A news conference is planned for 10:30 a.m. today with an update on this case. Watch live below:
NEWPORT, KY. -- The man who told authorities he was missing boy Timmothy Pitzen is actually a 23-year-old man from Ohio, according to NBC News.
Brian Michael Rini now stands accused of perpetrating a bizarre hoax in which he told police he escaped from two kidnappers who had held him captive for 7 years.
On Thursday afternoon the FBI said that the man was not Timmothy.
FBILouisville, @FBICincinnati, @AuroraPoliceIL, Newport PD, @CincyPD, and HCSO have been conducting a missing person investigation. DNA results have been returned indicating the person in question is not Timmothy Pitzen.
— FBI Louisville (@FBILouisville) April 4, 2019
Pitzen was originally from Illinois and was last seen in the Wisconsin Dells in 2011
Authorities in suburban Cincinnati say Rini claimed to have escaped Wednesday morning in southwestern Ohio after being kidnapped.
Police in Sharonville, Ohio, said in a short incident report that a 14-year-old boy told authorities Wednesday that he had "just escaped from two kidnappers" he described as white men with body builder-type physiques. They were in Ford SUV with Wisconsin license plates and had been staying at a Red Roof Inn.
The boy told police that after his escape he "kept running across a bridge into" Kentucky.
Police believe Amy Fry-Pitzen picked up her 6-year-old son from school and took him to the zoo and a Wisconsin water park before she apparently killed herself. Her body was found with her wrists slit in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel on May 15, 2011.
"To be clear, law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today," the FBI tweeted.
Check back often for updates on this developing story.
