The Disappearance of Johnny Gosch

In the early morning of September 5th, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch set out for his morning paper route in West Des Moines, Iowa. Typically, Johnny’s father woke up early to help him, but Johnny had been begging his parents to let him complete the route on his own. His parents told him no, however that Sunday morning, he didn’t wake up his father and left to collect his newspapers.

Other paperboys saw Johnny speaking to a man in a car and then continuing on his way. Later that morning, neighbors began calling Johnny’s parents to ask why their paper hadn’t been delivered. Johnny’s dad went to look for his son and found his abandoned wagon and his little dog that he’d taken with him. Johnny was nowhere to be found.

39-years-later, there still has not been a proper investigation into his disappearance and he has never been located. Was Johnny simply a runaway or was he abducted and forced into the world of child trafficking.

Who was johnny?

John “Johnny” David Gosch was born on November 12, 1969 to Noreen and John Gosch in Des Moines, Iowa. This wasn’t Noreen’s first marriage. She married her first husband when she was young and living in eastern Iowa. They had two children, but her husband soon became sick with cancer. One day, the family was hit with a tornado that destroyed everything. Noreen remembered searching for her children, before she finally found them both laying face down in gravel and glass. She thought they were dead. Then rain started to pour down and, as soon as the water hit them, they both started screaming. Two months later, her husband passed away. Noreen was left to raise her children alone.

Several years later, one of Noreen’s friends told her that it was time for her to get out and start meeting people again. John Gosch Sr. remembered that he met Noreen through a friend that he’d been in the Marine Corp with. The two hit it off and eventually got married. Shortly after, Noreen gave birth to Johnny. Johnny was like many 12-years-old. He loved playing with friends outside, playing drums, go-kart racing, and building snow forts with his best friend. His dad said that his son was very thoughtful and loved taking the time to pick out the perfect present for people. Johnny was adventurous and had his sights set on buying a yellow Yamaha dirt bike. He decided to get a job delivering morning newspapers. It wasn’t long before he’d saved up enough money to finally purchase the bike he wanted. He spent much of his free time riding his dirt bike with his step-brother in nearby fields. Even after purchasing his bike, Johnny continued with his paper route, bringing his red wagon and little dog, Gretchen along with him in the morning.

The Day of the Disappearance

On Sunday, September 5, 1982, John Gosch started getting calls at the family’s west Des Moine home from neighbors, saying that they were concerned because Johnny hadn’t delivered their morning newspaper yet. This was very unlike his son. John got in his car and drove down the street to a nearby corner, where he saw Johnny’s red wagon. It read “Gosch” on the side of it, so he knew it belonged to his son. There were still papers in the wagon and Gretchen, his dog, was still there. Johnny was nowhere to be found. He drove back home and called the police. It was 45 minutes before the police arrived at the Gosch home, from their department that was only 10 blocks away. Their first question was whether Johnny had ever run away before. His parents were stunned at the question and quickly answered no.

What We Think We Know

Around 5:45AM, a neighbor heard a wagon being pulled through his yard. It was typical for Johnny to cut through his yard to get to the street where he picked up his papers. Normally, Johnny’s father woke up on weekend mornings and went with him on his deliveries. Today was the only day that Johnny hadn’t woken John up. Noreen said that it was up to Johnny to wake up his father, and today was the first day that he didn’t. She also said that Johnny had been asking for a while to do the paper route on his own, but his parents refused.

A nearby neighbor, John Rossi remembered seeing Johnny with his wagon and Gretchen, along with two or three other paper carriers collecting their newspapers at a street corner around 6AM. He saw a car pull up and the man inside appeared to be talking to Johnny. (It’s unclear, but I believe Rossi was out on the sidewalk. I’m not sure if he just happened to walk by or what.) Johnny then turned to (either Rossi or another kid) and asked them to come over and help this guy. As soon as he said that, the car made a quick U-turn and drove off. One witness said that Johnny told him that there was something wrong with that guy and that he was scared. The consensus among the paper carriers was that it seemed that the man had asked Johnny for directions before driving off. Mike, another paperboy said that as he picked up his papers, he saw the car stop, and back up to where Johnny was walking. He saw Johnny speak briefly to the driver before it left. Johnny continued on to pick up his papers and load them in his wagon.

