Six-year-old Timmothy Pitzen was last seen by school staff in Aurora, Illinois, on May 11, 2011, when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, checked him out of Greenman Elementary claiming a family emergency. Surveillance footage documents a three-day road trip with Amy and Timmothy visiting Brookfield Zoo, a Gurnee water park, and Wisconsin Dells; the last confirmed sighting of them together is May 13, 2011, at the Kalahari Resort. After that date Amy appears alone on cameras in Winnebago County.

On May 14 Amy was found dead by suicide in a Rockford motel room, leaving a note saying Timmothy was safe and with people who would love and care for him, and adding you will never find him. There was no sign of Timmothy in the motel room; his Spider-Man backpack, some toys and his mother’s cell phone were missing, and the phone was later recovered on a highway. A 2019 impostor case in Kentucky was disproven by DNA.

The investigation remains open and unresolved; was Timmothy harmed by his mother or placed with others as the note claimed?