. His brother reports
to him that he could hear Timmy in the background
of the phone call, sounding normal.
At 8:00pm, security footage shows Amy entering
a grocery store alone near Rockford, Illinois.
She later checks into the Rockford Inn motel
at around 11:15pm. Timmothy can’t be seen
in the grocery store or in the motel with
his mother.
On May 14, Amy is found dead in her motel
room at the Rockford Inn at about 12:30 p.m.,
having slit her wrists. She left a note indicating
Timmothy was safe, and she had left him in
the care of unnamed people, but that no one
would find him. And indeed, Timmy is nowhere
to be seen. In fact, there is no sign that
he was ever with Amy; the clothes and toys
she bought for him, as well as his backpack,
are gone. Also missing are the clothes Amy
wore when she left the Kalahari Resort the
previous day as well as her mobile phone.
By May 19, more than 70 people are searching
for Timmothy in the Sterling/Rock Falls area,
but come up with nothing. A month-long search
for Timmothy appears to turn cold, as police
acknowledge they are no further with the investigations
than the first days of the search.
“We still continue to expend tremendous
amounts of resources on trying to find exactly
what happened to Timmothy,” Aurora Police
spokesman Dan Ferrelli said at the time. “Unfortunately,
there are still no solid leads.”
Aurora police confirm Timmothy’s blood was
found in Amy’s SUV, although investigators
say it could have been the result of a bloody
nose. Towards the end of the year police investigate
reports that Timmothy was sighted at a Denny’s
restaurant in North Aurora, but after police
track down the car in which the boy was seen,
it turns out the boy’s not Timmothy, but
the son of the car’s owner. Police say they’ve
been given dozens of possible sightings, but
all of them turn out to be false. Two years
after Timmothy’s disappearance, police say
they are still trying to tie trace evidence
found in Amy’s vehicle to specific locations,
in hopes of pinpointing where she and Timmothy
had travelled. Authorities also say leads
and sightings continue to come in from across
the country in at a rate of about five a month.
A year later, the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children release an age-progressed
image of Timmothy, showing what he would look
like at age 9. The following year they release
another age-progressed photo of Timmothy,
this time showing how we would look aged 10.
However, the released photos don’t help
locating Timmothy. For the next five years
there’s no major news in the case. On April
3 2019 however, a woman in Newport, Kentucky,
spots a boy wandering alone. Authorities in
the Cincinnati area contact Aurora police,
who send two detectives to interview the teenager,
and conduct a DNA test to confirm if the young
man is Timmothy.
A couple of hours later, authorities hold
a press conference:
That’s the latest we’ve got on this case.
Timmothy has been missing for over 8 years
now and the notes left by Amy before she committed
suicide still create a lot of debate. Some
people including James believe that Amy would’ve
never hurt her own son as she wrote in her
letter that Timmy was safe. Others say the
word safe can be interpreted in many different
ways and that it’s clear that Amy ended
the life of her 6-year old son. What certainly
appears to be a bit strange in this case is
the day before Amy committed suicide. It was
the last day where evidence suggested that
Timmothy was still alive. But after Amy’s
phone calls where Timmothy was heard in the
background, he wasn’t seen on any CCTV footage.
The days before, whether he entered a shop
or a hotel room, he was always with his mum.
Also, it appears to be strange that Amy got
rid of the clothes she was wearing that day.
She didn’t just put them in a normal bin
as otherwise police would’ve found her clothing.
So, was she trying to hide something? Was
there perhaps blood her clothes? Timmothy’s
blood? Or did she just drop everything including
Timmothy off at a place that she calls safe?
At a friend’s who lives far away from Aurora?
There are so many more questions we could
ask but the reality is there are no answers
to any of our questions.
What do you think? Is Timmothy Pitzen still
alive? Or if you believe he’s dead, why
hasn’t his body been found? Let me know
in the comments and stay tuned for the next
video.