As Johnny went on his way down the sidewalk, Mike said that he saw a tall man come out from between two houses and start to follow Johnny. It didn’t appear that Johnny noticed this man. The next two witnesses to see Johnny were two other paperboys. They were walking on the sidewalk across the street and greeted Johnny when they saw him. Johnny spoke back to them and they all continued on.

In a nearby home, young PJ Smith heard a car door close, which woke him up. He looked outside and saw a silver and black Ford Fairmont start up from where Johnny was last seen. They rolled through a stop sign and made a left turn. A red wagon was still sitting on the sidewalk. The other two paperboys who’d walked past Johnny earlier, walked back and saw the wagon unattended, with newspapers in, but no Johnny. The later consensus was that the car was a two-door, blue two-toned Ford Fairmont.

The “Investigation”

The West Des Moines Police Department did not believe that Johnny had been abducted. They felt it was HIGHLY unlikely that someone would take a 12-year-old boy from a neighborhood street in the early morning. It seemed that the police, including their Chief, Orval Cooney, were certain that Johnny had run away. They didn’t issue an Amber Alert, nor did they start a proper investigation. There was a law in Iowa that they had to wait 72 hours before reporting a missing child. 72 FUCKING HOURS. They said they didn’t need the FBI there because they didn’t really have a crime.

Four days after their son’s disappearance, the Gosches were able to organize a search party. John said that as he was driving, he saw an officer sitting on the side of the road, tracking drivers with a radar gun. He told him to put that away and go find his son. At one point, police chief Cooney said, in front of the gathered search group, that there was no crime here, that Johnny was a runaway. The searchers were confused as to why the parents were saying that Johnny was abducted, but police denied this. The Gosches reached out to a psychic who told them that their son was dead, and that his body would be found within two miles of their home near a creek. The searchers scoured the surrounding areas and creeks, but found nothing.

Police Chief Cooney continued to deny that there was any crime that had been committed, despite Noreen’s persistence and the information from the witnesses. In a news article, he was quoted as saying that he didn’t give a damn about what Noreen Gosch had to say. While Cooney continued to whine, Johnny was still missing and they were no closer to finding him. A composite sketch of the man that had been seen in the vehicle was released to the public (I’m unsure if this composite sketch was made by the police department or if the Gosches hired someone…but regardless, it was released!) Along with the sketch, a description of the man was released reading “5’9”, 175 lbs, dark eyes, black eyebrows, older, early to mid 40’s, black hair, combed back, full in back, black mustache, heavy beard or unshaven appearance, Latin appearance. This man may be driving a two tone blue car, real dark top and light blue bottom-mid size-79 to 81 model-clean inside and outside-no vinyl top-plush interior-Iowa plate.”

Well, Nothing Really Happens

Unfortunately, time continued to pass with absolutely no developments in Johnny’s case. However, complaints began to surface about police chief Cooney. A total of 18 officers made complaints about him. The complaints involved doing police work after consuming alcohol, fixing tickets for friends and family, racism, and interfering with a department investigation involving his son. Six months later, Cooney resigned.

Despite no movement in her son’s case, Noreen did not back down. She was constantly doing TV and newspaper interviews. She had flyers and buttons and signs and was not quiet about her search for her son. The Gosches had received hundreds of phone calls and letters from families across the country who also had missing children. These parents expressed their sympathy for what the Gosches were going through, as well as their frustration with the police. They were also contacted by a man named Ken Wooden. Wooden was a child safety expert and specialized in the sexual exploitation of children. At the time, the term “pedophile” was not a well-known term. In fact, Noreen had never heard the word before. (I couldn’t find exactly what Ken said to the Gosches, but I think he told them he suspected that Johnny had been abducted by a pedophile). This was shocking and upsetting for Johnny’s parents to hear.

