The Mysterious Disappearance of Andrew Gosden

[Steve_uk]

He left for school in Doncaster on the morning of Friday 14 September 2007, but hid in a local park before withdrawing £200 from a cash machine, returned to an empty house, changed out of his school uniform into casual clothing and made his way to the railway station, where he insisted on buying a single ticket only to London King's Cross.

Looking younger than his 14 years he is caught on CCTV as he makes his way outside, the last known sighting for twelve years. His father Kevin subsequently attempted suicide by hanging, which makes me think of a suicide gene link in the family, the only hindrance to this theory being the lack of a corpse after all this time.

The case gets the Steven Pacheco treatment as he investigates Andrew's relationships in the family and at school, a break from his usual routine and a possible link to another disappearance without trace of a teenage boy in London the following year. https://youtu.be/pbCy14wOjaI

[handyman]

Very interesting thanks for posting.
I think you have to look at where he (Andrew) got his influences from.
His sister looks a bit Gothish and may have have influenced his music tastes.

It's only a couple of weeks into the new academic School year, so he'd be starting his 4th year studying for O levels.
I presume before hand he would have been in the highest stream for Maths. His writing is terrible would be interesting to know how he fared at other subjects.
From the May 6th diary entry he seems OK with Church related chores, then within a few months he's reading  Nietzsche.
More than likely he met and was influenced by someone at the Summer Camp he attended for gifted students.
It's Friday and another weekend of Church related chores made him feel like getting away for a while.

If he'd paid the extra pound for the return train fare, was that a day return or valid for a few days?
If it was a few days I'd say he didn't intend returning.

I'm amazed at little to no CCTV footage available given that 2 years earlier, TV screens were bombarded with footage of the London Bombers and at Kings Cross.

From the CCTV footage he seems to know where he's going. If he was groomed I feel he would have been met when the train arrived. A Pedo would want to preserve their prey.

Sad to say but, I reckon he was randomly picked up by a pedo and more than likely killed.

[Steve_uk]

Very interesting thanks for posting.
I think you have to look at where he (Andrew) got his influences from.
His sister looks a bit Gothish and may have have influenced his music tastes.

It's only a couple of weeks into the new academic School year, so he'd be starting his 4th year studying for O levels.
I presume before hand he would have been in the highest stream for Maths. His writing is terrible would be interesting to know how he fared at other subjects.
From the May 6th diary entry he seems OK with Church related chores, then within a few months he's reading  Nietzsche.
More than likely he met and was influenced by someone at the Summer Camp he attended for gifted students.
It's Friday and another weekend of Church related chores made him feel like getting away for a while.

If he'd paid the extra pound for the return train fare, was that a day return or valid for a few days?
If it was a few days I'd say he didn't intend returning.

I'm amazed at little to no CCTV footage available given that 2 years earlier, TV screens were bombarded with footage of the London Bombers and at Kings Cross.

From the CCTV footage he seems to know where he's going. If he was groomed I feel he would have been met when the train arrived. A Pedo would want to preserve their prey.

Sad to say but, I reckon he was randomly picked up by a pedo and more than likely killed.

Wouldn't the paedophile know that he was likely to be recorded on CCTV? There were reports that Andrew went to a now defunct Pizza Hut in Oxford Street, another report that he spent the night in a Southwark park, and another sighting on Upper Richmond Road, East Sheen. There's a photograph of what looks like Andrew at a YouTube meeting. Sadly it was 27 days before Police took the case seriously and by that time all CCTV save King's Cross had been wiped.


My own theory is that he had a lot going on inside his head which he would keep secret from the family. I think it's likely that he was being bullied on the school bus (remember his small stature and distinctive ear mark), he was way ahead of his class in GCSE Maths and probably felt awkward about volunteering answers lest he show the other pupils up. He may well have struggled in other subjects as you imply, though I would have thought the handwriting was from several years before. I think he felt his life stretching before him and just lost interest in living, his obsession with death confirmed with the logo on his T-Shirt involving the word "funeral", and his reading of the Reginald Perrin book about faking his own death.


There's another podcast here with a more personal approach, with father and sister volunteering more information, and we may be getting closer to the truth, with Andrew possibly feeling he was overshadowed by his elder sister, not wanting to confide in her or their father lest he appear wimpish, but also not wanting to hurt them after his departure, which is why he left no note and no indication of what was about to happen. https://youtu.be/5Ab6eSXmKu4

[handyman]

He may well have struggled in other subjects as you imply, though I would have thought the handwriting was from several years before.

The handwritten diary type text mentions Sunday May 6th. In 2007 May 6th was a Sunday.

I don't think he was being bullied, he had a 100% attendance record at school.

According to comments in the below video, the cheap return ticket price was only valid for the day.
Knowing how much the one way ticket cost, would ascertain how much money he needed for the return trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xAsREdRTc

In the above video Andrew's bedroom is featured. There's a glass cabinet of attractively displayed rocks.
With his relatives living in Sidcup & Chiselhurst he may have often visited the nearby caves, piquing an interest in Geology.

In the below video someone traces what could have possibly been Andrew's walking route, around Central London that day.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us06yXKfGeI

With a possible final destination point of Charring Cross Station, where trains depart for Sidcup and Chiselhurst (caves) .

I think Andrew did intend to return home and was simply making a spur of the moment decision to visit the rellies.

A child each way fare from Doncaster to London and back would have still left him enough money over.
He simply left the 100 pounds at home so that he wouldn't blow all his money on the one trip.

