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AN IMPOSTER who cruelly pretended to be Timmothy Pitzen five years ago outraged one of the missing boy’s school friends and terrorized his family.
In April 2019, Brian Rini gained national attention for approaching a woman in Newport, Kentucky, and falsely identifying himself as Timmothy Pitzen, a six-year-old boy who went missing from Aurora, Illinois, in 2011.
Rini confidently provided the police with the missing boy’s complete name and birth date, and fabricated a detailed story about escaping from a nearby hotel where he claimed he had been held against his will by two abusive individuals.
This deceptive act quickly made headlines, igniting a spark of hope among Timmothy’s family and friends that the boy, who would have been 14 years old at the time, might finally be returning home following the emotionally excruciating eight-year absence.
But Rini’s web of lies quickly untethered when he was taken to a local children’s hospital and confronted with a DNA test.
There he would admit to his true identity; he was not the missing boy as he’d claimed but instead a mentally disturbed 23-year-old with a lengthy criminal record and a history of lying to police.
Rini – who had twice before made false claims of being a juvenile sex trafficking victim – was initially charged with identity fraud and lying to the FBI for his sick Pitzen ruse.
The delinquent later admitted to having recently learned of Timmothy’s case during an episode of ABC’s 20/20 and memorized his full name, date of birth, and other details to dupe investigators.
His reason for doing so, he claimed, was that he “wished he had a father like Timmothy’s because if he went missing, his father would just keep drinking,” court documents show.
Rini struck a plea deal with prosecutors which saw his lying charge dropped in exchange for an admission of guilt.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun in 2022, Timmothy’s aunt Jen West called Rini a “garbage person” who traumatized and devastated her family.
Sickened too by the evil stunt was Hannah Soukup, one of Timmothy’s elementary school classmates, who had shared a close bond with the boy prior to his puzzling disappearance.
“I remember my mom messaged me about it and said, ‘Oh my gosh! They might have found him,’ but very quickly that turned out not to be the case,” Soukup, 19, told The U.S. Sun last week.
“It was very upsetting that someone would do something like that and impersonate a missing child.
“I couldn’t comprehend how someone could do something so messed up. It was just sick.”
While sharing the family’s outrage, Soukup said Rini’s scheme had an unexpected silver lining.
“Although it was discouraging, in a sense – and this may sound odd – it was kind of relieving that so many people found out about Timmothy’s case as a result.
“[Rini] was not a good person, and it’s a shame someone like him found out about the case, but it allowed the story to become further reaching and keep Timmothy’s name alive.”
A FAMILY’S TERROR
When Brian Rini was sentenced in December 2020, the Medina, Ohio native received credit for time served and was released on probation just a few months later.
Jen West told The U.S. Sun in 2022 that the idea of Rini roaming the streets as a free man made her skin crawl.
She said at the time, “He’s an absolute garbage person who I would not put anything past.
“I try to protect myself so I didn’t want to know what city he lives in now, but when he was released out of jail he moved to the city that neighbors mine.”
Jen added that her greatest fear was that her mother, who lives nearby, would one day find Rini standing at her front door, hellbent on causing the Pitzen family even more unnecessary pain.
“My last name is different but my mom’s is the same. He could look her up, show up at her door tomorrow, and be like, ‘Will you be my mom?’” she said.
“I’m happy he doesn’t live anywhere near my brother [Timmothy’s dad] but the thought of him just roaming around somewhere nearby makes me feel uneasy.
“He didn’t spend anywhere near enough time in jail, in my opinion.”
Revisiting those remarks in an interview last week ahead of the 13th anniversary of Timmothy’s disappearance, Jen said she was relieved to have had no further run-ins with Rini.
And despite the heartache Rini’s behavior caused her and her family, Jen remains convinced her nephew is still alive and will one day be found or return home of his own accord.
Soukup shares Jen’s optimism.
“I truly believe he will be found,” she revealed late last week.
“One of my theories is, if he is found, then I think he’s going to re-emerge by his own accord, I don’t think it will be police or investigators who track him down.”
