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Speaker 1: This week's episode deals with disturbing themes of child sexual assault.

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Speaker 1: Parental discretion is advised. It was still dark out when

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Speaker 1: Joe Gosh knocked quietly on his brother Johnny's bedroom door

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Speaker 1: sometime around five thirty am. Joe waited patiently until Johnny's

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Speaker 1: weary reply came back finally from the other side. It

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Speaker 1: was Sunday, September fifth, nineteen eighty two, and like every

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Speaker 1: Sunday for the last year, twelve year old Johnny Gosh

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Speaker 1: had a job to do, delivering papers for the Des

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Speaker 1: Moines Register and Tribune. Ordinarily, Johnny's father, John Senior liked

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Speaker 1: to accompany him on his rounds, but since he couldn't

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Speaker 1: join him that morning, Johnny had asked his brother to

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Speaker 1: make sure he got up in time With his job complete.

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Speaker 1: Joe tapped the door again in response, and then swiftly

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Speaker 1: headed off to work. It was roughly thirty minutes later

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Speaker 1: when the Goshes neighbor Lawrence Headlin heard the familiar creak

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Speaker 1: of Johnny's red newspaper wagon being pulled through the back

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Speaker 1: of his garden toward Ashworth Road that ran past the

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Speaker 1: back of his house. Headlin and the Gauches lived on

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Speaker 1: forty fifth Street, in a quiet, affluent area of West

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Speaker 1: den Moyne characterized by expensive houses and large, finally manicured lawns.

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Speaker 1: From there, it was just a short three block walk

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Speaker 1: east to the corner of Ashworth and forty second Street,

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Speaker 1: where Johnny's stack of papers were waiting for him. The

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Speaker 1: paper round had been Johnny's own idea to help toward

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Speaker 1: the purchase of an off road bike so he could

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Speaker 1: ride out to the parks at the weekend with his

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Speaker 1: older brothers, whom he idolized. He was a diligent and

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Speaker 1: dependable worker who early on in the job had even

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Speaker 1: won a sales competition, which is why it was especially

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Speaker 1: strange when a call came through to the gosh family

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Speaker 1: home around seven forty five am from a disgruntled customer

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Speaker 1: demanding to know where his Sunday paper was. Not knowing himself,

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Speaker 1: the concerned John Senior, who took the call, promptly hung

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Speaker 1: up the phone and called out to his son. When

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Speaker 1: there was no reply, he made a quick dash upstairs

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Speaker 1: to check if he was in his bedroom, but there

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Speaker 1: was no one there. Just then, John heard the gentle

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Speaker 1: pitapata of the family's small hazel nut dash hound Gretchen

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Speaker 1: and went downstairs to find her ambling about the kitchen,

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Speaker 1: trailing a lead that was still clipped to her call.

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Speaker 1: John called out for his son again, to no avail.

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Speaker 1: The dog, it seemed, had come back all on her own.

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Speaker 1: Disconcerted by the dog's reappearance, John quickly grabbed his coat

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Speaker 1: and hurried out to look for his son. At the

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Speaker 1: top of their short road, John rounded the corner onto

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Speaker 1: Mark Court Lane, where at the far eastern end he

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Speaker 1: spotted Johnny's paper wagon, seemingly left abandoned on the pavement.

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Speaker 1: When he finally caught up to it, he saw it

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Speaker 1: was still stuffed with undelivered papers, but Johnny was nowhere

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Speaker 1: to be seen. Perhaps he was just helping another deliverer somewhere,

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Speaker 1: or he'd somehow lost Gretchen and had gone off looking

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Speaker 1: for her, thought John in about. He looked up and

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Speaker 1: down the deserted street and back to the papers. With

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Speaker 1: the sun now well and truly up, time was running

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Speaker 1: out to get them delivered, and so John took the

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Speaker 1: handle of the cart and set off down the street

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Speaker 1: to deliver them. It was eight thirty am when he

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Speaker 1: got home to find that Johnny had still yet to return.

