The Creepy Kidnapping of Johnny Gosch: A Pedophile Ring, Scary Photos, and a Strange Meeting with His Mother | the Chronicle

Johnny David Gosch He was only 12 years old and as usual in some towns of The United States learned to work as a newspaper delivery boy when he accompanied his father every morning.

But on September 5, 1982, around 6 a.m., he took to the streets of West Des Moines alone to deliver The Des Moines Register, and this was the last time he was seen.

He only witnessed Mike, a neighbor who saw how the student, who was dressed, with a white t-shirt that said Kim’s Academy on the back, sweatpants, blue rubber flip flops, had a conversation with a man who was was near a model Ford car, but as it was common to see him chatting, it didn’t really matter.

A few hours later, the parents of the minor, John and Noreen Gosch, they started receiving calls from customers who were unhappy because they had not received their newspaper.

Already worried about the situation, they went to look and the father found the car Johnny was going to be working with, full of copies, as if the job had never been done.

Dislocated and terrified by the situation, they called the police, but the operation did not begin until 72 hours later when he was declared missing.

Officers did not believe the story much and believed the teenager had left his home, but gradually discovered that it was in fact a kidnapping.

Following this resolution, Noreen contacted her two other older children to return to their family home. While one worked in a creperie, the other took classes at the university.

Witnesses played a prominent role in the case, but as with every time this type of event occurs, the stories were very different.

While one saw a blue Ford Fairmont pickup approaching him and it looked like the driver needed some sort of guidance, another said he saw the exact moment. where Johnny was taken from behind against his will and put in a pickup., which sped up. away from the stage.

Mike Seskis, who was 16 at the time, said Johnny was afraid of the driver. “There is something wrong with this man. He scares me, I go straight home.“, he declared. And as he related, he put the papers in his bag and left.

Mike heard a dog barking, and immediately afterwards the driver of the car started the engine, slammed the door, and before leaving, turned the lights on and off as if signaling someone.

When he looked up he saw Johnny walk away alone down the street and watched another man emerge from between two houses and walk behind the missing young man, then heard the car door close.

The event only lasted 12 minutes around 7 a.m. When the police finally arrived, Noreen had almost the full description of what had happened.

The case was so striking that it rose to prominence nationally, after Noreen Gosch enlisted the help of former FBI officials in talking about organized crime and even provided information about an alleged pedophile ring, but the result was the same, no information. the comings and goings of his son.

An FBI agent took over, but the investigation was short-lived as there really was no definite clue as to what had happened.

Noreen and the rest of her family decided to hire an experienced private investigator, but police refused to release information about the case.

The move was so big in 1984 that the child’s photograph appeared on milk cartons in the United States, being the second in history to be included in these products. Next to him was Juanita Rafaela Estevez, who was found alive in 1986.

Striking circumstances: A policeman approached Johnny in the days leading up to the disappearance

Noreen recalled that there had been two striking circumstances and that on September 3, the family went to a sporting event at the school where the older brother would play.

At this moment, Johnny asked his mother for permission to go buy some popcorn and went downstairs until a policeman started talking to him. His father asked him to shop quickly and return with the officer, but he did not return and was still in uniform.

Then the boy came back and said “the policeman was very good” and Noreen found the situation unusual and did not forget it.

Paul Bonacci’s involvement in the kidnapping

In 1989 appeared Paul Bonacci, who confessed that years earlier he had been kidnapped by a pedophile ring and was forced to participate in the kidnapping of Gosch.

His testimony rose to prominence after revealing never before revealed physical details about the minor.

But In 1990, the trial was dismissed for lack of evidence, there was even talk of a “carefully crafted hoax” to hijack the investigation.

Noreen Gosch’s Book and a Scary Anecdote

In 2000, Noreen Gosch wrote a book called Why Johnny Can’t Go Home, where she shared all of her research. This includes an event in 1997 where the mother claims to have shared with her son, now 27, who arrived at the door of her house with a stranger.

“We talked for an hour to an hour and a half. I was with another man, but I have no idea who this person was. Johnny was looking at the other person for permission to speak. He didn’t say where he lived or where he was going. “ commented the mother, who assured that it was her son, but she never saw him again.

Family harassment and a scary photo that was disproved

On the morning of September 1, 2006, Noreen went mad when, at the door of her house, she found three photos in an envelope, one in color, that someone had left her.

The footage showed three boys, aged around 12 or 13, tied up and gagged on a bed. One looked too much like Johnny. The teenager wore the same pants as his son that day.

“Why are they doing this?”Noreen wondered. According to her, investigators told her that the photos were genuine and that they were taken at the time of the kidnapping. It coincided with what Noreen had always thought: her son had been kidnapped by pedophiles.

The detective Nelson Zalva, who worked in the state of Florida, said the photos came from a case he had investigated in Canada before Johnny’s disappearance, between 1978 and 1979.

The end of Johnny’s parents’ relationship

Noreen and John Senior separated in 1993 after the anguish and pain they had lived with for years. Johnny’s father has been lightly suspected by some without evidence of any kind.

The latest tests

The latest news in the case was when Noreen received two alleged photographs of her son in his apartment in 2006.

Although Florida police said these were child prostitution cases and did not match Johnny Gosch, the mother insists it’s him.

Since then, nothing is known about this case and, to this day, they have not heard from the newspaper delivery man for almost 40 years.