Three cases over several years thought to be separate kidnapping cases now turning out to be all part of the same case.
Makes you wonder...just how many stranger abduction cases are related? This of course brings to mind Johnny Gosch and the
vast rabbit hole that is.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305070109&nclick_check=1Cleveland discovery provides hope for Noreen Gosch
Never give up.
Noreen Gosch has lived that mantra every day in the nearly 31 years since her son, Johnny Gosch, disappeared from a street corner in West Des Moines while delivering newspapers early one September morning in 1982.
Gosch never got the dramatic rescue and return moment that played out in Cleveland on Monday, when three women, missing for a decade, were recovered from a home there.
But Gosch, in an interview with The Des Moines Register, said that emotional reunion is proof that parents whose children have disappeared should never give up hope.
“I’m so happy for those families,” Gosch said.
Monday night in Cleveland, Charles Ramsey spotted a slender arm break through the door of his neighbor’s home and heard someone yelling for help. Ramsey eventually broke the woman out of the home.
They went across the street to Ramsey’s house to call police. The woman told dispatchers, “Help me, I am Amanda Berry. … I have been kidnapped and I have been missing for 10 years. … I’m free now.”
Berry, 27, told police she was not alone. A 6-year-old believed to be Berry’s daughter was in the house. Also held against their will, missing for years, were Gina DeJesus, about 23, and Michelle Knight, now 32.
Cleveland police arrested Ariel Castro, 52, a former school bus driver, and two brothers on suspicion of kidnapping.
Gosch's mom thinks sex ring involved
The case echoes the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped at age 11 by serial sex offender Phillip Garrido. He and his wife held Dugard prisoner for 18 years, during which time Dugard had two children by Garrido.
It also recalls the story of Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at 14 from her Salt Lake City bedroom by Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee in June 2002. Smart was recovered nine months later and testified to being threatened, raped and bound by her captors.
For Noreen Gosch, the cases prove something she has been saying for years: There are darker forces in the world than people will let themselves believe.
Gosch has long maintained that rich pedophiles organized a kidnapping ring to snatch young boys nationwide, including her son. The children, she believes, were used as sex slaves.
Police and federal authorities have classified Johnny Gosch’s disappearance as a kidnapping but have never established a motive and have disputed some of Noreen Gosch’s claims.
Noreen Gosch said her assertions are based on years of investigation by private investigators, including a former New York City police detective and a retired Los Angeles FBI bureau chief. She said she worked three jobs to pay for the investigations.
Noreen Gosch said her assertions are based on years of work by private investigators, including a former New York City police detective and a retired Los Angeles FBI bureau chief. She said she worked three jobs to pay for the investigations.
She Gosch said her son visited her at her West Des Moines home in the early-morning hours of March 1997 in the company of another unidentified man. Johnny Gosch would have been 27 at the time.
Noreen Gosch said her son told her he was a victim of a sex ring and was cast aside when he was too old. Noreen Gosch believes her son is living under a new identity and that he does not believe it is safe to return home.
“I’ve been called a lot of names, and I’ve been ridiculed,” Gosch said. “But we see the evidence of human trafficking. We see these men taking women as slaves in our country. The evidence is right in front of us.”
Despite controversy and negative scrutiny, law enforcement officials credit Noreen Gosch with forcing the nation’s law enforcement authorities to treat missing-children cases with higher regard.
Before the Gosch kidnapping, police waited up to 72 hours before considering a child missing.
“The idea was that most kids come home on their own,” said William Moulder, retired Des Moines police chief. “But Noreen Gosch woke us up. That wasn’t good enough. If a kid is hanging out at a friend’s house for a couple days because he’s pissed off at his parents, we should find that out. We should know.”
Added Moulder: “Noreen Gosch did what any mother should do, what any mother has to do in her situation: She kept hope alive.”
Evansdale chief: We follow all leads
The Cleveland case also brings hope that if missing children cannot be returned alive, then at least those who did them harm can be brought to justice.
Family, friends and authorities hoped that Evansdale cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, would be found alive after they disappeared from Meyers Lake in Black Hawk County on July 13, 2012.
But in December, their bodies were found in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Park in Bremer County.
The search for their killers continues.
“We believed they would come home alive until the day we found them,” said Evansdale Police Chief Kent Smock. “We were all heartbroken. But this case is still very much alive. We are following leads every day, both from public tips that have come in and things that we have uncovered.”
Still, cases go cold.
Eugene Martin, another Des Moines Register newspaper carrier, disappeared in August 1984, nearly two years after Gosch vanished. The only evidence found in the case was Martin’s newspaper bag.
Moulder, the retired Des Moines police chief, was certain the case would be solved quickly. Nearly 29 years later, the newspaper bag is the only hard evidence that remains.
“A cop always believes that if he has enough information, he can solve any case,” Moulder said. “We could never get that lead, that piece of information that could break it for us. All we had was a bag on a street corner.”
Moulder said James Rowley, a retired Des Moines police detective, remains haunted by the case. Rowley never gave up hope Martin would be found. “I think if a lead came up, he would come back and work it for free,” Moulder said. “He never made peace with that. I don’t think you can.”
Gosch vows to fight for missing kids
In Cleveland, three families celebrate the return of loved ones absent for so long. The strange, terrifying case rekindles hope for those aching for the return of their children — or at least final resolution about their fate.
Noreen Gosch does not know whether she will ever have that with her son Johnny, but she will keep fighting for better investigations of missing children for the rest of her life.
“I don’t know if Johnny will ever come home,” Gosch said. “I wish I had a better answer for that. I just don’t know.”
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