More Abductions

On August 14, 1984, two years after Johnny’s disappearance, 13-year-old Eugene Martin disappeared while delivering papers early one morning in nearby Des Moines. Witnesses reported seeing him talk to a clean-cut, Cuascasian male in his 30’s sometimes between 5AM and 6:05AM. Between 6:10 and 6:15AM, Eugene’s newspaper bag was found on the ground with several newspapers still inside. Police never identified any leads, evidence, or suspects, and Eugene has never been found. Strangely enough, police from both Des Moines and West Des Moines said they couldn’t connect the two disappearances. Despite the similarities in age, race, sex, day and time, conditions, and situation…

In September of 1984, a local dairy company came up with the idea of putting Johnny and Eugene’s photos on the side of their milk cartons to help spread awareness of their cases. 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 same year, the “Johnny Gosch Bill” was passed by the Iowa legislature. This bill required law enforcement to immediately investigate missing children cases where foul play was suspected. Despite these successes for future missing child cases, the Gosches still had no leads on their own missing son.

In 1986, 14-year-old Marc James Warren Allen disappeared in Des Moines. He told his mother that he was walking to a nearby friend’s home. He asked his mother to save him some pizza, that he’d be hungry when he got home. He never returned. Police (of course) assumed he was a runaway. His case is still unsolved and is now classified as a non-family abduction. Law enforcement continued to deny any connection between Johnny, Eugene and Marc’s disappearances. Noreen publicly said that she felt the three cases were connected, possibly victims of a human trafficking ring.

Add Your Heading Text Here

In 1985, the Gosches received a phone call around 9PM one evening. The caller told John that she’d received a dollar bill in change from a grocery store in Sioux Falls, Iowa that had their son’s name on it. John asked her to send it to him. Written on the front of the dollar bill were the words:

“i am alive johnny gosch”

Noreen and John felt confident that this was their son’s handwriting, however nothing ever came from the dollar bill.

Good Ol’ Paul

In 1991, an inmate named Paul Bonacci (seems to be pronounced buh-nah-see), who was incarcerated at Lincoln Correctional Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, came forward and admitted that he was involved in the kidnapping of Johnny Gosch. BUT WAIT, let’s all hold our horses here. Paul wasn’t a stand-up guy and was certainly a criminal, so what made him come forward now, almost 10 years later? 24-year-old Paul himself was the victim of a child prostitution ring in Omaha, Nebraska beginning when he was six-years-old. Like some victims of sexual abuse, Paul became the bad guy, and was arrested and convicted of sexually abusing three young boys. When he came forward with his confession in late 1991, he had less than a year left on his sentence, which made people question, was he actually telling the truth? He wouldn’t have gained anything for his information. Quite the opposite actually, he may have extended his sentence.

Paul had been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. During his interview with America’s Most Wanted, he was seen putting his head down, attempting to “bring forward” different personalities of his. He would’ve been about 15-years-old when Johnny disappeared. Paul said that his job was to hold Johnny down in the back of the car and put a rag with “stuff” on it over his face. He said that a man grabbed Johnny from behind and put him in the back of the car. Paul held him down and held the cloth over his mouth until Johnny lost consciousness. He remembered that after the abduction was over and Johnny was awake, he told him that if he did what he was told, he’d be okay.

