New image of missing Aurora boy released on 4th anniversary of disappearance
What does Timmothy Pitzen of Aurora look like today, four years after he disappeared?
A new age-progression image of the boy, depicting him at age 10, was released Tuesday by Aurora police and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Pitzen was last seen by people he knew May 11, 2011, when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled the 6-year-old boy out of Greenman Elementary School unexpectedly in the middle of the day.
She took him to Brookfield Zoo, then the Key Lime Cove water park in Gurnee, according to police.
The next day she drove to Kalahari Resort water park in Wisconsin Dells. She also stopped at a store in Racine, Wis., to buy children's clothes and toys. The two were seen on surveillance video at the resort. That day, Fry-Pitzen's husband, Timmothy's father, reported the duo missing.
On May 13, she called friends and relatives from somewhere in northwest Illinois, between Dixon, Sterling and Rock Falls. The recipients of the calls said they heard Timmothy in the background, saying he was hungry, They said he did not seem to be in distress.
That night, Fry-Pitzen checked in to a motel in Rockford. She was found dead the next day, having killed herself by slicing an arm and her neck with a box cutter.
She left a note that said, “Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will take care of him. You will never find him.”
Police determined that Timmothy's Spider-Man backpack was missing from her car, as well as an aquatic-rig toy truck, a blue Hot Wheels toy car starter kit, a tube of children's Crest toothpaste and Fry-Pitzen's tollway IPASS transponder and cellphone.
“NCMEC forensic artists do amazing work and their images have helped bring home hundreds of other children before. This important tool may hold the key to bringing Timmothy home,” said Aurora Detective Lee Catavu, in a news release.
According to the center, 1,300 long-term missing children have been recovered in cases where an age-progression image was created.
When he went missing, Pitzen was about 4 feet 2 inches tall and weighed around 70 pounds. He had brown hair and brown eyes. Timmothy may go by the nicknames Tim or Timmy.
If you have information, call the center at (800) THE-LOST (800-843-5678) or Aurora police at (630) 256-5500.