- Born
- Birth nameJohn David Gosch
- Johnny Gosch was born on November 12, 1969 in West Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
- 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 and Ted Gunderson, a retired chief of the Los Angeles FBI branch.
- 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.
- Authorities were unable to prove a connection between the two cases, yet Noreen Gosch claims that she was personally informed of the abduction a few months in advance by a private investigator who was searching for her son. She was told the kidnapping "would take place the second weekend in August 1984 and it would be a paperboy from the southside of Des Moines.".
- In 1984, Gosch's photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela 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. Estevez would later escape from her abductors in 1986.
- A few months after his September 1982 disappearance, Noreen Gosch has said her son was spotted in Oklahoma, when a boy yelled to a woman for help before being dragged off by two men.
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