An Illinois grandmother believes her missing grandson is alive and perhaps living in a remote Mormon enclave 13 years after the boy’s disappearance.

Timmothy Pitzen was 6 when his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, took him out of school on May 11, 2011, and onto a two-day road trip that included zoos and waterparks in neighboring Wisconsin, the US Sun reported.

Then, she called her mother and brother-in-law and said she’d be home soon. But she turned off her phone — and killed herself with an overdose of prescription medication and deep razor cuts to her wrists. She was found dead in a Rockford hotel room on May 14, but Timmothy was never seen again.

Fry-Pitzen left behind a note that said her son was safe, with someone who loved him, and he would never be found.

Two weeks ago, Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, released a message to his son, accompanying an age-progessed photo of what the boy might look like at 19, WGN reported.

Dear Timmothy, 

The years apart have been hard, I am so looking forward for us to be reunited. There is so much of your young life I have not been able to be a part of while you have been missing. The future is bright, and I look forward to spending time with you, and getting to know my son again. Till I see you again. 

Love, Dad

Linda Pitzen, Timmothy’s paternal grandmother, told the Sun she has read that note over and over and believes that her grandson is alive, somewhere, and that it makes sense she would have taken him to someone in her religion.

“I think she wanted Timm to be raised Mormon,” Linda Pitzen said. “The rest of us aren’t Mormon and I think this was her way of making sure he was after she’d gone.

“She never pushed it on anyone apart from Jim (her husband and Timm’s father). But he was reluctant and I think her church may have been pushing her a little, I don’t know. But she went to a Mormon church. She wasn’t raised that way, she was a convert – and that was before Jim had met her.”

A former classmate of the 6-year-old boy, Hannah Soukup, has conducted her own investigation and concluded that Timm was taken to a remote Mormon conclave.

“I believe she dropped him off somewhere – I don’t know if it was in a religious area, or something like that – but I think she dropped him off and gave him to people she knew would keep him safe and hidden,” she told the Sun. “And I think she made it clear that either his identity had to be changed or that he had to stay away from the internet so he’d never know he was missing.”

“It’s entirely possible. And it would explain a lot,” Linda Pitzen said of the theory. “I’ve agreed with that theory from the beginning. I read that suicide note, and if you read that note and you know her, I would guess she probably gave somebody to live in a compound.

“I have to hope that’s true because it’d be a lot better option for me to deal with, as opposed to what the other options are.”

For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.

[Featured image: Timmothy Pitzen/National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]