Man Who Falsely Claimed To Be Pitzen Has Long Record: Report

AURORA, IL — Police and the FBI's Louisville, Kentucky, field office say DNA testing has shown that a person who claimed he was missing Aurora boy Timmothy Pitzen was lying. Aurora police say they are "disappointed" by the hoax, but plan to continue to diligently search for Pitzen, who has been missing since 2011.

Timmothy was just 6 years old when he went missing and his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen was found dead in a Rockford hotel room in what was ruled to be a suicide. She left a note saying she had given Timmothy away and he would never be found.

Timmothy would be 14 years old by now.

Authorities said the person who claimed to be Pitzen is actually a 23-year-old man from Ohio named Brian Michael Rini, NBC reports.

Police in Ohio told WGN Rini has a long criminal record — including charges of burglary, vandalism, passing bad checks and making false police reports — was just released from prison on March 7.

News broke Wednesday that a person, now identified as Rini, told police he was Pitzen and had escaped kidnappers in Ohio and fled to Newport, Kentucky.

Rini was found standing near a parked SUV in Newport, Kentucky, according to media reports. A neighbor who alerted police said the boy had a "really big bruise on his face" and pleaded with her to call 911, WLWT 5 reports.

When 911 operators asked for the man's name, he reportedly told the woman he was Timmothy Pitzen and claimed he had been held by kidnappers since his disappearance.

After the man was found, Pitzen's grandmother, Alana Anderson, along with an entire community, was holding out hope that DNA test results would reveal that the person was Timmothy Pitzen.

Anderson, who is Amy Fry-Pitzen's mother, said, "[T]here have been so many tips and sightings and what not and you try not to panic or be overly excited," according to Cincinnati.com.

Related: Where Is Timmothy Pitzen? Aurora Boy Vanished 6 Years Ago

Pitzen was last seen with his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen on May 11, 2011, on surveillance footage taken inside of Key Lime Cove in Gurnee. Timmothy was still apparently with Fry-Pitzen, who had taken him out of Aurora's Greenman Elementary School for the day, when she spoke with family members on the afternoon of May 13.

That's the last time Timmothy Pitzen was heard from.

Aurora Police said Thursday that despite their disappointment that Pitzen was not found, they are hopeful that the national attention from the hoax will give the public a fresh interest in Pitzen's case.