Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Missing 6-year-old boy Timmothy Pitzen disappears, family heartbroken when 'teen' boy poses as their son

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Missing 6-year-old boy Timmothy Pitzen disappears, family heartbroken when 'teen' boy poses as their son · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace straight out to Katie r
0:13
Speaker 1: As Joe Dome as Joe, Mommy's found dad is by
0:17
Speaker 1: suicide and explain to me about the note she leaves behind.
0:20
Speaker 1: Where did they find out? What did it say? The
0:22
Speaker 1: note was found on the next of the bed. Nancy.
0:24
Speaker 1: Apparently the note said that the child was safe, her
0:27
Speaker 1: little boy was safe with some friends of her. She
0:29
Speaker 1: didn't name who the friends wore, though. This is a
0:32
Speaker 1: very important evidence, in fact, the only clue as to
0:35
Speaker 1: where little Timothy could be. We know that Timothy's mother
0:38
Speaker 1: took him on a joy ride, spending all across the
0:41
Speaker 1: state of Illinois into Wisconsin. I mean he could literally
0:44
Speaker 1: be anywhere in these two states, and also in a
0:46
Speaker 1: nearby state of Iowa, where his mother is from. His mother,
0:50
Speaker 1: of course, was found dead in a hotel room, her
0:53
Speaker 1: wrists cut. Nancy. Police believe it may have been suicide.
0:58
Speaker 1: My friend Joe comes joining me from Katie r H Radio.
1:04
Speaker 1: That little boy Timothy Pittson. And in the last days,
1:10
Speaker 1: now seven years after I report he's missing, a man emerges,
1:16
Speaker 1: a teen saying he's Timothy Pittson. Is it true? I'm
1:23
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. This is crime Stories. Thank you for being
1:25
Speaker 1: with us. First to my long time colleague and friend,
1:29
Speaker 1: Mark Class. You know Mark Class, founder of Class Kids Foundation.
1:34
Speaker 1: I was just typing your name last night, right before
1:38
Speaker 1: I went to bed, writing a section on safety for
1:43
Speaker 1: children and what parents can do to protect their children,
1:47
Speaker 1: not realizing that today I would be talking to you
1:50
Speaker 1: in the flesh. Mark. Do you remember when Timothy Pittson
1:52
Speaker 1: went missing? Well, I do remember, Dancy, and it was
1:56
Speaker 1: an absolutely heartbreaking story. It was a story that have
2:00
Speaker 1: led one to believe that perhaps the little boy wasn't
2:04
Speaker 1: alive anymore, which made what happened just recently even bigger
2:13
Speaker 1: in one's time than it would have been because it
2:15
Speaker 1: falls in the steps of so many other children that
2:17
Speaker 1: have been found alive one way or another in the
2:20
Speaker 1: past year. So it raised great hope, not only in
2:23
Speaker 1: our hearts, obviously, but in the hearts of his family
2:26
Speaker 1: that was, you know, so desperate to know what had
2:28
Speaker 1: happened to the little boy. Absolutely, Mark, And you're talking
2:32
Speaker 1: about cases like j. C. Dugger who was gone over
2:36
Speaker 1: ten years, kidnapped on her way to the bus stop.
2:41
Speaker 1: Ben only one example. I mean, there's so many children again,
2:46
Speaker 1: of course, Elizabeth Smart is the quintessential case where a
2:50
Speaker 1: child goes missing and then years later you find the child.
2:55
Speaker 1: And the reason Mark is saying, I think he is
2:58
Speaker 1: let me speak from just this one time that it
3:00
Speaker 1: looked like Timothy maybe dead was because the mom committed
3:04
Speaker 1: suicide in a motel, leaving a note that Timothy, her
3:08
Speaker 1: little boy, was with friends. Could never find the friends.
3:12
Speaker 1: What friends where? Why doesn't she wants to find the friends?
3:16
Speaker 1: Why does she kill herself? And to doctor Bethany Marshall,
3:20
Speaker 1: California's psycho analyst, what scared me the most at the
3:23
Speaker 1: time Timothy went missing. For those of you who just
3:25
Speaker 1: joining us, a man appears claiming to be Timothy Pitts
3:28
Speaker 1: and a little boy I first reported on years ago
3:31
Speaker 1: when he went missing. The joy ride, the ride, the
3:35
Speaker 1: meandering ride. Mommy takes the boy on before she commits suicide.
3:41
Speaker 1: That aspect of this scenario. You know, I'm just a
3:45
Speaker 1: trial lawyer, Bethany, you're the shrink that ride for days.
3:51
Speaker 1: It speaks to me, but I don't know the significance
3:54
Speaker 1: or what it means. Well. I wondered about the joy
3:57
Speaker 1: ride if she was trying to get her nerve up
4:01
Speaker 1: to do something. You know, she left her home when
4:05
Speaker 1: out of contact with her own husband, turned off her
4:08
Speaker 1: cell phone, like she did not want to be found.
4:10
Speaker 1: She did not take her antidepressant medication with her, so
4:14
Speaker 1: she didn't plan ahead. She disrupted her child, Timothy's activities,
4:20
Speaker 1: you know, she just pulled him out of everything that
4:22
Speaker 1: was important to him. And I felt at the time
4:26
Speaker 1: that the joy ride was somebody who was contemplating harming
4:30
Speaker 1: herself and her child, but did not have the nerve
4:34
Speaker 1: to do it. Yet. She was thinking, she was contemplating,
4:37
Speaker 1: she was working up the courage. You know, people, sometimes
4:39
Speaker 1: when people commit suicide, it's impulsive, and sometimes it's very
4:43
Speaker 1: well thought out and planned. And this had a very
4:46
Speaker 1: planned quality to it. It made me think, and again,
4:50
Speaker 1: I'm just a trial lawyer, not a shrink like you.
