The person who claimed to be Illinois teen Timothy Pitzen, who went missing eight years ago, is a grown man with a criminal record, according to the FBI and state records.
Brian Michael Rini, 23, told police in the Kentucky town of Newport that he had escaped kidnappers and was Timothy, who would now be 14-years-old, briefly raising hope the long-lost boy had been found, FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said.
Timothy was last seen after his mother pulled him out of school in Aurora, Illinois, a far-west suburb of Chicago, and then committed suicide.
Lindgren, of the agency’s Cincinnati bureau, said on Thursday (April 4) that DNA tests conducted at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital showed that the person who claimed to be Timothy was in fact, Rini.
Police, however, were cautious throughout the investigation, refusing to discuss the case until DNA results came back.
