MISSING: Timmothy Pitzen

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And you guys, if you were following us on any social media a couple of weeks ago, I think we had one of the craziest True Crime Days episodes. [00:44] ever. Yeah, it was like the second or third of April, right? Yeah, it was right after April Fool's Day. Yeah. And so that's what it felt like the whole time, like someone was playing a joke on us because it was truly a bizarre day for true crime stories. Like I woke up to breaking news that there was a development in the Maura Murray case, which for brand new listeners, go back and listen to our two-parter on Missing Maura Murray. You'll get how crazy this is, like what happened. [01:14] searching a home on Wild Ammanusik Road, which was the same road that she went missing on. And over the last few months, there's been like a ton of speculation about this house. And Fred, Maura's dad, always heard rumors about this house, would try and search it repeatedly, but the owners would never let him in. And then finally, the house ended up getting sold to new people who let him in, let civilian searchers come in. And apparently, this was a couple of

[01:44] with cadaver dogs hit on the same spot in a basement. Like every time, boom, boom, boom. So they end up bringing in ground penetrating radar and there's an anomaly in the floor right where these dogs hit. So the family and other people who are really invested in this case wanted police to go dig up this basement floor. But at first police were like, no. So it kind of [02:14] FBI are at this house and we see like them carrying in jackhammers and Fred says something to the effect of like, listen, they're going to find a body there and I think it's Maura's. So I don't know about you, Brett, but I was holding my breath all day. I was at an airport flying and like freaking out because I wouldn't have access to talk to you about this as the press conference was happening. Yeah. And it blew my mind that like the thought of her actually being there so close to where [02:44] I mean... [02:45] Yeah, it would have completely explained how she went missing so quickly. Yeah, but at the same time, it made me rethink everything I thought about the case. Because I've always thought there was like a missing person in this puzzle. Someone who was with her or someone she was going to meet. And her being like in this house a few feet away didn't really fit into that. But then they did a press conference in the afternoon. And police announced that the only thing they found in the basement was like some piping or like a pottery.

[03:15] basement floor and there was nobody of any kind not Maura's and no one else's and the press kept asking like why did you search them like why now why'd you do this and the police couldn't say it but I feel like they danced around it a little and I kind of wanted to answer for them like if I were them I'd be like people aren't trusting us to do our jobs they wouldn't leave us alone about it like we've said for years that that house had nothing to do with that we'd already investigated it we're [03:45] Like, finally, we're just going to do it. If you guys won't leave us alone about it, like, now we did it. Will you please just, like, let us do our jobs? It was an appeasement. We might actually know. Yeah, yeah. So that was a full rollercoaster of emotions. And then? But then? [03:59] Yes, the day was not over. Then all of a sudden... [04:03] Out of a small town in Kentucky, a teenage boy approached some people in a parking lot. He looked disheveled. He had bruises on his chin. And when people asked him who he was or if he needed help, he said his name was Timothy Pitson, a boy who was abducted by his own mother from Illinois back in 2011. And this boy said he had been kept in hiding by strange men who were [04:33] was losing their minds because the story of Timothy Pitson's disappearance is a very bizarre one. One that is unexplained and has been debated fiercely in the corners of the internet for years. So I decided I should tell our crime junkies that story today so you can appreciate what a big deal it was to hear that he might have been found. And then at the end, I'll tell you the outcome

[05:03] Thank you. [05:04] Music. [05:35] On May 11th, 2011, James Pitson, who goes by Jim, dropped off his six-year-old son Timothy at school in their home of Aurora, Illinois. It was like any other day for Jim. Nothing felt off. There was nothing in the back of his mind that made him worry about his son during the day. And the worry wouldn't come until the afternoon when he went to pick up Timothy from school and the office said, well, he's not here. [06:02] and [06:03] Jim's like [06:04] What do you mean he's not here? They tell Jim that less than an hour after he dropped off Timothy for school, Jim's wife Amy had come to the school to retrieve Timothy. She told the office there that there had been a family emergency and he had to leave with her. She didn't say what kind of emergency and the office didn't dare to ask. This was his mother, so she signed him out. They leave together, both Timothy and Amy showing no signs of distress.

