Search for Aurora boy shifts to Sterling/Rock Falls

Police now are concentrating their search for missing Aurora 6-year-old Timothy Pitzen in the Sterling and Rock Falls area, authorities said Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities determined Timothy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, called several friends and relatives on her cellphone from that area Friday between noon and 1:30 p.m. Timothy could be heard in the background saying he was hungry, but did not seem to be in immediate danger, according to people on the receiving end of Fry-Pitzen’s calls whom police interviewed.

Wednesday morning, investigators handed out fliers with Timothy’s description at rest stops, gas stations, businesses and restaurants along I-88 and I-39 near Sterling and Rock Falls to try to gain information on the boy’s whereabouts.

“Police are working several theories as to what may have happened to Timothy but are growing increasingly concerned about his welfare,” Aurora police said in a news release Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities have been searching for Timothy since his mother apparently committed suicide Saturday afternoon in a Rockford hotel. She checked Timothy out of his Aurora school the morning of May 11 and visited a few resorts in Illinois and Wisconsin with him before Friday May 13, the last time he was seen, authorities said.

The FBI, U.S. Marshals, a team from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and other law enforcement agencies in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin are assisting Aurora police with the hunt for Timothy.

Anyone who may have seen Timothy, who is about 4 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about 70 pounds and has brown hair and eyes, is asked to call Aurora police at (630) 256-5500.