IL IL - Timmothy Fry-Pitzen, 6, Aurora, 13 May 2011 - mom found dead - #1

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A few questions and thoughts after reading this entire thread:

* One possible reason for her clothing change if she wasn't hiding evidence: she might have wanted one "final outfit" to wear to the motel and she simply discarded the previous outfit along with her cellphone. It would be interesting to know whether the clothes she wore to the motel were her usual style. Were they something she'd wear on a day off from work or did they appear to be the first thing she'd come across in a store?

* She took the brochure from the water park into the motel with her while so many other items were missing. Was this something she was looking at as she died, maybe trying to focus on better times, or was it set aside somewhere else in the motel room?

* In post #459, Cubby asked about the blood found in the SUV. Timmothy's dad remembered the nosebleed that might have been responsible for this, but was Timmothy using his carseat at that time? Was any corresponding blood found on the carseat that had been stored at his grandma's?

A kid who is seated in a booster seat would be more likely to get blood on the car upholstery around the edges of the carseat base, while a kid in no seat at all would probably get blood directly on the car upholstery around his lap.

Assuming the blood came from the nosebleed as LE seems to think, a pattern that suggests Timmothy wasn't in his carseat at the time makes it less ominous that Amy never took the seat with her for the vacation. She might have been lax in using it. (And since Timmothy was older and 70 pounds, it doesn't sound like the mechanic who drove them to the zoo was outraged he had no booster seat.)

* Although her SUV was only seven years old, it wasn't a sure-fire thing it could have been fixed in just a few hours or even that very day, right? Sometimes unexpected problems come up and the vehicle has to be kept overnight while parts are shipped in. If she had planned the trip in advance, it seems like she took a risky bet on having the repair done after she'd picked Timmothy up from school, not knowing for certain it would be fixable that same day.

* While a video shows Timmothy playing with his new toy truck in the lobby of one of the places they stayed, were any of those tiny craft beads or parts of that customizable vehicle playset found in the SUV? Any of the packaging? I just wonder if it means anything whether or not he was able to play with the toys in the SUV.

* If Amy bought a big jug of milk as opposed to a single-serve carton, did it look like a six-year-old had had a chance to drink any of it? It would have been too heavy and unwieldy for him to manage, unless she bought cups or the motel supplied some.
 
tatertot said:
* She took the brochure from the water park into the motel with her while so many other items were missing. Was this something she was looking at as she died, maybe trying to focus on better times, or was it set aside somewhere else in the motel room?
Click to expand...

I was unaware that the brochure was brought into the hotel room. Can you confirm this?

It's rather confusing knowing that she took the time to discard of the clothes, toys, phone, I-Pass, spiderman backpack and child, yet still used a credit card to make her final purchases and the convenient store? Why did she go through the effort to cover her tracks when she had the child yet didn't care after Timmothy is last heard from (audio from the vehicle)?

Detective Catavu's narrow-mindedness is a determent to this case. He's only focused on finding the boy alive. I applaud his heart, but don't believe he has the right mentality to correctly solve this case.
 
Amy had a 6 hour window from the call's nears Sterling-Rock Falls until she is seen at the Family Dollar store. She had to pay with a credit card, otherwise LE wouldn't have known that she was at this location.

With this in mind, you have to assume that she had this part planned out for months. As soon as the relatives were calmed down with what she was up to, she must have begun to put the rest of her plan in place. Unfortunately with the time elapsed since that day finding new surveillance footage is virtually impossible. Sources like traffic camera's and surveillance video would have been a great asset. LE would have had to have solicited all locations which would have shown her SUV passing by a location.

This would have been greatly beneficial, actually knowing which direction Amy's SUV was traveling from.

FindTim said:
This information is straightforward. Amy must have purchased gas on a credit card. I would like to see how much fuel was purchased. Almost everyone fills it up. If in fact the truck was full at this point, the total amount of mileage can be calculated and a much denser area can be pinpointed.

Mileage is a key determining factor in figuring out how much she traveled in between Johnson Creek and Rockford. Knowing that she was within 5 miles of Sterling and also stopped in Winnebago we could calculate just how far she would have been able to travel off the main roads.

At minimum she had to travel 286 miles going from Johnson Creek (where she filled up) to Kalahari Resort to Sterling, IL to Winnebago to Rockford Inn. The Expedition she was driving has a 28 gallon tank, so it would be interesting to see (if she had filled it to capacity) how much fuel was left in the truck. These trucks get about 12 to 18 MPG. Tops she could have driven on a full tank of gas is roughly 500 miles. If we knew how much fuel was left in the tank it would narrow down the searching area dramatically.

THURSDAY, MAY 12

2:20 p.m. — Amy buys gasoline and beverages from a Qwik-Trip just off I-94 in Johnson Creek, Wis.

3:43 p.m. — Amy and Timmothy check in at Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells, where they are again seen on surveillance video.

