TIMMOTHY J PITZEN - 6 yo (2011) - Rockford IL

This May was to have been the couple's eighth wedding anniversary.

This case reminds me of the John Skelton case, where he handed over his sons to an "organization," and they are still missing.

IL police grow weary as clues in missing boy case hits dead end
May 23rd, 2011

Timmothy Pitzen, age 6, still missing after his mother was found dead in
Illinois hotel room. Photo via Aurora Police Department.

A young boy who has been missing for well over a week has police
coming up short on clues. The 6 yr. old has been missing ever since his mother was found dead in a Rockford,
Illinois motel room, along with a suicide note. The note claimed the
boy was okay and given to unknown caretakers but police have yet to find
any evidence to support the claim. His backpack, which had toys and
clothing for the child, are also missing. Police originally believed
that his car seat was missing as well but have since confirmed that the
car seat has been in the possession of his Grandmother.
According to CBS Chicago News,
police report that the Grandmother was caring for the the boy, Timmothy
Pitzen, right before his mother, Amy Fry Pitzen, took him out of school
and went on a whirlwind excursion throughout northern Illinois and
southern Wisconsin. The mother and son pair allegedly enjoyed family
attractions together during their impromptu vacation. Police aren’t
ruling out that the possibility that Timmothy was not with his mother
when she last checked into the final motel where Fry-Pitzen took her own
life. Nobody has heard from Timmothy since the incidence and police
have come up short in finding any clues as to his whereabouts. Timmothy
weighs about 70 pounds and stand around 4’2″. Illinois Police are asking
anyone with information as to Timmothys whereabouts to contact their
local police departments.
http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/05/23/il-police-grow-weary-as-clues-in-missing-boy-case-hits-dead-end/

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

twinkletoes wrote:Timmothy is the correct spelling.

---That's bizzarre! I wonnder why? Annyway, I channged the toppic tittle...

Eassy to unnderstannd whhy LE gott itt wronng.

Linda Pitzen is obviously a strong woman.
From the very first, when the media descended upon her son’s Aurora
home, she’s been the family’s main spokesperson — fielding questions,
reluctantly agreeing to pose for pictures.

In her other life — the one she had before her
daughter-in-law committed suicide and her grandson went missing — Pitzen
ran a 42-bed Alzheimer’s unit back in the Cleveland area. So she knows a
thing or two about being a port in the storm.

“I’m the mama,” she told me last week as the
story of her missing grandchild played out in local, regional and
national news. “I need to be strong.”

But she’s also human: a mother-in-law mourning
the death of her son’s wife; a mom helplessly watching her grown child
in such pain.

And she’s a grandma waiting “somewhere between
grief and anger” for any news of the little kindergartner she obviously
loves so much.

But the waiting, the horrible question marks are,
understandably, beginning to wear her down. At first, there was so much
to do: Handle the press, work with police; mobilize family and friends
to pass out fliers; help deal with funeral arrangements.

But now that Amy Fry-Pitzen is buried, the search
has shifted and the reporters call less frequently, one thing has not
changed: her grandson Timmothy is still missing.

So she obsesses about the cats.

There are three of them in her son’s house. Andy,
a big orange fur ball, is Timm’s cat, and there’s Rita and Rex, a
six-toed gray beauty.

Pitzen admits she pays an inordinate amount of
attention to these pets, especially picking up their hair when it sheds
all over the floors or furniture.

Linda Pitzen is a doer, so she needs something to do.

The waiting part is rough.

One recent morning she was sleeping on the living
room couch — she can’t go upstairs and walk past Timmothy’s room — when
a police car pulled up. “I couldn’t stop shaking until noon,” she said.

When Pitzen sees a squad drive up she doesn’t know whether the officers inside are bringing good news or bad news.

So far, it’s mostly been no news.

To the public, the family remains united in the
belief Timmothy is alive. They insist Amy would never harm the son she
loved so much; that wherever he is, the little boy is safe and, by now,
realizing his vacation with Mom is over and that he needs to go home.

