Andrew Gosden (14) Missing since 14 September 2007

[leapfreak]

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndid=365924000



Andrew has been missing from Doncaster, South Yorkshire since 14 September 2007. His current whereabouts remain unknown but it is thought he may have travelled to London.

Andrew’s family are extremely worried and there is concern for his welfare due to to his age. He can call the Runaway Helpline on Freefone 0808 800 7070 for confidential advice and support.

Andrew is 5ft 4ins tall, of slim build with collar length, light brown hair and brown eyes. It is thought Andrew will be wearing black jeans, a black T-shirt and black trainers. Andrew may be carrying with him a black canvas satchel with patches of rock/metal bands on it.

http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/arey...l.asp?dsid=617

’Andrew, just tell us you’re alive’
Seven months ago Glenys Gosden's 14-year-old son disappeared, joining the 200,000 people who go missing each year. She talks to Cassandra Jardine

The answerphone message at the Gosdens' home begins predictably. "There's no one here to take your call. Please leave..." Then there's a sharp intake of breath and Glenys Gosden's voice falters as she continues: "Andrew, if it's you, please know that we love you, we miss you."

Every day Glenys and her husband, Kevin, hope to hear from their 14-year-old son, Andrew, who disappeared seven months ago in circumstances as mysterious as those surrounding the vanished toddler Madeleine McCann. So far there have been a few leads, but no word from Andrew.

The evening before he vanished was unremarkable. After supper with his parents and sister, Charlotte, 18, Andrew spent an hour making a computer jigsaw with his father.

He then watched some comedy programmes - Mock the Week and That Mitchell and Webb Look - with his mother. "He didn't seem strange, but he was always a quiet, thoughtful boy," says Glenys, 43.

"On Friday September 14, he left for school at 8.05am; we went off to work shortly after. At teatime, he wasn't in his room, but I assumed he was in the basement playing on his Xbox.

When I found his school uniform on the back of a chair in his bedroom, I knew he'd come home and changed. We rang his friends, who said he wasn't with them. They said he hadn't been at school. "

That weekend the police searched the bushes near the Gosdens' home in Doncaster, but found nothing. By Monday, they knew he had taken £250 out of his bank account and had bought a single ticket to King's Cross. Another passenger had seen him on the train, but no one had any idea where the small, bespectacled teenager had gone, or why.



I saw Andrew's dad on the BBC's Missing Live programme this week and it was heartbreaking.  The family is so desperate just to get a message from Andrew saying that he is okay.

[Hayalet]

I'm gobsmacked he is still missing, i saw posters in London pubs in november last year for him, they have slowly started coming down i assumed he'd been found. The parents were sending his info to small bands in London and South East incase he turned up at shows as he's a "little mosher".

I really hope he is ok, :x

[Hayalet]

Eyes averted and voice lowered to a whisper, Kevin Gosden confesses that in the darkest hours he has found himself envying the parents of murdered children.

It is an extraordinary admission that illustrates the hell in which he and his wife Glenys have lived for the past year. Parents of teenagers fatally shot or stabbed “are lucky because at least they know” their child’s fate. No one knows what happened to Andrew Gosden.

Early tomorrow, three coaches will leave Doncaster, South Yorkshire, for London. On board will be 150 people, each looking for an answer. They are the family, friends and teachers of a boy whose decision to run away from home, 365 days ago tomorrow, continues to baffle all who knew him.

That Friday morning, eight days into a new term, 14-year-old Andrew left home; but he did not catch the school bus, walking instead to a park where he waited until he knew his parents would have left for work.

Related Links
What made a perfect son run away?
He then returned home, changed out of his school uniform, leaving his blazer neatly hanging from the back of a chair and placing his shirt and trousers in the washing machine. Then he headed to a cash machine, withdrew £200 from his savings account and made for the railway station where he bought a one-way ticket to London.

Later that day, CCTV cameras at King’s Cross captured three still images of a fresh-faced boy, looking slim and small for his age, as he crossed the concourse and left the station. Since then, silence.

It is estimated that 210,000 people are reported missing every year, 140,000 of them aged under 18. Of these, 100,000 have not reached their 16th birthday. The majority, 75 per cent, return home within two days, and 90 per cent are back within a month. After a year, according to Metropolitan Police figures, 99 per cent of reported runaways have been found. But not Andrew. He has vanished, seemingly without trace.