[06:34] There was no family emergency. What was Amy talking about? And did she know something he didn't? Or maybe she was just wanting to play hooky with her son. But it's weird that... [06:44] She hadn't mentioned anything to him about it. Not even, like... [06:48] hey don't bother picking him up I've got him nothing no so Jim goes home to see if they might be there and they're not he tries calling Amy over and over but keeps getting sent to voicemail he checks Amy's work to find that she hasn't been there either so Jim keeps leaving messages Amy please just call me let me know that you're okay [07:10] When he doesn't hear from Amy, he tries reaching out to her mom and dad, other family members and friends. But call after call, he learns that she wasn't with any of them. And none of them had heard from her and no one had known about her plan to take Timothy out of school or where they might be going. [07:27] Jim begins to assume, like most people would, I think, that Amy's mad at him. That's why she was picking him up. And you see, their relationship wasn't all roses. It had been pretty rocky recently, and there was even talk of divorce. Jim wasn't abusive to Amy or Timothy. It was nothing like that, where Amy would need to run away for their safety. But they would fight a lot. Jim was Amy's fourth husband, and he suspected that she was still in love with one of her exes. [07:53] Sometime before this day, on May 11th, Jim had even caught her messaging her ex-husband, and he made her choose: him, him. [08:01] or me [08:02] Amy chose Jim. They had a family together and she wanted to make it work, but making it work seemed harder and harder every single day. So Jim decided to give her the night away, a decision he would later come to regret.

[08:19] The next morning, when Amy and Timothy still weren't home, Jim decides he needs to notify police. Police filed a report and started looking for Amy and Timothy. But just a day later, it seemed like maybe they didn't need to. On May 13th, Jim gets word from Amy's family. She's called them. She'd called her brother-in-law and her mother to tell them that everything was totally fine. They weren't in danger. She just needed some time away and she'd be back in a day or two. [08:49] Timothy could actually be heard in the background at one point making a comment about being hungry. But, like, that's me every five minutes. The family said he sounded totally fine. Typical little kid. Yeah, maybe they really just did need to unplug. It still seems kind of like a weird way to just get away. Like, I can't imagine picking up one of my kids and just being like, we're going to go away for a little bit and just... [09:11] not tell anybody. Yeah, and not answer Justin's calls. Right. He'd be freaking out too. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so I think it's super weird as well, but I don't have a ton of background on Amy prior to this to know how normal or abnormal this was for her. Some people are just, like, way more spontaneous than others, I think. Yeah, I was even going to say, there are people in, like, my extended family that [09:33] This wouldn't be that off course for them, but for me and a lot of people that I know and I'm close to, it'd be really, really off the beaten path for us to do this. [09:42] Yeah, so it would be weird for me too, but clearly this didn't raise any red flags for her family. Like, again, her husband is willing to give her the night. Her family, when they heard from her, was like, oh, okay, they just need some time away. So this must have seemed pretty normal for them. Now, there was something, though, that she said at the time that wasn't cause for concern, but looking back on it, might have given some insight to her state of mind and what she was about to do. When talking to her brother-in-law, she made a comment.

[10:12] What does that even mean? Well, her brother-in-law didn't know. But when her husband heard about this later, he thought maybe he did know what it was about. When they had had that fight about her ex-husband, Jim had made a comment. He was basically like, you know, you have to choose. But like, go ahead and leave. See what happens. I'm going to get custody of Timothy. I'm the stable one. I'm the one with a job. And you won't see him anymore. So maybe she was feeling kind of threatened. [10:42] but clearly this is like something, I mean, that's kind of a big threat. So I can see it like festering in her mind. Yeah, definitely. But Jim wouldn't know how threatened that she actually felt for another day. Through the 13th and most of the 14th, the family remained ignorantly blissful about Amy's true intentions. That is until May 14th, [11:04] when Jim would get a knock on his door that would change his life forever. [11:12] This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For some, summer is their favorite season. Travel picks up, kids are out of school, and adventure is in the focus. For others, juggling it all can lead to overwhelm and counting down the minutes until the kids are back in school. And many worry that they're wasting the days of sunshine. Having someone with you to listen, to understand, to support can make all the difference. BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with quality, fully licensed therapists in the U.S. who follow a strict code of conduct.

