Transcription
Hello everyone. What is up? Welcome back to another exclusive episode of Killer Instinct here on Patreon. Thank you guys so much for joining me here today. I hope you all have been having a great week.
I hope you had a great weekend and thank you for joining for another exclusive episode. I'm very eager to jump into today's case with you guys. This was actually a case that was requested by one of you here on Patreon. I do want to say again, if you ever want to request a case, if you want to throw a case suggestion out there, we do have a case suggestion tab within the chat on Patreon. So, if you go over there, you can always type in your request or your suggestion. It's where I always look first before I do my own digging and my own research to figure out what case I want to present to you guys. I always look to see what cases you want to see first. And this one was recently recommended. And I actually was surprised because I don't believe that I have ever covered this case before. I could be wrong, but I might I I don't think I have. If I have, it was probably in the very very early stages of Killer Instinct. So, I was even more eager to jump on this case and present it to you today because I learned that I don't think that I have covered it before. And this case truly is absolutely heartbreaking. It is frustrating. and you leave with probably more questions than you have answers at the end of it. But I want this to be an ongoing discussion. I want to know your thoughts and what you think. So with that being said, you guys, this is the case of Timothy Pittson. And let's jump right on into it today.
Timothy Pittson was born on October 18th, 2004 in Aurora, Illinois to his parents, James and Amy Joan Pittson. He was the only child to his parents and described by those who knew him as a happy go-lucky, energetic, all-American boy. He loved cars, specifically anything relating to racing. He loved He grew up in Aurora. He grew up in Aurora, which is a suburb outside of Chicago, and lived at home with his parents. He attended Greenman Elementary School, and all of his teachers described him as a cheerful child. He enjoyed school. He enjoyed playing with his friends. He had a really bright future ahead of him.
Now, Timothy's mom, Amy, had a sister named Carara. So, this was also Timothy's aunt. And according to Cara, she said that Amy growing up never pictured herself having children. Amy never thought that she was going to be a mom. She just never thought that that would be her path in life. And when she met Jim, Jim was also battling cancer at the time that the two of them met. and he was told that he would never be able to have children. So when Amy ended up getting pregnant unexpectedly, not only was it a shock, but it was a huge excitement between the two of them. Both Jim and Amy felt like this was meant to be. This was a miracle. The fact that they were able to get pregnant after convincing themselves that it wasn't going to happen for them. They were ecstatic to step into this new chapter together. And when Timothy was born, everything just made sense for Amy and Jim. Both of them felt like they were just meant to be parents and they couldn't imagine their lives without Timothy in it. And they eagerly and excitedly stepped into this new chapter as parents. And and according to Cara, she said that Timothy and Amy in particular were inseparable. They were always together. You barely saw one without the other. But Cara has also been pretty forthcoming regarding her sister's mental health struggles. Amy definitely had her own share of struggles at the time. All throughout her life really, she had a history of mental health issues. She battled with bouts of depression and thoughts of suicidal ideiations and really just suffered from some dark dark times. However, when Timothy was born, everyone felt almost a sense of relief. They felt that Timothy and they really not just felt but they watched as Timothy gave Amy a reason. He gave her a why. He gave her a new meaning in life and everyone really just saw the love between the two of them.
Now, I will say leading up to this case, what we have learned about Amy and Jim's marriage in particular is that they definitely were on the rocks a little bit. The marriage was coming to an end. It was said that Jim was going to file for divorce from Amy. The two had a rocky marriage in the years leading up to this case in particular, and things just seemed to be getting worse and worse over time, and Jim was planning on ending the marriage. Like I said, those specific details as to why that was the case and why Jim was going to end the marriage have always been private. Jim has rarely spoken publicly about that part of their relationship, but again, what we do know is that their marriage was going through a turbulent time. Friends and family said that there was just a lot of tension between Amy and Jim. And then add on the mental health struggles that Amy dealt with on a regular basis. The marriage was just no longer going well and Jim was going to divorce Amy.
