10:54 a.m. ET, April 5, 2019
Timmothy Pitzen disappeared in 2011 when he was 6 years old
From CNN's Nicole Chavez, Janet DiGiacomo and Patrick Cornell
Aurora Police Department via AP
Almost eight years ago, Timmothy and his mother
went on a road trip that included stops at a zoo and a water park. Their adventure started after Amy Fry-Pitzen checked her 6-year-old son out of an Illinois elementary school on May 11, 2011.
Three days later, the mother's body was found in a hotel room in Rockford, Illinois. She had died by suicide, leaving behind a note that said her son was with people who love him.
"You'll never find him," the note said.
Timmothy's family, including his father, has continued searching for him.
"I know in my heart that he's absolutely alive, a hundred percent," his aunt, Kara Jacobs, said in an interview last year for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "I know he's out there, we just have to find him."