Despite how upsetting it was to hear this information, Noreen said she was thankful for Paul for coming forward and sharing it with her. She joined during the interview so she could hear everything he had to share. He drew her a map of the plan that had been made prior to Johnny’s abduction, which included the streets and the exact spot from where he’d been abducted. Noreen said that it was often publicized at the corner of two streets, when it was just down from the corner. Paul had pointed out the correct spot according to her. He told her that “Emilio,” the mastermind behind the abductions wanted “clean” kids that weren’t involved in child prostitution or drugs. He also said that “Emilio” wanted kids that were close to their families because he liked to hurt people. There was a composite sketch made from Paul’s description and it was similar to the original sketch that had been made of Johnny’s abductor. While Noreen was in the room with Paul, she was very straightforward and asked him if he was telling the truth about what happened to her son. Paul said that he was.

Paul went further into detail, admitting that he was the first one to sexually assault Johnny and that the men in charge filmed it in order to advertise him to buyers. He said they kept Johnny tied up and gagged most of the time. He told Noreen that Johnny talked about meditation, that he’d seen his mom do it before. Noreen said that she’d never told the press or police that Johnny had gone to yoga classes with her, that it wasn’t relevant. She couldn’t see how Paul would know that unless Johnny had told him. Paul described a birthmark on Johnny’s chest that looked like South America. This birthmark had been widely described during the search for Johnny, but Paul was also able to list other marks that weren’t shared with the public: he described a scar on Johnny’s tongue from where he’d bitten through it as a young child, a burn scar on his lower leg from touching a hot tail pipe, and a stammer that he had when he would get upset or nervous. She said that this information was NOT publicized.

America’s Most Wanted shared the unedited film from their interview with the West Des Moines police department. They said that after watching it, Paul said little to prove that he had first hand knowledge of the crime. They wouldn’t go interview him. (It would literally fucking hurt NOTHING to interview him.) Instead, the investigators went to interview Paul’s siblings in Omaha. The siblings placed Paul in Omaha at the time of Johnny’s abduction. This was 10 years after the event. 10 YEARS. (How could they remember that specific day so long ago??) AMW also noted that it was only about 2-2.5 hours from Omaha to Des Moines. Even if the siblings were right about Paul, he would’ve had time to get back home.

During an interview with Inside Edition, Noreen said that felt like Paul shared so much information that would’ve been impossible for him to know unless he’d spent time with Johnny. Among the information that Paul had, he also had many letters that were sent to him from around the country that said they were victims of the alleged sex ring that took Johnny. These letters were sent before Paul had told his attorney about his involvement. Some of the letters even referred to Emilio by name and referred to another child as “JG”. Paul said that he believed that Johnny was still alive.

Lieutenant Kyle McKinney of West Des Moines PD said that they might interview Paul in the future, when the time was right and when they were ready to do it. More and more people began to believe that the investigation was being covered up by the police department. Others believed that Paul was a con-man, but the question remained, what would Paul have gained??? NOTHING. I mean, he may just be crazy.

Around the 10-year anniversary of Johnny’s disappearance, America’s Most Wanted featured his story. (My main man) John Walsh questioned why more wasn’t being done in the investigation. Police continued to say that the information wasn’t valid and the witnesses weren’t credible. Paul said the men in charge would take pictures of the children and force them to do things, eventually using this to blackmail them so they wouldn’t leave or to drive them so crazy that they forgot who they were. Paul said that he had actually seen Johnny again in 1986 while on a trip to Colorado. Johnny had been purchased by a man that was known as “The Colonel”. He said that Johnny must’ve tried to run away at some point because they’d branded him, a mark with an X and curved line underneath. This was talked about on the AMW episode. Soon after, people began calling, saying that they also had the brands and confirmed many of Paul’s stories. Paul also described a house in Colorado where many children had been kept. He said there was an underground chamber in the back, behind a grate. AMW went with Paul to the house he described and THERE IT WAS. Paul was clearly emotional as he walked towards the house. Behind a grate at the back of the house, there was a large dirt hole that led to a dirt-wall basement area. There were wood beams with kids’ initials carved into them. Paul said that this is where they’d hold the kids and put them when police came by. One of the men who assisted in AMW’s interviews with Paul said that there were some things that were true, some that weren’t, but all that mattered was what they could prove in court, which wasn’t much of anything. He said that if AMW couldn’t solve this case with their vast resources and networks, no one could. The West Des Moines PD never interviewed Paul Bonacci.

