Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos

John David Gosch









John, date, approximate 1982; Age-progression to age 51 (date, approximate 2020)
Date Missing 09/05/1982
Missing From
West Des Moines, Iowa
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 11/12/1969 (52)
Age 12 years old
Height and Weight 5'7, 140 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white sweatshirt with "Kim's Academy" imprinted on the back, black sweatpants or cutoff jeans, and blue rubber thong sandals.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Light brown hair, blue eyes. John has facial freckles. He had a gap between his upper front teeth at the time of his disappearance. John has a horseshoe-shaped scar on his tongue and a birthmark on his left cheek. His nickname is Johnny.
Details of Disappearance John was last seen while conducting his newspaper route in West Des Moines, Iowa on September 5, 1982. He was accompanied by his Dachshund, Gretchen. His father normally accompanied John on his route.
The day before his disappearance, John asked to be allowed to do his route alone, but his parents wouldn't allow it. He apparently got up at 5:45 a.m. and left the house without waking his father as he was supposed to do.
Witnesses told authorities that John was seen speaking to a male suspect on 42nd Street and Marcourt Lane while delivering his newspapers. The man was driving a blue two-tone Ford Fairmunt, and John was apparently giving him directions.
At 7:00 a.m., customers on John's route called his home, saying their newspapers hadn't been delivered. His parents thought John might have overslept, but when they checked his room they realized he was gone. Gretchen returned to family's residence, but John had vanished. His wagon, with the papers still inside, was found two blocks from his home.
John's mother, Noreen Gosch, hired private investigators to look into her son's disappearance. She believes he was kidnapped and sold into a pedophile prostitution ring. She claimed she was visited by her son when she testified during a 1999 pedophile crime organization trial in Nebraska. Noreen said that he had visited her Iowa apartment in the middle of the night in March 1997 with an unidentified male, and stayed for over an hour.
Noreen went on to say that her son told her he had been abducted by members of a pedophile crime ring. He said he had escaped from the group sometime earlier, was keeping a low profile to avoid repercussions from his former captors, and would probably not visit her again. Noreen maintained that she had no further contact with her son since that time, as she feared for his well-being.
In 1999, a witness in an embezzlement trial claimed he had participated in John's abduction and that he himself was a victim of the same child sex ring that got John. When police investigated, however, they discovered the witness had been in Omaha, Nebraska on the date John disappeared.
In August 2006, Noreen told the press that she had found photographs left by the front door of her home. The images depicted three boys, one of them resembling John, and all of them were bound and gagged. In one of the pictures, the boy resembling John was wearing sweatpants similar to the pair John had worn when he was abducted.
Other people connected the reported receiving copies of the photos, either through the internet or through anonymous deliveries. Noreen stated she believed the photos were of her son and were authentic, but the police think otherwise.
A Florida law enforcement officer stated he had investigated the very same photographs in the 1970s, before John disappeared, and had identified all the boys pictured, and they had willingly posed for the photos. Iowa police have yet to confirm the Florida investigator's account, but they stated they thought whoever gave the photographs to Noreen may have been playing a cruel prank.
John vanished from the same vicinity that Eugene Martin disappeared from in 1984. Both boys were newspaper carriers in the Des Moines area. It is not known if the two s are related.
Investigating Agency
West Des Moines Police Department
515-223-3211
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
The Cedar Rapids Gazette
The Des Moines Register
Donna Chapel -- Johnny Gosch
The Johnny Gosch Foundation
The Missing Children's Network Canada
CNN
WOI-TV
People Magazine
MySpace Page for Johnny Gosch
WBIW KAB
Cold s: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America

Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos