KENTUCKY (WHAS11) – A Newport, Ky. man says he saw the person who claims to be missing Timmothy Pitzen walking a street in Newport, Ky. on April 3.
Rick Boyers, who lives on Columbia Street, said he was walking to a White Castle near Columbia Street to get coffee when he saw the man. Boyers said the person's face was red and appeared to have cuts.
Boyers said he was mumbling and he asked if the person was all right. The teen replied, he wanted to go home and that his stomach was hurting.
“Looked like he was hit by a truck,” Boyers said.
Boyers said he did not have a phone to call police at the time. It was later on Wednesday that Boyer’s wife told him the person was on the news claiming to be Pitzen, a boy who had gone missing in 2011 after his mother took her own life, according to police, at an Illinois hotel.
“This is usually quietest street in Newport,” Boyers said.
Boyers said he could not believe what had happened earlier in the day when his wife told him what was being said on the news.
“I hope it is him…I really do so he can get home to his family,” Boyers said.
Boyers went on to say to WHAS11 that it was strange to see someone that appeared to be young out so early.
“See a kid that young walking street about 5:30 in the morning. Something happened somewhere,” he said.
According to police, the person claimed he escaped from two kidnappers in the Cincinnati area and then fled across a bridge into Kentucky.
Even though the FBI found the person not to be Pitzen, he was identified as 23-year-old Brian Rini of Medina, Ohio, Newport Police Chief Tom Collins told ABC News.
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