Ohio man due in federal court on false claim about child

CINCINNATI (AP) — A 23-year-old man will go before a U.S. magistrate on a charge that he lied to federal agents about being a missing child from Illinois.

Authorities on Friday charged Brian Michael Rini (REE’-nee) of Medina, Ohio, a day after DNA testing ruled him out as being Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared in 2011 at age 6. Magistrate Karen Litkovitz had him held without bond pending a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

A jail lists him as 5 feet, 9 inches (175 centimeters), tall and 145 pounds (65.7 kilograms).

Police picked up Rini the morning of April 3 after a report of someone wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky. They said he told them he was Timmothy and that he had escaped two kidnappers.

Timmothy Pitzen disappeared around the time his mother killed herself.