Unexplained Book 1: 16 Baffling Unsolved Mysteries by Robert Keller

Author:Robert Keller [Keller, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2021-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Yesterday’s News

Just before 5:45 a.m. on the morning of September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch snuck quietly out of his house in the suburb of West Des Moines, Iowa. Johnny had a paper route, delivering the Sunday edition of the Des Moines Register. Usually, he’d wake his dad, John Sr., who always insisted on accompanying him on his rounds, but today Johnny had decided to let his father sleep in. His companion would be the family’s miniature Dachshund, Gretchen.

Pulling his red wagon and with a canvas bag slung over his shoulder, Johnny arrived at the delivery van at around 6:00 a.m. He and another paperboy then began folding newspapers and stuffing them into their delivery bags. While they were doing so, a motorist stopped and asked for directions. A short while later, the boys set off, walking in opposite directions to make their deliveries. After making his first drop, the other boy looked back along the street and saw Johnny talking to a man. Was this the motorist they’d spoken to earlier? The boy couldn’t be sure. The early morning half-light hindered his vision. In any case, neither Johnny nor his dog seemed distressed. The conversation appeared entirely cordial. Satisfied that nothing was amiss, the boy headed towards his next drop.

About a half-hour later, at the Gosch residence, John Sr. was awakened by a ringing phone. It was one of Johnny’s customers, complaining that his paper hadn’t been delivered. Concerned, John, Sr. went looking for his son and soon found Johnny’s wagon, still full of papers, abandoned on the sidewalk. Gretchen, meanwhile, had made her own way home. She was waiting at the door when John Sr. got back to the house. He was hoping to find his son there, hoping that there was some logical reason why Johnny had abandoned his deliveries. But Johnny hadn’t come home. At around 8:30 a.m., Noreen Gosch, Johnny’s mom, called the police.

But the response from law enforcement was hardly what the distressed parents were expecting. For starters, it took 45 minutes for an officer to arrive at their door. Then, they were told that there was a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before they could file a missing person report. The protocol in 1982 was different than it is today. Rather than launching an immediate search, the police wasted valuable time grilling the Gosches about Johnny’s habits and behavior. The gist of their inquiries came down to one thing, “Has your son ever run away before?”

Eventually, by afternoon, 30 officers were brought in to carry out a search, assisted by friends and neighbors of the Gosch family. But when a distraught Noreen suggested bringing in the FBI, the lead investigator was emphatic. That was not going to happen. “We do not consider Johnny to be in danger, until you can prove that he is,” he told the exasperated parents.

In the meantime, a promising lead had come in. A neighbor of the family reported that he’d seen Johnny talking to a stocky man. According to the neighbor, they were standing beside a blue, two-toned Ford Fairmont with Nebraska plates.

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