GUILTY OH - Brian Michael Rini, charged with impersonating a long-missing child, Apr 2019

[Trudie]

I don't know. That description seemed cartoonish to me. Made me skeptical.

Sounds like he’s watched a lot of MMA or some other type of wrestling.

 

[Wagtales10]

I want to see what he looks like now, not an old mugshot. Of course ppl can say whatttttt to an old mugshot but that has no bearing on what he looks like now

 

[gitana1]

I’m going to try to go through these posts fast there’s so many so apologies if this is repetitive.

So this guy is 24 years old with prior arrests? Wouldn’t he know he could not possibly get away with this lie with his records and dna testing?? Also 24 is waaaaay older... i feel like this shouldn’t have even made the headlines it did because it should have been shut down immediately and commented on afterwards. People thought really thought a 24 year old was a 14 year old?? I really am sick of the media they always move way too ******* quick until facts are checked.. and now that poor family who had their hopes up. I feel terrible for them.

My guess is that LE was pretty sure early on and told the family they didn't think it was Tim. But witnesses already called the media.

And because he was claiming to be a missing minor even if they were pretty certain it was untrue they probably had to err on the side of caution and her this injured person treatment and treat them as a minor until there was confirmation.

He's a good little con artist. Had all those witnesses convinced and they spoke to him and saw him firsthand.

 

[Trudie]

Thank you. I am really embarrassed. I was convinced.

Also, Timmothy’s family was put through the ringer.

Do you think they believed the imposter to be Timmy? After reading Twitter, I did not.

 

[sjah]

If he is as young as he states we do not know his circumstances? It seems odd to me someone so young would know Timmothy’s story. Maybe it is possible he was told he was Timmothy. We do not know anything yet. I cannot judge someone so young who appears to have been abused.

I can see your point except that he has been jailed/arrested multiple times under his real name. I think any abuse he has had in the past few years was probably done to him in exchange for something he did given his criminal record.

 

[ChiCubs2016]

With his extensive criminal record? Hell ya we can.

At the time of my post I did not know it was a grown arse criminal.

I, like lots of folks here was truly hoping for a great outcome. We have seen it happen before and we were all willing (well most of us) to remain positive and pray for the best. This does not make us foolish, stupid or idiots. It makes us compassionate humans. I am not going to let evil minded people and cruel people like this goof make me lose my faith that there is good in the world and there are miracles waiting to happen!
Call me naive or whatever else but I will not let cynics rule my world!

 

[gitana1]

I agree with the other poster who suggested moving on re TIMMOTHY only, not this liar. I am so disappointed.

It's worth a discussion. This is rare but has happened before. Helps me with sleuthing to research and catalogue these things.

 

[StephanieH]

Well, that's disappointing. I was convinced from the beginning that his mother killed him. I'm now re-convinced. Sad, sad story.

Yeah. His story about being kidnapped made absolutely no sense.
What baffles me is why he thought it would work? DNA, dude. DNA.
I hope he has to pay back authorities for all the expenses they had for a lie.

 

[Amich]

Also to everyone saying they're embarrassed.. don't be! It's not our faults. We were not given ANY accurate information nor a real photo. The news sources let out that blurry photo of the guy which made all our imaginations run wild... which they should have never done. It is a shame that we do not have reliable media.

 

[Artis]

It's not stupid to believe the reporting from professional journalists. There's no way this guy was at a Children's hospital for more than 5 minutes before someone realized what was going on. This was just irresponsible reporting all around. These two threads were all based on MSM reporting from local and national news sources. If you can't believe that, what can you believe?

If this guy refused to provide his fingerprints as reported then LE knew as soon as that happened that this likely was not Timmothy. I think they should have said "we have no reason to believe... but we are investigating..." and poured cold water on this in the beginning. If it ended up being Timmothy, they would have good news to report to the world.

Any hint to MSM that this seemed to be a disturbed adult and not a child may have made the media tap the breaks.

BBM

Oh, boy, that's a biggie. Sorry to say, FAKE NEWS but good journalism is nearly dead. If it's not propaganda it's click bait. I'm really angry this was done in a case of a missing (once) child.

 

[JanetElaine]

When/where was that quoted from police? A news reporter did a whole FB video that FBI and LE he spoke too were confident about his identity being Timmothy. And other news sites just said police are running DNA testings. I did not see them ever say anything to shut it down. They just keep quiet

There are several quotes in any of the gazillion links in thread 2 and even here. Here are just two that say police haven't confirmed anything:

Boy Found in Ohio Says He's Timmothy Pitzen, Who Vanished in 2011 After Mom Wrote Cryptic Suicide Note
Police: Teen found in Newport says he's missing Illinois kid who disappeared nearly 8 years ago

It's not LE's job to shut the media down. They said they couldn't confirm it and that should have been enough. Just because that reporter allegedly said LE and FBI were confident doesn't mean LE and FBI actually said that.