It’s only natural she grapples with what must be
going through her grandson’s mind right now; what must have been going
through Amy’s head before checking herself into a Rockford motel room
and slitting her wrists; and why the person who has Timmothy — Amy would
never leave him with a stranger, she and Jim insist — hasn’t come
forward in the two weeks since his mother checked him out of school.

Maybe they are camping so they don’t know how
many people are looking for Timmothy, the Pitzens hope; that whoever has
the child doesn’t realize “home is a safe place for him to be.”

Just because we’ve all been reading about this
story, Linda Pitzen points out, doesn’t mean whoever is with him has
done the same.

Still, life must go on. And sitting around
staring at Timmothy’s toys or his cat Andy isn’t going to do any good.
So Jim Pitzen plans to return to work at some point, and continue to
work on the elaborate backyard tree house he was in the process of
building before the nightmare began.

And Linda is heading back to Cleveland on Thursday. Her patients need her, just as she needs at least a small slice of normalcy.

Whatever that is these days.


http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/5568379-417/missing-boys-grandmother-waits-somewhere-between-grief-and-anger.html

Police release security video, timeline in search for missing boy

See video at link below
http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/5588124-418/police-release-security-video-timeline-in-search-for-missing-boy.html

Police describe Timmothy Pitzen as 4-foot-2, about
70 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing
shorts, a brown T-shirt and white socks. Police said his mother, Amy
Fry-Pitzen, was 5-foot-10, 180 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with any information on Timmothy or any thing
related to his disappearance is asked to call Aurora police at
630-256-5500, or local police by dialing 911.


View Gallery

AURORA — Police say they are
becoming “increasingly concerned” about the welfare of 6-year-old
Timmothy Pitzen, missing for about two weeks since his mother committed
suicide in a Rockford hotel room on May 14.

On Wednesday, police released a security
video showing the boy and his mother checking out of a Wisconsin Dells
resort. Police also released additional details in the time line for the
period the two were missing.

The security video from the Kalahari
Resort was recorded at around 10:10 a.m. on May 13 and was the last time
Timmothy and his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, 43, were seen together. Amy’s
body was found the next day at a Rockford motel, after committing
suicide. In a note, Amy said that her son was safe, and had been left
with unknown persons. Timmothy has not been found.

The pair went missing on May 11 when Amy checked her son out of his West Aurora elementary school.

Over the next two days, they visited the
Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, the Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurnee, and
the Kalahari Resort.

Before going to the Brookfield Zoo on
May 11, Amy dropped off her 2004 Ford Expedition SUV for repairs at a La
Grange body shop. She and Timmothy were taken to the zoo by a shop
employee at around 10 a.m. They returned to pick up the vehicle at about
3 p.m., before heading to Gurnee where they stayed overnight, police
said.

Amy and Timmothy then headed to
Wisconsin Dells on May 12 and stayed there until the following morning.
After checking out of the Kalahari Resort, police traced Amy’s cell
phone calls to the Sterling/Rock Falls/Dixon area in western Illinois,
between noon and 1:30 p.m. May 13. That is the last location that police
can pinpoint that Amy and Timmothy were together.

Detectives have learned that Amy visited
a Family Dollar store in Winnebago, Ill., at about 7:25 p.m. May 13,
where she bought a pen, paper and envelopes. She was then spotted at a
food store close to the Family Dollar at around 8 p.m., and checked into
the Rockford Inn at 11:15 p.m. Timmothy was apparently not with his
mother in Rockford on that Friday night, police said.

Amy’s body was discovered on May 14 in a room at the Rockford Inn.

Police have narrowed cell phone
triangulations from the calls Amy placed on May 13 to a tower just
northwest of Sterling near Route 40. Plans are under way to search that
area in the coming days, police said.

A multi-agency search for evidence in the Sterling/Rock Falls/Dixon area on May 19 came up empty.