Now, this case starts on May 11th of 2011. And this day started out like any normal day. Jim dropped Timothy off at his school. Like I said, he went to Greenman Elementary School. He dropped Timothy off that day with the expectation of picking him up later that afternoon. But then something different happened. Only half an hour after Jim dropped Timothy off at school, Amy showed up to Timothy's school and told the administration that she needed to take Timothy out of school early because there was a family emergency. Now, obviously not thinking anything of it, Timothy was brought out from his classroom and Amy took him out of school. Now, security footage shows Amy and Timothy leaving school together hand in hand at 8:35 a.m. on May 11th. Later that day, when it was time for pickup, Jim again returned to the school thinking that he was there to pick up his son. But that is when he learned that Timothy had been gone all day and that Amy was the one who signed him out at 8:30 a.m. Now, at this point, Jim was confused, but he wasn't yet overly concerned. But he did have questions, obviously. He called Amy's sister, Cara, to ask if she knew where Amy was because Jim had tried to get in touch with Amy after hearing this, but Amy kept ignoring his phone calls. Cara said that she did not know where Amy was, but told Jim not to worry too much and told him that Amy was probably just mad because her and Jim had been fighting and that she would be home soon. Cara really was trying to deescalate the situation at the time and to really reassure Jim that everything's going to be fine. Amy was probably just upset. And in order to help Jim, Cara also assisted in calling around some of Amy's other family members and friends, trying to see if anyone knew where Amy was, and really just trying to locate her. However, no one knew where she was, and Amy still was not answering the phone to anyone. And at this point, it had been several hours. So, after just a few of those hours had passed, Jim finally made the decision to contact the authorities and report them both missing.
Now, as we are sitting here today and now talking about this case, let's talk about what we know to have happened over the next three days. So, from May 11th to May 14th of 2011, what we know is that over the course of those three days, Amy and Timothy drove over 500 miles and stopped off at several different resort hotels. Their first stop from Aurora was the Brookfield Zoo. They went from the Brookfield Zoo to Key Lime Cove Resort Water Park where they stayed the night. The following day, the two of them drove to Wisconsin and stayed at the Wisconsin Dells Hotel and then they went to the Kalahari Resort, also located in Wisconsin. Security footage spotted Amy and Timothy checking out of the Kalahari Resort on May 13th. They both look fine. They both look happy, but this was the last time that Timothy was ever seen alive. Now, what worried authorities from first glance here, from looking at what Amy was doing with Timothy over the course of these three days, is how perfect everything almost seemed. It almost appeared as if Amy was trying to give Timothy the best three days that she could, taking him to the zoo, to the water park. It was reported that Timothy loved water parks, taking him to several different resorts and going on this road trip with him. What authorities feared was that Amy was giving Timothy a great and amazing three days, the best three days of his life that she could because she knew that the worst was coming.
On May 14th of 2011, Amy's body was discovered in a hotel room in Rockford, Illinois called the Rockford Inn. It was the hotel staff who discovered Amy's body. And when authorities arrived, they were able to determine that Amy died from self-inflicted cuts on her wrist and her neck. Now, nearby Amy's body was a suicide note. In it, Amy apologized for the chaos that she had caused. She admitted that she had taken her own life and that there was nothing anyone could have done to change her mind. And in this note, Amy also said, "Timothy is safe. He is with people who will care for him and love him. You will never find him." And those words are just as haunting today as they were back then. Because when police discovered Amy's body, the one thing that they did not find was Timothy. Timothy was nowhere to be found. He was not in the hotel room. He was not in the hotel period. He was missing. Cara, Amy's sister, remembers getting the phone call and hearing that Amy, her sister, was dead, but Timothy was nowhere to be found. And she said that she was taken aback. She was confused. What do you mean Timothy's gone? That thought never even crossed her mind until she was told that. She couldn't believe that Timothy wouldn't be with her sister. It it just raised a boatload of confusion.
