 This boy vanished almost 10 years ago. Now the FBI have discovered the strange truth. A child disappearing is every parent's worst fear and when it happens, it usually doesn't end in good news. Every year there are hundreds of children who seemingly vanish all around the world, many of who are never heard from again. However, in the strange case of Timothy Pitson, everything investigators thought they knew about missing children's cases was thrown out the window when they discovered something they never thought they'd see. Timothy Pitson was a happy-go-lucky six-year-old boy who was the light of his family's life. In the early morning hours of May 11, 2011, Timothy's father, James Pitson, dropped him off at school just like he would any other normal day. However, only an hour later his mother, Amy Fry Pitson, checked him out of school citing a family emergency that was later deemed untrue. Now here's where things get strange and it's only the beginning. The pair was off to what would become an odd road trip ending in tragedy. They dropped the family car off at a local repair shop at 10 am where an employee kindly dropped them off at Brookfield Zoo. The pair then returned for the car around 3 pm heading to their next destination of Key Lime Cove Resort in Gurney, Illinois. Ending only one night in Gurney, Illinois, the mother and son duo then head to Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin-Dells, Wisconsin for unknown reasons. They were spotted on nearby security cameras, seemingly calm and under no duress. By this time, other family members were beginning to worry about the safety of both parties until Amy phoned them reassuring them that everyone was safe. However, the unplanned trip had everyone on high alert as it was unusual behavior that left everyone feeling uneasy and for very good reason. No one was more worried than Timothy's father, James, who had been desperately trying to locate his wife and son since he received a call from his son's school, notifying him of his absence. His wife, although reassuring other family members, failed to contact James during the entire trip. When Amy did contact family, Timothy was heard in the background complaining that he was hungry, urging the family to question Amy's state of mind. Over that same night, Amy was spotted on camera at a Winnebago dollar store, but not with her son. She was alone, making the previous phone call the last time Timothy was proven to be alive. Oddly, what she purchased at the dollar store would foreshadow devastating events to come and spark a nationwide hunt for the missing six-year-old. Amy purchased paper, a pen, and envelopes, which initially caused confusion until later when police made a disturbing discovery. At 8 p.m., she was seen at Sullivan's food store, but again, she was alone. Investigators had a hunch that things were about to get a lot worse for the Pidson family, but little did they know this case would be full of surprises. A few hours later at 11 p.m., Amy checked in the Rockford Inn at Rockford, where sometime that night she ended her own life. Leaving behind a suicide note, Amy stated that Timothy would never be found but that he was in a safe hands. Her body was discovered by a hotel maid and police were on the scene shortly. The desperate search for little Timothy was kicked into high gear, but sadly, his mother's suicide wasn't the only shocking turn of events. Investigators located her car at a nearby stream and highway and began to thoroughly search for any clues to Timothy's whereabouts. Although all the blood in the hotel room belonged to her, the surprising amount found in her car belonged to young Timothy. It was blood to suggest that the little one was injured and in trouble. They also searched high and low for her cell phone to try and turn up any new clues but didn't locate it until 2013, off Route 78, when they finally located the phone, no new evidence surfaced. At what felt like a dead end, investigators refused to give up and asked the public for help. As news spread across the nation of the unfortunate disappearance of little Timothy, shows like live PD aired the case alongside any details of the child in hopes that someone, somewhere, would come forward with news of where to find him. James, Timothy's father, still believes his son is alive. Although no new lead surfaced into the whereabouts of young Timothy, something else happened that would leave many people scratching their heads. On April 3, 2019, reports of a teenager wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky, claiming to be Timothy, hit local officers. The 911 caller stated, He walked up to my car and he went, Can you help me? I just want to get home. Please help me. I asked him what's going on and he tells me he's been kidnapped and he's been traded through all these people and he just wanted to go home. Excitement filled the air as they thought this might turn out to be a happy time for the Pitson family, but when they took the teenager into custody, things got weird. The Pitson family was cautious to celebrate until the boy could be positively identified as Timothy and it's a good thing they did. Red flag started to rise as the young man was questioned. Although the young man swore up and down that he was the missing child, something just didn't seem right. First they realized that the teen was actually a lot older than Timothy would have been. Rather than being a 14-year-old boy, the man was actually 23. To get to the bottom of his identity, police performed a DNA test. When the results came in, they realized that it was in fact not Timothy. The man was actually Brian Rini, a criminal who had just been released from prison a month prior. He was known around his local community for being a thief and a vandal, far from the young innocent Timothy. One major question still remained, why would he pretend to be Timothy? Trying to determine if Rini had anything to do with Timothy's disappearance was their first priority as they didn't see any benefit of Rini lying about his identity. They determined he had no connection with the case but couldn't figure out why he lied. Timothy's family has been through hell and back waiting for Timothy's return and have had many false alarms during the process. According to his grandmother, this one however has to be the hardest and strangest to deal with. It has been awful, Alana Anderson, Timothy's grandmother told reporters. We've been alternately hopeful and frightened, it's just been exhausting. Timothy's aunt also shared how it's affecting them. It's like reliving that day all over again, she said, and Timothy's father is devastated once again. Although we are disappointed that this turned out to be a hoax, we remain diligent in our search for Timothy as our missing person's case remains unsolved. Police spokesperson, Sergeant Bill Rowley said.