4:53
Speaker 1: They long dry for. You're away from reality, you're away
4:57
Speaker 1: from work, you're away from school, you're away from soccer
5:01
Speaker 1: practice and cooking supper every night, and all the demands
5:05
Speaker 1: that are on moms and dads and and you're almost
5:10
Speaker 1: like going to a vacation. And she took her child,
5:14
Speaker 1: her little boy, Timothy, on this long ride for days
5:17
Speaker 1: and days and days just him and Mommy, and then
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Speaker 1: she commits suicide and he disappears. That's go ahead. Well,
5:29
Speaker 1: that reminds me of the preacher's wife. Remember that case
5:32
Speaker 1: you covered years ago where she took her two little
5:35
Speaker 1: girls on a vacation. She killed her husband, and then
5:38
Speaker 1: she went on this long, long vacation. It's like and
5:41
Speaker 1: they found her somewhere on the East Coast. It's like
5:44
Speaker 1: she unplugged exactly reality and unplugged from her life exactly.
5:50
Speaker 1: In the last hours, a man appears claiming a young
5:53
Speaker 1: man claiming to be Timothy Pittson. Take a listen to
5:58
Speaker 1: Timothy's grandma. I want to go to Linda Pittson. This
6:03
Speaker 1: is little Timmy's grandmother. Missus Pittson. Thank you for being
6:06
Speaker 1: with us. We are all hoping and praying that Jimmy
6:10
Speaker 1: has found alive tonight. Why are authority saying that Timmy
6:15
Speaker 1: was never in that motel room. How do they know
6:18
Speaker 1: that they saw that surveillance that he wasn't as Sullivan
6:26
Speaker 1: Grocery Store at eight o'clock with him with her, and
6:31
Speaker 1: so they feel that he wasn't with her in the
6:34
Speaker 1: motel room either. You are hearing me speak on h
6:39
Speaker 1: Lynn speaking to Timmy's grandma Linda Pittson. Now, take a
6:44
Speaker 1: listen to what my friend Joe gomes At Katie r.
6:47
Speaker 1: H says. It seems to me that if the little
6:50
Speaker 1: boy were with friends, those so called friends would have
6:53
Speaker 1: come forward by now. Well, certainly, Nancy, this case has
6:56
Speaker 1: gotten a lot of attention. I mean, look, police have
6:58
Speaker 1: been going around scouring the area, alerting everybody as to
7:01
Speaker 1: what happened. I mean, certainly, if you had received at
7:04
Speaker 1: a little precious six year old boy and you couldn't
7:07
Speaker 1: find his mother after a couple of days, when you
7:09
Speaker 1: have alerted authorities, I mean, it doesn't really make any sense, Nancy. Well,
7:13
Speaker 1: Joe Gummez was right. But how did it all start?
7:17
Speaker 1: Because that's the way we're going to figure out how
7:20
Speaker 1: it has all ended. In the last days, a young
7:23
Speaker 1: man emerging out of nowhere who really looks like Timothy
7:28
Speaker 1: Pittson and says he's Timothy Pittson. Take a listen to this.
7:31
Speaker 1: How did it start? Little Timothy Pittson was always the
7:40
Speaker 1: apple of his father's eye. So tim was a gregarious,
7:44
Speaker 1: extrovert type of person. Oh yeah, get along with everybody
7:48
Speaker 1: running down the street. It's always happy, always fun to
7:51
Speaker 1: be around, always looking for the next adventure. And now,
7:56
Speaker 1: when James Pittson closes his eyes, he can still see
7:59
Speaker 1: his son and Timothy in the car as he drives
8:02
Speaker 1: into kindergarten early on a spring morning in Aurora, Illinois.
8:08
Speaker 1: I brought Timothy off the school. He hopped out the backseat,
8:11
Speaker 1: ran off the school, and that's the last he's seen
8:15
Speaker 1: of Timothy to this day. I said, love you, buddy,
8:18
Speaker 1: and he says, love you two, dad, and I'll see
8:20
Speaker 1: you later. I'm like, okay. Less than an hour later,
8:24
Speaker 1: a surveillance camera captures Timothy's mother, Amy Pittson, as she
8:28
Speaker 1: signs him out of school, claiming a family emergency. It
8:31
Speaker 1: is the beginning of a tragic journey that's end is
8:35
Speaker 1: still unknown, and as James returns to pick up Timothy
8:39
Speaker 1: after school, he has no idea how bad it is
8:43
Speaker 1: going to get. I picked him up from kindergarten and
8:47
Speaker 1: take him the big care so I love by the
8:49
Speaker 1: school and his teacher goes Timothy left like eight thirty.
8:52
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do you mean he left at day thirty.
8:54
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I want to see the log book
8:56
Speaker 1: and who checked my son out of school because I'm like,
8:59
Speaker 1: let's hear the worst words you can hear. I can
9:04
Speaker 1: only imagine when you leave your child at school and
9:07
Speaker 1: you think everything is fine. I want to go to
9:10
Speaker 1: my longtime colleague, tireless advocate, world renowned Mark Class, founder
9:16
Speaker 1: of Class Kids Foundation. Mark was called to He was
9:22
Speaker 1: led to his calling by his daughter Polly, who disappeared
9:28
Speaker 1: and lost her life many years ago. Totally completely out
9:33
Speaker 1: of left field. Mark, You're the one that first alerted
9:38
Speaker 1: me to the dangers of school bus, school route and
9:41
Speaker 1: school pickup problems. How the abductions take place? What went wrong?
9:47
Speaker 1: Way back? When you know the banner is a guy
9:50
Speaker 1: has just shown up that looks like Timothy Pittson, that
9:52
Speaker 1: says he's Timothy Pittson. But how did the mom get
9:55
Speaker 1: him out? Was she allowed to get him out? Was
9:57
Speaker 1: she the signatory parent? She must have been on a
10:01
Speaker 1: list that allowed her to remove the child from school,
10:05
Speaker 1: or the secretary or whoever signs him out of school
10:09
Speaker 1: assumed that she was on that list. But I can
10:13
Speaker 1: certainly see how a mother can show up to take
10:15
Speaker 1: a child out of school because of a family emergency
10:18
Speaker 1: and they say, oh, absolutely good. Luck, and we hope
10:22
Speaker 1: that everything turns out all right. The statistic that you
10:26
Speaker 1: were mentioning is the fact that one third of all
10:29
Speaker 1: abduction attempts occur on school routes. We just saw that
10:34
Speaker 1: with Jamie Close. That was exactly what happened to her.