Rockford police conducted a search from
the air on May 20 that focused on the area between the Rockford Inn and
the area from which Amy placed the calls on May 13; and police officers
and employees from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have
been searching for evidence at state parks in the area.

Nothing of value as evidence has been found in the additional searches, police said.

Aurora police are processing two computers taken from Amy’s home and one from her work place.

Police said they have talked to dozens
of family members, friends, co-workers, and others, and are researching
e-mails, financial documents, cell phone records and other items.

The FBI and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the investigation.

But there are still no solid leads into Timmothy’s disappearance.

Police said they continue to grow
increasingly concerned about the boy’s welfare because no one has heard
from him since May 13 when he talked to a relative on his mother’s phone
when they were in the western Illinois area.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Aurora Police at 630-256-5500 or their local authorities by dialing 911.

Wherrre issss Timmmothy?

I have a bad feeling about this little boy. It would seem that if anyone had him they would have stepped forward. I think he is missing in the same way Caylee was "missing".

I pray he is found alive and unharmed.

With the next organized search for a 6-year-old Aurora boy not
planned until after the holiday weekend, officials from the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children are encouraging the public to
stay vigilant."There are a lot of people out there that think
that if you don't find the child in 24 hours, or in two weeks, that you
won't find the child. That's just not true," said Ernie Allen, president
of the center, which has been working closely with local, state and
federal investigators to find Timmothy Pitzen.The Virginia-based group has partnered with letter carriers and Wal-Mart stores to hang posters with photos of the boy, especially around Aurora, Wisconsin Dells and Sterling, where police have determined he stopped with his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, before his disappearance.Fry-Pitzen of Aurora committed suicide in a Rockford hotel sometime
after checking in on May 13 and left a note saying her son was in the
care of unnamed people, police said.During a search on May 19,
dozens of officers unsuccessfully checked out more than 25 sites in the
Dixon area, about 100 miles west of Chicago.The next search will focus on an area around a cell phone tower near the small northwest Illinois town of Sterling, the last place to get a cell phone signal from Fry-Pitzen, Aurora police said.The
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has 2,500 to 3,000
active cases. In the last 48 hours, it has dispatched teams to help with
about five or six of them, including Pitzen's, Allen said."We're
trying to send a message that there is hope," Allen said. "Our firm
belief is that somebody out there knows something … and they'll come
forward."Timmothy is about 4 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about 70
pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. Any one with information is
asked to call 630-256-5500 or 911.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-timmothy-pitzen-0529-20110529,0,6213211.story

May 31, 2011
The search for a missing 6-year-old boy last seen in Wisconsin has been suspended until later this week.Police
originally planned to comb an area around Sterling, Ill., Tuesday for
Timmothy Pitzen, but authorities delayed the search because they didn't
have enough manpower.Timmothy was caught on surveillance video
the last time he and his mother were seen on May 13 when they checked
out of the Kalahari resort in the Wisconsin Dells.His mother later took her own life in an Illinois hotel room. Timmothy hasn't been seen since.
Read more: http://www.wisn.com/news/28087598/detail.html#ixzz1NywCkQ2g

Police scour SUV second time in search for missing boy




2:18 p.m. CDT, June 1, 2011

AURORA, Ill. —
Police are continuing to search for clues that may help them find
6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen who has been missing since his mother died in
May 2011. Amy Fry-Pitzen’s body was found May 14 in a
Rockford, Illinois motel. Police say she committed suicide. Her 2004
Ford Expedition was found in the parking lot outside the motel.

• 
  Updated Photos: The Search for Timmothy Pitze
  
• Police say they found material that may be tall grass or weeds caught in the undercarriage of the SUV.
  