FRIDAY, MAY 13

10:10 a.m. — Amy and Timmothy are last seen together checking out of the Kalahari.

Noon to 1:30 p.m. — Amy calls several family members while driving toward the Sterling-Rock Falls area. Timmothy is heard in the background.

7:25 p.m. — Amy buys pen, paper and envelopes at the Family Dollar in Winnebago.

8 p.m. — Amy is seen alone at Sullivan’s Foods in Winnebago, where she buys crackers and milk. Surveillance footage shows she is alone.

Between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. — Amy checks into the Rockford Inn in Rockford.
Click to expand...
 
LE will always investigate as missing persons case with the possibility they are alive until they have solid proof otherwise. Thus far, there has been no physical evidence to indicate Timmy is deceased.

The evidence leads the investigation and it seems there simply are no leads in this cased. Little to work with. The window of where she could have drove is far too enormous for foot searches.

While I agree he is probably no longer with us, until evidence is found to indicate so, all avenues have to be investigated.
 
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Woman-Reports-Seeing-Missing-6-Year-Old-Boy-timmothy-pitzen-259478171.html

According to the Chicago Tribune, a woman in the northern Illinois town of Rockton contacted police over the weekend after seeing a boy that resembles Timmothy at her garage sale.

The tip comes after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progression image of the boy last week that showed what he would have looked like at the age of 9.

The newspaper reports that investigators have sent video clips of the boy to the woman to help her determine if the resemblence is strong.
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I hadn't read this other information either...it may be newly released or I may have just missed it - I didn't follow this case as closely as some others.

http://crimefeed.com/2014/05/aurora....com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=CrimeFeed

NCMEC lists the forensic findings from Microtrace LLC:

• Based on sediments and plant material, the vehicle was stopped for an unknown period of time on a wide gravel shoulder, gravel road, or short gravel turnout either adjacent to, or just off of, an asphalt secondary road that had at one time, been treated with glass road-marking beads.

• In close proximity to the gravel shoulder or road where the vehicle stopped, it backed into a grassy meadow or field to a spot that is nearly treeless.

• There are birch and oak trees in the general area but not directly over or at the spot where the SUV stopped. Both Queen Anne’s Lace and black mustard plants grow in a row along the border of the field or the shoulder of the road.

• In addition, there is no corn growing in or adjacent to the spot where the SUV stopped, nor is there any indication that the area had been used for agriculture in the recent past. Instead, the evidence strongly suggests that grasses have been the only major plants growing in the immediate area which leads scientists to believe that it is a meadow and not, for example, a field that had once been farmland and not recently sown.

• Forensic results indicate that the grass was not cut which helps rule out a rural residential lawn or a park.

• There is also a strong likelihood that there is a pond, small stream, or creek in the area.

• Scientists further believe that the meadow is most likely in Northwestern Illinois with Lee and Whiteside Counties as the most likely locations.

• However, areas in Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties cannot be ruled out.

• Microtrace has since performed other tests but has not been able to further narrow down the six-county area – an area much too large for police to conduct ground searches.
 
Irish_Eyes said:
I hadn't read this other information either...it may be newly released or I may have just missed it - I didn't follow this case as closely as some others.

http://crimefeed.com/2014/05/aurora....com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=CrimeFeed

NCMEC lists the forensic findings from Microtrace LLC:

• Based on sediments and plant material, the vehicle was stopped for an unknown period of time on a wide gravel shoulder, gravel road, or short gravel turnout either adjacent to, or just off of, an asphalt secondary road that had at one time, been treated with glass road-marking beads.

• In close proximity to the gravel shoulder or road where the vehicle stopped, it backed into a grassy meadow or field to a spot that is nearly treeless.

• There are birch and oak trees in the general area but not directly over or at the spot where the SUV stopped. Both Queen Anne’s Lace and black mustard plants grow in a row along the border of the field or the shoulder of the road.

• In addition, there is no corn growing in or adjacent to the spot where the SUV stopped, nor is there any indication that the area had been used for agriculture in the recent past. Instead, the evidence strongly suggests that grasses have been the only major plants growing in the immediate area which leads scientists to believe that it is a meadow and not, for example, a field that had once been farmland and not recently sown.

• Forensic results indicate that the grass was not cut which helps rule out a rural residential lawn or a park.

• There is also a strong likelihood that there is a pond, small stream, or creek in the area.

• Scientists further believe that the meadow is most likely in Northwestern Illinois with Lee and Whiteside Counties as the most likely locations.

• However, areas in Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties cannot be ruled out.

• Microtrace has since performed other tests but has not been able to further narrow down the six-county area – an area much too large for police to conduct ground searches.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder of this info.

Isn't it crazy the detail the scientists have determined?

I just feel that LE need to release a physical diagram that people can look at to get a visual of what the area might look like that is being described here.