But let's talk about this note for a second. In this note where Amy says, "Timothy is safe. He is with people who will care for him and love him. You will never find him." In the note, Amy did not provide any names, locations, or further details about who had Timothy or what she was referring to. It was clear in this note that Amy was saying this with the intention that no one was ever going to find Timothy. She clearly, she says it, you will never find him. Amy did not want Timothy to be found. Now, alongside the suicide note, Amy also left multiple different personal letters to family members in the hotel room that she was discovered in. In these letters, she apologizes to family members for what she has done, but again does not explain what happened to Timothy. And this cryptic and vague wording that Amy used really led to an ongoing speculation that has continued on to this day. People have dissected this letter front and back trying to figure out what Amy meant. They tried to figure out whether or not Timothy was alive and being kept somewhere or if he was involved in some illegal adoption or if Amy harmed Timothy before ending her own life.
Now, it was very clear to police from the very beginning what the motive was here. When they learned about Amy and Jim and the status of their marriage and the fact that Jim was planning on divorcing Amy, it was clear that Amy was struggling over the fact of not being in her marriage anymore. And furthermore, she was struggling at the thought of having to give Jim any sort of custody over Timothy. She was worried that she would lose the custody battle based off of her mental health struggles. And if that were to be the case, that would not be something that she would be able to handle. Amy wanted control over what happened to her son and who was able to have her son. That was the motive here.
Now, when police began their investigation, they started by putting the pieces together of what led to May 14th. And I initially gave you the vague this is where she went. This is what we know. But now, let's get into a little bit more of the details about that. Now, like I mentioned, Amy had taken Timothy to different amusement parks and resorts and retreats, but police were primarily focusing on May 13th. This is what they really wanted to know about because this was what happened leading up to Amy's body being found. This was the last day that anyone had seen Timoth. Like I mentioned, he was last seen on surveillance footage at the Kalahari Resort. So, what police were looking at was May 13th. And what they discovered when doing this was that in between the time frame of 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on May 13th, Amy made several phone calls to different family members, including her mother, her brother-in-law, and her sister Carara. She did call Jim at one point as well. However, Jim sadly missed that phone call. Now, what we know about the call specifically with Carara was that that call happened at approximately 1:30. So because of that, Cara was probably the last person that Amy called. And in this call, Amy reassured Cara by telling her that Timothy was safe and that there was nothing to worry about. Cara said that while she was on this call, she could actually hear Timothy in the background. Timothy was talking in the background. He was mentioning that he was hungry in the background. And obviously, this gave police and everyone else reassurance that Timothy was still alive at that point. But this was the last confirmed time that anyone had heard Timothy's voice. It was when Cara was on this phone call.
Now, on the call, like I said, Amy refused to give her locations or where she was, where she went, what she was doing. But what we do know is that during that phone call with Cara, Amy was in Sterling, Illinois, which is about 50 miles away from where Rockford Inn was, where her body was eventually located. Now, everyone who spoke to Amy on these phone calls, they said that they actually felt a sense of relief when talking to Amy, even though she wasn't giving them any information regarding her whereabouts, she didn't give any indication that anything was wrong or that they had any reason to worry. It was more so, if anything, just to check in and be like, "Hey, we're fine. Don't worry about us. We're just taking a couple days. We just need to get out of town for a couple days." and her family did feel a sense of relief in that they were just happy to talk to her at that point.