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Speaker 1: With a rising panic and a parent's intuition, John told

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Speaker 1: his wife Noreen to call the police immediately and ran

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Speaker 1: straight back outside to look for his son. It was

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Speaker 1: sometime around nine am when the officer arrived at the door,

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Speaker 1: a little too unconcerned for Noreen and John's liking their

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Speaker 1: child was missing. They said to the officer, however, there

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Speaker 1: seemed only two realistic possibilities. Either he'd skipped work for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, or he'd run away entirely. Had he ever

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Speaker 1: run away before? He asked, a shocked gnawing didn't miss

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Speaker 1: a beat. No, she said her son had never run

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Speaker 1: away before. The officer made a quick note in his book. Then,

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Speaker 1: after taking a look around Johnnie's bedroom, he set about

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Speaker 1: getting statements from the four other paper deliverers who'd been

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Speaker 1: working that morning's run with Johnnie, and gradually a picture

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Speaker 1: of sorts began to emerge, both mundane and deeply troubling.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard mc lean smith.

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Speaker 1: Each of the five newspaper deliverers had gathered at the

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Speaker 1: corner of Ashworth Road and forty second Street to pick

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Speaker 1: up their day's papers and greeted each other briefly before

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Speaker 1: heading off on their respective rounds. Teenager Mike Seskis was

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Speaker 1: just picking his papers up when he saw Johnny walking

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Speaker 1: toward him along Ashworth Road, when all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: a two door, two tone blue and silver Ford Fairmount

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Speaker 1: drove slowly past him, before stopping and backing up to him.

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Speaker 1: Mike saw Johnny talked at the driver for a moment

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Speaker 1: before they drove off again, turning around to head back

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Speaker 1: east along the road. John Rossi, the only adult paper

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Speaker 1: carrier who was out that morning, was at the corner

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Speaker 1: of Ashworth and forty Second when Johnny picked up his papers,

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Speaker 1: and when moments later the Ford Fairmount returned, Rossie watched

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Speaker 1: on as Johnny approached the car again. According to Rossi,

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Speaker 1: the drive of the vehicle, who was later described by

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Speaker 1: another witness as being of stocky build with a mustache

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Speaker 1: and receding dark hair, was strangely jacked up, as though

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Speaker 1: he were on some kind of stimulant. Whatever it was,

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Speaker 1: it was unusual for six am in the morning. As

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Speaker 1: Rossi continued to watch, Johnny talked to the man. The

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Speaker 1: boy then suddenly turned to him and waved him over

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Speaker 1: to join them, asking if he could help give the

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Speaker 1: man some directions. Rossi then made his way over to help,

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Speaker 1: only for the car to suddenly whip out away from him,

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Speaker 1: complete a sharp you turn, and screech off up the road.

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Speaker 1: A short time later, as Johnny made his way north

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Speaker 1: up forty second Street with his wagon full of papers,

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Speaker 1: Mike Sescus then claimed to have seen a man step

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Speaker 1: from between two trees on the opposite side of the

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Speaker 1: road and cross over to where Johnny walking. Two brothers

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Speaker 1: out delivering the paper together were then said to have

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Speaker 1: walked past Johnny as he continued on his way north

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Speaker 1: up forty second Street before turning west into Mark Court Lane.

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Speaker 1: It was around then, at roughly six thirty am, when

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Speaker 1: local resident P. J. Smith, who lived at the corner

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Speaker 1: of Mark Court and forty second heard a car door

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Speaker 1: slam outside its window. Smith looked out his curtains to

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Speaker 1: see what he described as a silver and black Ford

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Speaker 1: Fairmount parked up on the street for a brief moment

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Speaker 1: when it shot off suddenly into forty second Street without

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Speaker 1: stopping at the stop sign, and then sped off up

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Speaker 1: the road. And it was a short time after this

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Speaker 1: that the two brothers coming back down forty second Street,

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Speaker 1: passed the turn off to Mark Court Lane to see

