In March 1997, Noreen Gosch awoke to a knock on the door at 2:30 a.m.

In March 1997, Noreen Gosch awoke to a knock on the door at 2:30 a.m. and opened it to find her son Johnny — who had vanished at age 12 while delivering newspapers 15 years earlier.

Beside him was a strange man who stood there as Johnny explained that he'd been forced into a sex trafficking ring after he was abducted, but told his mother not to call the police. With that, he quickly vanished once more, and Noreen never saw him again. Investigators and even Johnny's father doubt Noreen's story, but she wasn't the only one who'd claimed to see the boy over the years.

In the months and years that followed Johnny Gosch's 1982 disappearance from his Iowa neighborhood, people across the country reported eerie sightings of the young boy. A woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma insisted that Johnny had approached her in public and cried, "Please, lady, help me! My name is John David Gosch," before two men dragged him away. Another woman said she received a dollar bill as change with Johnny's signature and the words "I am alive" written on the front.

John David Gosch (November 12, 1969 – disappeared September 5, 1982) was a paperboy in West Des Moines, Iowa, who disappeared between 6 and 7 a.m. on September 5, 1982. He is presumed to have been kidnapped. As of 2023, there have been no arrests made and the case is now considered cold, but remains open.

His mother, Noreen Gosch, said that Johnny escaped from his captors and visited her with an unidentified man in 1997. She said that her son told her that he had been the victim of a pedophile organization and had been cast aside when he was too old but subsequently feared for his life and lived under an assumed identity, feeling it was not safe to return home. Gosch's father, John, divorced from Noreen since 1993, has publicly stated that he is not sure whether or not such a visit actually occurred. Many have also speculated that the visit did occur, but it was someone else pretending to be Johnny.

 Authorities have not located Gosch or confirmed Noreen Gosch's account, and his fate continues to be the subject of speculation, conspiracy theories, and dispute.

The case received renewed publicity in 2006 when his mother said she had found photographs on her doorstep depicting Gosch in captivity. Some of the photos received were said to be children from a case in Florida, but one boy in the photos was never identified. Noreen Gosch insists that boy is Johnny.

Gosch's picture was among the first to be featured on milk cartons as part of a campaign to find missing children.

On Sunday, September 5, 1982, in the suburb of West Des Moines, Johnny Gosch left home before dawn to begin his paper route.[4][5] Although it was customary for Johnny to awaken his father to help with the route, the boy took only the family's miniature dachshund, Gretchen, with him that morning.[6] 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 Gosch that can be corroborated by multiple witnesses.

Another paperboy named Mike reported that he observed Gosch talking to a stocky man in a blue two-toned car near the paper drop;[7][8] another witness, John Rossi, saw the man in the blue car talking to Gosch and "thought something was strange." Gosch told Rossi that the man was asking for directions and asked Rossi to help.[7] Rossi looked at the license plate, but could not recall the plate number. He said, "I keep hoping I'll wake up in the middle of the night and see that number on the license plate as distinctly as night and day, but that hasn't happened." Rossi underwent hypnosis and told police some of the numbers and that the plate was from Warren County, Iowa.[9] According to a private investigator hired by the Gosches, as Johnny walked a block north, where his route started, a paperboy noticed another man following Gosch.[8] A neighbor heard a door slam, and saw a silver Ford Fairmont speed away northwards from where Johnny's wagon was found.

John and Noreen Gosch, Johnny's parents, began receiving phone calls from customers along their son's route, complaining of undelivered papers.

John performed a cursory search of the neighborhood around 6 a.m. He immediately found Johnny's wagon full of newspapers two blocks from their home.

The Gosches immediately contacted the West Des Moines police department, and reported Johnny's disappearance. Noreen, 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 policy at the time that Gosch could not be classified as a missing person until 72 hours had passed. By her estimation, the police did not arrive to take her report for a full 45 minutes.

Initially, the police came to believe that Gosch was a runaway, but later they changed their statement and suggested that Gosch was kidnapped, but they were unable to establish a viable motive. They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.

A few months after his September 1982 disappearance, Noreen Gosch has said her son was spotted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a boy yelled to a woman for help before being dragged off by two men.

Over the years, several private investigators have assisted the Gosches with the search for their son. Among them are Jim Rothstein, a retired New York City police detective[16] and Ted Gunderson, a retired chief of the Los Angeles FBI branch.

In 1984, Gosch's photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Lee Estevez on milk cartons across America; they were the second and third abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way. The first was Etan Patz.

See the photos and go inside the disturbing full story — by clicking the link in our bio.