Analysts are reviewing samples of dirt and other evidence recovered from the
vehicle in search of more clues about where Amy may have taken
Timmothy. “They are hoping that the materials may be unique to
certain areas in the Rock Falls/Sterling/Dixon, Illinois areas where Amy
and Timmothy were last known to be together. Those areas would then be
targeted for further investigation,” said a spokesman for Aurora
Police.The last phone call made from Amy’s cell phone was at about 1:30 p.m. May 13, 2011 about five miles
northwest of Sterling near Route 40. Investigators
are processing three computers that belonged to Amy, e-mails, financial
records and cell phone records as well as statements from dozens of
people who had contact with her. So far, they haven’t found any solid
leads in Timmothy’s disappearance.Timmothy is about 4-feet two-inches tall and weighs about 70 pounds.
He has brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone
with information on the case is asked to call Aurora Police at (630)
256-5500, or their local authorities by dialing 9-1-1.
http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-aurora-police-scour-suv-second-time-in-search-for-missing-timmothy-pitzen-20110601,0,6505160.story

I am so afraid this precious little boy is gone forever.

What if someone forced her to write a suicide note? Something here smells hinky to me.

Timmothy, please be safe.

One month later, search continues for Timmothy Pitzen









June 10, 2011 4:17PM













At 8 p.m. Friday, May 13, Amy
Fry-Pitzen was seen on surveillance video buying Ritz crackers and milk
at this Sullivan's Foods in Winnebago, hours before she killed herself
in a Rockford motel. Her son, Timmothy, is not seen in the video. |
Marianne Mathe






















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Article Extras





View Gallery









































Updated: June 10, 2011 6:24PM


http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/5872067-417/one-month-later-search-continues-for-timmothy-pitzen.html

test

xxxxxx

Please let me know via PM if you have been having trouble accessing the last page of this topic. It seems the only way I can get to it is by posting a new message.

Bump

test

test

test - trying to get to pg 4

test

Unfortunately pg.3 has a glitch and seems to be unreadable.
We'll re-post some of those articles here in due course.

June 13, 2011

One Month Later, Search Continues For Timmothy.
Sometime between late May 13 and early May 14, Amy Fry-Pitzen
— cut and bloodied — tried to get out of the bathtub.

She was in Room 108 of the Rockford Motel, where
rooms are tidy but sparse: two beds with maroon spreads, a night stand, a
dresser and an old TV. Amy had added little to the surroundings.
Besides a bottle of water, a flier from the Wisconsin Dells and a bottle
of children’s cough syrup, there was the five-sentence suicide note.
Amy had double-locked the door and secured the chain.

At some point, she cut her arms lengthwise, letting
the blood spill into the bathtub. In her last moments, she took one or
two steps toward the sink and collapsed.

“All that was left was the final beats of her heart,” the motel’s manager said.

After two attempts to wake up whoever was in Room
108 about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, a maid unlocked the door. Even
with the chain still on, she could see Amy’s body. When Rockford police
identified her, it tripped an alert: Reported missing with her
6-year-old son out of Aurora. The boy was not in the room. Police found
no sign he had been there.

What at first seemed to be another motel suicide
was now a crisis, one that would inspire hundreds of professional and
amateur detectives to try to figure out what happened to 6-year-old
Timmothy Pitzen. Was he alive? Trapped? Lost? Amy’s suicide note says
Timmothy was safe with unnamed people, but there has been no sign of him since.

It has been a month since Amy checked her only son
out of Greenman Elementary School in Aurora; took a three-day, 500-mile
road trip; then killed herself. Although unannounced and obscured from
her family, the vacation started pleasantly enough, with stops at the
zoo and fantastic water parks. Then, on the third day, the trip went
into some horrible detour from which Timmothy has yet to emerge.

Unannounced departure

After driving his wife to work on Wednesday, May
11, Jim Pitzen dropped the couple’s only son at school. Both of the
goodbyes were innocuous: love you, see ya later. The day followed the
routine of scores before, ever since Timmothy had started kindergarten.

Jim usually picked up Timmothy after the boy’s
half-day, drove him to day care and went back to work. At night, the
family lived a quiet life in their home on the West Side of Aurora.

