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Timmothy Pitzen

• Boy’s mother was found dead of a suicide inside a Rockford motel room May 14, 2011

Staff Report

The search for 7-year-old Timmothy Pitzen, of Aurora, Ill., who went missing May 12, 2011, continues one year after his disappearance.

Timmothy was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. He was last with his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, who was found dead May 14, 2011, of a suicide after she slit her wrists with a knife inside a Rockford motel room.

Fry-Pitzen had taken her son out of school May 11, 2011, without telling family members, and took him to the Wisconsin Dells. The two went on a three-day, 500-mile road trip, stopping at zoos and water parks in northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

Investigators have released surveillance video showing Fry-Pitzen taking Timmothy out of school, plus two home videos.

In the home videos, Timmothy is dressed in Spider-Man pajamas and playing a guitar made from Tinker toys. In the surveillance video, Fry-Pitzen is shown waiting in the school until Timmothy approaches wearing a backpack. The video then shows the two leaving the school.

The investigation has revealed Fry-Pitzen made several cellphone calls from the Rock Falls-Sterling area. Her final call May 13 had her about 5 miles northwest of Sterling near Illinois Highway 40. She had called family May 13 to tell them she and Timmothy were OK.

Police examination of Fry-Pitzen’s I-PASS account showed she had made two prior trips to the Dixon-Rock Falls-Sterling area that her family could not account for.

Police found a large amount of Timmothy’s blood in the back seat of the 2004 Ford Expedition Fry-Pitzen was driving when she took him out of school. However, authorities said the blood could have been from a nosebleed.

When her Ford Expedition was located in the parking lot of the Rockford hotel, Aurora police said the vehicle was “visibly dirty and had growth that was similar to tall grass or weeds underneath the body.”

Six months after Timmothy’s disappearance, police released results of forensic analysis of the grass, dirt and debris taken from Fry-Pitzen’s Ford Expedition. Lab results determined the plant material on the Expedition showed it was stopped for a time on a wide gravel shoulder or a gravel road. According to reports, the evidence showed the Expedition was backed into a grassy field near the gravel area.

A suicide note and several letters were found upon Fry-Pitzen’s death. In notes to her husband, her mother and a close friend, Fry-Pitzen said her son was safe and with people who loved him. However, she did not say with whom she had left Timmothy.

Timmothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson, has said in reports that one of the notes warned, “You will never find Timmothy.”

Anderson and Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, marked what would have been Timmothy’s seventh birthday Oct. 18, 2011, by planting a 7-year-old blue spruce tree in the back garden.

Anderson told the Chicago Tribune: “I bought him a birthday card and cut out pictures of the things I would have bought for him … a lighted skateboard, a remote-control helicopter.”

Timmothy Pitzen, who may go by Tim or Timmy, is white with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last known to be 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 70 pounds.

Anyone with information about Timmothy Pitzen’s whereabouts is urged to contact The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Aurora Police Department at 1-630-256-5000.

From the May 2-8, 2012, issue