The scant comfort to which Mr and Mrs Gosden cling has come from periodic sightings – 122 in total – of a boy matching his description. These have been reported from all over Britain, the majority – 45 – from London and 11 from Brighton. Not one has been confirmed.

One year on, pain and bewilderment weigh heavy in the Gosdens’ tidy, terraced Victorian home on the outskirts of Doncaster.

Although the peak age for running away from home is 13 to 15, girls account for more than 70 per cent of such cases. A significant proportion of runaways are in residential or foster care. Less than 7 per cent of children reported missing were living with both their mother and father. Single children are more likely to disappear than those with siblings. Many have experienced conflict with a family member or had problems at school.

And Andrew? He and his elder sister, Charlotte, both academic high-flyers, have grown up in a secure home full of love and laughter.

It was the sort of model household that is supposed to be close to extinction. They ate their evening meal together, discussed problems collectively, laughed at the same comedy shows, played family games, shared hobbies. Mr and Mrs Gosden, both speech therapists, are quietly committed Christians, but their faith imposed no restrictive rigidity of conduct. The children were encouraged to think and act independently.

Andrew, a prize-winning mathematician who seemed destined to cruise to future honours at Oxford or Cambridge, was home-loving, sweet-natured and good-humoured.

He seemed the perfect son, yet – unless he has been killed or is being held against his will – his year-long failure to make contact seems an act of gratuitous cruelty.

When they first talked to The Times, a few weeks after Andrew’s disappearance, the Gosdens were still trying to be positive, hopeful that their agony would soon end.

The past year has shattered them. Mr Gosden, 42, looks a broken man. He tried to commit suicide in December, then spent 15 weeks in acute psychiatric care. He no longer works and has lost three stone in weight.

As Mr Gosden tried to hang himself from a balustrade, their vicar – a friend and the only person outside the family with a key to the house – chose this moment to pay an unannounced call at the house.

Standing outside, he heard the sound of a body falling, let himself in and “basically saved me”. Mr Gosden returned to consciousness in hospital several hours later.

“I had reached a point where I was so despairing, discouraged, frustrated and angry with life that I was not in my right mind at all,” he reflected.

His wife, 44, has somehow carried the burden of a missing son alongside that of a husband who had lost the will to live, while needing to be a rock of stability for their 17-year-old daughter.

Mrs Gosden seemed much more controlled and purposeful when we first met. Now, the tears flow steadily.

“It’s been an amazingly difficult time,” she said quietly. “I felt I was the one really holding the family together while also keeping my job going.

“I was feeling the loss of someone too, but the emotional support which I needed from Kevin had been severed.”

A year on, and still no one can conceive a possible motive behind Andrew’s decision to leave home.

His head teacher at McAuley Catholic High School, Mary Lawrence, will be joining staff and pupils on the trip to London, where his friends plan to split up into small groups to hand out 15,000 leaflets. Mrs Lawrence says the school remains “as mystified about it now as we were when it happened.

“He was a very good and able student, a quiet young man who had his own little group of friends and enjoyed playing computer games. There was no indication that there was anything wrong with him at all. You think there must be something [to explain his disappearance], but what? I don’t know how you live with that as a parent.”

South Yorkshire Police yesterday renewed an appeal for information about Andrew, who would have turned 15 in July. Detective Chief Inspector Lisa Ray has recently taken over the the case and is conducting a review of the investigation. She will meet the Gosdens next week, when they hope to discuss some of their concerns about opportunities that may have been missed during the police inquiry.

Many other agencies have been involved in the search, including Missing People, a charity that works with runaways and their families, which has publicised Andrew in its appeals. It recognises that Andrew’s background and his length of absence from home make him “very unusual”.

Ruth Mulryne, the charity’s director of services, said that Missing People was backing the Gosdens’ London mission, which will conclude with an ecumenical service at 3.30pm tomorrow at St James’s Church, Piccadilly.

“We desperately hope that this service and the publicity that it generates will finally find Andrew and put an end to his family’s suffering,” she said.

When they first arrive in London, Mr and Mrs Gosden will make their way to King’s Cross to lay flowers and leave a personal message at the last place that their son was seen.

After many fruitless weekend trips to tramp the capital’s streets, Mrs Gosden says this will probably be their final visit. “We have made a huge effort and given it our best shot, but with each day that passes it’s going to become harder and harder for people to recognise him. Sunday is probably going to feel as close to closure as we’re ever going to get.”