But when he arrived at Greenman, Jim discovered his wife, Amy Fry-Pitzen,
had already checked the boy out of school.

In fact, by the time Jim was making his first call
to check on Amy, she and Timmothy were already on their way to
Brookfield Zoo — one of Timmothy’s favorite spots, according to family.
From the zoo, Amy and Timmothy headed to Key Lime Resort in Gurnee, a
spectacular hotel and water park where rooms are more than $150 a night.

Meanwhile at home, Jim continued to call his wife’s
cell phone. Jim refuses to talk about any mental health issues, but
police have confirmed Amy had previous suicide attempts. She had left
before, but never with Timmothy. Still, Jim was sure they were together.
And even if he didn’t know where they were, apparently he was confident
they’d return. He went to bed but rested uneasily, he said.

Into Wisconsin

The next day, Amy and Timmothy headed north into
Wisconsin. The weather was cool, and there were storm warnings out. But
they were headed where weather didn’t matter: the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

The drive to Kalahari is long: about 170 miles
through mostly rural Wisconsin. Tracing Amy’s likely route these first
two days, the trip seems ordinary. Amy stopped at a convenience store
and bought clothes, a toy car and small craft kit — good trinkets for
amusing an active kindergartner on a long ride. About an hour after Jim
called in a missing person report to Aurora police, Amy stopped for gas
and drinks off of Interstate 94 — a direct path from Racine to the Dells.

According to Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli,
when police received Jim’s report, Amy and Timmothy’s names immediately
went into a database that notified thousands of departments nationwide.
Any contact that a police officer had with Amy, Timmothy or Amy’s car
would immediately identify them as reported missing.

Amy’s behavior was alarming, but it is not a crime
to take your kid on an unannounced vacation. And her actions did not
meet the criteria for state police to issue an Amber Alert, the system
designed to spread the description of missing, endangered children
nationwide in minutes.

For a system like that to work, strict guidelines
have been set up. An Amber Alert every day would become background
noise, lost in the usual assortment of terror alerts and storm warnings.
To make sure Amber Alerts are set aside for the most critical cases,
there must be proof the child has been abducted and is at risk for serious bodily harm.

And for the first two days of his trip with his mother, Timmothy was far from danger.

Just like Key Lime Resort, the Kalahari is a pricey
children’s paradise. Every room is immaculate, with flat-screen TVs,
refrigerators and queen-size beds. Kalahari’s 125,000-square-foot indoor
water park is advertised as the world’s largest.

Surveillance video caught Amy and Timmothy checking
out the next morning. Timmothy is seen holding his mother’s hand and
checking the child’s backpack she’s carrying. He appears to be bored
with waiting in line. For police, it’s the last images of mother and son
together. Within hours, Amy’s trip would veer from coherence.

Terrible detour

Up until leaving the Kalahari, the trip seems to
have purpose. Through cell phone calls, iPass records and credit card
receipts, police have been able to confirm that on Wednesday and
Thursday, May 11 and 12, Amy mostly took main roads, chose logical
point-to-point routes and made good time.

Then, while driving south on Interstate 39 and west
on Interstate 88 toward Sterling, she finally started calling family
members — although not her husband. The conversations seemed normal.
Family heard Timmothy in the background, and at one point he got on the phone.

As she makes the calls, Amy drives about 170 miles.
It’s not clear why she heads toward Sterling, a humble, post-industrial
town that hugs the northern side of the Rock River, about 80 miles west
of Aurora. Police have not been able to confirm that she had ties to
anything or anyone in the area. At 1:30 p.m., just north of Sterling,
Amy turns off her cell phone for the last time.

She will not re-appear until about 8 p.m., 50 miles
away, when she’s seen on a surveillance camera — alone — buying Ritz
crackers and milk at a grocery store in Winnebago, west of Rockford.

