A plethora of big things took place in the 80s: the first Mac computer was released, the Berlin Wall fell, and hair….well, hair was just big. But, for the residents of West Des Moines, Iowa, the most impactful part of the 80s was the disappearance of two boys. Their cases would stretch on for decades, changing the way Iowa, and the United States in general, viewed missing children cases forever.

This is the Morbid Midwest. I am your host, Brooke Hass, and I am a huge fan of all things true crime. However, when the stories grow closer and closer to home, they are all the more shocking. I’ll be covering cases in the Quad City area and beyond, from cornfield killers to the missing midwest. Today, I’ll be covering the case of the missing paperboy, Johnny Gosch.

Today’s story is as bizarre and puzzling as it is heartbreaking. What happened to Johnny is something of a mystery, almost as if he disappeared into thin air. While there is much speculation about what really happened to this boy, be it a conspiracy or a random criminal act, I simply cannot wrap my head around any of it. So, hold on tight, because this is going to be one wild rollercoaster.

Today’s story begins in West Des Moines on September 12, 1982. Johnny Gosch, who was 12 at the time, was a delivery boy for the Des Moines Register. Johnny woke up that morning like it was any other delivery day - Johnny left his home in West Des Moines around 5:45 AM with his dog, Gretchen, and his little red wagon to head into town to pick up his stack of the Sunday paper to deliver. Typically his father, John, would go with him on his paper route, but today, Johnny went alone. In the WHO-TV Channel 13 report on Johnny’s case, the anchor says that Johnny went alone because he wanted to “surprise his dad”, but personally, I am not sure what is meant by that. Regardless, I can’t help but hurt for this family knowing that the day Johnny went alone was a day that would change their lives forever.

According to an A&E Real Crime article and an Iowa Cold Cases article, Johnny and a group of other paperboys gathered at a street corner to collect their stack of papers off a street at around 6 AM. Here, the boys sorted out the papers and distributed them amongst themselves. In an interview with WHO-TV, Noreen Gosch, Johnny’s mother, explains what happened around this time. While collecting their papers, the paperboys were approached by a man in a blue Ford Fairmont who stopped to ask for directions, opened the door and stepped out to where the boys were and asked about the location of “86th Street.” Noreen said that one of the other boys, who is referred to as “Mike” told her that Johnny turned to him and said “I’ve got my papers loaded in my wagon. I’m scared. I am getting out of here.”
Allegedly, at this time, the man started his Ford and pulled the door shut, flicking his dome light three times, and drove off.

Now, you can interpret this information however you want. You could see it as a coincidence - a man flicking his light in the early morning dawn, or it could be something else… a signal of sorts. Noreen claims that the driver did this to signal to an accomplice to alert him or her to grab Johnny.

Noreen also said that one of the paperboys saw a tall man step out of the bushes towards Johnny. She hired a sketch artist to draw what the paperboy saw. I’ll post these pictures on our social media so that you can see them for yourselves.

Around 7:30 a.m., a customer on Johnny’s route called his home, asking where his paper was. John quickly became concerned and left home to see if he could find Johnny. Unfortunately, he found only his son’s red wagon, filled with papers, and Gretchen had gone back to her home. About an hour following the phone call, Noreen called the police.

Now, for most of you crime-obsessed people out there, you probably know about the waiting rule. Often some states would have had laws that state that you must wait 24, 48 or 72 hours before reporting someone missing. Nowadays, typically, there is no need to wait for time to pass to report someone missing. In 1982, though, it was very unlikely that children were kidnapped, so when they went missing, they were seen as a runaway or treated as adults. According to the Des Moines Register, there was a law around this time that mandated a 24 to 72-hour wait before reporting someone missing, so this caused a setback in their case.

At approximately 9:15 a.m., 45 minutes after Noreen called the police department, 30 West Des Moines police officers responded to the scene and began searching the area.

Lieutenant Jeff Miller of the WDMPD said that the police department called in reinforcements from the State Police, the reserves, and the Polk County Sheriff's office, and began a door-to-door search of the area surrounding where Johnny disappeared, but the search came up empty. After hitting wall after wall, the case hit a dead end. Police followed up on many leads, but each lead ended up nowhere. After that, the case went cold, until a disturbing message made its way to the Goschs’ home.

In September of 2006, Noreen claimed that she found an envelope on her doorstep. Inside were several photos, all extremely difficult to look at. One of the photos showed three boys on a bed, their hands bound behind their back, their feet tied together, and their mouths gagged. Another showed what appeared to be one of the same boys in the previous picture, hogtied with what looked like bruises on his arms. This boy, to Noreen, strongly resembled her son.

After regaining her composure, Noreen took the photos to the police. According to Noreen, the detective repeated “that’s Johnny. That’s Johnny.”

That’s when the case blew up, spreading across the country to national news outlets and setting the nation on fire with the name of Johnny Gosch. After a few days, the WDMPD held a press conference to alert the public that according to Lieutenant Miller, investigators in Florida called with evidence to support that the photo was involved in a case from the 1970s, and the boy was not Johnny.

After the case started to go cold, Noreen and John sought out to change the ways that missing children cases were reported and investigated in Iowa and beyond. They launched the Johnny Gosch foundation to raise awareness and funds to search for their son and other missing children. She served as a support system to other families whose children disappeared. In June of 1984, Noreen and other families created the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She also assisted with the passing of the 1984 Johnny Gosch Bill, which required a police presence on the scene of a missing child immediately.

According to SGT Mike Giampolo of the West Des Moines Police Department, as of September 2019, Johnny’s case is still considered an active case, and the WDSMPD still receives tips on this crime.

Since then, no one really knows what happened to Johnny. Reddit has its own theories, suggesting underlying conspiracies involving child sex rings, the Des Moines Register, and even other serial killers and abductors. What really happened to Johnny will always be a mystery - of course, until he is found. Whether it was a conspiracy, a random child abduction, or something else, we may never know.

Johnny’s story doesn’t end here, though. Two years later, another paperboy disappeared under hauntingly similar circumstances, launching an even greater investigation into something much larger than two boys disappearing into thin air. But that, my friends, is a story for next time.

Thanks for listening. Join me next time to hear about the disappearance of another Des Moines Register paperboy, Eugene Martin. We’ll explore more of these two cases and some of the theories behind their disappearance. I’m Brooke Hass, and this has been the Morbid Midwest.