Soukup believes her old school friend may be held captive in a remote location, or possibly even a religious commune, that has limited access to the internet.
The key to determining precisely where lies in evidence gathered from beneath Timmothy’s mother’s car, she says.
I couldn’t comprehend how someone could do something so messed up. It was just sick.
Hannah Soukup
‘CAR HOLDS THE KEY’
Timmothy vanished shortly after being led out early from Greenman Elementary School in Aurora, Illinois, by his mom, Amy Fry-Pitzen, on May 11, 2011, under the guise of a family emergency.
In reality, no such crisis had occurred and instead Amy took her son on a three-day road trip, visiting zoos and waterparks along the way, while fielding calls from desperate family members who were trying to track her down.
Amy would then be found dead in a motel room in Rockford, Illinois, on May 14 – but there was no sign of Timmothy.
The 42-year-old had taken her own life with an overdose of antihistamines and a series of deep razor blade cuts to her wrists.
In the room, Amy had left behind a cryptic suicide note claiming to have given her son away to someone else who loves him and ominously warned that he would never be found.
True to Amy’s words, no trace of Timmothy has been unearthed since.
Investigators had very little evidence to go on in their search for Timmothy and the case went cold within months.
Data from Amy’s cellphone revealed that, on May 13, Amy had driven 170 miles along the Rock River toward Sterling, a small rural town 80 miles west of Aurora, before switching off the device for good.
Records from her I-Pass showed she’d twice before visited Sterling in February and March of 2011, puzzling loved ones who were oblivious to the trips and insisted she had no known connections to the area.
Investigators believe Amy may have been scouting out a discreet location to hand Timmothy over to someone else or perhaps looking for an isolated place to hide remains.
There are thousands of miles between Amy’s last sighting with Timmothy and where she was found dead in her motel room.
Police were unable to determine where she’d been between the early afternoon and late evening of May 13.
Years later, investigators analyzed pieces of weeds, grass, and dirt found beneath Amy’s car’s rear bumper in search of answers.
The analysis determined that she had stopped her car somewhere in northwest Illinois – likely near a body of water, such as a pond or lake – before driving back to Rockford alone and taking her own life.
Soukup believes advancements in technology will eventually help investigators pinpoint a more specific location of where she dropped off or disposed of Timmothy.
“Whatever Amy did, she did a good job hiding him,” said Soukup.
“I believe she dropped him off somewhere – I don’t know if it was in a religious area, or something like that – but I think she dropped him off and gave him to people she knew would keep him safe and hidden.
“And I think she made it clear that either his identity had to be changed or that he had to stay away from the internet so he’d never know he was missing.
“I definitely think he’s alive, but I definitely think he’s somewhere that will be very difficult to find.
“It’s really scary to think about where he might be now.”
‘TIMMOTHY IS ALIVE’
Soukup and Timmothy shared a budding friendship before Timmothy suddenly vanished.
The pair were both enrolled in Greenman Elementary’s “gifted program” and would often be paired together in class.
While Soukup described herself as a quiet and reserved child, she said that Timmothy was anything but.
He was very personable, funny, inquisitive, and energetic, she said.
Soukup doesn’t remember the day Timmothy vanished but she remembers the aftermath of his disappearance and their teacher informing the class he wouldn’t be returning to school any time soon.
“It was very scary just not having him there all of a sudden, especially because it was the end of the year,” remembered Soukup.
“I remember we all just kind of assumed he was sick, so it was all very sudden, and because we were all so young we didn’t really understand what was going on, even when Mrs. Broach briefly told us what happened in a sugar-coated way.
“I just remember being very, very confused that he wasn’t there.”
Just six at the time, Soukup was unable to grasp the full gravity of the situation but she knew something was gravely wrong when she saw missing person posters of Timmothy in her local supermarket.
It wasn’t until Soukup was 11 that her mom finally sat her down to inform her of what really had happened to her friend.
“It was honestly very scary, especially because he went missing because of his mother, and attempting to process that as a child – I just couldn’t fathom someone doing that,” said Soukup of the moment she learned the truth.
“I remember thinking my mother would never do that, so how could [Amy] do something like that? It was unfathomable.