Now, police were able to confirm via surveillance footage that at 7:25 p.m. on May 13th, so several hours after that last phone call, Amy was seen alone on security camera footage at a Family Dollar store in Wnebago, Illinois, where she purchased a pen, paper, and envelopes. At 800 PM, she was spotted again at the Sullivan's Food Store without Timothy. So, it's safe to assume that whatever happened to Timothy happened between the hours of 1:30 p.m. and 7:25 p.m. That is about a 6hour time frame of just unknowns. We don't know what Amy did during those 6 hours. We don't know where Amy went during those six hours. But during those 6 hours, it is safe to assume that is when whatever happened to Timothy happened. At 11:15 p.m., Amy checked into the Rockford Inn. She was alone when she checked into the hotel, and there were no witnesses who reported seeing Timothy anywhere with her. In the hotel room where Amy took her life, police did find the weapon that she used in order to do this, which was a knife, which contained only her own blood. This did not seem like a staged suicide by any means. Police did think about that at first. However, when they got the testing back on the knife, which confirmed that the blood was in fact Amy's on the knife, and along with that, all of the letters that were left behind, the suicide note, they were confident that this was all Amy's doing. They also did recover Amy's car. It was in the parking lot of the hotel. Amy drove a 2004 Ford Expedition SUV. And in the car, police did discover a concerning amount of blood in the vehicle. And that blood was confirmed to be Timothy's blood.
Now, this sparked a lot of conversation, as you can imagine, when the discovery of Timothy's blood in the car came forward to the public. Many people were convinced that clearly Amy did something to Timothy in this car. Something happened to Timothy in the car and Timothy was injured. Timothy was hurt. However, a family member did come forward and said that a month prior to Timothy's disappearance, he had a pretty intense nose bleed that started in Amy's car. So, it wouldn't be out of the question for the blood to have gotten in her car and that be a reasoning for why his blood was in there. So, the blood in the car was not conclusive evidence of foul play.
Now, police were confident based on the findings that they discovered in and outside of the car that at some point during her travel, Amy parked in a grassy area near a stream because there was mud and grass in the tires. Along with that, there were pieces of long weeds, tall grass, and dirt lodged underneath the rear bumper of the car. Now, what the forensic investigators who looked into this were able to conclude were that the plants and the vegetation that was found in her car was not consistent with the areas that she was known to have traveled at. So, that means the hotels, the rest stops, the parking lots. But what it did prove was that Amy again had either parked in a grassy field or on a gravel road or was in a rural or secluded area. And again, they did believe for that to be in northwestern Illinois.
Now, initially something that police did not find in Amy's car or the hotel room was her cell phone. This really was a key missing piece to the investigation because police were confident that if they found the cell phone, it could hold the key as to what happened to Timothy. Now, her phone was discovered several years later alongside Route 78. However, unfortunately, her phone did not provide any new evidence to authorities. So, the phone just didn't help in this investigation. It was also revealed that all of Timothy's belongings, his backpack and his toys that were brought with him, were also missing. So, whatever happened to Timothy, wherever Timothy went, those belongings likely went with him. As far as this investigation goes, police did as much as they could to try and retrace Amy's steps, to try and figure out where exactly she went. And while they could figure out the hotel she went to, the parking lots, the rest stops, the surveillance footage that provided that she went to the dollar store and the food market, they couldn't figure out the in between. Because the fact of the matter is is that there are hundreds of miles between where Amy ended her life and the furthest location of where she could have traveled to. So, police reached a dead end in this case. It doesn't mean that they stopped searching or they stopped their investigation, but they didn't know where else to turn.
And this case really never had any major updates until 2019 when a man named Brian Reneie approached a woman in Newport, Kentucky, and he claimed that he was Timothy Pittson. Now, obviously, this was not the case. As I mentioned, I just told you his name was Brian. But Brian was immediately brought back to the police station and he was able to give Timothy's full name and his birthday and his family background. and he gave an elaborate story about how he had just escaped a hotel room where he had been held captive and two men had been sexually abusing him. Now, when the Pittson family heard about this, they were thrilled, thinking that Timothy could have finally been found. Timothy would have been 14 years old in 2019. However, sadly, when Brian was confronted with a DNA test, he admitted his true identity. He admitted that he was just in fact 23-year-old Brian Reinie. He actually made two previous claims about being a victim of child sex trafficking and he was initially charged with identity fraud and lying to the FBI. He admitted that he had learned everything he needed to know regarding Timothy's case through watching a 2020 episode about the case. And he said that his reason for faking Timothy's identity was because he had wished that he had had a father like Jim. But regardless, Brian struck a plea deal with the prosecution and the charges were dropped in exchange of admission of guilt. In court, Brian apologized for what he had done and apologized to Timothy's family. However, as you can imagine, Timothy's family was just absolutely disgusted by Brian's actions, as anyone would be and should be. The fact that Brian took advantage of a missing boy and a family who had been holding on to hope for so long is just absolutely disgusting. And the fact that he didn't get charged for it is really crazy to me personally because I just I think especially having a history of this that might be something that should be implemented. But he was not.