It doesn’t take six hours to drive 50 miles. So if
Timmothy was passed off, abandoned or worse, police believe it likely
happened between her last call and the Ritz crackers — a tremendous gap
of time and distance.

Each time you make a cell phone call, the signal
gets reception from the closest tower it can find. If you’re moving —
like driving in a car down Route 40 toward Sterling — the call leaps
between two or more towers, allowing a consistent signal. Movement can
be traced through cell phone triangulation, using the intersection of
tower signals to approximate the caller’s location.

This is why Aurora police have a rough idea where
Amy placed that last call. It’s about five miles northwest of Sterling,
near Oak Knoll Cemetery, which straddles Route 40. Dozens of World War
II veterans are buried there. On a modest hill, the armed services flags
are flown every day. From that memorial, a visitor can see in all
directions for miles: the beautiful expanse of Illinois’ cornfields,
dotted by small groves of trees and century-old farmhouses.

At that vantage point, the challenge facing police
is obvious. There are thousands of square miles to search. And although
it’s easy to get from Sterling to Winnebago on Interstates 88 and 39,
police don’t think it’s likely Amy traveled those open, well-traveled
roads. She probably followed the Rock River northeast, maybe along Route
2. These back roads twist and turn through hundreds of farms, past
state parks, vast open spaces and small clusters of trees.

Hundreds of officers, a canine team and a search
plane hunting for any sign of Timmothy came up empty in a search near
Sterling. Police openly admit the search was the equivalent of throwing a
manpower dart at the region. They didn’t have any clue to focus their
search. Timmothy could be anywhere.

Amy’s last night

Police have not ruled out many theories on when
Timmothy went missing, but it is not very likely he went to Winnebago
with his mom. At 7:25 p.m. Friday, May 13, she bought a pen, paper and
envelopes at the Family Dollar. No one at the store remembers her coming
in. She was just another customer on a busy Friday, the day when trucks
have to be unloaded. Amy then went next door to Sullivan’s Foods, where
store manager Benjamin Jacobsen said she was seen on video, alone.
About three hours later, Amy checked into the Rockford Motel, near the
intersection of Route 20 and Route 251, on the south side of Rockford.

Despite sincere efforts to plant flowers, the
two-story, U-shaped motel is not a luxurious place. The building is not
so much neglected as it was built unloved. It’s functional, not fancy.
One distinct impression it gives: this is no place for kids. There’s an
electric bug zapper sitting in the lobby. On a 95-degree day, the pool
is drained. The courtyard is concrete.

The owners have tried their best to clean up the
place and in the row of three motels off Route 251, it may be the best.
At the counter where Amy stood, a note promises that as of Dec. 1, 2009,
the motel is doing background checks.

“Do not check in, if a problem,” the sign warns.

Amy parked her Ford Expedition outside the
manager’s office and signed in. Her handwriting is neat, steady. She
used her real name and address. She requested a non-smoking, single
room. Only rooms with two beds were available, so she got Room 108 for $40 cash.

Police will not say exactly what was on Amy’s
suicide note other than to confirm it says Timmothy was fine and with
people. Sources have confirmed the note also said he would never be found.

Searching for hope

Saturday marked one month since Amy checked
Timmothy out of school. Police have searched fields, cars and houses.
They have sent dirt and grass collected from Amy’s car to geologists.
They have scoured her three computers and cell phones. They have
interviewed witnesses and family members, who were all cooperative. All
of it has come up empty.

Although it’s hard to find any fliers with any
details about Timmothy along Amy’s likely route, everyone seems to know
the story. Their theories on what happened are diverse and broad, but
they cling to the hope that, somehow, Timmothy was spared.

Of course, Amy’s last act means anything is
possible, and looking for common sense in her actions may be futile.
Still, even strangers search for some glimmer of logic. Because if
reason existed, then a mother could never hurt her child, even in her
darkest moments.

