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

nothing new found 4-10-12

Search for missing Aurora boy continues one year after his disappearance


Timmothy Pitzen

• Boy’s mother was found dead of a suicide inside a Rockford motel room May 14, 2011

Staff Report

The search for 7-year-old Timmothy Pitzen, of Aurora, Ill., who went
missing May 12, 2011, continues one year after his disappearance.

Timmothy was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. He was last with
his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, who was found dead May 14, 2011, of a
suicide after she slit her wrists with a knife inside a Rockford motel room.

Fry-Pitzen had taken her son out of school May 11, 2011, without telling family
members, and took him to the Wisconsin Dells. The two went on a
three-day, 500-mile road trip, stopping at zoos and water parks in
northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

Investigators have released surveillance video showing Fry-Pitzen taking Timmothy out of school, plus two home videos.

In the home videos, Timmothy is dressed in Spider-Man pajamas and playing a
guitar made from Tinker toys. In the surveillance video, Fry-Pitzen is
shown waiting in the school until Timmothy approaches wearing a
backpack. The video then shows the two leaving the school.

The investigation has revealed Fry-Pitzen made several cellphone calls from
the Rock Falls-Sterling area. Her final call May 13 had her about 5
miles northwest of Sterling near Illinois Highway 40. She had called
family May 13 to tell them she and Timmothy were OK.

Police examination of Fry-Pitzen’s I-PASS account showed she had made two
prior trips to the Dixon-Rock Falls-Sterling area that her family could
not account for.

Police found a large amount of Timmothy’s blood in the back seat of the 2004
Ford Expedition Fry-Pitzen was driving when she took him out of school.
However, authorities said the blood could have been from a nosebleed.

When her Ford Expedition was located in the parking lot of the Rockford
hotel, Aurora police said the vehicle was “visibly dirty and had growth
that was similar to tall grass or weeds underneath the body.”

Six months after Timmothy’s disappearance, police released results of
forensic analysis of the grass, dirt and debris taken from Fry-Pitzen’s
Ford Expedition. Lab results determined the plant material on the
Expedition showed it was stopped for a time on a wide gravel shoulder or
a gravel road. According to reports, the evidence showed the Expedition
was backed into a grassy field near the gravel area.

A suicide note and several letters were found upon Fry-Pitzen’s death. In
notes to her husband, her mother and a close friend, Fry-Pitzen said
her son was safe and with people who loved him. However, she did not say
with whom she had left Timmothy.

Timmothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, has said in reports that one of the notes warned, “You will never find Timmothy.”

Anderson and Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, marked what would have been
Timmothy’s seventh birthday Oct. 18, 2011, by planting a 7-year-old blue
spruce tree in the back garden.

Anderson told the Chicago Tribune:

“I bought him a birthday card and cut out pictures of the things I
would have bought for him … a lighted skateboard, a remote-control helicopter.”

Timmothy Pitzen, who may go by Tim or Timmy, is white with brown hair and brown
eyes. He was last known to be 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 70 pounds.

Anyone with information about Timmothy Pitzen’s whereabouts is urged to
contact The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Aurora Police Department at 1-630-256-5000.

From the May 2-8, 2012, issue

http://rockrivertimes.com/2012/05/02/search-for-missing-aurora-boy-continues-one-year-after-his-disappearance/

One year later: Where is Timmothy Pitzen?

By Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com
May 11, 2012 9:10AM
Updated: May 11, 2012 12:48PM


One year after 6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen disappeared, Aurora police released new surveillance video of his mother checking and leaving a Wisconsin resort.

On May 11, 2011, Amy Fry-Pitzen took her only son out of Greenman Elementary School in Aurora early on the school day. Without telling any family members, Timmothy and Amy went on a three-day, 500-mile road trip, stopping at zoos and water parks. On the third day, Amy finally called family to report that she was fine. Timmothy was heard in the background. Police found her body and a suicide note the next morning. Timmothy has not been found.

