The cracks in Timmothy Pitzen’s apparent rescue story appeared early to those in the know.

Missing since 2011, the then 6-year-old boy had been picked up from kindergarten in Aurora, Illinois, by his mother Amy — she claimed an emergency, without telling Timmothy’s dad — and whisked off for two days to a zoo and then a pair of indoor water-park resorts, say police who later recreated their movements.

But a tragic twist yielded a confounding mystery: Three days later, on May 14, 2011, Amy, 42, who struggled with depression, was found dead by her own hand in a Rockford, Illinois, motel room. Police said she left a suicide note stating Timmothy was “safe” with others. The note added ominously, “You will never find him.”

Timmothy’s dad Jim Pitzen, 47, Amy’s devastated husband in a marriage that had been teetering, was left searching for his only child — a search given sudden, brief hope last week, until a hoax pushed Jim once more to heartbreak.

On April 3, a young man told strangers on the streets of Newport, Kentucky, that he was a kidnap victim on the run from sex traffickers he’d left behind in a Red Roof Inn. He gave his name as Timmothy Pitzen.

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An Aurora police detective, Lee Cavatu, phoned Jim with the news while on the five-hour drive to investigate.

Before nightfall, a second call from the detective fed Jim’s doubts that Timmothy had really been found.

The young man told investigators he’d had no pets growing up — and Timmothy had three cats and a dog. “That was one of the first flags that popped up,” says Jim.

Timmothy Pitzen’s Devastated Dad Speaks Out After Missing Child Hoax: ‘My Son is Still Out There’

The detective also told Jim, “from the body cam footage, the way that he carried himself was older than a 14-year-old,” which would have been Timmothy’s age, says Jim.

By then Jim’s mother, Linda Pitzen, 71, who’d greeted the earliest report from her son with “tears of joy,” also had started to question what she was seeing and hearing in media reports. “I thought, nobody comes up and says I’m so-and-so after eight years — I’m Timmothy Pitzen,” she says.

“It seemed like it was just too perfect,” she says.

It was.

The next day DNA results revealed the young man to be 23-year-old Brian Rini, an ex-con recently released from prison after serving time for stealing and burglary who’d previously tried to pass himself off as a sex trafficking victim. He said he adopted Timmothy’s identity after learning about Timmothy’s case on ABC’s 20/20, according to a criminal complaint charging him with making false statements to a federal agent.

The setback doesn’t deter the determination of Timmothy’s dad, who still believes he son will be found.

“I’m waiting for an answer from the police department, ‘yes, this is Timmothy Pitzen,’” he says. “It’s a big waiting game I play all the time on when he’s coming home.”

“The longer he’s away, the less time I’m going to have with my son,” he says. “One thing you can’t do is make up for lost time.”

“I guess he’s just missed more every day.”

Anyone with information about Timmothy or any other missing child is urged to alert the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE LOST. 

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