“But […] I don’t think he is dead. I definitely feel that he’s alive.”
‘I HOPE HE’S HAPPY’
Soukup said Timmothy regularly crosses her mind.
Every so often she will find herself scouring the internet for articles about his case, hoping to discover a new breakthrough has been made by detectives.
If he is found alive, Soukup said she looks forward to reuniting with him and reminiscing about old times.
In the meantime, she issued a plea to anyone who may be harboring him and urged them to release him immediately.
“It’s so unfair that he was taken from the rest of his family because his mother had ulterior motives.
“And it breaks my heart that people would keep him and not let him know who he is or anybody he knew before, and keep him secluded away from the rest of the world.”
Jen West, Timmothy’s aunt, also issued a plea to any prospective captors.
But more than anything she said she hopes her nephew is safe and in a good place, wherever he may be.
“I really hope Timmothy is happy wherever he is,” she said.
“And I’d love for him to be a part of our family again, whoever he is.”
The Aurora Police Department has been contacted for comment.
Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Aurora PD at 1-630-256-5516.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
Timmothy Pitzen’s disapperance: A timeline
May 11, 2011: Timmothy’s mom, Amy Fry-Pitzen, picked him up from school at Greenman Elementary in Aurora, Illinois, at around 8:15 pm, citing an unspecified family emergency.
The boy’s dad, Jim Pitzen, appeared at the school to pick him up at the end of the day and was confused when administrators told him that Timmothy had been collected by Amy that morning.
Calls and texts to Amy’s phone went unanswered and Jim began to panic.
In the meantime, Timmothy and his mom went to Brookfield Zoo and later headed to Key Lime Resort, a hotel and waterpark, in Gurnee.
May 12, 2011: Amy and Timmothy went to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and the pair checked into the Kalahari Resort, stopping to buy clothes and other items along the way.
Jim reported Timmothy missing to police in Aurora after failing to make contact with Amy for almost 24 hours.
Police did not issue an Amber Alert because Amy hadn’t yet committed a crime and Timmothy wasn’t suspected of being in any danger.
May 13, 2011: Amy and Timmothy are captured together on surveillance video for the last time, checking out of the Kalahari resort.
While driving toward Sterling, Amy made contact with various family members but not her husband. She assured them Timmothy was fine and nothing appeared odd in her behavior, those contacted would later tell the police. The boy was heard in the background of the call and on at least one occasion spoke on the line.
Amy then turned her cellphone off after driving 170 miles along the Rock River and her movements for the next several hours remain a total mystery 13 years on.
She finally re-emerged several hours later, alone, at a grocery store in Winnebago, Illinois, near Rockford at 8 pm, where she stopped to buy supplies that would be used to craft her cryptic suicide note.
May 14, 2011: Amy is found dead in a hotel room at the Rockford Inn by a maid just after 12:30 pm. She left behind a suicide note apologizing for the mess and warning that her son Timmothy was safe but would never be found.
The boy’s beloved Spider-Man backpack was missing from the room, along with a handful of his belongings.
May 19, 2011: More than 70 volunteers begin searching for Timmothy in the Sterling and Rock Falls area but come up empty-handed.
June 14, 2011: Police conceded they have very little evidence to go on in their search for Timmothy and began examining dirt found beneath Amy’s car.
Aug. 11, 2011: Police confirm a small amount of Timmothy’s blood was found in Amy’s SUV but state it could’ve been the result of a bloody nose.
Dec. 28, 2011: A sighting of Timmothy in a car was reported at a Denny’s in North Aurora but the report turned out to be false.
Another tip earlier in the month also falsely claimed the boy had been spotted in Massachusetts.
Aurora police said they fielded dozens of possible sightings, all of which were false and most were easily dismissed.
April 3, 2019: A boy wandering the streets alone in Newport, Kentucky, claimed to a passerby he’d just escaped his two captors and he was Timmothy Pitzen who vanished from Illinois eight years earlier.
Police were called but the boy turned out to be a mentally ill hoaxer named Brian Rini who had recently watched a documentary about the case and decided to impersonate him.