[11:42] million people globally. Their therapist match commitment does the initial matching work so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and if you aren't happy with your match you can switch to a different therapist at any time. It works. BetterHelp has an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. You don't have to say yes to everything this summer. Find support in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash crimejunkie. That's betterhelp.com [12:12] Police are at Jim's door and they have some awful news. They have found Amy in Rockford, Illinois. Maids at the Rockford Inn had come to clean her room that afternoon and found her deceased. She had died by apparent suicide. Amy had used a razor blade knife to cut both her wrists and her own throat after ingesting a lethal dose of antihistamines. Jim can barely speak. This is so hard to believe. [12:42] just talk to her yesterday? Why would she go out to Rockford to take her own life? But more importantly, one thought kept coming to the top of his mind. Do you have Timothy? Is he okay? [12:54] No. Cops said that Timothy wasn't in the room with her. I'm somehow relieved that he wasn't there to see that. I mean, truly, it was a brutal way to go, but they had no idea where he was. Not that he just wasn't in the room. [13:09] he was missing. There was no sign of him in the hotel room, no sign of him in the car. And when I say no sign of him, not just him, like no clothes, no toothbrush, no backpack that he had when he left school. None of his stuff? It was like he vanished into thin air. And this is so confusing for Jim. Like,

[13:29] Getting hit with everything all at once, he's realizing his wife essentially abducted their son. Now she's deceased. Their son is missing. So police are trying to calm him down, and they say it's their number one priority to find Timothy. And they're going to do everything they can to track Amy's movements from the time that she picked him up until she was found. And hopefully, that's going to lead them to Tim. [13:51] But when they start getting her records, like her cell phone, banking info, toll passes, and they start looking at surveillance footage from the places she went with Timothy, things seem to make even less sense. Investigators are able to tell that after Amy picked up Timothy from school, she took her car to a repair shop. And I don't know what was being done, if it was like something getting fixed or just an oil change or whatever. [14:21] mileage in the upcoming days. While her car was being repaired, she took Timothy to a local zoo. [14:28] Once they get back to her car, the two drive up north to Key Lime Resort in Gurney, Illinois. They stay the night there and then hit the road the next morning. And they can be seen on surveillance footage. So we know Timothy's with her. They both look just fine. So everything seems normal. Timothy, Amy, they all seem happy. Amy doesn't seem like manic or under any kind of distress. So... [14:52] no one really knows what's going on as they're like finding these videos. [14:55] After they leave Gurney, Illinois, they drive even farther up north into Wisconsin, about 200 miles away from their home. There's this water park resort there where they check into and Timothy, again, can be seen on camera with Amy. Everyone looking totally happy, totally fine. And Brad, I actually want you to take a look at this surveillance footage. I put it on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com, if anyone wants to see it.

[15:25] Every single time, again, seems totally fine, he seems happy. [15:30] "almost like a little mini vacation." [15:32] I mean, yeah, they're just walking through to an elevator. He's kind of looking around. At one point in time, they're... [15:38] like a [15:39] cash register and he kind of starts to stray, is wandering around. She's constantly has her eye on him, making sure that he's not going too far. Yeah. So that's them like checking into the next motel. Yeah. I mean, it's, it looks how I am with my 11 year old, honestly. Yeah. So on May 13th is when they leave the resort and they drive to Sterling Rock Falls. This is like four hours south of where they were. So they went north and then back south. Like their, their trail doesn't [16:09] wanted to. Now we know she was there because when police look up the cell phone records, those calls that she made to her family saying that everything was fine and that they would be home in a couple of days were made from cell towers in that area. We also know based on her credit card transactions that she went into a dollar store and bought some stationery. There wasn't any footage from the store that I could find. So I don't know if Timothy was with her and I haven't seen like whether he was or [16:39] I'm not sure. I mean, wouldn't he have been with her everywhere else? It's pretty safe to assume that he would be with her, right? Well, yes, except when they look at her next transaction, it's from a grocery store. And when they pull that video of her walking in, she's alone.

[16:56] There's [16:56] No Timothy. Oh my God, really? Yeah, so we aren't 100% sure where Timothy is. Is he in the car? Is he no longer with her? If so, since when? So after buying this food, this is around like 8 o'clock that she bought this on the 13th. Amy then drives to Rockford, Illinois and checks in at the Rockford Inn where she would be found the next day. She checks in at about 11 p.m. Was Timothy seen at all at the Rockford Inn? [17:26] said they never saw any little boy with her. And from all the other hotels and resorts where we have video, we see that he was always by her side. So I have to believe that he was never there, which probably means when she went into that grocery store, he wasn't either. But like you never know, she checked into the hotel at 11 p.m. So there are hours between like when she was at the store to when she checked in where she could have done something with him. [17:56] this case so crazy. Because when Amy's body was found the next day, [18:01] It was found with a note. And that note is what has everybody scratching their head over this case so many years later. [18:13] So there was rumored to be three notes in total. [18:17] one in the hotel room where Amy was found, another was mailed to her mother, and possibly a third was rumored to have been mailed to a friend.