10:37
Speaker 1: It happens time and time and time again, but this
10:40
Speaker 1: was a little bit different. But one has to be
10:43
Speaker 1: somewhat forgiving. I think of the school authorities for allowing
10:46
Speaker 1: this little boy to leave the premises with his mother alarmed.
10:54
Speaker 1: James checks back at home end at Amy's John, but
10:57
Speaker 1: there is no sign of his estranged wife, Timothy. If
11:00
Speaker 1: I need to figure out what's going on, I called
11:03
Speaker 1: Amy's cell phone a couple of times, always went to voicemail.
11:06
Speaker 1: I'm like, just tell me. If you find just call me.
11:09
Speaker 1: What's going on. So you spent that first night having
11:12
Speaker 1: no idea where they were, Yeah, no idea where they were.
11:16
Speaker 1: I called her mom, I called her dad to see
11:19
Speaker 1: if where she if she'd been there, and I'm like, okay,
11:22
Speaker 1: she's upset me for some reason. She's still needs some
11:24
Speaker 1: time to cool down. So the next morning comes around,
11:28
Speaker 1: they're still not home. So I called the police. Department
11:31
Speaker 1: and the clerk, Amy and Timothy missing. Another day passes
11:36
Speaker 1: with James left in the dark, and then a sign
11:38
Speaker 1: of hope. Amy does not contact her husband, but she
11:42
Speaker 1: checks in with her mother. She said, well, we're fine.
11:46
Speaker 1: We'll be home on a day or two. You know,
11:48
Speaker 1: just like I just needed some time alone to figure
11:50
Speaker 1: out and try to think about what how do you
11:53
Speaker 1: approach this. Amy also calls James's brother. I have no
11:58
Speaker 1: idea why she called her brother. He could hear Timothy
12:00
Speaker 1: in the background, plane or hanging out, but there was
12:06
Speaker 1: one part of that relate conversation that will ring in
12:10
Speaker 1: James Pittson's ears for a long time to come. Would
12:14
Speaker 1: you say, Timothy's fine, Timothy's Timothy's belongs to me. Timothy
12:20
Speaker 1: and al will be fine. That Timothy is safe, Timothy
12:24
Speaker 1: belongs to me. Did your brother find that train? Yeah,
12:28
Speaker 1: he called me about it. At first, he was bullied
12:32
Speaker 1: with hope because Timothy was alive. The grandma knew that
12:37
Speaker 1: he was alive, That mother was fine. That grandma, Linda Pittson,
12:40
Speaker 1: you heard speaking to me earlier. And then this. James
12:44
Speaker 1: admits he and Amy were struggling but had no idea
12:48
Speaker 1: how much until the mystery unfolds later. At first, he
12:52
Speaker 1: figures police will soon find his wife and son, then
12:55
Speaker 1: he can finally sit down with Amy and sort everything out.
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Speaker 1: At least you know that they're they're gathering safe and
13:02
Speaker 1: nothing gonna happen. I mean, yeah, so, so the cops
13:06
Speaker 1: are looking for him. I figured that everything can be
13:09
Speaker 1: fine and we'd be one big, happy family a game.
13:13
Speaker 1: And sure enough, three days after their disappearance, there is
13:17
Speaker 1: a knock on his door. It's the police, and they
13:21
Speaker 1: definitely have news. They have found Amy Pittson in nearby Rockford, Illinois,
13:27
Speaker 1: and she's dead by her own hand. Now, James Pittson
13:33
Speaker 1: is reeling and shocked. As soon as the police officers
13:36
Speaker 1: said that they found Amy deceased, I was like, give me, like,
13:41
Speaker 1: what do you mean she's deceased. I was a total
13:45
Speaker 1: shock at the time. And they told me where she where.
13:48
Speaker 1: She was found in a little cheap, little motel. How
13:52
Speaker 1: did Amy die? Um? She had a razor blade, she
14:00
Speaker 1: cut herself. Then the second piece of bad news drums
14:06
Speaker 1: and James's heart sinks. Little six year old Timothy was
14:12
Speaker 1: not with his mother and he is nowhere to be found,
14:17
Speaker 1: and you're hearing our friends at crime Watch Delhi. To
14:20
Speaker 1: Atlanta criminal lawyer, former prosecutor, current defense attorney Daryl Cohen,
14:26
Speaker 1: there was no sign of Timothy Pittson in the hotel room.
14:30
Speaker 1: In fact, some of the last surveillance of Timothy shows
14:34
Speaker 1: him with his mom at a water park in Wisconsin.
14:37
Speaker 1: I mean when they went on a meandering trip. They
14:40
Speaker 1: really went on a meandering trip. She was taking him
14:43
Speaker 1: to fun parks and restaurants and fun things all along
14:48
Speaker 1: the trip, and it culminated with her committing suicide, but
14:52
Speaker 1: no indication she hurt Timothy. What do you make of that?
14:56
Speaker 1: There is absolutely no logic that I can apply to this.
14:59
Speaker 1: We have to just take it the way it is.
15:02
Speaker 1: We have a mom who obviously did not know how
15:05
Speaker 1: to tell the truth. We have a mom who was
15:08
Speaker 1: obviously contemplating suicide and committed suicide. What happened to her son?
15:13
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's any logical explanation. We could
15:16
Speaker 1: just hold and pray that it will work out and
15:19
Speaker 1: we will hear from him or hear about him soon.
15:23
Speaker 1: To Jesscott Morgan, forensics expert author of Blood Beneath My
15:27
Speaker 1: Feet on Amazon. Jesscott You've dealt with many, many suicide scenes,
15:32
Speaker 1: but very often you'll find a suicide note. Why would
15:37
Speaker 1: anyone have a motive to lie at the very end
15:41
Speaker 1: of their life. She says, he's with friends, he's safe,
15:44
Speaker 1: and he will never be found. A lot of suicides
15:48
Speaker 1: are committed obviously they're anger driven. I would be I
15:53
Speaker 1: would think that this is kind of a final exclamation
15:57
Speaker 1: point that is directed toward probably members in her circle,
16:02
Speaker 1: like the father. Just the ultimate cruel intention here relative
16:08
Speaker 1: to this if in fact she has spirited this child away,
16:13
Speaker 1: hidding him somewhere, maybe she turned him over to someone
16:16
Speaker 1: that took him out of the country, who knows, No
16:19
Speaker 1: one knows, but you know, at the end of the day,
16:23
Speaker 1: to leave a note and to just tug at the
16:26
Speaker 1: heartstrings of this father giving him hope is just unfathomable.
