Timmothy's photo is shown age-progressed to 13 years. He is missing from Aurora, Illinois, but was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Timmothy was last known to be in the company of his mother who has since been found deceased in Rockford, Illinois. Timmothy may go by the nickname Tim or Timmy.
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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. Photos of Amy and her car are posted with this case summary.
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 Spiderman 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.
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 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.
NCMEC -
Have you seen this child? TIMMOTHY PITZEN
Missing From: AURORA, IL. Missing Date: 05/12/2011. Timmothy's photo is shown age-progressed to 13 years. He is missing from Aurora, Illinois, but was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Timmothy was last known to be in the company of his mother who has since been found...
api.missingkids.org
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.
www.namus.gov
TIMMOTHY PITZEN: Missing from Aurora, IL since 12 May 2011 - Age 6
He is missing from Aurora, Illinois, but was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Timmothy was last known to be in the company of his mother who has since been found deceased in Rockford, Illinois.
www.crimewatchers.net
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