[18:26] All three notes were written on the stationery that she bought from the dollar store the same night she checked into the inn, which for me kind of sheds light on her state of mind throughout this whole thing. Like we see her on video at the grocery store after she bought the stationery. She clearly bought the stationery to write her goodbye notes on. And when we see her on video just a couple hours later, she's cool and calm and collected, just like she is the rest of the time. [18:56] says, [18:57] All of this, like, is something that she's been planning and finally putting into motion. "You don't think the stationery could have been [19:04] for anything else, right? I mean, what? Like, why buy stationery on a road trip? I don't know. All this just seems so calculated. But I also know more of the story up until this point. So let me continue and fill in the pieces for you. So the note that she sent her mother reads like this. [19:21] I've tried very hard to fit in and be happy and to be good to those around me, but somehow I've always felt apart from everything. Tim helped with that for a while, but maybe if Jim and I had been better, I would have been okay, but everything fell apart, and this time there were just too many pieces for me to pick up again. I can't take the chance of Jim hurting Tim because of my choices, so I've taken him somewhere safe, and he will be well cared for, and he says that he loves you. [19:50] Please know there is nothing you could have said or done that would have changed my mind. I'm sorry for the hurt and difficulties I know you're going to face. I just hope you'll be able to forgive me one day. I'm sorry, what? Yeah, we don't know what the note to her friend said, because as far as I could tell, it's never been publicized. But the one left in her room is very similar. She basically apologizes for the mess that she's created and says that Tim is safe with people who love him

[20:20] E. [20:21] well cared for, but never found. [20:24] So she's saying she gave him away to someone? I mean, basically, that's kind of how it comes across. [20:32] But who? Do we know if she knew anybody in the areas where she was? [20:36] traveling to and from? Well, that's... [20:39] the million dollar question, or at least one of them. I think the first question is, [20:45] Was she telling the truth in her note? Did she really give him away to someone? Or did she do something more sinister? Then the second question then is, if she did give him away... [20:56] Who could she have possibly given him to? To answer the questions, police have no choice but to take inventory of what little evidence they have to try and track down Timothy. Timothy. [21:07] there were a couple of things they find that make them believe possibly Timothy could be dead. First, in the room, they find a nearly empty bottle of child's medicine. So the first thought is maybe she drugged Timothy, but remember she had a lethal dose of antihistamines in her system. So I wasn't able to find any report on like, [21:30] the amount of medication. Was the medication something she bought while she was on the road? Was it a new bottle, old bottle? Was it the amount in the bottle the same as in her system? So I don't know that. There's always speculation around this, but my personal feeling is that she... [21:44] probably took this medicine herself you know there was barely anything left in the room so for this bottle to be there to me that means that it has to be the one that she took shortly before she died

[21:56] And on that note, talking about what was found in the room, I mentioned that nothing of Timothy's was found. And what's weird to me as well is that the clothes that she was wearing... [22:07] weren't found either. The ones that she was wearing earlier in the day. So she's seen on surveillance video, but the one that you looked at, there's like this black shirt with white writing. And apparently the clothes that she's found in were not those, but the clothes that she was seen in on surveillance, like weren't found anywhere else either. Really? Yeah. And not only was her stuff missing, but like I said, everything that Timothy would have had, like his backpack from school, his toothbrush, all of that was missing as well. And we can tell [22:37] had bought stuff for Timothy, like clothes and toys. [22:41] But none of that was found in the room or in her car either. But if she gave Timothy away... [22:47] what would be the point of getting rid of her stuff too? Um, [22:50] I don't know. To me, this is one of the things that makes me think she did something to him. Something that would have left evidence on her clothes like blood or... [23:02] maybe dirt if she'd buried him. But you know, for most people, that's not what makes people think something happened to Timothy. They think something bad could have happened because of other things found in Amy's car. Yeah. [23:18] When police searched Amy's car, the first thing they saw was not good. It was a bloodstain in the back where Timothy would normally be. Like, what size of bloodstain? So, here's the thing. I've heard different reports. Some say it was a lot of blood. Some say it was a significant amount of blood. Some say it was a small amount of blood. And apparently this bloodstain is very subjective. There are no photos of it.

