New image released of Timmothy Pitzen, Aurora boy missing 3 years

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- An Aurora boy who has been missing for three years would be nine years old now. Police are circulating an age-progressed photo of Timmothy Pitzen in hopes of finding the child.

The image was created by forensic artists with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who say it's an important tool in their mission to help bring Timmothy home. And it gives his family and investigators hope.

Timmothy Pitzen was six years old when he went missing. His mother, 43-year-old Amy Fry Pitzen, picked him up from school telling officials there was a family emergency, but that wasn't the case.

"I had spoken with to Amy like a week soon, she was all happy on the phone," said Bryan Fry, missing boy's uncle.

The two of them were last seen at 10 a.m. on May 13, 2011, checking out of the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin. The next day, more than 100 miles away, a motel worker in Rockford found Amy's body. Investigators say she had left behind a note that Timmothy was safe and was with someone who loved him.

"She loved that little boy more than anything else in her whole life that I ever saw her. There's just no way that she would have done anything like that," said Kara Jacobs, missing boy's aunt.

"He belongs with his father, he belongs with his family," said Kara Jacobs, missing boy's aunt.

Nearly three years after his disappearance, investigators working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released this age progression photo of what Timmothy might look like if he were alive today.

"I know in my heart he is absolutely alive, 200 percent. I know that he is out there, we just have to find him," said Jacobs.

This is the first on-camera interview for Jacobs and it is part of a new project called "The Inside Story." The series gives families a chance to share their unique perspective about their missing loved ones.