Post by Scumhunter on Dec 13, 2014 20:49:58 GMT -5
Above: Timmothy Pitzen (Photo Credit: missingkids.org)
Missing Child Profile as of December 14th, 2014 (Based on Missingkids.com poster, "The Hunt with John Walsh" tv show)
Missing Since: May 12, 2011
Missing From: Aurora, IL
DOB: Oct 18, 2004
Age (as of 12/14/2014): 10
Sex: Male
Race: White
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 4'2"
Weight: 70 lbs
TIPS: Anyone having information should call 1-800-THE-LOST or the Aurora Police Department (Illinois) at 1-630-256-5000
10-year old Timmothy Pitzen is missing from Aurora, Illinois, but was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Although his case has not yet been aired on a national crime show, The Hunt has filmed a segment for season 2 in 2015, which is why I'm placing him in the Missing on TV section. The following is the case description from the Charley Project website:
Timmothy lived with his parents, James Pitzen and Amy Joan Marie Fry-Pitzen, in Aurora, Illinois at the time of his disappearance; he is their only child. Without telling anyone of her plans, Amy removed him from his kindergarten class at Greenman Elementary School on the morning of May 11, 2011. After checking him out of school, she drove to an auto repair shop and dropped off her blue 2004 Ford Expedition SUV at 10:00 a.m. One of the repair shop employees drove Amy and Timmothy to the Brookfield Zoo, and at 3:00 p.m. she came to pick up her repaired vehicle and drove with Timmothy to the KeyLime Cove Resort in Gurnee, Illinois, where they spent the night.
Meanwhile, James had reported his wife and son missing after he went to pick up Timmothy from kindergarten and found out his mother had taken him. He called her cellular phone numerous times but got no answer.
On May 12, Amy and Timmothy drove to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The following morning at 10:00 a.m., security camera footage showed them waiting in line to check out. At 1:30 p.m., Amy made several cellular phone calls to her loved ones to say she and Timmothy were fine and not in trouble. Timmothy could be heard in the background and sounded normal, saying only that he was hungry. This was the last time anyone saw or heard from the child.
At 7:25 p.m., Amy was sighted at a Family Dollar store in Winnebago, Illinois, where she purchased stationery. This time she was alone. She went to the nearby Sullivan's Foods at 8:00 p.m., then checked into the Rockford Inn in Rockford, Illinois between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. Sometime that night or the next morning, she took her own life by slashing her wrists and neck; she had also taken an overdose of antihistamines. She was 43 years old. The inn's employees found her body at 12:30 p.m. the next day, May 14.
Amy left a note and two letters in the mail (one to her mother and one to a friend) saying Timmothy was fine and with people who cared about him, but she didn't name those people. One of her notes said no one would ever find him. Her cellular phone was missing. Other items were also missing, including Timmothy's Spider-Man backpack, his toys and clothes, the clothes Amy was wearing when she checked out of the Kalahari Resort, a tube of Crest toothpaste and an iPass transponder. Photos of some similar items are posted below this case summary.
Authorities initally believed Amy had in fact given Timmothy to other people to care for, in part because his car seat was missing. However, the car seat turned up in Timmothy's grandmother's possession in Wooster, Ohio; she had had it since a week before Timmothy disappeared. As the days passed without any indication of the child's whereabouts, police became increasingly concerned for his safety. When they examined Amy's SUV, they found traces of Timmothy's blood in the backseat. However, they couldn't tell how long the stains had been there and one of the boy's relatives said he had gotten a bloody nose in the vehicle about twelve to eighteen months before his disappearance. The knife Amy used to commit suicide had only her own blood on it.
Amy's SUV was "visibly dirty" and had soil, tall grass and weeds stuck to the undercarriage when it was located after her death. Forensic testing on the plant and sediment materials on the car indicated it stopped for a time on a gravel area just off an asphalt road that had at one time been treated with glass road-making beads. The vehicle backed into a grassy meadow or field which contained Queen Anne's lace and black mustard plants and would have been nearly treeless; some oak or birch trees were in the general area but not in the direct place where the car stopped. There was possibly a pond or small stream close by. There were no indications that the land was cultivated as either a lawn or for growing crops. Investigators think the meadow is probably in Lee County or Whiteside County in northwestern Illinois, but they are also considering but Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago Counties.