[23:47] I'm sorry. [23:47] When police tested, it was Timothy's. [23:51] something may have happened to him while he was in the car? Possibly, but not necessarily. Now, here's the thing. So many people point to that saying, [24:01] That's proof that she did something. But [24:04] All of their family swears that Timothy always got bad nosebleeds and the stain was an old stain. And they're adamant about this and they don't want people getting distracted and just like writing him off as dead. [24:17] Was Timothy's blood found... [24:18] anywhere else in the hotel room or [24:22] Anything? No, they even checked the same like razor cutting knife that Amy used on herself and his blood was nowhere on it. It was just hers. So the fact that his blood is isolated to the car could really back up what the family is saying. But they did find something else and I don't know what this something else means. So you tell me what you think. So on the undercarriage of her car, [24:52] and they find weeds that were like Queen Anne's lace and black mustard seed. There's some gravel. So this tells police that at some point, she pulled off of a main road onto some like side gravel dirt area, maybe even pulled out into some kind of field of some kind. And now depending on what you think of this story, she either pulled off to dispose of a body or [25:16] or

[25:18] She pulled off to make a transfer and give Tim to whoever it was or is that's keeping him and taking care of him. [25:28] Police were able to use the magic of science to help them narrow down the actual specific grass and weeds and [25:36] Like it blows my mind that they can do this, but they narrowed it down to one specific county and they searched a ton of areas by foot and with dogs, but they didn't find anything. No sign of Timothy, which to me means like if you've narrowed down all the places and you search those places and he wasn't there. [25:57] Then doesn't he have to be with someone else? I mean, it certainly sounds like it. Where else should you look? [26:04] I mean, I don't know. So, I mean, I tend to think like wherever she was, it has to be some kind of meetup point. But with who? [26:12] Like, don't get me wrong, I hope he's okay, but this makes zero sense to me. She takes this wild road trip with what seems like [26:21] no direction and then just like meet someone to give her kid to [26:26] What are the odds? Well, maybe not so slim. Maybe it wasn't a total stranger she met on this road trip. Because remember how I told you that they pulled all of her records, like including her toll passes? [26:39] Yeah. Well, what they learned from her toll records was really bizarre. Yeah. [26:47] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. So,

[27:06] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [27:14] wherever you get your podcasts. [27:17] When they pull her toll pass records, it showed that she had visited the same area twice in the previous two months. None of her family or her friends knew about these trips. So one kind of comes to the assumption that she was going out there to like scope stuff out or like make preparation. It doesn't really explain how she got in touch with somebody to take Timothy because there was nothing to indicate she made contact with anyone by like phone. [27:47] or the internet. But if she's going out there, did she make contact with a stranger before? And like, [27:54] then come up with this idea? Was it pure accident that she ran into someone? Had she heard about someone? Like, all of this is still a huge mystery. Yeah, and here's the thing I keep coming back to. Like, okay— [28:07] Say she convinced someone to take her son. I'm sure she had to make up a story about why he shouldn't be with his dad. Yeah. [28:15] Don't you think after so many years, the person keeping Timothy would realize that [28:21] Maybe whatever they were told isn't real. I mean, Timothy is not a baby. He's... [28:27] gotta be at least a little bit aware of what's going on and asking about his family and his dad and his mom [28:33] It just seems so unreal. And I totally agree. Like, I think he's asking questions. I think six is young enough that...

[28:40] I mean, under the right circumstances, you can probably still get them to believe, like, maybe they're part of another family. And I think it depends on the actual kid as well. But, like, more than that, I guess I don't know how this other family would have bought into whatever story Amy told them. Like, I mean, unless they're just, like, kind of evil people who wanted their own kid and don't care that this other family is suffering... [29:01] I don't know how they wouldn't realize that like if she did lie and be like, oh, he's, you know, he's abusive and we have to keep my son away. Eventually, like his story was everywhere. [29:09] Like, wouldn't they have seen that? Yeah, and I mean, again, because I foster kids of a whole bunch of different ages, I've been exposed to kids who ask questions about their biological families a lot, and it... [29:21] Even for me, it becomes kind of an awkward conversation with other adults when they say things and I have to say like, oh, they're asking about... [29:29] this parent. Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that. Who isn't me. You know, like I feel like [29:34] especially as a six-year-old, they have no filters. [29:38] If his face is on the news, people are looking out for him in maybe not even the area, but the country. And he's asking questions or talking to people about his mom and dad, his real mom and dad. [29:50] I feel like that'd be really hard to conceal. So yeah, and here's the thing. Like, there's been this theory that has emerged that I don't love because I think instead of like looking at the evidence and then coming up with a theory, I think people are like, well, why hasn't anyone come forward? And they've kind of like built this theory around it that kind of puts it into this nice tiny package. But...