The clips released Friday represent the final surveillance footage Aurora police have of Amy and Timmothy. They have previously released several clips and a home video of Timmothy.

The clips show Amy and Timmothy walking into or leaving the Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurnee, on May 12, 2011; the fifth shows Amy and Timmohty at Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. Like the previous clips, the video show ordinary mother-son interactions. In one, Timmothy drives a toy truck through the lobby while his mother checks in.

On Friday, police again asked residents in northwest Illinois to search their properties for several missing items that may help pinpoint what happened to the boy.

Last November, police issued their first appeal based on the forensics findings of Microtrace LLC, a private forensics lab based in Elgin, with whom they contracted last summer to process the dust, vegetation, and other materials found on Amy Fry-Pitzen’s SUV. Those findings indicated that:

Based on sediments and plant material, the vehicle was stopped for an unknown period of time on a wide gravel shoulder, gravel road, or short gravel turnout either adjacent to, or just off of, an asphalt secondary road that had at one time, been treated with glass road-marking beads. In close proximity to the gravel shoulder or road where the vehicle stopped, it backed into a grassy meadow or field to a spot that is nearly treeless. There are birch and oak trees in the general area but not directly over or at the spot where the SUV stopped. Both Queen Anne’s Lace and black mustard plants grow in a row along the border of the field or the shoulder of the road.

In addition, there is no corn growing in or adjacent to the spot where the SUV stopped, nor is there any indication that the area had been used for agriculture in the recent past. Instead, the evidence strongly suggests that grasses have been the only major plants growing in the immediate area which leads scientists to believe that it is a meadow and not, for example, a field that had once been farmland and not recently sown. Forensic results indicate that the grass was not cut which helps rule out a rural residential lawn or a park. There is also a strong likelihood that there is a pond, small stream, or creek in the area.

Scientists further believe that the meadow is most likely in Northwestern Illinois with Lee and Whiteside Counties as the most likely locations. However, areas in Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties cannot be ruled out. Microtrace has since performed other tests but has not been able to further narrow down the six-county area - an area much too large for police to conduct ground searches.

Missing items that may yield clues and those of which people should be looking for include Timmothy’s Spider Man backpack, several toys and a tube of toothpaste Amy had bought for Timmothy before he disappeared; and Amy’s cell phone and I-Pass device. Since there are several state parks and other popular areas for outdoor enthusiasts in that part of Illinois, police are also hoping that hikers, bikers, boaters, and other visitors will be on the lookout for the items. Anyone finding any of the items should immediately call Aurora Police at 630-256-5500.

While investigators continue to pursue any and all information that may come in, they still have no leads about whether Timmothy is still alive. The last time anyone heard from Timmothy was on May 13, 2011, when he talked to a relative via his mother’s cell phone as the pair were traveling about five miles west of Sterling, Illinois.

Aurora Police still receive periodic calls from people across the nation who think they have spotted Timmothy but after exhaustively following up on every report, no further information has developed.

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/news/12378488-418/one-year-later-where-is-timmothy-pitzen.html

One video shows Timmothy Pitzen pushing a toy truck across a carpeted
lobby. Another shows him clutching something to his chest as he walks
through a stairwell exit behind his mother. In a third, the 6-year-old
jogs to catch up to his mother as she walks from a water resort.

Those movements, recorded by surveillance cameras at resorts in Gurnee
and Wisconsin Dells, Wis., were released Friday morning by authorities
investigating the Aurora boy's disappearance.




Friday marked one year since the
day Timmothy's mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him from his kindergarten
classroom and took off on a two-day trip. Police released the 59
seconds of video clips to renew interest in the search for Timmothy, who
was last seen leaving a Wisconsin Dells water resort May 13, 2011.

By about noon the next day, Fry-Pitzen had committed suicide in a
Rockford motel room, authorities say. When employees found her body,
Timmothy was missing. She stated in a note that he was safe, leading
some to speculate that she left him in the care of responsible adults.