Andrew’s bedroom awaits his return. On the walls are posters of rock bands. There is a small snooker table, a collection of rocks, a music system, a pile of jigsaws and a small teddy bear.

Shelves groan with books. The boy who was reading Nietzsche at the time of his disappearance was also a big fan of Harry Potter.

His parents’ envy for those mourning dead offspring focuses solely on the fact that such tragedies bring an end to not knowing. With every fibre of their being, they hope that Andrew is alive. Yet the uncertainty is a daily agony. It is almost unbearable to imagine that their son has not only abandoned them of his own volition but has chosen to leave them blind to his fate. Those are not the actions of the boy they thought they knew.

As with the parents of Madeleine McCann, the Gosdens are leading a life suspended. Unlike the McCanns, they have not done so in a blaze of global publicity and suspicion. Mr Gosden said that he and his wife felt “deeply, deeply sorry” for Gerry and Kate McCann and suspected that the two families “have an awful lot in common”, in all but one respect.

“You get a lot of press if your child is little, blonde and female, but it hurts just as much when you’re missing a teenage son.”

Anyone with information about Andrew Gosden or any other missing person can contact Missing People’s 24-hour, confidential Freephone service on 0500 700700.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4744115.ece

I see a photo of him everyday on my Iceland milk bottles, yet still not one confirmed sighting of this little boy anywhere. I don't think they will find him alive now :(

[puzzld]

How very sad

I know I nearly went nuts when one of my dogs was missing for 3 weeks.  I can only imagine the agony a family missing a child feels.  And when that goes on for months and now years?  Horrible.

[Eternally Solo]

[size=12pt]Missing Andrew Gosden's father: Our last chance of finding runaway son is at Muse gig - Exclusive[/size]

By Matt Roper 22/09/2009

Dad's torment in agonising 2-year hunt for his music-mad teenager



It will be a night on which fans of award-winning band Muse will go wild with excitement.

But among the thousands of screaming black-clad youngsters at the group's latest sellout concert, one figure will look awkwardly out of place - 43-year-old Kevin Gosden.

Twice as old as most of the Muse devotees who will pack out the Sheffield Arena, Kevin won't be there to enjoy the music.

Instead the dad will hand out leaflets and anxiously scan the crowd. This, he believes, may be his last chance of finding his longlost son Andrew again.



Two years ago, Kevin took the 14-year-old to Muse the last time they played at Sheffield Arena - the teenager's first rock concert.

Soon afterwards, on September 14, bespectacled Andrew - a prize-winning schoolboy described by teachers as a maths genius - took a one-way train journey to London and vanished.

He has not been seen or heard from since.

The teenager made a £200 cashpoint withdrawal on his way to catch the train. The account was never used again.

Two years on, Kevin, of Doncaster, South Yorks, and wife Glenys - who also have a daughter Charlotte, 18 - refuse to give up hope he is alive.

Or that Kevin won't spot his face among the thousands of others pouring into the Sheffield Arena for the November 4 gig. Looking drawn, his voice cracking with the anguish of two long years, Kevin says: "If it was at all possible I believe Andrew would try and see Muse again.

"When we went it was his first rock concert and he absolutely loved it.

"Some of the tracks they played were his all-time favourites.

"We're going to go to the gig and give out leaflets in the hope that somebody might spot him. I've really just run out of ideas now about appealing for information.

"I suppose this is the last hope of finding out what has happened." A year ago Kevin, Glenys and Charlotte poignantly lit a candle at a London church to mark the first anniversary of Andrew's disappearance. Last week the family released computer e-fits showing how Andrew might look like today, aged 16, either with his hair shoulderlength or bleached and cropped.

In the months leading up to his disappearance, Andrew had become captivated by the anthemic rock that has made Muse, a three-piece band from Devon, one of the major forces of stadium rock.

Known for their obsessive, mostly Goth fans, the band have collected a string of music awards, including two Brits, five Q awards and five MTV awards and are renowned for their electrifying live performances. The last sighting of Andrew, on the day he vanished, came when he was caught on CCTV at King's Cross station in London, after he had just arrived in the capital from Doncaster.

In the footage Andrew is carrying a black bag emblazoned with the names of rock bands such as Muse, Slipknot, Dragon Force and Funeral for a Friend.

His parents hope his almost religious devotion to the band may be the key to tracing him again.

Kevin says: "Posters have been sent all over. Concerts where Goths go have been targeted. Every school in the country has been emailed in the hope that kids might notice something. What else can we do? We really don't know."

