Brian Rini told Kentucky authorities earlier this week that he had “escaped his kidnappers” after being held against his will for the past 7 years.
A person who claimed to be Timmothy Pitzen, a boy who went missing in 2011, is actually a 23-year-old Ohio man named Brian Rini, authorities said.
Rini allegedly told Kentucky authorities earlier this week that he had "escaped his kidnappers" after being held against his will for the past seven years. He also told police he was 14 years old, but DNA tests determined that he was not Timmothy, authorities said Thursday.
"To be clear, law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today," the FBI said in a statement.
Rini reportedly told bystanders in Kentucky that he'd escaped from a Red Roof Inn, which authorities determined to be in Ohio, and had run from his kidnappers across a bridge into Kentucky. He allegedly said he wasn’t aware of where he was and his face was deeply bruised.
Rini was charged Friday with making false statements to a federal agent, according to the FBI. He faces eight years in prison if convicted.
He also has an extensive criminal history, which includes writing bad checks and burglary, according to the Medina Police in Ohio.
Just last month, he was released from jail after serving 14 months for trashing a $400,000 property after he threw a party inside a motel home in January 2018. He pleaded guilty to burglary and vandalism in that case. He was also found guilty in another case of unauthorized use of vehicle and was sentenced to three years probation and a fine.
Rini's brother, Jonathan Rini, also told CNN that his brother had used his name in a 2017 traffic stop, causing him to get his license suspended.
"I don't want to talk to him anymore," Jonathon, 21, told the station.
After news that Timmothy had possibly been found earlier this week, his grandmother, Alana Anderson, told WCPO she was "very cautiously hopeful."
But after the person was identified as Rini, Anderson said the whole ordeal was “awful." She also expressed sadness that someone would concoct such a lie.
"I feel so sorry for the young man who's obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was someone else," she told ABC 7.
Timmothy, then 6, went missing on May 11, 2011, after he and his mom embarked on a road trip from their Illinois home. He was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin the next day. Three days later, his mom was found dead by suicide in a hotel room in Rockford, Illinois.
In a suicide note, his mom, Amy Fry-Pitzen, said she'd left Timmothy with people "who love him" and that no one would ever find him, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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