In addition to the release of the videos, police on Friday morning
reiterated key elements of the investigation and made another appeal for
help. By Friday afternoon, no promising leads had developed as a result
of the media exposure, authorities said.

A forensic botany analysis of Fry-Pitzen's SUV indicated it had been
parked for an unknown period of time in a gravel area near a remote
asphalt road close to a meadow in northwest Illinois.

Authorities also noted on Friday that they continue looking for "missing
items that may yield clues." Those items include Timmothy's Spider-Man backpack, a tube of toothpaste, Fry-Pitzen's cellphone and her I-Pass transponder.

Investigators "still have no leads into Timmothy's whereabouts,
including whether the boy is still alive or met with foul play," Aurora
police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said in a statement.

He said police "still receive periodic calls from people across the
nation who think they have spotted Timmothy, but after exhaustively
following up on every report, no further information has developed."

Timmothy would be 7 years old now. At the time of his disappearance, he
was 4 feet 2 inches tall and about 70 pounds with brown eyes and brown
hair. Anyone with information that could help find Timmothy can call
Aurora police at 630-256-5500.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pitzen-video-20120512,0,3173360.story

http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/watch/Missing-Kids/4892349844708382112/2311282186/Timmothy-Pitzen/videos

Two years later, search continues for missing Illinois boy


Posted on: 3:22 pm, May 14, 2013, by Shellie Nelson


On the second anniversary of his disappearance, investigators are reviewing evidence to try to figure out what happened to Timmothy Pitzen.

Surveillance cameras captured video of Timmothy and his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, as Amy checked him out of school in Aurora, Illinois on May 11, 2011 and as the two visited two resorts in Wisconsin.

The last time anyone heard from Timmothy was May 13, 2011 when he spoke with a relative via his mother’s cell phone. Timmothy and Amy were about five miles west of Sterling, Illinois at that time.

Amy’s body was found in a hotel room May 14, 2011. Police said she had apparently committed suicide with a knife.

In a post marking two years since Amy’s body was found, a Facebook page dedicated to finding Timmothy said detectives believe the boy is still alive.

The post quotes an article from WIFR that says it is still a missing person’s case, and that police field about five calls a month from people who say they’ve spotted Timmothy. Investigators were re-examining evidence and revisiting more than 60 people who all consistently say Amy would never have harmed her son.

The recent discovery of three women ten years after they vanished in Cleveland inspires supporters to not give up.

Timmothy Pitzen was six years old when he vanished. He is nearly nine years old now.

Anyone with information about Timmothy should call 911.

Get more video, photos and coverage of the disappearance of Timmothy Pitzen – click here.



http://wqad.com/2013/05/14/two-years-later-search-continues-for-missing-illinois-boy/

I hope and pray I'm wrong but I think his mother murdered Timmothy.

Age progression image of missing Aurora boy released on three-year anniversary of disappearance


By Ted Gregory, Tribune reporter

May 10, 2014

The last recorded image of Timmothy Pitzen was taken shortly after 10 a.m. three years ago Tuesday. Security camera footage shows the 6-year-old Aurora boy walking from a Wisconsin Dells water park hotel with his mother.

After that moment, facts surrounding the boy's well-being and location became foreboding. His mother's body was found with a suicide note on May 14, 2011 in a Rockford motel room. Timmothy was gone and remains missing. Investigators' last tip was about a year ago.

Now, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has released a time-progression image of the boy and interviews with his aunt and uncle to generate renewed exposure for the case.

"The image... is an important tool in our mission to help bring Timmothy home," Aurora Police Detective Lee Catavu said in a prepared statement released Friday. Catavu, lead investigator in the case, said last year's escape of three Cleveland women who'd been held captive in a home for a decade "restored his faith that if Timmothy is out there, he will be found.

"Those three women give us all a lot of hope," Catavu said, "and we so badly want to find Timmothy."

