Three months into the search for a missing Aurora boy, detectives on Thursday released new surveillance video and more findings from the ongoing investigation, including the last place the boy may have been with his mother.
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.
"There are still no solid leads as to his whereabouts," Police Chief Gregory Thomas said Thursday in a statement.
Aurora Police released surveillance video showing Fry Pitzen taking Timmothy from his Aurora elementary school on May 11. Police still hope forensic technicians will find evidence from the 2004 Ford Expedition SUV she was driving that day to help pinpoint the boy's location.
Also released were two clips of a home video featuring Timmothy taken in November 2010.
Police said Thursday some progress has been made from lab scientists' tests on the vehicle "which may further the investigation, but [they] are not getting into specifics of their findings at this time," Thomas said.
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.
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.