A Map of these areas and a media blitz would be helpful imo.

Where is Timothy? :-(
 
I feel the most best info LE could release is the amount of fuel left in the vehicle after it was parked. In fact, the should drive the exact same vehicle over the route Amy would have likely taken, than subtract the fuel load. I would imagine she used a CC to fill up last, as she had used that throughout a majority of the trip.

To me, the fuel load greatly reduces the search area.
 
Just kicking ideas around here...

It was noted that Amy "stopped for a time on a wide gravel shoulder or a gravel road near a secondary asphalt road that at one time had reflective road paint."

Does the road paint indicate anything at this juncture? Why is the color not mentioned? Is it because it's either the obvious colors of Yellow and White?
 
I'm discouraged by the LACK of press and/or media attention given to this case - Not just now, 3 years later, but early on as well. My family and I were in the Dells, where Timmothy was last seen alive, in Aug. 2011, just three months after the fact - We never saw a single flier or picture of Tim, not to mention pics of the various items LE's looking for, the backpack, toys, etc. Amy was all over the state of WI, WITH TIM, but you'd never know it living here. Some soy farmer mighta stummbled on any one of those items long ago and not known to ever give it a second thought. I've always questioned why Amy drove all the way through WI to begin with - during record breaking rainstorms/flooding, through MAJOR construction on I94 - why? I believe she came to WI for a reason. 3 years of focusing in on Rockford and the surrounding areas has turned up nothing. 3 years later. I think about Tim EVERYDAY. I mean no disrespect, however I feel it's high time Tim's dad take some initiative with the media - get Tim's face on billboards, semi trucks - increase awareness - take advantage of the summer months, all the fairs, WATERPARKS, sporting events, travelers.
 
Perhaps he is still alive as she said in her note? But It was touch and go I'm sure as to her final decision. Did she pass him on to someone else? She said she did. Yet there is contradiction here from what I can see.

Fry-Pitzen, Amy Joan Marie 43, passed away Saturday, May 14, 2011 in Rockford. She was born May 3, 1968 to Amy grew up in Libertyville and graduated from Libertyville High School and Iowa State University. She was united in marriage to James Pitzen and together had a son, Timmothy James. Along with her husband and son, Amy is survived by her mother, Alana Anderson; father, Lee (Karen) Fry; sister, Kara (Mike) Jacobs; brother, Brian (Cathy) Fry; father and mother-in-law, Dan and Linda Pitzen; brother-in-law, Charles Pitzen; sisters-in-law, Rebecca (Ron) Schmidt and Jennifer (David) West; nieces,

http://legacy.suburbanchicagonews.co...&pid=151134519
 
Wondergirl said:
Quoting myself here, but, making a correction.

This map that I posted yesterday, is incorrect. This is NOT Whiteside County. It is Carroll County. The link is incorrect, somehow.

I have almagamated all 6 counties, where LE has stated as above, that Timothy is probably located. I am not here to question what they have stated, I am going by what they have determined.

I made the following, amateur map. It indicates the 2 critical counties of Lee and Whiteside, along with the other 4. Next I will make a map showing the perimeters of these counties with cities, as best I can.

attachment.php
Click to expand...

Amy's phone was located along a stretch of hwy 78 in Carroll county back in Oct. 2013. Apparently they were able to 'track' her phone to that location, but it contained no clues. I wish they'd release a bit more in depth details - by 'track' do they mean by way of gps, or sniffer dogs? was the phone in tact? did it appear to be damaged from say, being tossed out a moving car window? how far off the road was it?

I've been scanning earlier posts in search of the map that detailed Amy's route from start to finish - found this one first - kudos to you, wondergirl for putting this together. :tyou:
 
Where on Rt 78 in Carroll County was the phone found? TIA
 
Is this factual? If so, that's one of the biggest news items regarding the case that I've heard in years. You would think the I-Pass would be near by as well.

itcouldbesweet said:
it saddens me that the 'Help Find Timothy Pitzen' facebook page hasn't been updated since May 2013, and has his name spelled incorrectly. NCMEC issued an age progressed photo of Tim, and I'm just learning that Amy's cell phone was located along a stretch of hwy in IL. http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/...-to-Hope--258849481.html#.U732IlS-AMk.twitter
Click to expand...
 
The battery would have had to been long dead. Do you have details on how the phone was tracked?

itcouldbesweet said:
Amy's phone was located along a stretch of hwy 78 in Carroll county back in Oct. 2013. Apparently they were able to 'track' her phone to that location, but it contained no clues. I wish they'd release a bit more in depth details - by 'track' do they mean by way of gps, or sniffer dogs? was the phone in tact? did it appear to be damaged from say, being tossed out a moving car window? how far off the road was it?

I've been scanning earlier posts in search of the map that detailed Amy's route from start to finish - found this one first - kudos to you, wondergirl for putting this together. :tyou:
Click to expand...
 
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