The boy's mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, had a history of depression and her marriage was strained, family members said. But, in her suicide note, Fry-Pitzen said her son was safe and being cared for by someone who loved him. Authorities have contended Fry-Pitzen might have been planning her son's disappearance for months.

Investigators also have noted that they recovered a significant amount of Timmothy's blood from the back seat of his mother's SUV, although Timmothy's father told police the boy had suffered a serious nosebleed days before his mother took him from his school on May 11, 2011.

And, family members have insisted that Fry-Pitzen never would have hurt the boy.

"Maybe that's hard for some people to grasp," Timmothy's aunt, Kara Jacobs, said in the NCMEC video, "but she just had nothing but kindness and consideration for other people in her life."

Jacobs also said the family believes "with every fiber of our being that (Timmothy's) alive. Without any kind of logic to give you, I can just tell you, I know that he's alive. We just have to find him."

Police had reason for optimism in October, Aurora Police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said, when they recovered Amy Fry-Pitzen's cell phone. But a search of the phone failed to yield significant leads in the case, Ferrelli said.

"That was a big disappointment," Ferrelli said. "Unfortunately, like everything else in this case, the cell phone was a brick wall."



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-missing-timmothy-pitzen-image-20140510,0,1123457.story

Woman Reports Possible Sighting of Missing 6-Year-Old Boy


Thursday, May 15, 2014  |  Updated 10:17 PM CDT

Aurora Police are investigating a possible sighting of Timmothy Pitzen, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared with his mother three years ago.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a woman in the northern Illinois town of Rockton contacted police over the weekend after seeing a boy that resembles Timmothy at her garage sale.

The tip comes after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progression image of the boy last week that showed what he would have looked like at the age of 9.

• Group Releases Age-Progression Photo of Missing Aurora Boy
  

The newspaper reports that investigators have sent video clips of the boy to the woman to help her determine if the resemblence is strong.

Pitzen's been missing since his mother, Amy Fry Pitzen, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford motel room on May 14, 2011. A note left behind in the motel room said the Timmothy was safe and in someone's care but did not indicate whom.

The new development is a glimmer of hope for the boy's grandmother, Alana Anderson.

"Just praying that he's in a loving home and people are taking care of him and he'll grow up a nice young man," Anderson told NBC 5. "In her own depression and frustration in wanting to be out of this life did she choose well? I hope so."

Police are still on the lookout for missing items that could yield clues to the boy's whereabouts. Fry Pitzen's cell phone, I-Pass and the clothing she was seen wearing on other surveillance videos, as well as Timmothy’s Spider Man backpack and his toys from the SUV, are still missing, according to police.

When he went missing, Timmothy stood about 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed about 70 pounds, officials said. Anyone with information is asked to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or Aurora Police at 630-256-5500.

Rockton woman claims to have seen Timmothy Pitzen

Kristin Crowley
May 15, 2014 8:52 p.m.

A Rockton woman tells police she may have spotted a young boy who's been missing for three years.

Aurora Police are investigating the woman's claim she saw Timmothy Pitzen at a garage sale in Rockton on May 9th.

Police tell 13 News that over the years they've gotten dozens of tips from across the country about Timmothy, but none have panned out. However, officers say they will investigate this latest tip fully. Officers say they have sent the woman video clips of Timmothy to verify he's the one she saw May 9th, but they say she has not gotten back to them yet. If she confirms that's who she saw, Aurora Police will bring their investigation up to the Rockton area.

In 2011, Aurora Police say Timmothy's mother was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford hotel. Timmothy was never found. Authorities say timmothy may go by Tim or Timmy now.

http://m.wrex.com/w/main/story/115009206/

POLICE RELEASE NEW DETAILS ABOUT MISSING CHILD, TIMMOTHY PITZEN

May 15, 2014 by Michelle Sigona

There’s a mystery involving a missing boy in Aurora, and police are seeking answers. Three years ago, 6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen was sitting inside his Greenman Elementary School when he was picked up because of a family emergency.

