What Happened to this Iowa Paperboy Who Went Missing in 1982?

On a seemingly normal September morning, Johnny Gosch woke up at 5 am to deliver the Sunday Des Moines Register newspaper to its eagerly awaiting customers.

Johnny took his faithful dog along with him and began slinging the papers from his red wagon onto each doorstep within the neighborhood, and again, everything seemed perfectly normal until it wasn't...

Witnesses reported a blue Ford Fairmont approaching Johnny but no one saw him taken willingly or unwillingly into the vehicle.

What happened to this twelve-year-old paperboy from Iowa and was there a larger plot at work here?

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When Johnny's parents (Noreen and John Sr.) realized he was missing, they immediately contacted the West Des Moines Police. A search party was formed later that afternoon, but sadly, no trace of Johnny was found.

In fact, no trace of Johnny has ever been found.

A few years later, another paperboy from the Des Moines Metro went missing. 13-year-old Eugene Martin has also never been found. He and Johnny became one of the first kids ever to be featured on the back of Milk Cartons during the '80s.

Fast forward all the way to the year 1997 and Noreen Gosch claimed that one night, out of the blue, a 27-year-old Johnny Gosch knocked on her door.

Noreen recounted that Johnny was with another individual who did not reveal his identity but seemed to be Johnny's friend.

According to Noreen, Johnny stayed for around 90 minutes but didn't reveal much, only letting her know that he was okay. Some, including Johnny's father, who had divorced Noreen years before, disputed that this meeting took place, yet Noreen maintains that it did.

Back in 2000, Noreen also wrote a book, "Why Johnny Can't Come Home", which details the aftermath of when her son went missing and why she believes he'll never come home.

In 2014 a documentary titled "Who Took Johnny" was also released, diving into the case further. You can find it on multiple streaming platforms.

To watch a recent, in-depth look at the Johnny Gosch case, 40 years later, check out the video below from KCCI.

Story Source: IMDB, Amazon, Wikipedia