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Speaker 1: Johnny's red paper wagon parked up on the pavement, but

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Speaker 1: no sign of Johnny. Now a word from our sponsor

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Speaker 1: Along with the mysterious Ford Fairmount, a second car with

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Speaker 1: the Warren County license plate was also apparently seen in

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Speaker 1: the area at the time, driven by a man wearing

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Speaker 1: a baseball cap. For Captain Bob Rushing of the West

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Speaker 1: des Moines Police Department, who reviewed the various statements from

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Speaker 1: the numerous witnesses, none of it amounted to anything especially suspicious,

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Speaker 1: and furthermore, there was no crime scene, no witnessed act

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Speaker 1: of wrongdoing, and absolutely no evidence that anything sinister had

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Speaker 1: taken place. For the increasingly desperate Noreene and John Senior,

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Speaker 1: Johnny had disappeared without a trace, which was all the

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Speaker 1: evidence they needed to know that something terrible had taken place.

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Speaker 1: That he'd been abducted, that he might have run away

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Speaker 1: was simply unthinkable. Johnny, they said, was a kind and

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Speaker 1: generous boy, someone who always wanted to find the right

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Speaker 1: present for a friend if it was their birthday, and

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Speaker 1: someone who was dedicated to a job that's entire purpose

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Speaker 1: was to save money. At the time, paper carriers were

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Speaker 1: charged seventy five cents for every paper that wasn't delivered

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Speaker 1: For Johnny, that would have meant forfeiting twenty seven dollars

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Speaker 1: seventy five in total, far more than he was getting

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Speaker 1: paid to do the job. However, as many in the

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Speaker 1: West des Moines Police Department at the time felt it

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Speaker 1: was simply unheard of that in such a peaceful and

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Speaker 1: affluent area someone might drive into it and snatch a

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Speaker 1: child from the street. As far as they were concerned,

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Speaker 1: Johnny was simply missing and would most likely return before long.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Noreen and John's insistence, however, the police eventually

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Speaker 1: agreed to mount a search for the boy. By Sunday afternoon,

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Speaker 1: roughly thirty officers pulled in from the Polk County Sheriff's office,

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Speaker 1: Iowa Highway Patrol, as well as off and on duty

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Speaker 1: Des Moines police were out looking for him and throughout

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Speaker 1: the day. As news of Johnny's disappearance began to spread

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Speaker 1: through the neighborhood, they were joined by dozens of others

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Speaker 1: from friends and family to concerned neighbors, and soon the

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Speaker 1: media began to pick up the story too, imploring anybody

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Speaker 1: to be on the lookout for a twelve year old

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Speaker 1: boy described as being white, five foot seven inches tall,

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Speaker 1: weighing roughly one hundred and forty pounds, who was last

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Speaker 1: seen wearing a white T shirt, blue shorts, and black sandals,

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Speaker 1: and carrying a bright yellow newspaper satchel. But by the

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Speaker 1: end of that first day, no trace of Johnny was found.

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Speaker 1: The following day, a terrified and bleary eyed Norine and

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Speaker 1: John joined over a thousand volunteers at the West Des

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Speaker 1: Moines police station to begin the second day of their

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Speaker 1: search for Johnny. Being the Labor Day holiday, everyone from

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Speaker 1: young kids to the elderly joined up to help find him. Together,

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Speaker 1: inching slowly over the land, endless lines of people trudged

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Speaker 1: over thousands of acres through damp and nettle strewn parkland,

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Speaker 1: batting away gnats and mosquitoes as they went, while others

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Speaker 1: trawled the county's many ditches and roads side verges for

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Speaker 1: any sign of the boy or his clothing. But once again,

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Speaker 1: no sign of Johnny was found. By Tuesday, September seventh,

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Speaker 1: Johnny had been missing for forty eight hours, but still

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Speaker 1: the police remained hopeful that he would soon turn up.

