Hoax Worry in Photo of Child Missing Since 1982 (Johnny Gosch)

[Catherine Vincent]

Hoax Worry In Photo Of Child Missing Since '82

POSTED: 12:10 pm CDT September 13, 2006
UPDATED: 12:41 pm CDT September 13, 2006

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- West Des Moines police said that if two photos of boys tied up and gagged are not of Johnny Gosch, then someone is playing a "horrible prank'' on his mother. Gosch was 12 when he disappeared in 1982 from his West Des Moines neighborhood while delivering the Sunday newspaper.

Police are investigating a lead out of Florida that the pictures recently delivered to his mother's front door date back to the 1970s. A retired investigator from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa said the photos of boys tied up and gagged are not Gosch.

The sheriff's office is now going through every roll of microfilm in its archives to find the police report, which has the photos attached. West Des Moines police Lt. Jeff Miller said the investigation is continuing to look into who dropped the photos off at Noreen Gosch's house. KCCI-TV put in a call to her and hopes to hear from her later Wednesday.

Nelson Zalva, a retired police detective in Tampa, Fla., who now works for the Florida state attorney, told KCCI-TV that he believes these are pictures from a case he worked on in the late 1970s, several years before Gosch disappeared. He said at the time, police tracked down and identified all three boys and the man who took the pictures.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/9840293/detail.html

[myrna minx]

1. How on earth could someone pull a hoax on that poor woman.

My heart breaks for her. :cry:

[flyarm]

2. and yet today the st pete times ran the story about the pictures..

what is going on??

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/13/Worldandnation/Photos_revive_missing.shtml


St.Pete Times
Photos revive missing case
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 13, 2006

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - More than two decades after 12-year-old Johnny Gosch disappeared while on his newspaper route and became one of the first missing children to be put on a milk carton, a potential new clue to his fate was dropped on his mother's doorstep.

Inside an unmarked package more than two weeks ago were two photographs that Noreen Gosch says show her son bound and gagged.

"When I saw them I could barely breathe," she said.

One black-and-white shot shows Johnny on a bed, wearing the same sweat pants he had on when he vanished, the boy's mother says. She says the other photo, this one color, shows him in a similar pose with two unidentified boys who are also bound and gagged.

Investigators with Iowa's Department of Criminal Investigation said they are analyzing the photos, trying to determine their authenticity, where they might have come from and whether there are any fingerprints or DNA that can be lifted from them.

John Quinn, agent in charge of the case, said, "They don't appear to be doctored. It's the source of the photographs that we're looking at. Are they connected to any other cases? And is it Johnny Gosch in the photos?"


fly

[gully]

3. His mother says he was wearing the same clothing he was kidnapped in.

Sorry, I put her id over that of the sheriff.

Sorry to post this but here is the picture in question:

http://www.nbc5.com/image/9778099/detail.html

August 27, 2006

On my birthday... I received a package with the following pictures inside. The first photo is of my son Johnny, shortly after he was kidnapped on Sept. 5th, 1982. He was still wearing the clothing he had on the day he was taken. He is bound and gagged. The second photo is three boys all bound gagged... the boy on the far right is my son, Johnny. We do not have the identity of the other two boys. We are currently working with the police and the National Center for Missing Children in hopes of learning the identity of the other two boys. There are two families who would probably like to have news of their children. If anyone viewing the second photo knows who these boys are, please contact me.

[mnmoderatedem]

4. Point of interest:

If he had not been abducted, Johnny Gosch would have gone to my high school. I'm from W Des Moines. His older brother went to my high school. And I remember vividly when his abduction first happened.

Such a tragic story.

[Howardx]

5. "who now works for the Florida state attorney"

hmmmmmmmmmmm