The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has created an age-progression image of a young Aurora boy who went missing three years ago when he was 6 years old.
Timmothy Pitzen has been missing since his mother, Amy Fry Pitzen, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford motel room on May 14, 2011. A note left behind in the motel room said the Timmothy was safe and in someone's care but did not indicate whom.
The image released Friday shows what Timmothy might look like at age 9.
“The image created by NCMEC forensic artists is an important tool in our mission to help bring Timmothy home,” Aurora Police Detective Lee Catavu said.
Catavu said the case of the Cleveland women who escaped after a decade of captivity gives him hope that if Timmothy is out there, he will be found.
“Those three women give us all a lot of hope, and we so badly want to find Timmothy,” Cavatu said.
Surveillance video released by police shows Fry Pitzen taking Timmothy from his Aurora elementary school on May 11, 2011. Additional surveillance clips taken May 12, 2011, at Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurnee show Fry Pitzen and Timmothy checking in, checking out, walking into the resort from the main canopy and exiting the stairwell of the resort.
Another clip taken the following day shows the two exiting the stairwell of Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells.
Police are still on the lookout for missing items that could yield clues to the boy's whereabouts. Fry Pitzen's cell phone, I-Pass and the clothing she was seen wearing on other surveillance videos, as well as Timmothy’s Spider Man backpack and his toys from the SUV, are still missing, according to police.
Scientific evidence shows Fry Pitzen's SUV was stopped on a gravel road and then near a meadow that police say is most likely in northwestern Illinois. However, police were unable to narrow down the search past Lee, Whiteside, Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.
Police also uncovered a secret email account set up by Fry Pitzen. FBI profilers thought the woman may have used the email to help plan her actions leading to her suicide and the disappearance of her son, but police at the time said the account "had absolutely nothing to do with Timmy's disappearance" and "a lot of it was just spam."
When he went missing, Timmothy stood about 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed about 70 pounds, officials said. Anyone with information is asked to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or Aurora Police at 630-256-5500.
