Six months into the search for a missing Aurora boy, detectives on Friday released new surveillance video and said new forensic information from a vehicle have given them a better idea on where to search for him.
Timmothy Pitzen, 6, has been missing since his mother Amy Fry Pitzen was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford motel room on May 14. A note left behind in the motel room said the 6-year-old boy was safe and in someone's care, but did not indicate whom.
A series surveillance video that was released this morning shows Amy Fry Pitzen at the Calahari Resort withTimmothy standing a check out counter; another from Key Lime Cove that shows the two walking down a hallway, and another that shows Amy Fry Pitzen entering and leaving a convenience store alone.
New forensic evidence includes samples from her SUV that indicate she parked near "a grassy meadow or field to a spot that is nearly treeless," authorities said, citing tests on plants and dirt taken from her SUV.
"There are birch and oak trees in the general area but not directly over or at the spot where the SUV stopped," police said in a statement. "Both Queen Anne’s lace and black mustard plants grow in a row along the border of the field or the shoulder of the road."
Despite new forensic information that could hone the search, Aurora police will not pick up the search operation anew.
Here's what police know: When the SUV was found in the parking lot on May 14, the vehicle was "visibly dirty" and had tall grass or weeds underneath the body.
Police evidence technicians found a "concerning amount of blood" in the backseat belonging to Timmothy, but family members told officers it could be from a bloody nose the boy suffered in the past year or so. Also, the knife with which Fry Pitzen took her life only had her blood on it, according to police.
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Based on a cell phone call Fry Pitzen made May 13, police figure the last place Timmothy and his mother were together was in the I-88 and I-39 corridors in the Dixon/Rock Falls/Sterling area. The call was made about 5 miles northwest of Sterling, Ill., near Route 40, police said.
Police also discovered via I-Pass records that Fry Pitzen took two trips to the Dixon/Rock Falls/Sterling area in the winter that family members "cannot explain." One trip was Feb. 18, 2011, the other on March 20.
Her cell phone, I-Pass and the clothing she was seen wearing on other surveillance videos, as well as Timmothy’s Spider Man backpack and his toys from the SUV are still missing, according to police.
Timmothy stands about 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs about 70 pounds, officials said. Anyone with information is asked to call Aurora Police at 630-256-5500 or local authorities by dialing 9-1-1.
| Full Coverage: The Search for Timmothy |
