John David Gosch: A Story of Survival

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5 , 1982 , Johnny Gosch woke up before sunrise and left the house with his dachshund, Gretchen, to deliver newspapers in West Des Moines, Iowa. According to Iowa Cold Cases, his father usually went with him, but John David Gosch had decided to stay home that fateful Sunday morning. 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. In 1982 , Johnny Gosch disappeared and the Gosch family found themselves living a parents ’ worst nightmare . And 40 years later, they’re still hoping for answers. John Walsh , the host of America’s Most Wanted whose son was abducted and murdered in 1981, met multiple times with the Gosches. Walsh, the Gosches, and parents of other missing children together started the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 1984. In the early hours of September 5 , 1982 , the quiet suburb of West Des Moines, Iowa, was shattered by the disappearance of 12-year-old paperboy Johnny Gosch. What started as a routine day for young Johnny, delivering newspapers with his trusty red wagon, soon turned into one of the most chilling cases of a missing child in American history. DES MOINES, Iowa — On Sept . 5 , 1982 , Johnny Gosch, 12, was kidnapped while delivering the local Sunday newspaper. Johnny’s father, John Gosch, Sr., would generally accompany him on his route. John David Gosch, a 12-year-old boy, disappeared on September 5 , 1982 , while on his paper route in West Des Moines, Iowa. His mysterious disappearance has captivated the nation and sparked numerous theories and speculation about what may have happened to him. Johnny would become a tragic abstraction , a face on a milk carton, a story that warned other kids away from paper routes and changed the way police handled missing-children cases. His disappearance was a near carbon copy of that of 12-year-old Johnny Gosch, who set out with his dog and his red wagon Sept. 5 , 1982, to deliver the Sunday newspaper near his suburban West Des.