Police said his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, went to the school to pick up her son. From that point on, no one knows for certain what happened to Timmothy.

On May 13, 2011, Amy was found dead inside a Rockford hotel. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) said:

“Detectives say a haunting note was left behind saying Timmothy was safe, with someone who loved him and that he would never be found.”

As for the “family emergency” investigators figured out there really wasn’t one.

Detective Lee Catavu with the Aurora Police Department is not only releasing new details, but their team also worked with NCMEC to produce a new age enhanced photo of Timmothy could possibly look like today (above).

Detective Catavu also said there is absolutely no evidence to suggest Amy would ever hurt her son and he continues to work this case as if Timmothy is alive.

Along with the new age enhanced photo, authorities are also asking residents, hikers, bikers and boaters in northwestern Illinois for these missing items:

• Timmothy’s Spider-Man backpack
• Amy’s I-Pass device
• Several toys and a tube of toothpaste that Amy bought for Timmothy before he disappeared

As for Amy’s SUV, NCMEC said:

“Aurora Police contracted a private forensics lab based in Elgin, Illinois, to process the dust, vegetation and other materials found on Amy Fry-Pitzen’s vehicle.”

NEW CLUES

NCMEC lists the forensic findings from Microtrace LLC:

• Based on sediments and plant material, the vehicle was stopped for an unknown period of time on a wide gravel shoulder, gravel road, or short gravel turnout either adjacent to, or just off of, an asphalt secondary road that had at one time, been treated with glass road-marking beads.

• In close proximity to the gravel shoulder or road where the vehicle stopped, it backed into a grassy meadow or field to a spot that is nearly treeless.

• There are birch and oak trees in the general area but not directly over or at the spot where the SUV stopped. Both Queen Anne’s Lace and black mustard plants grow in a row along the border of the field or the shoulder of the road.

• In addition, there is no corn growing in or adjacent to the spot where the SUV stopped, nor is there any indication that the area had been used for agriculture in the recent past. Instead, the evidence strongly suggests that grasses have been the only major plants growing in the immediate area which leads scientists to believe that it is a meadow and not, for example, a field that had once been farmland and not recently sown.

• Forensic results indicate that the grass was not cut which helps rule out a rural residential lawn or a park.

• There is also a strong likelihood that there is a pond, small stream, or creek in the area.

• Scientists further believe that the meadow is most likely in Northwestern Illinois with Lee and Whiteside Counties as the most likely locations.

• However, areas in Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties cannot be ruled out.

• Microtrace has since performed other tests but has not been able to further narrow down the six-county area – an area much too large for police to conduct ground searches.



http://crimefeed.com/2014/05/aurora-police-release-new-details-timmothy-pitzen-missing-child-case/

Yeah, like I said.

Grieving mother reads daughter's suicide note


By Mike Duffy
updated4:45 PM EDT, Tue June 03, 2014



Three years later, where is Timmothy Pitzen?


Warning: Alana Anderson read her daughter’s suicide note aloud to Nancy Grace Producer, Mike Duffy. The audio may be difficult for some audiences. 

It was a cool spring morning on Saturday, May 14, 2011, when Alana Anderson received the news every mother fears most. Her daughter Amy was dead, a victim of suicide. Amy's body was found in a hotel room. Police say she had apparently used a knife. The blow was devastating to Alana.

"I thought bad things had happened to me before, but this one tops them all," she says.

Even though Amy's pain was now over, Alana's was only beginning. The worst-case scenario was about to take on a whole new depth: the search was just beginning to find Amy's son, Alana’s grandson, 6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen. The little boy, it seems, had vanished without a trace.

The clues Alana Anderson does have about her grandson’s disappearance come in the form of a suicide note. It arrived in the mail after Amy’s body was found. Alana hopes sharing the letter and, thus, Amy’s frame of mind at the time might help in the search by sparking someone’s memory.

