Family of missing boy was elated, then devastated by hoax

Rini refused to be fingerprinted on Wednesday and Thursday but agreed to a DNA test which on Thursday identified him, according to Ms Braun.

On two prior occasions, he said, Rini claimed to be the victim of child sex trafficking.

The man accused of impersonating a boy missing since 2011 appeared in federal court Friday morning.

The FBI identified Rini as the person who claimed to be the Timmothy Pitzen, after DNA testing.

The man who told police he was a missing boy from IL when he was found in Newport, Kentucky on Wednesday, is now being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center in OH on an Federal Bureau of Investigation detainer, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.

Brian Rini, 23, is charged in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati with lying to federal agents.

Brian Rini, from Medina, Ohio, was detained in Cincinnati on Thursday.

Rini told the officer his own father would have "just kept drinking" if he ever went missing, the affidavit says.

A police report filed in OH after an alert went out said he was 14-year-old Pitzen and that he had just escaped two kidnappers who had held him hostage for seven years. "I don't want to talk to him anymore", the 21-year-old told the outlet.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but was released early and placed on a three-year parole period.

DNA test results have dashed hopes that long-missing child Timmothy Pitzen had been found alive.

"It's like reliving that day all over again, and Timmothy's father is devastated once again, as are we", said the boy's aunt Kara Jacobs, her voice choked with emotion.

Timmothy was last seen after his mother pulled him out of school in Aurora, Illinois, a far-west suburb of Chicago, and then committed suicide.

"You'll never find him", she wrote.

Police responding to a report of a suspicious man encountered Rini in Newport, Kentucky on Wednesday. A neighbor's daughter called police after the individual told them he had run for two hours and that his stomach hurt.

"Perhaps, it has people looking at the case with new eyes", the police sergeant said.

"He walked up to my auto and he went, 'Can you help me?' " a 911 caller told dispatchers, according to CNN affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati.

Jonathon also said Brian had used his name during a traffic stop in 2017.

According to CNN, Rini's brother, Jonathon Rini told reporters that he had no idea why his brother would impersonate the missing child. "Still, he should have the rational thinking to not do something like this", he said. Jonathan Rini said he hasn't talked to his brother in years but worries that he's off the medicine he's prescribed for a range of mental health issues. "I do not know why he would do anything like this".

Amy Fry-Pitzen took her son out of his kindergarten class on May 11, 2011, saying something about a family emergency. "He's a awful person, ' Jonathon Rini said".

For years, Timmothy's family has searched for him in several states.

"I have one image". He was last seen with his mother at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin in May 2011.