CNN  — 

DNA tests revealed that an Ohio man who claimed he broke free from kidnappers after nearly eight years in captivity is not Timmothy Pitzen, the FBI said Thursday.

Brian Michael Rini, 23, of Medina, Ohio, said Wednesday he was the missing child from Aurora, Illinois, and described how he fled from his alleged kidnappers and ran across a bridge into Kentucky, authorities said.

The news dashed hopes that the person found wandering a Newport neighborhood was the missing boy, who would now be 14.

“It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again,” Kara Jacobs, Timmothy’s aunt, told reporters. “Timmothy’s father is devastated once again.”

“As are we,” said Timmothy’s grandmother, Alana Anderson.

Missing since 2011

Almost eight years ago, Timmothy and his mother went on a road trip that included stops at a zoo and a water park. Their adventure started after Amy Fry-Pitzen checked her 6-year-old son out of an Illinois elementary school on May 11, 2011.

Three days later, the mother’s body was found in a hotel room in Rockford, Illinois. She had died by suicide, leaving behind a note that said her son was with people who love him.

“You’ll never find him,” the note said.

Timmothy Pitzen, shown in an undated photo with his mother Amy, disappeared in 2011. The photo at right is of the man spotted by Newport, Kentucky, residents.

An anxious person identified himself as Timmothy

Sharon Hall told CNN she noticed a “fidgety” boy in her Newport neighborhood on Wednesday, not far from the Ohio-Kentucky border. A neighbor’s daughter called police after the boy told them he had run for two hours and that his stomach hurt.

When authorities arrived, he told them his name was Timmothy Pitzen and said he fled from two men who kept him captive for seven years, most recently at a nearby Red Roof Inn, according to a police report.

He was unsure of the hotel’s location, authorities said. He apparently escaped and kept running across a bridge into Kentucky, according to the police report obtained by CNN affiliate WCPO.

The alleged kidnappers had distinctive tattoos

The individual had described his kidnappers as two men of “bodybuilder type build.” One had a spiderweb tattoo on his neck, and the other had a snake tattoo on his arm, the report said.

The men drove a Ford SUV with Wisconsin plates, police said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said Timmothy was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin.

An undated photo shows missing child Timmothy Pitzen.

He said he just wanted to get home

People who talked to Rini before police arrived said he was anxious and pleaded for help.

“He walked up to my car and he went, ‘Can you help me?’ ” a 911 caller told dispatchers, according to the affiliate. “‘I just want to get home. Please help me.’ I asked him what’s going on, and he tells me he’s been kidnapped and he’s been traded through all these people and he just wanted to go home.”

Police checked Red Roof Inns in the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky areas but did not find any clues, according to the report.

A boy found in Newport, Kentucky, told police he was Timmothy Pitzen.

The family searched desperately for years

For years, Timmothy’s family has searched for him in several states.

“I have one image. It’s the day I dropped him off at school and he’s off – running off to class – and that’s pretty much the last image I have in my mind of him,” Timmothy’s father, Jim Pitzen, told CNN in 2015.

Timmothy Pitzen, in an undated photo before he vanished in May 2011.

The day before his mother killed herself, she made several calls from an unknown location to family members, including her mother.

She assured themTimmothy was safe.

Over the years, family members have said Timmothy’s mother had a history of depression, and her marriage was failing. Her biggest fear was that a judge would take her son away because of her mental health issues, according to relatives.

CNN’s Janet DiGiacomo and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report. Athena Jones and Yom Pomrenze reported from Newport, Kentucky.