Johnny Gosch
Encyclopedia
John David "Johnny" Gosch (born November 12, 1969) was a 12-year-old paperboy
in West Des Moines, Iowa
when he disappeared on September 5, 1982, presumably kidnapped. His case and the subsequent publicity played an important part in the growing public awareness of missing children cases in the 1980s.
His mother, Noreen Gosch, maintains that Johnny Gosch escaped from his captors and visited her in 1997, but fears for his life and lives under an assumed identity. Gosch's father, divorced since 1993, publicly stated that he was not sure whether the visit occurred. Authorities have not located Gosch or confirmed Ms. Gosch's account, and his fate continues to be a subject of speculation
, conspiracy theories, and dispute.
The case received publicity in 2006 when photographs possibly showing Gosch in captivity were supposedly left at his mother's doorstep.
, Gretchen, with him that morning. Other paper carriers for The Des Moines Register
would later report having seen Gosch at the paper drop, picking up his newspapers. It was the last sighting of Johnny Gosch that can be corroborated by multiple witnesses.
However another paper carrier named Mike reported that he and Gosch were approached by a stocky man in a blue two-toned Ford Fairlane
with Iowa plates who asked them for directions. Mike later stated that Gosch told him the man had made him uncomfortable. As Gosch headed home, Mike noticed another man following Gosch.
Gosch was last seen wearing blue rubber thong sandals, warm up exercise pants, and a white sweatshirt reading "Kim's Academy".
John and Noreen Gosch, Johnny's parents, began receiving phone calls from customers along their son's route, complaining of undelivered papers. John Gosch performed a cursory search of the neighborhood around 6 AM. He immediately found Johnny's wagon full of newspapers, two blocks from their home.
Police came to believe that Gosch was kidnapped, but they did not establish a motive. They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.
Several private investigator
s assisted the Gosches over the years. Among them are Jim Rothstein, a retired New York City
police detective; and Ted Gunderson
, a retired chief of the Los Angeles
FBI branch.
In 1984, Gosch's photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela Estavez on milk cartons across America; they were the second abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way. The first was Etan Patz.
for missing children across the nation. Gosch's disappearance became something of a cautionary tale to midwestern youth, Johnny Gosch jokes swept the nation's schoolyards, and dollar bills began turning up with "Help me! - Johnny Gosch" scrawled across them.
The case snowballed into a national interest as Noreen Gosch became increasingly vocal about the inadequacy of law enforcement investigation of missing children cases. She established the Johnny Gosch foundation in 1982, through which she visited schools and gave seminars about the modus operandi
of sexual predators. She lobbied for "The Johnny Gosch Bill", state legislation which would mandate an immediate police response to reports of missing children. The bill became law in Iowa in 1984, and similar or identical laws were later passed in Missouri
and seven other states.
In August 1984, Ms. Gosch testified in Senate hearings on organized crime
, speaking about "organized pedophilia
" and its alleged role in her son's abduction. She began receiving death threats. Ms. Gosch also testified before the U.S. Department of Justice
, which provided 10 million dollars to establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
. Ms. Gosch was invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan
for the dedication ceremony.
that he was in a sex ring with Gosch as a teenager and was forced into participating in Gosch's abduction.
Bonacci accused Lawrence E. King, the director of the Franklin Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska
, of running an underage prostitution ring and victimizing him since an early age. The sex ring allegations were the subject of newspaper coverage in the Washington Times and the New York Times.
In 1990, a grand jury declined to charge King, finding the allegations to be "a carefully crafted hoax
". Alleged victims Paul Bonacci and Alisha Owen were convicted of perjury
and jailed. Nonetheless, King was sued by Bonacci in 1999 and, because King did not respond to or defend himself against the charges, King was ordered to pay Bonacci $1 million in a default judgment
. The judge's decision reads, "The now uncontradicted evidence is that the plaintiff has suffered much. He has suffered burns, broken fingers, beatings of the head and face and other indignities by the wrongful actions of defendant King". At the time, King was serving a prison sentence for fraud
and tax evasion
involving the theft of $38 million.
DeCamp, who represented Bonacci both times, wrote a book titled The Franklin Coverup, which was prefaced by retired CIA chief William Colby
and published in 1994. The book elaborated on Bonacci's claims, and alleged a conspiracy and successful cover-up of underage prostitution by King and others.
