Timmothy Pitzen Found? 14-Year-Old Claims He's Missing Illinois Boy

A teenager told police Wednesday that he was the boy who disappeared in Illinois in 2011. The boy, who claims to be Timmothy Pitzen, said he escaped from two kidnappers with “body builder-type physiques” who had held him captive for seven years.

Pitzen was last seen in a surveillance video checking out of a water park in Wisconsin on May 13, 2011. His mother had picked him up from school in Aurora and took him to the zoo and to the Wisconsin water park. The next day, his mother was found dead in a motel room in Rockford, Illinois.

Investigators said she had killed herself, and left a note stating that Pitzen was safe — but he would never be found.

The boy told police Wednesday that the kidnappers were holding him in a Red Roof Inn in the state.

"One had black curly hair, Mt. Dew shirt and jeans, & has a spider web tattoo on his neck," an incident report from the Sharonville Police Department obtained by the Associated Press stated. "The other was short in stature and had a snake tattoo on his arms."

Aurora police said Wednesday they were sending two detectives to the Cincinnati area where the 14-year-old boy was found. Sgt. Bill Rowley of the Aurora police department said he was not sure if he really was the missing boy but they would investigate the case to find the truth.

“Pitzen disappeared 10 years ago and we’ve probably had thousands of tips of him popping up in different areas,” Rowley said. “We have no idea what we’re driving down there for. It could be Pitzen. It could be a hoax.”

Authorities said they were working with several law enforcement agencies — including the Cincinnati field office, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Ohio and police in Aurora, Illinois, Newport, Kentucky and Cincinatti, Ohio — on the missing child investigation.

Pitzen’s disappearance made headlines in 2011 and surveillance video released by authorities at the time showed the 4-foot-2-inch, 70-pound kindergartner playing with a truck and walking with his mom at resorts in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and north suburban Gurnee.

In the initial days after his disappearance, the boy’s father, James Pitzen, said the search was terrifying. However, he remained optimistic his son would be found.

Timothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, told local media that she hopes the boy found by police turns out to be missing Pitzen.

"Don’t want to say anything until I know for sure. I just don’t want to comment until I know for sure, praying it’s him and he’s okay," she told CBS.