September 5 marks 44 years since 12-year-old Johnny Gosch disappeared while delivering newspapers in West Des Moines.
Gosch was a Des Moines Register paperboy. On the morning of September 5, 1982, he left his home to deliver newspapers. His father later found Johnny’s red wagon still loaded with newspapers along his route. Johnny’s dog had also returned home without him.
A large search effort followed. Police, state authorities, sheriff’s deputies and hundreds of volunteers searched neighborhoods, fields, wooded areas and other locations for Johnny and any evidence that could lead to his whereabouts.
Johnny was 12 years old when he disappeared. He had brown hair, blue eyes, was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds. He also had a birthmark on his left cheek and a horseshoe-shaped scar on his tongue.
In the years following Johnny’s disappearance, his case received national attention and became part of efforts to improve the response to missing children. Iowa legislation known as the Johnny Gosch Bill was enacted in 1984, requiring immediate police involvement when a child is reported missing.
Source: Iowa Missing Person Information Clearinghouse and Iowa Cold Cases.