By Noreen Gosch's account, she was awakened around 2:30am one morning in March 1997 by a knock at her apartment door. Waiting outside was Johnny Gosch, now 27, accompanied by a man she had never seen before. Gosch said she immediately recognized her son, who opened his shirt to reveal a birthmark on his chest. "We talked about an hour or an hour and a half. He was with another man, but I have no idea who the person was. Johnny would look over to the other person for approval to speak," says Ms. Gosch. "He didn't say where he is living or where he was going."
In a 2005 interview, Ms. Gosch said, “The night that he came here, he was wearing jeans and a shirt and a coat on because it was March. It was cold and his hair was long, it was shoulder length and it was straight and dyed black.” After the visit, she had the FBI create a picture she says looked like Johnny.
On her website, Ms. Gosch gives more details of her account:
Noreen Gosch self-published a book in 2000 titled, Why Johnny Can't Come Home. The book presents her understanding of what her son went through, based on the original research of various private investigators and her son's visit.
Gosch's father, divorced from Noreen since the 1990s, has publicly questioned the credibility of all of these allegations.
reported that Gosch's mother found photographs left at her front door, some of which she posted on her website. In the days since, she has updated the site several times with possible leads in the case.
One color photo shows three boys bound and gagged. Ms. Gosch stated that her son appears "on the right" in the first photo. A black-and-white photo appears to show 12-year-old Johnny Gosch with his mouth gagged, his hands and feet tied, and an apparent human brand
on his shoulder. Ms. Gosch says he is wearing the same sweatpants as the time he disappeared. The image has a red arrow pointing to his shoulder labeled "The Brand" which was photoshopped on to further the story of kids being branded like cattle. On a color version of the same photo no branding can be seen. Since then, Ms. Gosch has added additional photos to her website that she believes show her son, bound and gagged. The photos show an emaciated boy, a stark contrast to the husky Johnny Gosch.
A third photo, posted several days later, shows a man, possibly dead, who may have something tied around his neck. Ms. Gosch explains that the man was claimed to be one of the "perpetrators who molested [my] son".
Ms. Gosch updated her site to say that the first two photos had originated on a website, and police confirmed this fact. Some of these pictures have since been removed.
Nelson Zalva, who worked for the Hillsborough County, Fla. sheriff in the 1970s, confirms the details of the letter and adds that he also investigated the black-and-white in "1978 or 1979", before Gosch's disappearance. "I interviewed the kids, and they said there was no coercion or touching. ... I could never prove a crime," Zalva says. Ms. Gosch is adamant that the black-and-white photo shows her son. "One of the photos is definitely Johnny," she said.
As of September 22, Florida authorities had not found the files related to Zalva's case. "It's been like searching for a needle in a haystack," Zalva said on September 21. Zalva still maintains his recollection of the case, and expressed hope that the tipster or someone in the pictures would step forward. Lt. Jeff Miller, spokesman for the West Des Moines police department, said that he does not believe any new leads are being pursued.
On September 18, Ms. Gosch received another death threat. The same day, she renewed her insistence that her son is in the cropped black-and-white photo by posting an uncropped, color version of the black-and-white image on her website. She says that a birthmark visible in the color photo proves that the boy is Johnny Gosch (although she states his birthmark was on the right side of his chest, which is not visible in the photo unless it is mirrored), and she says the color photo was obtained from the website on which the other photos had appeared. According to the Register, police confirmed that the photos originated from and had been removed from that website.
As of October 17, 2006, according to reports on WOI-TV
in West Des Moines, the photos do not depict Gosch.
As of November 6, 2006, a letter from The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to Noreen Gosch declares that the origin of the photos of Johnny Gosch will continue to be investigated by the Center and that copies of the photos have been provided to law enforcement.
Paperboy
A paperboy is the general name for a person employed by a newspaper, They are often used around the office to run low end errands. They make copies and distribute them. Paperboys traditionally were and are still often portrayed on television and movies as preteen boys, often on a bicycle...
in West Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
when he disappeared on September 5, 1982, presumably kidnapped. His case and the subsequent publicity played an important part in the growing public awareness of missing children cases in the 1980s.