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Speaker 1: The fact that no trace of him had been found

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Speaker 1: seemed only to prove further to the police that he'd

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Speaker 1: probably just run away. In the meantime, the Des Moines

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Speaker 1: Register and Tribune put up an offer of five thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars for any information leading to the discovery of Johnny's whereabouts.

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Speaker 1: Around this time, a photo fit likeness was made of

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Speaker 1: the man who'd apparently asked Johnny for directions, but the police,

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Speaker 1: concerned that it wasn't entirely accurate, decided not to release it.

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Speaker 1: It was sometime on Tuesday afternoon that West Des Moines

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Speaker 1: Police East Chief Orville Cooney, who was tasked with overseeing

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Speaker 1: the search for Johnny, informed the press that his department

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Speaker 1: had been contacted by fifty year old self described psychic

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Speaker 1: Greta Alexander. Although some detectives believed Cooney should be concentrating

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Speaker 1: on facts alone rather than engaging so called psychics, Cooney

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Speaker 1: preferred to keep an open mind, saying he was from

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Speaker 1: the old school and would listen to anything first before

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Speaker 1: deciding what to do next. The charismatic Greta Alexander from Delavan, Illinois,

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Speaker 1: had a long history of assisting the police on a

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Speaker 1: variety of cases. After hearing about her possible involvement in

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Speaker 1: the Gosh case, Fort Dodge police Chief Don Hensley recalled

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Speaker 1: how Alexander had helped his team find the body of

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Speaker 1: eighteen year old Roger Haabab Junior and twenty year old

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Speaker 1: Ruth Anne Phillips, who'd both drowned in separate accidents back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. Alexander had been hooked up via a

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Speaker 1: phone line to a team of divers who were searching

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Speaker 1: a quarry pit at the time. As one of the

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Speaker 1: divers swam about on the surface, Alexander shouted down the

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Speaker 1: phone for the diver to stop immediately and dive down

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Speaker 1: into the water. A short time later, they returned to

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Speaker 1: the surface holding the body of Rogerhabab. Hensley, who described

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Speaker 1: the incident as being real spooky, said that Alexander had

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Speaker 1: been right with about ninety percent of her suggestions. Polk

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Speaker 1: County Deputy John Hempel, who in nineteen seventy seven was

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Speaker 1: working the case of a missing postal worker, recalled how

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Speaker 1: Alexander reveal to him not only that they would find

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Speaker 1: the body in the Sailorville reservoir, but what condition it

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Speaker 1: would be found in, and that three people would find

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Speaker 1: it together. Three months later, the woman's body was found

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Speaker 1: in that same reservoir by three fishermen and former Johnston

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Speaker 1: Police Chief Robert Brunk also praised Alexander for helping him

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Speaker 1: find the body of Ramon de Virgilio, who'd been missing

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Speaker 1: for six weeks at the time. Alexander had apparently guided

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Speaker 1: a police officer to the precise spot where his body

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Speaker 1: was found. When asked by the press if Gretta Alexander

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Speaker 1: thought Johnny Gosh was alive, West des Moines Police Chief

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Speaker 1: Cooney paused for a moment before answering that he didn't

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Speaker 1: want to comment. As it transpired, Alexander claimed that Gosh

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Speaker 1: was still alive, having a apparently visualized him being kept

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Speaker 1: sitting down somewhere against his will. Alexander told the press

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Speaker 1: that it didn't appear good, but remained hopeful, and also

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00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:23,000
Speaker 1: that something would happen on Wednesday afternoon. Best Fiends is

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Speaker 1: broken through to level one hundred and one, thanks in

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Speaker 1: no small part to the mighty Woody the Woodhouse. Best

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Speaker 1: Fiends is great to play in your downtime or on

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00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,119
Speaker 1: arrived with still no sign of Johnny and no further

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Speaker 1: clues as to his whereabouts and steadily. Wednesday turned to Thursday,

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Speaker 1: and despite Greta Alexander's claims, no further news arrived. With

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Speaker 1: Johnny now missing for longer than the requisite seventy two hours,