16:32
Speaker 1: Giving him hope. And for the last eight years we
16:37
Speaker 1: have been looking for Timothy Pittson. And then in the
16:40
Speaker 1: last days a massive earth shattering breakthrough, a young man
16:47
Speaker 1: who looks like he's in his teens appears and announces
16:50
Speaker 1: he's Timothy Pittson. And he looks like Timothy Pittson, he
16:53
Speaker 1: acts like Timothy Pittson. He walks like Timothy Pittson, and
16:58
Speaker 1: I am elated. Now taken to account. This mom Joe
17:01
Speaker 1: five hundred miles in just three days with her little boy,
17:07
Speaker 1: and it culminates in a suicide note. Police discover a
17:13
Speaker 1: shocking suicide note on the table, triggering a mystery that
17:17
Speaker 1: haunts James every day. What note did Amy leave at
17:22
Speaker 1: the motel? She apologize for the mess she created and
17:26
Speaker 1: that Timothy was safe with people who loved him and
17:30
Speaker 1: he would never be found. She said, Timothy is safe, yes,
17:36
Speaker 1: and will never be found, safe with people who loved him,
17:41
Speaker 1: and then would never be found. So basically Amy just
17:44
Speaker 1: hands off Timothy to another person or another couple. Just
17:50
Speaker 1: here you go. Yeah, pretty much from what I understand.
17:55
Speaker 1: What kind of people are use that would just take
17:58
Speaker 1: a six year old? I have no idea. She might
18:02
Speaker 1: have been in contact with them for months. I don't
18:04
Speaker 1: know what she could have said to them to get
18:06
Speaker 1: some way to do that take up a child from
18:10
Speaker 1: the rest of his family. Another note Amy mail to
18:16
Speaker 1: her mother, Hungana Anderson, is no less confounding. On a
18:20
Speaker 1: phone interview for the Nancy Gray Show, Alanna reads the
18:23
Speaker 1: letter on air shortly after Amy's suicide. So I've taken
18:28
Speaker 1: him somewhere safe. He will be well, kid for and
18:32
Speaker 1: he says that he loves super. Please know that there
18:38
Speaker 1: is nothing you could have said her done that would
18:41
Speaker 1: have changed my mind. Cryptic words that only a dead
18:45
Speaker 1: woman can decipher. An inspection of Amy's SUV by police
18:49
Speaker 1: shows that she had pulled off an unpaved road somewhere
18:53
Speaker 1: on her final journey, backing into a field and leaving
18:56
Speaker 1: grass and dirt under the rear bumper. That was on
19:00
Speaker 1: a graveled blacktop road. It's worse she was or that's
19:05
Speaker 1: where the switch happened. But alarmingly, investigators also find dried
19:10
Speaker 1: blood on the backseat of Amy's car. The family says
19:13
Speaker 1: it's a false lead, the result of a nosebleed from
19:17
Speaker 1: Timothy months before that road trip, but cops conduct an
19:21
Speaker 1: exhaustive search for the boy in some of the remote
19:24
Speaker 1: areas along Amy's long distance room. Our friends at Crime
19:30
Speaker 1: Watch Daily and me speaking to Timothy's grandma to J.
19:33
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics Jacksonville State University, author of Blood
19:37
Speaker 1: Beneath My Feet on Amazon, explain in a nutshell how
19:42
Speaker 1: they determined the alleged handoff took place on a gravel
19:46
Speaker 1: top road. Well, there's there's specific evidence that ties it
19:51
Speaker 1: back that the car actually came in contact with that
19:54
Speaker 1: particular surface, and then there's evidence left behind by the
19:57
Speaker 1: car as well as what is found within the car,
20:00
Speaker 1: so that gives you an indication of where they were
20:02
Speaker 1: located to Mark Class, founder of Class Kids Foundation, who
20:07
Speaker 1: has devoted his life to saving children. Mark Class, what
20:12
Speaker 1: do you make of their analysis that the handoff mom
20:16
Speaker 1: made of Timothy Pittson, who is now seemingly emerged live
20:20
Speaker 1: and well on a graveltop Right, where did that lead police?
20:24
Speaker 1: Whoa l absolutely nowhere? And there are so many roads
20:28
Speaker 1: that fit that description within a five hundred mile path
20:33
Speaker 1: that it's unfathomable and impossible to impossible to really research
20:39
Speaker 1: or investigate. I believe that the things that she said
20:43
Speaker 1: at the end were just so cruel, Nancy, just unbelievable
20:48
Speaker 1: that she would say, he's fine, but you'll never find them.
20:50
Speaker 1: Where does that leave Everybody leaves him with an open
20:53
Speaker 1: wound that can only be healed by the discovery of
20:57
Speaker 1: the little boy. The discovery of the little boy. And
21:01
Speaker 1: you're right, Mark, You're right. And you have lived through
21:05
Speaker 1: this every day of your life since Polly disappeared. And
21:11
Speaker 1: can I say something quickly. I was just in a
21:14
Speaker 1: meeting with the governor of California just two weeks ago,
21:18
Speaker 1: and he looked me in the eye and he said
21:21
Speaker 1: that he's not going to be the governor to execute
21:24
Speaker 1: seven hundred people or two people a day for a year.
21:27
Speaker 1: And he said, for that reason, he was declaring a
21:30
Speaker 1: moratorium on the death penalty. And when he said that,
21:34
Speaker 1: I felt that I had been betrayed. I felt that
21:36
Speaker 1: I had been betrayed by somebody in a position of trust.
21:40
Speaker 1: And a little bit of me died at that moment.
21:43
Speaker 1: And you know, that's how people feel when you're dealing
21:47
Speaker 1: with the death of a child. You're being taunted one
21:50
Speaker 1: way or the other, time and time and time again.
21:53
Speaker 1: There never seems to be any kind of finality. So,
21:57
Speaker 1: you know, for this family to go through all of
21:59
Speaker 1: that for all of those years, and then finally yesterday,
22:03
Speaker 1: this amazing discovery that a man walks into the town
22:07
Speaker 1: and he declares he's the little boy. He looks like
22:10
Speaker 1: the little boy, he acts like the little boy, he
22:13
Speaker 1: knows the little boy's birthday, it's a Eureka moment, and
22:16
Speaker 1: he knows everything about Timothy, the disappearance. It's got to
22:21
Speaker 1: be him, and over all the years, the dad never
22:24
Speaker 1: gave up hope. James Pittson, alone with all who knew
22:28
Speaker 1: any best, insists that she would never harm Timothy under
22:32
Speaker 1: any circumstances. I know his life, his life somewhere. Amy
22:36
Speaker 1: would never do anything to hurt Timothy. Timothy was like
22:40
Speaker 1: her little prince, and he continues to hope that someday,
22:45
Speaker 1: soon he will get another knock on the door, this
22:48
Speaker 1: time with the best news of his life. By every day,
22:52
Speaker 1: get up and take my phone and wait for the
22:55
Speaker 1: detective and say, hey, we found Timothy here. It's going
22:58
Speaker 1: to be a glorious day. This can't wait. It's kind
23:03
Speaker 1: to be happy. I'm gonna cry a lot, me cry
23:08
Speaker 1: a lot when he comes home. That's Timothy's dad with
23:11
Speaker 1: our friends at Crime Watch Daily. I mean, Mark Class.
23:15
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever had these dreams or
23:18
Speaker 1: even dreamed it in your waking moments, but that dream
23:22
Speaker 1: where Polly comes back and you see her, you see
23:27
Speaker 1: her again and you're with her again. I've dreamed that
23:31
Speaker 1: about Keith, my fiancee, and that sounds like what Timothy's
23:35
Speaker 1: dads dreamed. It's it's so hard, but it is a
23:41
Speaker 1: dream that you have, and it turns out that it's
23:44
Speaker 1: the only way that you can really have a conversation
23:47
Speaker 1: with your loved one that has passed on. It's absolutely
23:51
Speaker 1: the only way. And these are the kind of dreams
23:53
Speaker 1: that would first startled you and then finally you accept
23:56
Speaker 1: exactly what's going on and you start having that community.
24:00
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, Nacy, over time, even those
24:03
Speaker 1: fade and it becomes more and more a sense of
24:06
Speaker 1: the child that you nurtured and loved and hope so
24:10
Speaker 1: much for. The hope ultimately starts to fade. It doesn't disappear,
24:14
Speaker 1: but it begins like a big wide boulevard and by
24:17
Speaker 1: the time you know, you get to a certain point,
24:20
Speaker 1: it's like you're teetering on a fine thread, just hoping
24:24
Speaker 1: beyond hope that something's going to happen and that you're
24:27
Speaker 1: going to be able to recover what you would so
24:31
Speaker 1: what you had lost. And then our friends at WCPOTV
24:36
Speaker 1: break the news. Good evening everyone, tonight, the FBI is
24:41
Speaker 1: conducting a DNA tess trying to determine if a teenager
24:44
Speaker 1: found right here in the Try State is Timothy Pittson,
24:47
Speaker 1: and Pittson actually when missing from northern Illinois back in
24:50
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. Now, multiple police agencies from several states are
24:54
Speaker 1: investigating this case, and the FBI and officers from Aurora,
24:57
Speaker 1: Illinois are likely in Cincinnati right now. They're trying to
25:01
Speaker 1: figure out if the teenager's claims are valid. Police found
25:04
Speaker 1: the teenager in Newport this morning after receiving calls from
25:07
Speaker 1: concerned neighbors. He told police he was Timothy Pittson and
25:11
Speaker 1: had escaped from two kidnappers. Wow, joining me right now,
25:16
Speaker 1: syndicated talk show host Dave mac Dave, tell me where
25:21
Speaker 1: he came from, how did they find him, how did
25:24
Speaker 1: he emerge, how did he make himself? Know what happened?
25:28
Speaker 1: According to Sharon Hall Nancy, she lives in Newport, Kentucky,
25:31
Speaker 1: just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. She said she
25:34
Speaker 1: saw a young person in a hoodie hanging out on
25:36
Speaker 1: the street at seven thirty in the morning, claiming that
25:38
Speaker 1: he looked nervous. He seemed a little standoffish. She said,
25:42
Speaker 1: we literally thought he was going to collapse. So she
25:46
Speaker 1: is approached by this young man. Okay, he says, call
25:49
Speaker 1: nine one one. I've just escaped from two kidnappers. Officers arrive.
25:53
Speaker 1: The police immediately are getting a report from him. He
25:57
Speaker 1: claims he is the missing him at the Pittson and
26:01
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of information. One of the reports
26:05
Speaker 1: in the claim, they claimed that he'd been held against
26:07
Speaker 1: his will. One of the guys was a black, curly
26:10
Speaker 1: haired man wearing a Mountain dew t shirt and that
26:12
Speaker 1: he was in a red roof inn just across the
26:15
Speaker 1: bridge in Cincinnati. There was another man with him with
26:18
Speaker 1: a snake tattoo on his arms, very specific that he
26:21
Speaker 1: was a little smaller than the other man. They were
26:23
Speaker 1: in a Ford SUV with Wisconsin license plates. Well. The
26:27
Speaker 1: Newport Police Lieutenant Chris Fangman said that the person that
26:30
Speaker 1: they found was ematiated and in need of medical attention,
26:34
Speaker 1: so they followed standard procedures trying to identify him to
26:37
Speaker 1: verify that he actually was who he claimed to be.