His mother, Noreen Gosch, maintains that Johnny Gosch escaped from his captors and visited her in 1997, but fears for his life and lives under an assumed identity. Gosch's father, divorced since 1993, publicly stated that he was not sure whether the visit occurred. Authorities have not located Gosch or confirmed Ms. Gosch's account, and his fate continues to be a subject of speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
, conspiracy theories, and dispute.
The case received publicity in 2006 when photographs possibly showing Gosch in captivity were supposedly left at his mother's doorstep.
Disappearance
On Sunday, September 5, 1982, in the suburb of West Des Moines, Johnny Gosch left home for his paper route before dawn. Though it was customary for Johnny to wake his father to help with the route, the boy took only the family's dachshundDachshund
The dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed belonging to the hound family. The standard size dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits...
, Gretchen, with him that morning. Other paper carriers for The Des Moines Register
Des Moines Register
The Des Moines Register is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa, in the United States. A separate edition of the Register is sold throughout much of Iowa.-History:...
would later report having seen Gosch at the paper drop, picking up his newspapers. It was the last sighting of Johnny Gosch that can be corroborated by multiple witnesses.
However another paper carrier named Mike reported that he and Gosch were approached by a stocky man in a blue two-toned Ford Fairlane
Ford Fairlane (North American)
The Ford Fairlane was an automobile model sold between 1955 and 1970 by the Ford Motor Company in North America. The name was taken from Henry Ford's estate, Fair Lane, near Dearborn, Michigan....
with Iowa plates who asked them for directions. Mike later stated that Gosch told him the man had made him uncomfortable. As Gosch headed home, Mike noticed another man following Gosch.
Gosch was last seen wearing blue rubber thong sandals, warm up exercise pants, and a white sweatshirt reading "Kim's Academy".
John and Noreen Gosch, Johnny's parents, began receiving phone calls from customers along their son's route, complaining of undelivered papers. John Gosch performed a cursory search of the neighborhood around 6 AM. He immediately found Johnny's wagon full of newspapers, two blocks from their home.
The search for Johnny Gosch
The Gosches immediately contacted the West Des Moines police department, and reported Johnny's disappearance. Noreen Gosch, in her public statements and her book Why Johnny Can't Come Home, has been critical of what she perceives as a slow reaction time from authorities, and of the then-current policy that Gosch could not be classified as a missing person for 72 hours. By her estimation, the police did not arrive to take her report for a full 45 minutes.Police came to believe that Gosch was kidnapped, but they did not establish a motive. They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.
Several private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
s assisted the Gosches over the years. Among them are Jim Rothstein, a retired New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police detective; and Ted Gunderson
Ted Gunderson
Theodore L. Gunderson was a retired United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent In Charge and head of the Los Angeles FBI. He was most famous for handling the Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy cases...
, a retired chief of the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
FBI branch.
In 1984, Gosch's photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela Estavez on milk cartons across America; they were the second abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way. The first was Etan Patz.
National interest
Johnny Gosch quickly became a poster boyPoster Boy
Poster Boy is a 2004 gay-themed drama film. It toured the gay and lesbian film festival circuit beginning in 2004 before a limited theatrical release in 2006.- Production :Some scenes were shot on campus at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York....
for missing children across the nation. Gosch's disappearance became something of a cautionary tale to midwestern youth, Johnny Gosch jokes swept the nation's schoolyards, and dollar bills began turning up with "Help me! - Johnny Gosch" scrawled across them.
The case snowballed into a national interest as Noreen Gosch became increasingly vocal about the inadequacy of law enforcement investigation of missing children cases. She established the Johnny Gosch foundation in 1982, through which she visited schools and gave seminars about the modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
of sexual predators. She lobbied for "The Johnny Gosch Bill", state legislation which would mandate an immediate police response to reports of missing children. The bill became law in Iowa in 1984, and similar or identical laws were later passed in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and seven other states.
In August 1984, Ms. Gosch testified in Senate hearings on organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
, speaking about "organized pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
" and its alleged role in her son's abduction. She began receiving death threats. Ms. Gosch also testified before the U.S. Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, which provided 10 million dollars to establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
. Ms. Gosch was invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
for the dedication ceremony.