[30:11] The theory is that perhaps he was given to someone from the Amish community. And then that way he really is isolated with like one community. They don't have the radio. They don't have TV. So they're not hearing the story of Timothy's like loving family who's actually looking for him. They may have never... And he's almost disguised. Yeah, they may have never known like what happened, like what Amy's like real fate was. [30:37] So it's a theory that keeps coming up over and over because again, I mean, it's nice and tidy. It seems to be the only one that explains how she could convince someone to take him and love him and care for him. [30:47] And then those people then eventually don't find out that he actually still has this family who wants to take care of him and love him and care for him. Well, but all of her letters specifically stated how she was keeping Timothy from Jim. But what motive would she have to keep Timothy away from her family? I think the truth of it is that at the time this happened, she just wasn't well. And I don't know how that was affecting her emotionally. I mean, she clearly was feeling possessive over Timothy. [31:17] belongs to me. Well, kind of like a if I can't have him, no one can mentality. Possibly. So in her mind, maybe she wanted to have complete control over what happened to him even after she was gone. And [31:29] I can't decide if the note that she left was her trying to be kind or her trying to be cruel. Like option one is that this really is the truth. She thought she was doing what's best for him. He's with somebody. And for whatever reason, she thought he'd be better off there. Option two, she did something to him that maybe she didn't want to be remembered for that way. Or maybe in her head, she thought that it would be better for the family to think that he was out there and happy

[31:59] know that he was deceased and what she had done. So she says he's with somebody else who loves him and is taking care of him. Or option three, [32:07] She knew how much it would hurt to not have closure. And this was just like one more stab at her husband... [32:15] when she was just, like, in a bad place mentally. I'm sorry to, like, backtrack a little bit, but... [32:21] Did all of this come out of nowhere? Like, I mean, she clearly... [32:25] wasn't so unmentally stable because her family wasn't even alarmed when she [32:30] you know, picked Timothy up from school an hour in and took him on this crazy road trip. Well, yes and no. So she had a history with depression and even had another incident where she took some pills near a cliff's edge and almost fell over. And people thought that that was an attempt to kill herself. So there is this history in that regard. But even with that, every person [33:00] harm her son and they all fully believe that he's still alive. But years and years went by, no one came forward. There was no sign of Timothy until this April when that boy... [33:15] who was claiming to be 14 years old, said he was Timothy Pitson. Now, this was crazy, [33:22] because I think it had everyone, like all of our conspiracy minds going. Like he said he was being held captive by some men. Did that mean that like,

[33:31] His mom gave him to bad people, or worse, was his mom murdered and he was taken in all this time? People didn't know and we weren't looking. But [33:39] Within a couple of days, DNA had been taken and it was found that this boy, who was actually not a boy at all, was not Timothy. It was actually a 23-year-old man named Brian Michael Rennie. Brian is a man who seems to be very mentally ill. He's presented himself apparently in the past as a juvenile victim of sex trafficking before multiple times. This is like something that he puts on. He's been arrested now. He's going to trial for false claims. [34:09] but [34:10] He's caused a lot of damage. Jim says that this whole thing has ripped open this wound just so wide like it happened yesterday. And he's grieving all over again. But he said that he hopes that out of this tragedy, maybe something good will happen. Maybe people will start talking about his son again and start looking for his son again. He says that to him, the worst thing people can do is assume that his son is dead. [34:40] And he doesn't want anyone else to think that either, because as soon as you do, you'll stop keeping an eye out for him. As of this recording... [34:48] Timothy would be 14 years old. You can actually go see an age-progressed picture of him on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. I'll also post it on our social media. And we hope everyone will go look and keep an eye out for the real Timothy Pitson. He was six when he was taken. He may not even know he's missing anymore. And depending on who he's with, I mean, they might not know that a good family is looking for him. So share his picture.

[35:18] Share his story and hopefully one day Jim will really get to reunite with his son. [35:25] don't forget you can check out those pictures on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com we also have all of the surveillance footage in one video there that you can check out as well the age progressed picture will also be on our social media you can follow us on instagram [35:55] pod. And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. [36:19] *music* [36:21] *music* [36:23] *music* [36:26] Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? [36:34] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that?

[36:52] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now and I've been listening for years. [36:56] I think you'll love it too. [36:57] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.