A boy found by Kentucky police Wednesday says he's Timmothy Pitzen, 14—and if he is, that's long-awaited news. Newport residents called police about a suspicious boy walking the streets in a hoodie with a bruised face, who later said he had just escaped two kidnappers at a Red Roof Inn, possibly in Illinois. Now the FBI says it's working with area police forces to scour hotels for two white muscle-bound men—one with a snake tattoo and the other a spider web tattoo—who may be driving a white Ford SUV with Wisconsin plates, WCPO reports. Police in Aurora, Illinois, are also conducting overnight DNA tests to see if he's the same Timmothy Pitzen who vanished eight years ago under tragic circumstances.
That boy's mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, pulled him out of an Aurora school on May 11, 2011, and was later found dead in a Rockford hotel with a suicide note, the Cincinnati Enquirer recalls. "You'll never find him," she wrote, adding that she left Timmothy with people who "would care for him and love him." Timmothy was indeed gone along with his car seat and Spider-man backpack. Police have since received thousands of tips, including a possible 2014 sighting in northern Illinois right after an age-progressed image of Timmothy was released, per NBC Chicago. Now Timmothy's maternal grandmother says she's cautiously hopeful: "Praying it's him and he's okay," she tells ABC News. The teen found Wednesday seems to have disabilities, per WAGM-TV. (More missing child stories.)