Another missing paperboy
In 1984, another Des Moines-area paperboy disappeared under similar circumstances. Eugene Wade Martin disappeared while delivering newspapers on the south side of Des Moines. Authorities have been unable to prove a connection between the two cases, yet Ms. Gosch claims that she was personally informed of the abduction weeks in advance by a private investigator who was searching for her son. Her account is uncorroborated.A confession
Paul Bonacci told attorney John DeCampJohn DeCamp
John W. DeCamp , a Republican, is a former member of the Nebraska Legislature and author of the book The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska.-Biography:...
that he was in a sex ring with Gosch as a teenager and was forced into participating in Gosch's abduction.
Credibility
There are conflicting legal decisions concerning the veracity of Bonacci and Noreen Gosch's conflicting versions of events. FBI and local police believe that Bonacci is not a credible suspect in the case, even though he was awarded damages (in a legal proceeding detailed below), and Bonacci has not been interviewed by law enforcement.Bonacci accused Lawrence E. King, the director of the Franklin Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, of running an underage prostitution ring and victimizing him since an early age. The sex ring allegations were the subject of newspaper coverage in the Washington Times and the New York Times.
In 1990, a grand jury declined to charge King, finding the allegations to be "a carefully crafted hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
". Alleged victims Paul Bonacci and Alisha Owen were convicted of perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
and jailed. Nonetheless, King was sued by Bonacci in 1999 and, because King did not respond to or defend himself against the charges, King was ordered to pay Bonacci $1 million in a default judgment
Default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law...
. The judge's decision reads, "The now uncontradicted evidence is that the plaintiff has suffered much. He has suffered burns, broken fingers, beatings of the head and face and other indignities by the wrongful actions of defendant King". At the time, King was serving a prison sentence for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
and tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
involving the theft of $38 million.
DeCamp, who represented Bonacci both times, wrote a book titled The Franklin Coverup, which was prefaced by retired CIA chief William Colby
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
and published in 1994. The book elaborated on Bonacci's claims, and alleged a conspiracy and successful cover-up of underage prostitution by King and others.
Noreen Gosch's visitors
In 1999, Noreen Gosch testified in Bonacci's lawsuit against King. During her testimony, DeCamp asked her whether she had seen or heard from her son since his disappearance. She responded that Gosch had visited her once, in 1997. She had not told her ex-husband John, and it was the first time she mentioned this visit in public.By Noreen Gosch's account, she was awakened around 2:30am one morning in March 1997 by a knock at her apartment door. Waiting outside was Johnny Gosch, now 27, accompanied by a man she had never seen before. Gosch said she immediately recognized her son, who opened his shirt to reveal a birthmark on his chest. "We talked about an hour or an hour and a half. He was with another man, but I have no idea who the person was. Johnny would look over to the other person for approval to speak," says Ms. Gosch. "He didn't say where he is living or where he was going."
In a 2005 interview, Ms. Gosch said, “The night that he came here, he was wearing jeans and a shirt and a coat on because it was March. It was cold and his hair was long, it was shoulder length and it was straight and dyed black.” After the visit, she had the FBI create a picture she says looked like Johnny.
On her website, Ms. Gosch gives more details of her account:
- Johnny Gosch confirmed Paul Bonacci's account of his abduction, named the people responsible, and asked his mother not to reveal that he had been to her home
- Johnny Gosch was angry, but he feared for his life because he could name his captors, and was living under an assumed identity for that reason
Noreen Gosch self-published a book in 2000 titled, Why Johnny Can't Come Home. The book presents her understanding of what her son went through, based on the original research of various private investigators and her son's visit.
Gosch's father, divorced from Noreen since the 1990s, has publicly questioned the credibility of all of these allegations.
2006 photos
On September 1, 2006, CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
reported that Gosch's mother found photographs left at her front door, some of which she posted on her website. In the days since, she has updated the site several times with possible leads in the case.
One color photo shows three boys bound and gagged. Ms. Gosch stated that her son appears "on the right" in the first photo. A black-and-white photo appears to show 12-year-old Johnny Gosch with his mouth gagged, his hands and feet tied, and an apparent human brand
Human branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron...
on his shoulder. Ms. Gosch says he is wearing the same sweatpants as the time he disappeared. The image has a red arrow pointing to his shoulder labeled "The Brand" which was photoshopped on to further the story of kids being branded like cattle. On a color version of the same photo no branding can be seen. Since then, Ms. Gosch has added additional photos to her website that she believes show her son, bound and gagged. The photos show an emaciated boy, a stark contrast to the husky Johnny Gosch.