Now, in 2022, on what would have been Timothy's 18th birthday, Amy's sister, Carara, did an interview with NBC Chicago where she gave her updated thoughts on the case. In this interview, she said that her and her family still believe that Timothy is out there and alive somewhere. They are hopeful that they will reunite with him and reunite him with his family. Now, both Cara and the rest of Amy's family and Jim have been very vocal over the fact that they do not believe that this was a case of murder suicide. They do not believe that Amy actually murdered or physically harmed Timothy. Cara said that she knew that her sister was depressed, but she underestimated how bad her mental state had gotten leading up to her death. Cara also said it took her 10 years to finally be able to make the drive that Amy did with Timothy in those final days. And she said that when she finally did, it felt like actually a light bulb had gone off for her because she felt like she was finally able to understand what Amy was thinking. She was able to put herself in Amy's shoes and actually think like Amy. A direct quote from her was, "I could see her steps and I could be in her head and I could see what she was doing."
Carol believes that sometime in Amy's drive, between being in Sterling, Illinois, and Mount Carol, Illinois. She believes that this is when Amy was making the phone calls to her family members. And Cara believes that during these phone calls, Amy made up her mind that these were going to be her final goodbyes to her family. Cara also said that after the phone calls, she believes that Amy drove north on Highway 78 and onto Route 20. She says that she believes this to be the case because one of the streets on that route on Route 20 takes you straight to Deuke, Iowa. Now, the reason that this is important and the reason that this stood out to Cara is because Amy and her family visited Debuke, Iowa a lot when they were children. Cara said, quote, "We spent a lot of time on Route 20 back and forth when we were young, visiting our grandparents and an aunt and uncle. Amy actually lived with my grandparents for a period of time in the 90s. She met people in Iowa. I believe whatever happened was a connection that she made there. End quote. So Cara made it very clear that she believes that Amy handed Timothy off to someone in Iowa, whether that was someone that she knew or a connection that only she had because she was able to make that connection when she was there, either living with her grandparents or afterwards. But Cara is very adamant on the fact that she believes that whatever happened to Timothy, whatever drop off or exchange there was, if that's the case, happened in Iowa because that is the connection. There is a connection in all of this. And I think that's very telling. I mean, personally, I think from the pattern I've seen of doing all of these cases, and I'm sure some of you as well listening, there's going to be some familiarity there. I think that if that were to be the case, if Amy truly felt like she was doing the right thing by Timothy by giving him to whoever she gave him to, if she felt like that was the right thing to do, whatever her mental state was at that point, whatever justification she had for it, if she truly felt like she was doing the right thing by Timothy, she probably would hand him over to someone in an area that she was familiar with, in an area that she was comfortable with, because she would have the security of knowing that he was somewhere that She knew he wasn't in some random place with some random people. She knew these people. She knew this place.
