Timmothy Pitzen’s family say they’re devastated after a man’s claim that he is the missing boy turned out to be a sham.

The missing child’s aunt and grandmother told reporters Thursday that they had been alternatively hopeful and frightened over the last 24 hours, as authorities worked to determine whether the imposter’s claim was true.

“It’s been awful,” said Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson. “We’re been on tenterhooks … it’s been exhausting.”

A man came forward Wednesday saying he was Pitzen — who vanished in 2011 at age 6 — and that he’d just escaped two men who held him captive for seven years in southwestern Ohio. When cops asked his age, he told them he was 14 and gave them Pitzen’s date of birth, police said.

After a DNA test, authorities unmasked him as a 23-year-old ex-convict named Brian Michael Rini.

“It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy’s father is devastated once again,” said the boy’s aunt Kara Jacobs.

It’s unclear why Rini would try to pass himself off as the missing boy. He was released from an Ohio prison March 7, after serving a year and six months for burglary and vandalism.

Still the family wasn’t angry at the faker.

“I feel so sorry for the young man who’s obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was somebody else,” Anderson said.

With Post wires