 

[Artis]

I want to see what he looks like now, not an old mugshot. Of course ppl can say whatttttt to an old mugshot but that has no bearing on what he looks like now

Well, he sure can't look any younger than that GROWN MAN WITH A BEARD!!!

 

[MimosaMornings]

Do I remember reading that there were two women that actually spoke to him (meaning close enough to see and observe his face)?
With the hood up it was difficult to ascertain facial features. A statement stating that he had refused fingerprinting and dna was necessary would have been a clue.

 

[JanetElaine]

He's a good little con artist. Had all those witnesses convinced and they spoke to him and saw him firsthand.

I'm really wondering right now if the 'bruises' they thought they saw on his face was actually his facial hair shining through. Hopefully they'll charge him with falsification so we can have a fresh mug shot.

 

[ReadySet]

Many folks here sure believed it was him. This is a public site, anyone can read here.

Tell me, WSers,, if that man in the mug shot showed up at your door selling candy for his middle school band camp, would anyone believe he was a kid? Nobody would! How in the heck did this story ever go public?

 

[Trudie]

I can see your point except that he has been jailed/arrested multiple times under his real name. I think any abuse he has had in the past few years was probably done to him in exchange for something he did given his criminal record.

Or his cellie abused him......

 

[gitana1]

At the time of my post I did not know it was a grown arse criminal.

I, like lots of folks here was truly hoping for a great outcome. We have seen it happen before and we were all willing (well most of us) to remain positive and pray for the best. This does not make us foolish, stupid or idiots. It makes us compassionate humans. I am not going to let evil minded people and cruel people like this goof make me lose my faith that there is good in the world and there are miracles waiting to happen!
Call me naive or whatever else but I will not let cynics rule my world!

Oh! We had talked about his age in many, many posts so I thought you knew.

And I agree. I won't let it ruin my faith in humanity or in the goodness in the world.

Frankly, I think creeps like this are rare compared to decent humans. It's hard not to think otherwise when following these cases but the bad is what makes the news. Because it's "new".

There is a great documentary called I Am. Came out in 2003 I believe. It explores whether humans are innately good or bad.

Changed my world. And helps us to see reality and stay positive when immersed in the darkness.

 

[Alethea]

There are several quotes in any of the gazillion links in thread 2 and even here. Here are just two that say police haven't confirmed anything:

Boy Found in Ohio Says He's Timmothy Pitzen, Who Vanished in 2011 After Mom Wrote Cryptic Suicide Note
Police: Teen found in Newport says he's missing Illinois kid who disappeared nearly 8 years ago

It's not LE's job to shut the media down. They said they couldn't confirm it and that should have been enough. Just because that reporter allegedly said LE and FBI were confident doesn't mean LE and FBI actually said that.

It may not be their job but they do it all the time. Spreading false information can hinder a LE investigation.

 

[Amich]

There are several quotes in any of the gazillion links in thread 2 and even here. Here are just two that say police haven't confirmed anything:

Boy Found in Ohio Says He's Timmothy Pitzen, Who Vanished in 2011 After Mom Wrote Cryptic Suicide Note
Police: Teen found in Newport says he's missing Illinois kid who disappeared nearly 8 years ago

It's not LE's job to shut the media down. They said they couldn't confirm it and that should have been enough. Just because that reporter allegedly said LE and FBI were confident doesn't mean LE and FBI actually said that.

They did not say anything in those articles. In fact the FBI confirmed publicly they were involved in this now. They could have taken that guys prints and found out way sooner and FBI would not have even had to join in. I'm pretty sure if you're a professional you could tell that's no a 14 year old boy. And yes they CAN make a comment to the media. They chose not to comment. They should have.

 

[WhimsicalWillow]

It's not stupid to believe the reporting from professional journalists. There's no way this guy was at a Children's hospital for more than 5 minutes before someone realized what was going on. This was just irresponsible reporting all around. These two threads were all based on MSM reporting from local and national news sources. If you can't believe that, what can you believe?

If this guy refused to provide his fingerprints as reported then LE knew as soon as that happened that this likely was not Timmothy. I think they should have said "we have no reason to believe... but we are investigating..." and poured cold water on this in the beginning. If it ended up being Timmothy, they would have good news to report to the world.

Any hint to MSM that this seemed to be a disturbed adult and not a child may have made the media tap the breaks.

Bingo. Thank you. You are so right. You should write to the media a complaint about how this was handled.