They have also written a poignant open letter to him, pleading for him to come home.



It begins: "We have all missed you so much since the day you left. Not a day goes by that you are not in our minds constantly."

It goes on: "If you should ever read this, forget about any water under the bridge and please have no fear about making contact with us... we only want to know that you are safe and well."

Kevin, Glenys and Charlotte have gone over the events of September 14, 2007 countless times. On that autumn morning, Andrew did not catch the school bus as usual.

Instead he waited until his parents left for work and let himself back into the house.

There, he changed out of his uniform, leaving his blazer neatly hanging on the back of a bedroom chair and putting his shirt and trousers in the washing machine.

Wearing a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, he then walked to a local garage, withdrew £200 from his savings account at a cash machine and headed for the train station, where he bought a one-way ticket to the capital.

A passenger on the 9.35am Doncaster to London train recalled sitting next to a boy exactly matching Andrew's description and remembered how he sat quietly, engrossed in his PlayStation console.

Not knowing what happened to Andrew after 11.20am, when he arrived at King's Cross, has left Kevin a broken man.

His son's disappearance led him to a failed suicide attempt and a plunge into severe depression which caused him to leave his job as a speech therapist.

Glenys, 45, also a speech therapist, is now the family's sole breadwinner.

Kevin says: "We've been over it time and time again but there is no reason we can think of why he went.

"Because he is so clever he would be very resourceful, so that gives me hope that he is out there somewhere. But since he took the £200 out of his bank before he went to London there has been no activity at all on his account.

"The police have checked regularly and there has been no attempt to touch the rest of the money he had in his savings.

"It's so difficult knowing what he was thinking at the time he went and what has happened since. The phrase that always comes into my head is 'living nightmare'. That describes exactly how I feel.

"I had to give up work because I couldn't focus or think straight. I just can't concentrate because I want to know my son is somewhere safe and well. If we had a postcard from him, just some proof from anywhere, I would settle.

But until that happens I just go over and over in my mind what could have happened."

In his darkest moments Kevin ponders the worst that might have have happened to his son.

He says: "That's when I have the idea that he might have fallen into the wrong hands five minutes from King's Cross.

"I can't bear the thought that he is suffering or being abused in some way. I would rather be told that he was dead than some ongoing abuse or suffering.

"At least that would be a conclusion and something we could try to deal with.

"One of the most upsetting things is that I find myself talking about Andrew in the past tense sometimes.

"But it's because the lad we had for 14 years, who was gentle, caring, thoughtful and fun to be around, is not here any more." One of Andrew's favourite television shows was The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, in which Perrin - played by 70s icon Leonard Rossiter - fakes his death so he can start life anew.

Kevin asks: "Did he decide to do the Reginald Perrin thing and reinvent himself or was there something troubling him that he felt he couldn't tell us? In my heart I still think his disappearance was a spur of the moment thing."

FAITH

They are questions that will continue to torment Kevin and Glenys until the day Andrew finally returns home.

The couple are devoted Christians and Kevin says their faith gives them the strength to carry on despite so many unanswered questions.

And, like the Biblical parable of the lost, prodigal son, Kevin says he will never give up watching and waiting, ready to welcome Andrew back with open arms.

If you think you can help, phone Missing Persons free on 0500 700 700 or visit missingpeople.org.uk.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/09/22/missing-andrew-gosden-s-father-our-last-chance-of-finding-runaway-son-is-at-muse-gig-exclusive-115875-21691492/

note: Muse is currently touring NA with U2.

[Hayalet]

I think about this little lad alot and i wish he would just ring his parents and say he is ok, but i really don't think this will get a happy ending.

[Eternally Solo]

[quote author=Lozz*in*Wonderland link=topic=14075.msg1413266#msg1413266 date=1255542936]
I think about this little lad alot and i wish he would just ring his parents and say he is ok, but i really don't think this will get a happy ending.
[/quote]

Given that he looks so young for his age, I have to agree that this won't be a happy ending.

[Hayalet]

Family appeals to gay community to find missing son
By Jessica Geen • November 20, 2009 - 11:44


Andrew Gosden has not been seen for two years

The father of a 14-year-old boy who went missing two years ago has appealed to the gay community to help find him.

Andrew Gosden has not been seen since September 14th, 2007, when he boarded a train from Doncaster to London on a one-way ticket.