People who met Amy — like the manager of the motel, who declined
to give her name — won’t believe Timmothy is dead.
“I don’t believe she hurt him and walked away that calmly,” she said.
“I really think someone has that child.”
And Timmothy’s family is sure he’s out there, somewhere.

“I’m 100 percent sure of that,” said Linda Pitzen,
Timmothy’s grandmother. “After I read the suicide note, I know in my
heart he’s alive. I just don’t know where he’s at. And so I pray every
night for God to put His arms around him.”
http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/5890673-417/one-month-later-search-continues-for-timmothy-pitzen.html

Alana Anderson refuses to wipe away the small handprint left on a
window at her northwest suburban home — a reminder of her 6-year-old
grandson, who has been missing for more than a month. "I cry a
lot," said Anderson, who lives with constant reminders of the boy — the
sight of children's clothing in department stores, the garden where he
helped her plant beans. "It's like it's somebody else's life, not mine."Timmothy Pitzen hasn't been seen since May 13 when he and his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, left a Wisconsin Dells resort.Fry-Pitzen committed suicide sometime between 11:15 p.m. on Friday,
May 13, and 12:30 p.m. the next day, when workers in a Rockford motel
found her body and a note she had written, authorities said. The
note stated that Fry-Pitzen had left Timmothy, a brown-haired,
brown-eyed boy who stands just over 4 feet tall and weighs about 70
pounds, with responsible adults whom she did not name.More than five weeks later, no such adults have surfaced."The
fact of the matter is there just haven't been any clues about what's
happened to Timmothy," Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. Crimestoppers is offering up to $5,000 for information that leads to the boy's recovery, he added.Police
are considering another search — dozens of law enforcement officers
conducted one May 19 in a rural area about 100 miles west of Chicago —
but they've been unable to pinpoint a place, Ferrelli said."When you look at the expanse of area where he and Amy were last reported, the biggest challenge is where do we start?" he said.That frustration is why authorities hope the public remains vigilant, Ferrelli said. Finding
missing items belonging to the boy, including a Spiderman backpack, a
Wild Republic "Aquatic Rig" truck and a blue Hot Wheels starter set,
might give investigators a more manageable area to search, he said.Authorities
also have sent soil samples and weeds found under Amy Fry-Pitzen's SUV
to be analyzed in hopes of determining where she may have driven.Fry-Pitzen
picked up Timmothy from kindergarten on May 11, less than an hour after
his father, James Pitzen, dropped the boy at school, authorities said.Over the next two days, Fry-Pitzen and Timmothy visited Brookfield Zoo, KeyLime Cove Water Park in Gurnee and the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells.After leaving the Wisconsin resort, she was with her son when she bought children's clothes in Racine and gas and beverages in Johnson Creek, Wis., authorities said. At
about 1:30 p.m. on May 13, Fry-Pitzen made phone calls from an area
around Sterling, Ill., , and Timmothy spoke with relatives, police said.
She was seen at a Sullivan's Foods in Winnebago, then checked into the
Rockford motel about 11:15 p.m., but without her son, authorities said.Fry-Pitzen,
who had endured bouts of mental illness, taken medication for
depression and attempted suicide before, slit her wrists in the motel
room, police said.The depiction of her daughter as unstable irritates Anderson, who lives in Lake County. Fry-Pitzen
"was not a crazy person," she said. "She was a good mom and a good
daughter. I don't know what happened. I don't know why and I may never
know."Anderson remains hopeful that Timmothy is safe and that
"whoever has him is taking good care of him. I just don't understand why
someone hasn't turned him over if they know he was being looked for,
unless they're living under the radar."Robert Lowery, executive
director of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
said in almost all missing children cases, "someone out there" has
specific knowledge of what happened to the child.Investigators,
he said, find the vast majority of the estimated 800,000 children
reported missing every year and return them to their families, sometimes
after months or years."That," Lowery said, "is why we urge everyone not to give up hope."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-timmothy-pitzen-0619-20110618,0,6278746.story

I've had a bad feeling about this all along. This poor little boy.