Franklin Credit Union

In 1988, allegations began coming forward against a man named Lawrence E. King. King ran the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Omaha. Among many other things, the allegations included child abuse, sexual abuse, and child trafficking. Paul was a witness who backed up allegations of child sex abuse against some of Omaha’s most influential citizens. Paul said that he was kept around to see everything that went on because he did what they asked him. He wasn’t worth anything to them because he was “used,” but he helped them, so they kept him around.

Paul said that there were two types of children in this child ring: the throwaway kids, like him, who were homeless or had been abused in the past, then the kids who were clean and from good homes. A grand jury investigated these claims, but ultimately determined they were baseless and called them a “carefully crafted hoax.” The charges were dropped and the allegations from Paul were credited to his multiple personality disorder and he was charged with perjury. Those charges were also dropped.

King ended up serving a 15 year sentence for commiting multi-million dollar fraud in his company. However, the allegations of abuse didn’t stop, but the FBI was no longer investigating them and, during an interview on the “Who Took Johnny,” they refused to answer questions about Johnny Gosch. Paul eventually filed a civil suit against King, accusing him of multiple sexual assaults, holding him prisoner, and forcing Paul to “scavenge” for other children. King didn’t appear in court. The judge ruled in Paul’s favor and was awarded $1 million, which was never paid to him.

the visit and the photos

The strain of Johnny’s disappearance eventually led to Noreen and John divorcing in 1993. During Paul’s trial against King, Noreen was questioned in court. She was asked if she had ever seen or talked to her son during the years he’d been missing. She refused to answer, until the judge told her she either had to answer or would be found in contempt of court. She told them that she’d seen him once. In 1997, Noreen had moved and was awakened by a knock at her door around 2:30AM. When she opened the door, she found two men standing there. She said that she immediately knew that one of the men was her son. She recognized his eyes. The man reportedly opened his shirt to show her the birthmark he had on his chest. Johnny was 27-years-old and said he couldn’t disclose where he’d been or was living, that he was still in danger, and he’d be killed if they knew he was there. He told her a small bit about the children being trafficked across the country, but wouldn’t give any details.The man who was with him stood back and didn’t speak. She said that Johnny seemed to look over to him for approval before speaking. They stayed for over an hour before leaving. Noreen was sure that the man was Johnny.

In 2006, Noreen received an unmarked package that contained dozens of photos of, who she claimed, was Johnny. The photos showed a young boy bound and gagged and other photos showed three boys, also bound and gagged. Noreen was sure that the boy in the solo photos was Johnny. She tracked the photos to a child pornography web site that was quickly shut down. She points out a dark area in the photo that she thinks is Johnny’s birthmark. Glenn Miller from the NCMEC said the photos weren’t good for a serious facial connection because of the quality. Officials in Florida were able to 100% identify the three tied up boys in some of the photos. The perpetrator of those photos had already been dealt with. The investigator of that case said that he did not recognize the solo photos of the young boy that Noreen said was her son. He could not recall having ever identified that child. That boy in the photos has still never been identified.

Noreen continues to fight to have her son’s story heard. There are many people, especially in the Des Moines area that think she’s lost touch with reality. Some believe that no two men ever came to her door that night, but that she truly believes she saw her son. Unfortunately, no one can corroborate it. John Gosch said that he’s not sure the visit ever happened. Noreen has remarried to a man named George Hartney and teaches yoga for stress management. During an interview for the documentary, he’s asked what he loves about Noreen. He answers, her willpower, and becomes emotional before saying, “It’s just not the easiest thing in the world being Noreen Gosch.” She is very active in the community of adults with missing children. She often goes to visit and help them through the process. Johnny Gosch has never been located and investigators have not released any new information about his disappearance. Johnny would be 52-years-old now.