[Steve_uk]

The handwritten diary type text mentions Sunday May 6th. In 2007 May 6th was a Sunday.

I don't think he was being bullied, he had a 100% attendance record at school.

According to comments in the below video, the cheap return ticket price was only valid for the day.
Knowing how much the one way ticket cost, would ascertain how much money he needed for the return trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xAsREdRTc

In the above video Andrew's bedroom is featured. There's a glass cabinet of attractively displayed rocks.
With his relatives living in Sidcup & Chiselhurst he may have often visited the nearby caves, piquing an interest in Geology.

In the below video someone traces what could have possibly been Andrew's walking route, around Central London that day.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us06yXKfGeI

With a possible final destination point of Charring Cross Station, where trains depart for Sidcup and Chiselhurst (caves) .

I think Andrew did intend to return home and was simply making a spur of the moment decision to visit the rellies.

A child each way fare from Doncaster to London and back would have still left him enough money over.
He simply left the 100 pounds at home so that he wouldn't blow all his money on the one trip.

Of course this is all conjecture, whether one accepts all or part of your or my theory. The point about his 100% school attendance made his deviousness that Friday morning all the more startling, and it might well have been the case that he was being bullied on the outward as well as the return journey of the school run. I'm surmising this because for the previous few days he had taken to walking home, which I assume was because he wished to avoid one or more individuals riding on the bus at the same time. It's not unknown for these bullies to demand cash or mobile phones, and I do note that he had been given a mobile phone a couple of years previously but it had disappeared. Another indication that this bullying had gone on for quite some time?


As far as the one way train ticket is concerned, when a return cost only £1 more, why not think the obvious: he's decided he doesn't ever want to come back. To spare the parents' feelings it's nothing specifically they have done; just he feels helpless, the start of a new school year, life is stretching out before him and he can't cope, he can't confide in his sister for fear of losing face as she was part of the anti-bullying panel, he doesn't want any fuss, just a decision to end his predicament and school torment.


As far as visiting his relatives is concerned I believe the father stated that he had made this suggestion at one stage but Andrew had turned it down. Isn't it likelier anyhow with his maths brain that he would be working out the price of a ticket from Doncaster to Sidcup or Chiselhurst in his head and buying it there and then rather than fiddling around with two separate tickets?


I don't have the note again to hand but I'd be very surprised if the handwriting was that of a Year 10 pupil. Is it possible that it was written on Sunday May 6 2001?

[Steve_uk]

The case of a boy who, in a sense, was given too much freedom: freedom of religion, of choice of career, of chores, yet this was a freedom in the abstract only, as the parents offered only the humdrum rituals of academia, mealtimes and bed, wherein Andrew that morning chose his own terrible act of rebellion..

[handyman]

Isn't it likelier anyhow with his maths brain that he would be working out the price of a ticket from Doncaster to Sidcup or Chiselhurst in his head and buying it there and then rather than fiddling around with two separate tickets?

I don't think he could have bought a through ticket to Sidcup or Chiselhurst because the train terminated at Kings Cross, you would have to travel to another Station to get a train to Charring Cross.

The case of a boy who, in a sense, was given too much freedom: freedom of religion, of choice of career, of chores, yet this was a freedom in the abstract only, as the parents offered only the humdrum rituals of academia, mealtimes and bed, wherein Andrew that morning chose his own terrible act of rebellion..

Maybe he would have been better off raised in London rather than Doncaster.

The only rebellious behaviour was a spur of the moment trip to London.
Something happened to him prior to visiting the rellies or contacting his parents.
Wearing his 'Slipknot' T shirt would have made it easy for a stranger to initiate a conversation with him.

[Steve_uk]

So many questions remain: did he intend to return home, was he abducted, where is the body located..https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-50209571

[handyman]

I think he did intend to return home, & his body is somewhere in London.
Someone I work with lived in London & Doncaster for a while and worked in Corrections.

He said Kings Cross Station was a favorite haunt for Paedophiles, they knew it was the first point where runaways from the North of England would arrive.

[Steve_uk]

Nothing new, though a suggestion of a serial killer at work in London. https://youtu.be/o-AmGp3N4RA

[Steve_uk]

I've been thinking about this case during the week and I'm still baffled by the absence of a corpse, whether it was an intentional suicide or an abduction. I don't have any psychological profile training so forgive me if members consider this plain wrong, but given that there are 26 missing children from the London area it might seem that if Andrew was abducted he fell prey in the first instance to a charismatic individual who owned a vehicle (see handyman's video in #3 about a possible route, which includes an underground car park.) The predator would sound persuasive and have some knowledge of the youth pop scene (Slipknot, Thirty Seconds to Mars, SikTh).  He's not in regular professional employment to be free at that hour. Given that two victims were from the Morden area makes me think he may have a property there. It may be a case of another Dennis Nilsen, with several dead bodies located on the premises. https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/heartbreaking-faces-26-children-missing-20339653

[Steve_uk]

A podcast featuring an interview with Andrew's father and sister: https://youtu.be/5Ab6eSXmKu4

[Steve_uk]

Doctor Todd opines on the case: https://youtu.be/oi8B2PqDq9o

[Steve_uk]

Kevin Gosden is interviewed: https://youtu.be/mRc6aiDrntM

[Steve_uk]

Talking of cases which remind one of others, this tragedy stuck in my mind: https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/23/london-boy-13-drowned-in-thames-on-way-to-school-inquest-hears-15651695/