An Ohio man who posed as a missing boy from Illinois was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison and one on probation. Brian Michael Rini, 24, had claimed in 2019 that he was the 14-year-old version of Timmothy Pitzen, a boy who had been abducted at age 6 from Aurora, Illinois. Rini said he had been physically and sexually abused for years and escaped a hotel where two men were holding him captive. After his DNA was tested, however, investigators realized he was a felon, and Rini admitted that he had seen an episode of 20/20 about the child and attempted to assume his identity in order to escape his own family. Rini was convicted of aggravated identity theft. He apologized during his sentencing hearing.