26:41
Speaker 1: You know what, Dave, Matt, You're so right. Take a
26:43
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at WCPO TV. It's christ and
26:46
Speaker 1: Swilley talking to Timmy's grandma. I'm very hopeful that it's
26:50
Speaker 1: him and then he's okay. After years of wondering what
26:53
Speaker 1: happened to her grandson, Alana Anderson's nightmare could be coming
26:57
Speaker 1: to a close. Cautiously helpful, very cautiously hopeful, and if
27:04
Speaker 1: it turns out to be him, will be thrilled. Timothy
27:06
Speaker 1: Pittson is a rora Illinois only missing child case according
27:09
Speaker 1: to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A
27:12
Speaker 1: public information officer where the Aurora PD tells our sister
27:16
Speaker 1: station what happened here in the Tri State is a
27:18
Speaker 1: strong lead and the department is in touch with Pittson's dad.
27:22
Speaker 1: It just tugs at your heart. I'm a little speechless hero,
27:25
Speaker 1: which is unlike to a certain extent many people here
27:28
Speaker 1: remember when then six year old Pittson went missing in
27:31
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. They now hope this family and this community
27:35
Speaker 1: get the answers they've been waiting for. Absolutely, my thoughts
27:38
Speaker 1: and prayers are with them for the best outcome for everyone.
27:42
Speaker 1: Anderson hopes he's okay, both physically and mentally. He's been
27:46
Speaker 1: in a good place when he was gone, and he's
27:50
Speaker 1: going to come back to us. And if the team
27:52
Speaker 1: is in fact her grandson. She wants to pass this
27:55
Speaker 1: message along that we never stopped looking for him, thinking
27:59
Speaker 1: about him, and that we love him and we'll do
28:01
Speaker 1: everything to get him back to a good life. Climb
28:12
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. You've been saying, of all the
28:18
Speaker 1: sightings over the years, this felt like the most promising
28:22
Speaker 1: he did. Getting this news today, how is that? It's devastating. Yeah,
28:29
Speaker 1: it's like we're living that day all over again, and
28:34
Speaker 1: Timothy's father is devastated once again, as are we. You know,
28:42
Speaker 1: I was very close to tim He spent a lot
28:45
Speaker 1: of time here. Last morning I had am crawled in
28:48
Speaker 1: bed with me and told me I was the best
28:50
Speaker 1: grandma in the whole white world. So he's a wonderful
28:54
Speaker 1: little boy, and I hope he has a strength of
28:57
Speaker 1: personality to do whatever he needs to do to find us.
29:01
Speaker 1: My prayers always been that when he was old enough,
29:03
Speaker 1: he would find us if we couldn't find him. Dave Max,
29:07
Speaker 1: Syndicated talk show host Mark Class, Darryl Cohen, Bethany Marshall
29:12
Speaker 1: just got Morgan devastating, Absolutely devastating. Mark Class. Before I
29:21
Speaker 1: get to the impostor, I mean, I can't even imagine
29:27
Speaker 1: being told that Keith is alive and then find out
29:32
Speaker 1: it's a hoax and that was a fiance. My children
29:38
Speaker 1: are the closest thing I've ever had, the greatest love
29:42
Speaker 1: I've ever had on earth, and I can't imagine it.
29:45
Speaker 1: You've suffered that when Polly was taken away from you.
29:50
Speaker 1: Excuse me? What do you think this did to Timothy's father.
29:53
Speaker 1: It's cruelty bordering on sadism, because I mean, like I mentioned,
30:00
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're on a thread of hope, and
30:03
Speaker 1: then this Eureka moment occurs and everything looks exactly perfect,
30:08
Speaker 1: you see the light at the end of the tunnel,
30:10
Speaker 1: and then to find out it's a hoax. It's devastating.
30:13
Speaker 1: It's psychologically crippling. He's poor people to have to go
30:17
Speaker 1: through something like that. Why would this man do what
30:21
Speaker 1: he did knowing that his hopes would be found out
30:24
Speaker 1: in a very short amount of time. It's just absolutely
30:27
Speaker 1: horrible too. Dave Max, indicated talk show host. How did
30:31
Speaker 1: they determine this guy who looks like Timothy, talks like Timothy,
30:37
Speaker 1: walks like Timothy, knows all so many details about Timothy
30:42
Speaker 1: and his life and his disappearance. How did they determine
30:45
Speaker 1: it's not him, Nancy. It was very simple. They ran
30:48
Speaker 1: DNA and this guy had a long time to make
30:51
Speaker 1: this plan. This wasn't something he just created at the
30:54
Speaker 1: spur of the moment trying to get a free meal.
30:56
Speaker 1: This guy plotted and planned this and I think we
30:59
Speaker 1: know where he was able to do it. Where in prison.
31:04
Speaker 1: He spent fourteen months in prison in Ohio where he
31:08
Speaker 1: had nothing but time on his hands to study this case.
31:11
Speaker 1: But Timothy Pittson case, he knows. He looks young. He's
31:14
Speaker 1: a twenty three year old man named Brian Reeney. He
31:16
Speaker 1: looks fourteen when you actually see him. He does look young,
31:19
Speaker 1: but he's got a long, extensive criminal record in northeast Ohio.
31:24
Speaker 1: He was there when this all happened, so he was
31:26
Speaker 1: intimately familiar with the missing case of Timothy Pittson. So
31:30
Speaker 1: in his time in jail, he had access to the internet,
31:33
Speaker 1: had plenty of time to study this and that's how
31:36
Speaker 1: he knew so much information about Timothy Pittson and his disappearance.
31:40
Speaker 1: So he knew his birthday, so he knew basic things
31:42
Speaker 1: about Timothy's life. And he was immediately at seven thirty
31:45
Speaker 1: in the morning, ready to get that on the hook.
31:48
Speaker 1: But he had to know. This is the evil part, Nancy.
31:51
Speaker 1: The guy was in the criminal justice system. He knew
31:53
Speaker 1: they had his DNA, he knew they had his fingerprints.
