- Over the years, several private investigators have assisted the Gosches with the search for their son. Among them are Jim Rothstein, a retired New York City police detective and Ted Gunderson, a retired chief of the Los Angeles FBI branch.
- Initially, the police came to believe that Gosch was a runaway, but later they changed their statement and suggested that Gosch was kidnapped, but they were unable to establish a viable motive. They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.
- Authorities were unable to prove a connection between the two cases, yet Noreen Gosch claims that she was personally informed of the abduction a few months in advance by a private investigator who was searching for her son. She was told the kidnapping "would take place the second weekend in August 1984 and it would be a paperboy from the southside of Des Moines.".
- In 1984, Gosch's photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela Estevez on milk cartons across America; they were the second and third abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way. The first was Etan Patz. Estevez would later escape from her abductors in 1986.
- A few months after his September 1982 disappearance, Noreen Gosch has said her son was spotted in Oklahoma, when a boy yelled to a woman for help before being dragged off by two men.
- In 1989, 21-year-old Paul A. Bonacci told his attorney John DeCamp that he had been abducted into a sex ring with Gosch as a teenager and was forced to participate in Gosch's kidnapping.
- Gosch self-published a book in 2000 titled Why Johnny Can't Come Home. The book presents her understanding of what her son went through, based on the original research of various private investigators and her son's visit.
- On August 12, 1984, Eugene Martin, another Des Moines-area paperboy, disappeared under similar circumstances.[18] He disappeared while delivering newspapers on the south side of Des Moines.
- In a 2005 interview, Gosch said, "The night that he came here, he was wearing jeans and a shirt and had a coat on because it was March. It was cold and his hair was long; it was shoulder-length and it was straight and dyed black." After the visit, she had the FBI create a picture she says looked like Johnny.
- Son of John Gosch Sr. and Noreen Gosch.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content