Investigators believe Amy may have been planning Timmothy's disappearance for months. In February and Marcy 2011, she took two unexplained trips to the area he would later disappear from. She had an email account opened under her maiden name in 2007, and kept it a secret from her husband, but the account didn't contain anything useful to the investigation. James stated he was baffled by his wife's suicide and Timmothy's disappearance, and had no idea where his son could be. He and Amy's mother both stated Amy loved Timmothy and they didn't believe she would have harmed him. Amy had suffered from depression and had reportedly left home before for extended time periods. All of the child's family members have all been cooperative with the investigation and none of them have been named as suspects in Timmothy's disappearance.
Amy's cellular phone, which was missing at the time of her death, turned up on the roadside of Route 78 in the autumn of 2013. Investigators went back to the place where it was found and conducted a search, but found nothing else of interest, and nothing of interest in the phone itself.
Timmothy's loved ones described him as a very active, outgoing boy and a natural leader who was at ease with both adults and other children. He enjoys going to the zoo, using playground equipment such as the swings and sandbox, bike and Go-Kart riding, and his collection of Matchbox cars. He was learning how to swim at the time of his disappearance. His favorite foods including Chuck E. Cheese pizza, yogurt, macaroni and cheese, and anything from <i>McDonald's</i>.
Aurora police are investigating Timmothy's case. His disappearance remains unsolved.
A few additional notes:
-The lead detective on the case, Lee Catavu, said Aurora Police remain steadfast that Timmothy is alive. And has reiterated as said in other articles that no one in Amy's family thinks she would hurt her son.
-Leads and sightings have trickled in from all over the country in the past three years.
Thoughts? I would usually be leery of The Hunt, in its' still sort of infancy, airing a missing child case without a known abductor, despite thinking they did an excellent job with Jacob Wetterling's case. Before anyone calls me evil, it's BECAUSE I want to recover a missing child and consider it even better than a capture, and the odds are more likely with limited air time of recovering a child if it's a case where a known abductor is involved. (See most of AMW's recoveries,). However, all things considered, the more I learn of this case, the more I think of all the missing child cases without a known abductor they could have picked, Timothy's is a pretty good one with some pretty good clues to work with.
To be honest, I am basing my reason for thinking not on my logic, but on Amy's friends and family. They obviously know Amy better than me, and remain steadfast that despite Amy's depression, she would have never harmed Timothy. Timothy's blood could have been caused by a bloody nose and the knife Amy used to kill herself only had her blood it, which helps a little in backing up their claim. It still concerns me personally that we really don't know one way or another how the blood got on the car seat.
However, my main concern is Amy's ominous words that Timmothy would never be found. If it wasn't for her friends and family vouching for her and I heard that, it wouldn't sound good to me. Why wouldn't Timmothy be found if she didn't kill him? How can she be that confident no one would ever find him? Why wouldn't whoever the people Amy gave her to, if she did, come forward after media coverage? If Timmothy isn't dead and Amy really did give him to "people who cared about him", did these people willingly technically kidnap Timmothy? Did Amy in her depressed state convince these people Timmothy was in danger and there was no one else to care for him (or did Amy in her depressed state even convince herself of that somehow). Are there people who despite the media coverage, took Timmothy in thinking they were helping a desperate woman out and don't even know they have a missing child living in their house? But if that's the case, how would Amy know these people cared about him if they didn't even know him?
This is a rather unique missing child case, because when I try to look for hope a child may be alive, it's usually something from the case details. But once again to be honest, just looking at the facts, I wouldn't be hopeful. This is a case where my reason for hope actually and mainly only comes from the hope of the friends and family of Timothy and Amy. And some times that can actually be the best reason to be optimistic for a miracle.
www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/pitzen_timmothy.html
blog.missingkids.com/post/85229913000/three-years-pass-without-any-sign-of-illinois-boy
www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/1171960
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