Despite widespread publicity about the case, his family have had no confirmation he is alive and well.

Although they have no idea why he ran away, his family have considered the possibility that he was struggling with his sexual orientation. Children who are gay or lesbian are much more likely to run away than those who are heterosexual.

Andrew's father Kevin Gosden said: "We are a pretty open family so have wondered if he was gay or struggling with his sexual identity and found it too awkward to raise.

"We have continued to search for him constantly as we miss him terribly and would love to know that he is okay.

"If he is gay, we do not have any issue with it, he is loved unconditionally by both my wife and I and his sister and the only thing that would await him if he returned or made contact would be a lot of missed hugs."

The last sighting of Andrew was when he was caught on CCTV leaving his train at Kings Cross Station on the day he disappeared. He is thought to have withdrawn £200 from a cashpoint.

Anyone with information about Andrew or any other missing person can contact Missing People’s 24-hour, confidential Freephone service on 0500 700700.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/11/20/family-appeals-to-gay-community-to-find-missing-son/

[blighted star]

No news for Andrew yet, just adding pix + a more recent missing poster

[Caffeinatedkat]

If I ran away from my parents and then read on the news they thought I ran away due to sexual orientation AND decided to share it with the press.... Yeah I would never come home. If this kid is truly dealing with this issues announcing it seems pretty dumb. Hopefully he is just some kid who wanted away from his parents and not his actual life. Hoping 10 years from now they find hm happily with in a life with people whom love him.

[mswishingonastar]

I remember this case and the appeal. He is from the town next to mine. I ran away to London in 1999 but I was 16. He does look terribly young for his age. There are a LOT of homeless teens and runaways down London's west end. Its like a hidden sub culture. You dont really notice them unless you are one. Once you are one of them you recognise each other and move in groups. We used to meet up at night in the Trocadero or Lecister square mcDonalds. There are much more boys than girls and all are equally vulnerable in different ways. Even amongst each other. The teen boys 'pass' the girls around sexually and there are a lot of drug abuse ect...some of the kids I knew murdered a man when a robbery went wrong, they threw him in the River Thames and got life in jail. We used to go daily to the London Connection..i think now renamed the connection at st martins or another day centre for teens in Camden...we got food there and luncheon vouchers. I wonder if this missing boys family went and asked questions there?

There isn't much info though...i wonder if they checked his computer to see if he talked online to anyone? I sort of get the feeling maybe he went to meet another 'fan' of a band he liked he met online....???

I wonder if he knew London to have just walked out of the station like that when he arrived. Kings Cross is so busy. It would be overwhelming for a teen who came from a small town like Doncaster if he wasn't used to it. When I got to London I spent like half a day riding up and down on the tube. I was in awe. I spent the night up Soho in a homeless shelter.

He may have changed so much by now if he is alive. Also given that his favorite show was about a guy who changed his identity and he was a maths whizz headed for Oxford...well he was a smart kid...the only thing I would say to contradict the theory of him successfully reinventing himself would be his small stature and very young appearance....had he been two years older and more developed physically, I could quite well conceive he successfully adopted a new identity.

[mswishingonastar]

sorry to double post but I cant get this out of my head now. He refused a return ticket even though the cost was about the same and once in London the last CCTV image is of him leaving Kings Cross...big old London and there was no more CCTV footage of his movements after he left the station at all to give some clue as to where he was headed or if he met anyone? To me that's weird!

[Olivia]

A Doncaster teenager who has been missing for more than ten years could be living and working in Lincoln, according to new information. Andrew Gosden, who disappeared in 2007 at the age of 14, could be working in the area according to a possible 'sighting' of him shared on Facebook by his father Kevin There have been no confimed sightings of Andrew since he was spotted leaving King's Cross railway station in London on September 14, 2007. Now his father Kevin has said there has been information suggesting his son - who would now be 24 - could be in Lincolnshire. Writing on the "Missing Andrew Gosden" Facebook page he wrote: "Last year, I was contacted by someone who believed they may have had a conversation with Andrew online. "A number of clues were present but nothing 100% conclusive. "The conversation suggested that Andrew could be alive and well and working in a shop in the Lincoln area. "We quietly searched these areas at the beginning of the year and in April a number of volunteers helped us to distribute 5,000 leaflets in the area.

Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...ance-1-9223743

[Bewitchingstorm]

Here's the Wikipedia on his case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disapp..._Andrew_Gosden