Alleged impostor Brian Rini, charged with pretending to be missing boy Timmothy Pitzen, ‘claimed to be child kidnap victim twice before’
- Prosecutors say ex-convict Brian Rini, 23, was exposed by a DNA test that showed he was not a boy who went missing as a six-year-old in 2011
Federal prosecutors on Friday charged a 23-year-old former convict with making false statements after he claimed to be Illinois teenager Timmothy Pitzen, who went missing in 2011 after his mother committed suicide, a US Attorney said.
Brian Michael Rini was charged with lying to federal agents after he appeared on Wednesday in Newport, Kentucky, outside Cincinnati on Wednesday and claimed he was 14-year-old Pitzen.
He told them he had escaped from an eight-year ordeal at the hands of sex traffickers. Pitzen was last seen when he was six years old.
Rini’s claim was debunked on Thursday after DNA test results conducted at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital confirmed he was not Pitzen.
“Law enforcement confronted him with the DNA results, and at that point the person immediately stated that he was not Timmothy Pitzen, and of course law enforcement knew by virtue of the DNA analysis that he was in fact Brian Rini,” said US Attorney Benjamin Glassman during a briefing with reporters.