'It's devastating': For Timmothy's family, it's back to worry and hope
"It's devastating. It's like reliving that day all over again," said Kara Jacobs, aunt of missing Aurora boy Timmothy Pitzen, after learning Thursday that her nephew had not been found safe in northern Kentucky as originally hoped.
The person who told police in Kentucky he was Timmothy and had escaped from two men who held him captive for seven years, turned out not to be the missing 14-year-old boy but rather a 23-year-old man.
Despite that news, Pitzen family members said they remain hopeful Timmothy is alive, "happy" and being well cared for by a loving family.
"We know that you are out there somewhere, Tim, and we will never stop looking for you, praying for you and loving you," Jacobs said. "We hope that everyone will join us in praying for the young man who claims to be Timmothy Pitzen."
Jacobs said too many "lost children" are in desperate need of help and refrained from calling the man's story a hoax.
"We hope our tragedy will help to shed some light on the horrific problems of suicide and missing children in our country," she said. "I would reserve all judgment and pray for the young man involved."
Timmothy>was a 6-year-old kindergartner when he went missing. His mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, removed him from Greenman Elementary School on the morning of May 11, 2011, and took the boy to Brookfield Zoo and then to Key Lime Cove water park in Gurnee, according to Aurora police.
His father, James, reported the two missing May 12. It was later discovered they went that day to the Kalahari Water Resort in Wisconsin Dells, and the mother also was seen at a store in Racine, Wisconsin.
A maid found Fry-Pitzen dead in a Rockford hotel on May 14. Authorities said she had killed herself.
"Tim is somewhere safe with people who love him and will take care of him. You will never find him," she wrote in a note.
Authorities have been searching for Timmothy ever since.
Timmothy's grandmother, Alana Anderson of Antioch, said she was very close to the boy and the past few days have been "awful"
The family got the call from an Aurora police detective, and of all the sightings of Timmothy over the years, this time felt the most promising, they said.
"Timmothy's father is devastated once again," Jacobs said.
"We've been on tenterhooks. ... We've been hopeful and frightened. ... It's just been exhausting," Anderson said. "I feel so sorry for the young man (who claimed to be Timmothy) who's obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was someone else, and hope that they can find his family.
"It's kind of back to ground zero for us ... kind of reliving everything that did happen and renewing the loss one more time."
"He's a wonderful little boy and I hope he has the strength of personality to do whatever he needs to do to find us," Anderson said. "My prayer has always been that when he was old enough he would find us, if we couldn't find him."