Sunday, September 03, 2006

It must be some kind of message: more developments in the Johnny gosch caseMother of boy kidnapped in 1982 finds old photographs someone deposited at her home. Police said Friday that Iowa crime experts were examining photographs to determine if they depict Johnny Gosch, a newspaper carrier who disappeared 24 years ago. Noreen Gosch, Johnny's mother, said she found the photos Sunday at her front door. Johnny Gosch disappeared on Sept. 5, 1982, while delivering newspapers in West Des Moines. Lt. Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the West Des Moines Police Department, said the photos were given to the computer crime task force of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Miller said police have not positively identified the boy in the photographs as Johnny Gosch. He also said it was not immediately known when the photos were taken. "That's one of the reasons we're going to the DCI and let the experts take a look at them," Miller said. Noreen Gosch gave the photos to police on Tuesday. It wasn't clear why she didn't immediately turn over the photos to police. Though police said they have not positively identified the boy in the photo as Johnny Gosch, his mother had no such doubts. She said one photo shows a boy wearing sweat pants like the pants her son wore when he disappeared. In the photo, the youth's mouth is gagged and his hands and feet are bound. Gosch said the other photo shows the same boy with two other boys. All three are bound and gagged. Miller would say only that the photos were of boys whose ages he estimated at between 10 and 14. Finding the photos raises questions and memories, Noreen Gosch told the Associated Press on Thursday. "It's like reliving it," she said. "But the bigger picture is, why are they doing this? "Whoever had these photos had them for 24 years," she said. "I don't understand why they would do this now. It must be some kind of message." Johnny Gosch's disappearance triggered nationwide concern over abducted children. His was one of the first faces of missing or abducted children to appear on milk cartons across the country. His newspaper wagon was discovered near his West Des Moines home. Few clues have been discovered since then, but his disappearance has led to several theories. Noreen Gosch believes her son was taken by child pornographers. She has told authorities her son briefly contacted her in 1997 but feared for his life and declined to give details about where or how he could be contacted.

1 comment:

ptg said...

Very interesting.