“I know you are hurt and frustrated … It was just time for me to say goodbye… I love you,” she reads.

These words give Alana some comfort, knowing she was truly loved by her daughter. Other words still hold great mystery, especially those regarding what could have happened to Timmothy.

“I've taken him somewhere safe,” Alana continues to read. “He will be well cared for and he says that he loves you.”

Alana admits not a day goes by when she doesn’t think about Timmothy. She has wonderful memories of the little man whose energy and enthusiasm she describes as infectious.

"Timmothy is all boy," says Alana. "He liked things that went fast. He liked digging in the garden for worms."

Alana knew him well. She spent countless hours with Timmothy while he was growing up, taking care of him on many occasions. In fact, according to Alana, she spent the entire week with Timmothy before he disappeared.

"We went to the Jelly Belly factory, we went on nature walks, and just did all kinds of fun things," she recalls.

However, their time together would eventually end and Alana would be forced to return the boy back to his world.

Quickly, this happy final memory would change course. Still, with a sense of humor, Alana remembers Timmothy's departing words, "He said, 'Well, grandma. I love you and it's been really fun but I'm getting a little bored here. I'd like to go see my friends.' So I took him back to his nursery school that day. I dropped him off, little knowing it was the last time I'd see him."

That was three years ago and, heartbreakingly, very few clues into Timmothy's disappearance have been unearthed.  Early on, there were hopeful signs: a cellphone was found,  a rare, potentially traceable mineral called Anhydrite was discovered on the wheels of Amy's SUV, and items Amy was known to have purchased for Timmothy were still at large. But then the well ran dry and, with a lack of new leads, it became difficult to keep Timmothy's story in the media.

Some people even went so far as to suggest Timmothy was dead and would never be found. Alana Anderson, however, doesn't believe this theory for a second.

"That's not even a possibility," says Alana. "Of all those foolish and devastating decisions [Amy] made that day, she did not hurt her child. Amy adored her child. She would have seen him safe somewhere but she would not have hurt her child. I'm absolutely confident of that. And I believe he's alive. I believe he's out there."

According to Alana, she and the FBI believe Amy had been planning the events of that tragic day in 2011 for quite a while.

"I think she had planned it for a very long time and then something precipitated it and she just decided to use her plan," says Alana. "I don't know what all of a sudden happened and she decided to use this terrible plan but she did. I think she had been meeting with people for a long time."

Of course, if true, this fact raises even more questions, like where is Timmothy now and what can others do to help in the search?

"I'm thinking people around the area, someone had to hear something, someone had to see something," says Alana. "Please come forward if you saw or heard anything. And if you are in the United States, and you are taking care of Tim, at least have the mercy to let us know he's alright. You don't have to tell me where he is. ...I would just hope people would keep looking, keep reporting what they see. If anything was seen or heard around the area when this was happening, please come forward."

Being in Alana's place is a position few could ever imagine. To lose a daughter to suicide and a grandson to an unknown fate, both on the same day, is incomprehensible to most. Alana says Amy was her main source of support, and when Amy went away, she was left with almost nothing.

Alana admits it all still feels very fresh, and it's something she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to move past. 

"I have not yet forgiven her for that," says Alana. "I could probably forgive her for the suicide part eventually if she was so unhappy and in such a bad place and she just couldn't crawl out of it. But I don't know if I can ever forgive her for abandoning her son and taking him away from everyone who loved him and everyone he loved, and inflicting that kind of trauma on a little boy."

For the past three years, Alana has kept the words of Amy’s letter private. Now, in the hope new attention will be brought to the search for Timmothy, she is willing to share its contents. 

Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Timmothy Pitzen is urged to call the tipline at (1-800-843-5678).





http://www.hlntv.com/video/2014/06/03/pitzen-timmothy-missing-mother-suicide-note

If Timmothy's mother loved her own mother, she would not have put her through the hell she is putting her through, not knowing what happened to her grandson.  Not knowing if he's alive or dead.