A teen in Illinois tells police he escaped from his kidnappers after 7 years

Authorities are investigating after a teen who identified himself as missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen told police he just escaped from his kidnappers, CNN affiliate WCPO reported.

A 14-year-old boy told authorities in Campbell County, Kentucky, that he fled a Red Roof Inn where he and the two men who held him for seven years were staying, according to a Sharonville, Ohio, police report obtained by WCPO.

He was unsure of the hotel’s location, police said, but it appears the boy “kept running until he ran across a bridge into” Kentucky.

Police in Sharonville checked all Red Roof Inn hotels in the area and did not find anything, the report said. Sharonville is about 12 miles northeast of Cincinnati.

Law enforcement has not confirmed the teen’s identity.

FBI field offices in Louisville and Cincinnati said they were investigating a missing child case with law enforcement agencies in Aurora, Illinois, Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, as well as in Newport, Kentucky.

Timmothy, then a 6-year-old, went missing in May 2011 after his mother took him out of his Aurora, Illinois, school citing a family emergency and they went on a three-day road trip with stops at zoos and water parks.

The boy was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Police said the teen described his kidnappers as two white men of “bodybuilder type build, one with a spiderweb tattoo on his neck and the other with a snake tattoo on his arms,” the report said.

The men drove a Ford SUV with Wisconsin plates, police said.

What happened to Timmothy Pitzen?

Timmothy and his mother traveled more than 500 miles over two days. Mother and son seem relaxed and cheerful in the security video footage that investigators recovered from their stops.

During the trip, Timmothy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, made several brief calls to family members, including one to her mother. She assured her that she and Timmothy were safe.

The boy also spoke to a family member, and didn’t seem to be in any distress.

Timmothy’s mother was found dead later in a Rockford, Illinois motel. She had killed herself.

A note was found saying that her son, Timmothy, was safe with people who would love and care for him.

“You’ll never find him,” the note read.

Timmothy’s family, including his father, has continued searching for him.

“I know in my heart that he’s absolutely alive, a hundred percent,” his aunt, Kara Jacobs, said in an interview last year for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “I know he’s out there, we just have to find him.”