31:55
Speaker 1: He knew he would be found out very quickly. I'm
31:58
Speaker 1: just sit you said he was in prison and Dave
32:00
Speaker 1: Matt what is his criminal history? All right, He's got
32:03
Speaker 1: a long one. In twenty seventeen, Brian Rainey threw a
32:08
Speaker 1: party inside a four hundred thousand dollars Ohio home that
32:12
Speaker 1: was up for sale. It was a model home. He
32:14
Speaker 1: told neighbors he'd planned to buy the house, was going
32:16
Speaker 1: to throw a big party. Actually ran a Facebook page
32:19
Speaker 1: said We're gonna party, bring your own drugs. They did
32:22
Speaker 1: a bunch of damage to the home. He was charged
32:24
Speaker 1: with burglary and vandalism. That's what he was sent to
32:27
Speaker 1: prison for in January of twenty and eighteen. He was
32:29
Speaker 1: sentenced eighteen months. He served fourteen months of that sentence. Now,
32:34
Speaker 1: prior to this, he had a history of bad check.
32:38
Speaker 1: In two eleven, he was pulled over for a simple
32:41
Speaker 1: moving violation and he gave out his brothers, his younger
32:45
Speaker 1: brother's identity. The young brother didn't even know about it
32:47
Speaker 1: until a couple of days later when they had a
32:49
Speaker 1: warrant phrase arrest. I mean, this guy has done he's
32:52
Speaker 1: done horrible things to his own family, and now he's
32:55
Speaker 1: inflicting this kind of damage, this emotionally devastating story. It
33:00
Speaker 1: just goes through comprehension that you know what size sticking
33:02
Speaker 1: out in my mind to Dodgor Bethany Marshall, and I'm
33:05
Speaker 1: gonna follow up with Daryl Cohen. The nature of the crimes.
33:08
Speaker 1: It's not a smashing grab, it's not an armed robbery.
33:12
Speaker 1: What they are are deceptive crimes, that crimes of deception,
33:16
Speaker 1: writing a series of bad checks, making false alarms to
33:21
Speaker 1: law enforcement, faking owning a half a million dollar home
33:26
Speaker 1: and doing two thousand dollars worth of damage in it,
33:28
Speaker 1: throwing a party with drugs. For instance, he would dial
33:31
Speaker 1: nine one one to falsely claim to police's ex girlfriend
33:35
Speaker 1: was going to commit suicide. Who would come up with
33:37
Speaker 1: a line like that? Passing bad checks? Play guilty intooth
33:42
Speaker 1: all the way back in twenty thirteen to quote falsification.
33:46
Speaker 1: All of his incidents are about lies. Dear Old Cohen,
33:51
Speaker 1: and when you do a calendar call with one hundred
33:53
Speaker 1: and fifty felons like you and I did you know
33:56
Speaker 1: me for ten years? There's a difference between the killer
34:00
Speaker 1: and a smashing grab or a car thief and somebody
34:04
Speaker 1: that commits crimes by deception, Nancy. In many ways, someone
34:09
Speaker 1: who commits the type of crimes that he has committed
34:13
Speaker 1: far worse than someone who does a smashing grab, someone
34:16
Speaker 1: who does a burglary, a legitimate burglary. What he does
34:21
Speaker 1: as he's tearing the hearts out of people, he's tearing
34:24
Speaker 1: their souls. And what he has done for this young
34:29
Speaker 1: man that's still missing, what he has done to that
34:31
Speaker 1: young man's father, is beyond belief and beyond comprehension. And
34:36
Speaker 1: I would love to go back in the DA's office
34:38
Speaker 1: and prosecute him for everything that he has done. Everything
34:43
Speaker 1: to doctor Bethany Marshall, what does this mean? All of
34:45
Speaker 1: his history are crimes by deception and lying and fabricating
34:50
Speaker 1: and falsifying. Well, to me, it seems like shallow, thrill
34:55
Speaker 1: seeking behavior. In every single crime. He has something to gain,
35:01
Speaker 1: but what he's trying to gain is very impulsive, momentary.
35:06
Speaker 1: It's a it's a quick, cheap thrill that will never
35:10
Speaker 1: pay off in the long run. Look, someone goes in
35:12
Speaker 1: and robs a bank, they're going to take a hundred
35:14
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. They're going to hold on to that, They're
35:17
Speaker 1: going to spend it over a course of time and
35:19
Speaker 1: hope not to get caught. You give out your brother's identity,
35:23
Speaker 1: or you throw a party in a four hundred thousand
35:26
Speaker 1: dollar home, or you pretend to be a missing little boy,
35:29
Speaker 1: what are you getting in this case? He's getting the
35:32
Speaker 1: cheap thrill of the attention of the police on that
35:35
Speaker 1: day what he wanted, but just got more going. O'try
35:38
Speaker 1: how great of a fake he is. DNA doesn't lie ever, No,
35:44
Speaker 1: it doesn't, Nancy, And it's it's a solid backstop that
35:48
Speaker 1: we have now that we haven't had in the past.
35:50
Speaker 1: This is a case where if folks at home will
35:53
Speaker 1: just think about it's basic paternity. When it comes down
35:56
Speaker 1: to it, you know they've they've got DNA own file
36:00
Speaker 1: through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the
36:04
Speaker 1: FBI have access to it. It is a backstop that
36:07
Speaker 1: stops this kind of thing. To mark class found of
36:11
Speaker 1: Class kis foundation that lays us at the beginning, where
36:15
Speaker 1: is Timothy Well Nancy the cryptic nature of her final notes.
36:23
Speaker 1: I think we're almost the nail in the coffin. I mean,
36:26
Speaker 1: of course I can be wrong. Of course, children continue
36:28
Speaker 1: to be found and recovered and brought back to their families.
36:32
Speaker 1: But this family has been subjected to such evil and
36:36
Speaker 1: such cruelty over such a long period of time. Now
36:40
Speaker 1: I only hope that they can get an answer that
36:43
Speaker 1: brings him finality, whatever that answer is, whether they discover
36:47
Speaker 1: the remains of the little boy, or whether in fact
36:50
Speaker 1: another young man comes forward in the coming years or
36:53
Speaker 1: coming days or coming weeks and turns out to actually
36:56
Speaker 1: be Timothy. But they deserve closure. The family says their
37:00
Speaker 1: prayer is and has always been, that one day, when
37:04
Speaker 1: Timothy is old enough, he will find his family. Nancy,
37:09
Speaker 1: We're just now getting new information from the FBI and
37:11
Speaker 1: federal prosecutors in Cincinnati about Brian Reeney. They are charging
37:16
Speaker 1: him with lying to the FBI, and the FBI releasing
37:20
Speaker 1: an arrest avadavit details including that Rennie told investigators he
37:25
Speaker 1: got the idea to pose as Timothy Pittson after seeing
37:29
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty segment on the case, and he said
37:32
Speaker 1: he'd always wanted to have a father like Timothy's. Now,
37:36
Speaker 1: let's listen to US District Attorney Benjamin Glassman. The DNA
37:40
Speaker 1: test that was the bugle swab that had been extracted
37:44
Speaker 1: from him was submitted from the FBI to the Hamilton
37:48
Speaker 1: County Corner's office, which was able to turn around. A
37:51
Speaker 1: quick analysis of that swab and comparison of that DNA
37:57
Speaker 1: to the DNA of Timothy Pittson's parents indicated that the
38:02
Speaker 1: person in question was not, in fact Timothy Pittson. So
38:08
Speaker 1: then yesterday FBI agents returned to talk again to the
38:14
Speaker 1: individual claiming to be Timothy Pittson. They identified themselves to
38:18
Speaker 1: him as an FBI agent, They warn't, they administered Miranda warnings.
38:23
Speaker 1: They warned him that lying to a federal agent is
38:27
Speaker 1: a violation of federal law. Nevertheless, he again repeated that
38:31
Speaker 1: he was Timothy Pittson and had escaped from a hotel
38:37
Speaker 1: where he had been held captive. Then law enforcement confronted
38:42
Speaker 1: him with the DNA results, and at that point the
38:46
Speaker 1: person immediately stated that he was not Timothy Pittson. And
38:50
Speaker 1: of course law enforcement knew by virtue of the DNA
38:52
Speaker 1: analysis that he was in fact Brian Reeney further investigation
38:58
Speaker 1: by law enforcement indicated that Renie had actually, on two
39:03
Speaker 1: prior occasions, claimed to be a victim of juvenile sex trafficking,
39:09
Speaker 1: and that on those occasions he had been discovers true
39:12
Speaker 1: identity had been discovered when he had been fingerprinted. Based
39:18
Speaker 1: on all of that information, the United States has proceeded
39:22
Speaker 1: to file a federal criminal charge against Brian Renee for
39:28
Speaker 1: a lying to a federal agent within the jurisdiction of
39:32
Speaker 1: the United States. The crime in this case is punishable
39:36
Speaker 1: by up to eight years in federal prison because it
39:39
Speaker 1: does involve lying with respect to a material matter about
39:43
Speaker 1: an investigation that involves sex trafficking of children. I want
39:48
Speaker 1: to say that first that on behalf of the United States,
39:52
Speaker 1: my heart goes out to the family of Timothy Pittson.
39:59
Speaker 1: I can only imagine the kind of pain that they
40:02
Speaker 1: have been through and that this episode has caused for them.
40:07
Speaker 1: Mister Reeney appeared in federal court on this charge about
40:12
Speaker 1: forty five minutes ago at the United States request. He
40:15
Speaker 1: was held without bond at the current time, and he
40:19
Speaker 1: will have a detention hearing on Tuesday. So I'm going
40:24
Speaker 1: to yield the podium momentarily to Acting Special Agent in
40:29
Speaker 1: Charge Sableton, and then to Special Asian in Charge Brown
40:33
Speaker 1: and Hamilton County Corner So Marco. After they've had an
40:36
Speaker 1: opportunity to make comments, I will return and answer any
40:41
Speaker 1: questions you have. The only additional point that I want
40:44
Speaker 1: to make before yielding the podium is that the investigation
40:48
Speaker 1: with respect to mister Reeney remains open and ongoing. So
40:52
Speaker 1: if anyone who is watching has additional information with respect
40:57
Speaker 1: to his, information about him or his immediate whereabouts prior
41:02
Speaker 1: to being encountered by the police, asked them to contact
41:06
Speaker 1: FBI Cincinnati with that I will yield the podium to
41:10
Speaker 1: mister Stapleton. On Wednesday, April third, twenty nineteen, Newport, Kentucky
41:14
Speaker 1: Police responded to a report of a male acting suspiciously.
41:19
Speaker 1: This individual, as mister Glasman said, allegedly claimed to be
41:22
Speaker 1: Timothy Pittson, who had been missing from since twenty eleven
41:25
Speaker 1: from Aurora, Illinois, and he also made statements about being
41:29
Speaker 1: abducted and trafficked and sex trafficked a victim of sex trafficking.
41:35
Speaker 1: The individual was taken to a local hospital for treatment,
41:37
Speaker 1: including in an interview with a forensic psychologist and for
41:41
Speaker 1: confirmation of his identity. While our agents and other law
41:45
Speaker 1: enforcement partners were skeptical that this person was who he
41:48
Speaker 1: claimed to be, we felt that it was our duty
41:51
Speaker 1: to the victims and the family of Timothy Pittson to
41:55
Speaker 1: follow up all logical leads with respect to this case
41:58
Speaker 1: and do our best to confirm or discount the identity
42:02
Speaker 1: of the person claiming to be Timothy Pittson. After scientific
42:08
Speaker 1: testing to determine if the identity of the individual matched
42:11
Speaker 1: the DNA from Timothy Pittson, the results determined it was
42:15
Speaker 1: not the same person, and a further search of the
42:17
Speaker 1: DNA database revealed that the individual encountered in Newport was
42:21
Speaker 1: actually Brian Reeney, an adult from a Dina, Ohio. Clearly,
42:25
Speaker 1: false reports like this one can be painful to the
42:28
Speaker 1: families of missing children, and they also divert valuable law
42:32
Speaker 1: enforcement resources in order to investigate untruthful claims. Law enforcement
42:37
Speaker 1: takes dishonest reports very seriously, and as these charges today show,
42:41
Speaker 1: so does the United States Attorney's Office, and we caution
42:45
Speaker 1: that people making false claims can and will face criminal
42:49
Speaker 1: penalties for their for their false claims. Keep updated on
42:53
Speaker 1: this story and others on Nancy's Crime Injustice website, crime
42:56
Speaker 1: online dot Com, Nancy Grace Crime Stories, Running Off, Goodbye friend,