So, let's talk theories here. A big theory in this case, and I would say this is a theory that most of Timothy's family goes back to, is that Amy coordinated to drop Timothy off with someone who she knew and she trusted. Now, based off of the fact that we know that Amy was driving down back roads as her tires in her phone show, it's believed that she was scouting out a discrete location to hand Timothy over to someone else. And whoever she handed Timothy over to either kept Timothy for themselves or handed Timothy off to someone else after that. Now, like I said, family members of Timothy believe this to most likely be the case. Another one of Timothy's aunts named Jen, who is Jim's sister, came forward and said, quote, "I really think that she sold a story to a group of people that was very believable. Either that she was dying or that her husband was abusive or just some other wackadoodle thing that sounded very real and then she gave him to somebody who thinks that they were protecting Timothy from us for some reason." End quote. So his family believes or at least Jen in this scenario believes that Amy was in contact with someone and basically sold them this story about how Timothy was in danger. She wanted to do what's right by her son. She wanted to get Timothy out of the situation and gave Timothy to someone who believed that they were actually doing right by him. But the question is though was that if Timothy was really being handed over to a good family because Amy had convinced them some story that she was in danger and Timothy was in danger, why wouldn't they come forward after they see the reality of what actually was happening? Timothy's case was nationwide news. Everyone knew that Timothy Pittson was missing. So, it would be odd for someone who had access to the news and to TV to not see that and not put two and two together and come forward or if they unfortunately had ulterior motives here. And one of those ulterior motives is illegal adoption, which is another theory here. We have seen many cases where illegal adoption is a prevalent theory. And this very well could have been that Amy might not have known that she was putting Timothy into an illegal adoption ring. Or maybe she did. It would make sense. This theory makes sense as to why we never heard anything more about Timothy's whereabouts if Amy handed Timothy off to an underground adoption ring. And we can sit here and say that Amy loved Timothy so much and she would never do something to put her son in harm's way or to put him in a situation like that. However, we also have to remember that Amy put Timothy in this situation to begin with in the first place. Again, regardless of her rationalization, regardless of her reasoning, she is the reason that Timothy Pittson is still missing.
Now, the other theory in this case is that Amy tragically ended her son's life before ending her own. People have dissected the wording, like I said, in Amy's suicide note because she never mentions in this note that Timothy is alive, only that he is safe. And people have wondered if that is a clue that Timothy is no longer living. Now, the only issue that I have with this theory, and you guys can let me know what you think, is what benefit would Amy have to murder Timothy so far out of the way from where she was actually discovered, those 6 hours that she was driving to god knows where, why would she do that and go out of her way to do that if her plan was just to murder Timothy anyways? Because if she was going to do a murder suicide, and if this was all about control and having control over Timothy and his whereabouts, why not do it to where her and Timothy would be found together? Could it be because she wanted to hold it over everyone's heads that she was the only one who knew where Timothy was and that was her final goodbye? The murder suicide theory just I struggle with that part of it because it doesn't make sense to me why she wouldn't if she was going to sadly and tragically murder her son, why wouldn't she do it to where they could be found together? Why leave your son out there in an unknown location where he would never be found?
Now, let's say Timothy was raised by another family. Let's say that the best case scenario here truly is that when you're looking at the other theories is that Timothy was raised by a loving family who gave him a loving home and he was raised by people who cared and loved him, but it just wasn't his biological family. And I don't say that lightly, but I do think that that would be the best case scenario here is that Timothy is still alive. He is out there. He is living and thriving and, you know, doing all of the things in his life. The question I have is that Timothy was 6 years old when he went missing. If he was raised by another family, do you think that he would question the first six years of his life? How there are no pictures? How there are probably not a lot of answers to a lot of the questions that he had about those early years? Maybe he was told he was adopted and that is why there are no pictures and that's why there's not a lot of answers to those questions. Maybe he was told that he was adopted and just not told the details of it. Maybe whoever adopted him when they saw on the news what was actually happening was maybe they were just wanting a child so badly and they just decided to keep Timothy for themselves. I don't know. But you do have to ask yourselves these questions when going through these list of theories. But I'm so curious to know what you guys have to say about this. What do you believe happened to Timothy Pittson? What do you believe Amy did? And do you think that we will ever have answers to this case? Please let me know.
But with that being said, you guys, it's going to be all for me today. Thank you so much for tuning in to another exclusive episode of Killer Instinct here on Patreon. Make sure you guys tune in tomorrow for another episode of Killer Instinct. I will be back next week with a brand new one for you guys. And until then, stay safe. Bye, guys.