Boy Still Missing 4 Years After Mom Killed Herself

An Illinois mom who killed herself four years ago after going on the run with her 6-year-old son left an ominous suicide note behind that, so far, has proven true. "You'll never find him," Amy Fry-Pitzen wrote of little Timmothy, whom she had taken out of kindergarten class on May 11, 2011, telling the school there was a family emergency, CNN reports. Three days later her body was found in a Rockford hotel room, and the boy, who would now be 10, hasn't been seen since. But even though all leads so far have turned up empty, Timmothy's family, including dad Jim Pitzen, still harbors hope the boy is alive, claiming that Fry-Pitzen, who suffered from depression, would never have hurt him and citing the fact that the note she left behind indicated that Timmothy was OK and with someone who would take good care of him.

"I have yet to meet one person who believes that she would ever harm her child," Aurora Det. Lee Catavu says in a clip from The Hunt With John Walsh, which featured Timmothy's story last night, per the Chicagoist. Missing from Fry-Pitzen's hotel room were her cellphone and Timmothy's toys, clothes, and Spider-Man backpack, the Charley Project notes. The site adds Fry-Pitzen's recovered SUV was "visibly dirty," with soil and weeds stuck to the tires, suggesting the vehicle had driven in a grassy meadow. Timmothy's family is hoping renewed exposure, and a recent age-progressed photo of Timmothy as he might look now at age 10, will bring in new leads. "We need people to take a few seconds to look at the image, to absorb it, and then be motivated to make the call," a rep for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children tells the Aurora Beacon-News. Anyone who thinks they've seen Timmothy can call 1-866-THE-HUNT or report it via the show's website. (More mystery stories.)