A third photo, posted several days later, shows a man, possibly dead, who may have something tied around his neck. Ms. Gosch explains that the man was claimed to be one of the "perpetrators who molested [my] son".
Ms. Gosch updated her site to say that the first two photos had originated on a website, and police confirmed this fact. Some of these pictures have since been removed.
Dispute
The identity of the children in the photos was first publicly disputed on September 13, after an anonymous letter was mailed to Des Moines police.Gentlemen,
Someone has played a reprehensible joke on a grieving mother. The photo in question is not one of her son but of three boys in Tampa, Florida about 1979-80, challenging each other to an escape contest. There was an investigation concerning that picture, made by the Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriff's Office. No charges were filed, and no wrongdoing was established. The lead detective on the case was named Zalva. This allegation should be easy enough to check out.
Nelson Zalva, who worked for the Hillsborough County, Fla. sheriff in the 1970s, confirms the details of the letter and adds that he also investigated the black-and-white in "1978 or 1979", before Gosch's disappearance. "I interviewed the kids, and they said there was no coercion or touching. ... I could never prove a crime," Zalva says. Ms. Gosch is adamant that the black-and-white photo shows her son. "One of the photos is definitely Johnny," she said.
As of September 22, Florida authorities had not found the files related to Zalva's case. "It's been like searching for a needle in a haystack," Zalva said on September 21. Zalva still maintains his recollection of the case, and expressed hope that the tipster or someone in the pictures would step forward. Lt. Jeff Miller, spokesman for the West Des Moines police department, said that he does not believe any new leads are being pursued.
On September 18, Ms. Gosch received another death threat. The same day, she renewed her insistence that her son is in the cropped black-and-white photo by posting an uncropped, color version of the black-and-white image on her website. She says that a birthmark visible in the color photo proves that the boy is Johnny Gosch (although she states his birthmark was on the right side of his chest, which is not visible in the photo unless it is mirrored), and she says the color photo was obtained from the website on which the other photos had appeared. According to the Register, police confirmed that the photos originated from and had been removed from that website.
As of October 17, 2006, according to reports on WOI-TV
WOI-TV
WOI-DT, channel 5, is the ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Ames, and serving the Des Moines, Iowa market. Its studios are in West Des Moines...
in West Des Moines, the photos do not depict Gosch.
As of November 6, 2006, a letter from The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to Noreen Gosch declares that the origin of the photos of Johnny Gosch will continue to be investigated by the Center and that copies of the photos have been provided to law enforcement.
See also
- Etan PatzEtan PatzEtan Kalil Patz was a kidnapped American child. He was 6 years old when he disappeared in lower Manhattan, New York on May 25, 1979. At the time, news coverage of Patz's disappearance was made into a media circus in the New York City area. He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York...
- Genette TateGenette TateGenette Louise Tate was an English girl whose disappearance became a famous missing person case when she went missing at age 13 while delivering newspapers in Aylesbeare, Devon, England, on 19 August 1978...
- Jacob WetterlingJacob WetterlingJacob Erwin Wetterling is a boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped from his hometown at the age of 11 on Sunday, October 22, 1989...
- Steven StaynerSteven StaynerSteven Gregory Stayner was an American kidnap victim. Stayner was abducted from the Northern California city and county of Merced, California at the age of seven and held until he was 14, when he escaped and rescued another victim, Timothy White, in 1980...
- Natascha KampuschNatascha KampuschNatascha Maria Kampusch is an Austrian television hostess mostly known for her abduction at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998. Kampusch was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006...
- List of people who disappeared mysteriously
External links
- johnnygosch.com Noreen Gosch's website ← both photos described above are posted here
- John David Gosch in Iowa Missing Persons database
- John David Gosch in National Center for Missing & Exploited Children database
- CNN News Story Mom gets photos of son missing for 24 years
- Justice for Johnny Gosch Website Latest site dedicated to Johnny Gosch
- Franklin Files Message Board
- The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant