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

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.”

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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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