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.
Read it at WDTN