IA - Johnny Gosch, 12, W Des Moines, 5 Sept 1982 - What happened? - #4

[mselle70]

I'm pretty surprised, with the plethora of information now out there, that there are still so many naysayers. Still so many that want to discount Noreen so much.

As human trafficking is getting more attention, it is high time to take the blinders off. It is hard for me to believe these things happen - but they do. Just because they are so crazy as to confuse a normal mind doesn't mean they didn't happen.

I "lived" through this case. I was the same age as Johnny in this town when it happened. I remember, as a child anyway, the insanity. Then Eugene a couple years later. And another boy a couple years later. It changed our outlook on life, as children. I remember how so many perceived Noreen as a nutcase, who'd gone overly emotional due to the loss of her child. It was played out that way in the media. That was what my young mind believed, too - because it WAS portrayed that way.

Let's fast forward. Human trafficking is coming to light. We're hearing more and more of it now. Stop and think - if it is just now coming to our awareness, just HOW LONG has it really been going on? It is estimated, conservatively, that half a percent of the US population are pedophiles. That's 16 MILLION people. A conservative estimate. Do you think those 16 million people are only the downtrodden? No. Some are in high positions. With money, with power. With the ability to buy what they want. The evil that comes with money and power should never be underestimated.

[U2forever]

mselle70

WELCOME TO WEBSLEUTHS!!



We are glad your are here

[Cappuccino]

I'm pretty surprised, with the plethora of information now out there, that there are still so many naysayers. Still so many that want to discount Noreen so much.

As human trafficking is getting more attention, it is high time to take the blinders off. It is hard for me to believe these things happen - but they do. Just because they are so crazy as to confuse a normal mind doesn't mean they didn't happen.

I "lived" through this case. I was the same age as Johnny in this town when it happened. I remember, as a child anyway, the insanity. Then Eugene a couple years later. And another boy a couple years later. It changed our outlook on life, as children. I remember how so many perceived Noreen as a nutcase, who'd gone overly emotional due to the loss of her child. It was played out that way in the media. That was what my young mind believed, too - because it WAS portrayed that way.

Let's fast forward. Human trafficking is coming to light. We're hearing more and more of it now. Stop and think - if it is just now coming to our awareness, just HOW LONG has it really been going on? It is estimated, conservatively, that half a percent of the US population are pedophiles. That's 16 MILLION people. A conservative estimate. Do you think those 16 million people are only the downtrodden? No. Some are in high positions. With money, with power. With the ability to buy what they want. The evil that comes with money and power should never be underestimated.

Welcome to the forum.

I hate to start out by disagreeing with you, but I have to - human trafficking does not consist of snatching paper boys from the Mid West whose parents will be out looking for them within hours. Human trafficking is exploitation of people from poorer countries who are desperate to get into the rich, first world countries looking for a better life, or exploitation of children who are either runaways or throwaways. This isn't a human trafficking case, its a kidnapping and almost certainly a murder case similar to that of Jacob Wetterling.

Given the disappearances of Eugene Martin and Marc Allen in the same area around the same time it wouldn't surprise me if there was a serial killer in Iowa who has gone undetected and is responsible for all three disappearances.

[gitana1]

Welcome to the forum.

I hate to start out by disagreeing with you, but I have to - human trafficking does not consist of snatching paper boys from the Mid West whose parents will be out looking for them within hours. Human trafficking is exploitation of people from poorer countries who are desperate to get into the rich, first world countries looking for a better life, or exploitation of children who are either runaways or throwaways. This isn't a human trafficking case, its a kidnapping and almost certainly a murder case similar to that of Jacob Wetterling.

Given the disappearances of Eugene Martin and Marc Allen in the same area around the same time it wouldn't surprise me if there was a serial killer in Iowa who has gone undetected and is responsible for all three disappearances.

Yeah. If there were some kind of "white slavery" ring targeting middle class kids from middle class neighborhoods, US presidents would be screaming about it and human trafficking legislation would be much more a part of our political debates than it is now.

There have been a few cases where teenagers from good, working class families have been snatched and forced to prostitute themselves. But the vast majority are runaways/kids into drugs from dysfunctional families, adult prostitutes, and/or immigrants who are taken advantage of or victimized as well as slaves form foreign countries who are brought here when the families that enslave them immigrate.

The shadowy network that Johnny's mother describes, of pedophilic traffickers that trade in young boys and girls for sex and who allow those kids to emerge and show up on their families doorsteps once in awhile once they're grown, only to disappear moments later back into the sex slave world they're supposedly part of, is the stuff of fantasy and delusion. IMO.

There has been no credible evidence substantiating what Johnny's poor mother has described.

[PastTense]

Johnny Gosch was a boy many Iowans grew up with but never met.

It's been 35 years since the 12-year-old was kidnapped while delivering The Des Moines Sunday Register near his West Des Moines home.

In 1982, when an American child disappeared, authorities tended to respond cautiously, frustrating relatives. The Gosch case was one of several in that period that experts say transformed the pattern and improved the likelihood of children being returned.

Gosch's face was plastered on Anderson Erickson milk cartons — an early example of increased visibility of such abductions that also imprinted Gosch's story in the minds of a generation.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...ses/595639001/

[Gardener1850]

Finding Johnny Gosch: Missing child investigation continues 35 years later

DES MOINES, Iowa — Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of the disappearance of West Des Moines paperboy Johnny Gosch.
Gosch, who was 12 at the time he disappeared, would be 47 years old today.

A generation later, there are still no answers about what happened that morning on his paper route.

“Thirty-five years, it's just a little bit over half my life (and) half of John and Noreen's life that they have been looking for their son,” said Ron Sampson, a friend of the Gosch family.

http://www.kcci.com/article/35-years...-case/12172643

[Rallibella]

Stopping in to mention that the podcast Beyond The Darkness hosts a True Crime Tuesday series and they reposted an episode done on Johnny.

[watcher9]

From July 2017 article.

The little red wooden wagon that Johnny used to carry those newspapers hasn’t been seen since that Sunday morning he disappeared in 1982, but now Des Moines Realtor Ron Sampson will put it on display at the Iowa State Fair.

http://www.kcci.com/article/johnny-g...-fair/10332620

[defender123]

Thank you so much for speaking out about a truth nobody wants to look at. I have a lot of respect for Noreen. And I always will.