Grandmother of Timmothy Pitzen had been ‘cautiously’ hopeful after report out of NKY

Updated: Apr. 4, 2019 at 9:06 AM EDT
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CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - The FBI Louisville confirmed Thursday that a Chicago-area boy who has been missing for nearly a decade was not found in the Tri-State.

Timmothy Pitzen’s story made national headlines after he went missing in 2011. His mother was found dead in an Illinois hotel room after committing suicide. She had left behind a note claiming officials would never find her son.

Pitzen would be 14 years old.

The boy disappeared after his mother took him out of school for a three-day vacation filled with stops at zoos and water parks back in 2011. Not long after, his mother killed herself in a hotel room, leaving a note that claimed he was safe with people who would love and care for him, adding: “You’ll never find him.”

RELATED | Chicago-area boy missing for 8 years not found in Cincinnati area

But the FBI, several local police agencies, and Aurora, Ill. police had been working hard to confirm if the boy was found in the Tri-State on Wednesday.

Pitzen’s grandmother was praying.

“Well I’m very hopeful that it is him and that he is OK and he’s been in a good place when he was gone,” she said.

She said she is cautiously hopeful.

“Very cautiously hopeful,” she said.

MORE | Woman says boy found in NKY, possibly missing for years, was acting ‘fidgety’

The male in question was found on the west side of Newport early Wednesday. Newport police say a neighbor spotted him and noticed he didn’t belong in the neighborhood.

Sharon Hall, of Newport, says she thought he was trying to steal her neighbor’s car.

“From out the window, I couldn’t see who was standing to the curb,” she said. “But I looked out and came back in and ... there was a young man standing by my neighbor’s car.”

Hall described the male as acting fidgety and moving around.

She says the whole situation tears at her heart.

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