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00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 1: the West Des Moines Police stepped up their efforts to

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Speaker 1: trace him. Cards featuring pictures of the two cars mentioned

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00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 1: by the witnesses were sent out to all local law

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Speaker 1: enforcement agencies and some neighboring states too, while friends, teachers,

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00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,119
Speaker 1: and classmates were interviewed in an effort to try and

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Speaker 1: establish the boy's state of mind at the time. As

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Speaker 1: for Noreen and John Senior, they were told to simply

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Speaker 1: sit tight and wait for more information. It was just

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Speaker 1: over a week later, on Monday, September twentieth, when fourteen

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Speaker 1: year old Shawn Jacobson left his home in Milford, Iowa,

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Speaker 1: roughly two hundred miles north of the Goshes home in

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Speaker 1: West Des Moines, to walk to school. Jacobson had spent

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Speaker 1: the previous week at home, laid up with the flu,

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Speaker 1: and had seemed eager to get outside and back to school.

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Speaker 1: Later that day, Jacobson's father, Raymond, received a call from

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Speaker 1: the Milford school secretary to ask why his son had

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Speaker 1: not shown up for his classes. It wasn't long after

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Speaker 1: that that a pile of school books was found tucked

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Speaker 1: under a lunch pail near a water filled gravel pit

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00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:13,159
Speaker 1: to the west of the town. The books were identified

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00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:18,600
Speaker 1: as Shorns. Over the next two days, three hundred people,

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Speaker 1: including sixty of its fellow pupils, with support from sniffer

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00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,600
Speaker 1: dogs and a search plane, failed to find any sign

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Speaker 1: of the boy. The gravel pit was also dredged to

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Speaker 1: no avail. Around about the same time, two teenage boys

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Speaker 1: entered a service station in pipe Stone, Minnesota, about ninety

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Speaker 1: miles northwest of Milford. Convinced there was something a little

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Speaker 1: off about them, the service station attendant kept a close

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Speaker 1: eye on the boys as they disappeared into the rest room,

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Speaker 1: before reappearing moments later, only to then hurriedly leave. When

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Speaker 1: the attend went into the restroom after them, they found

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00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,880
Speaker 1: a scrap of paper left out by the sink with

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Speaker 1: the words help, I've been kidnapped scrawled across it. After

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Speaker 1: being examined by police, however, it was decided it was

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Speaker 1: unrelated to Shawn Jacobson's disappearance. Gerald Shanahan, the chief of

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Speaker 1: Iowa's Division of Criminal Investigation, who'd by then been brought

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00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,159
Speaker 1: in to help with the Johnny Gosh case, was also

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Speaker 1: shown a note. Sadly, the handwriting was no match for

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Speaker 1: Johnny's either. It was early in the evening of Friday,

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00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:45,960
Speaker 1: February twenty fourth, four days after the Jacobson disappearance, that

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Speaker 1: a cattle farmer whose cattle grazed a patch of land

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00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,760
Speaker 1: on an abandoned farm about six miles west of Salt Lake,

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00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: fifteen miles northwest of where Jacobson was last seen alive,

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00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,439
Speaker 1: stepped into an old barn to grab some feed for

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Speaker 1: the animals. Inside the shed was an old, unplugged and

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00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:14,159
Speaker 1: long abandoned refrigerator. The farmer, Tom Underwood, later said he

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Speaker 1: didn't know what had prompted him to open the refrigerator door,

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Speaker 1: but when he did, he found the cold dead body

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Speaker 1: of Seawan Jacobson crouched down inside it. Despite being fifteen

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Speaker 1: miles from his hometown and being judged to have likely

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00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:43,439
Speaker 1: died the day he went missing, the autopsy conducted on

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00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: Shawn Jacobson found no indication of foul play. As a result,

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00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 1: the fourteen year old death was judged to have been

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00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: caused by asphyxiation after either accidentally shutting himself in the

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00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:01,640
Speaker 1: random refrigerator he found on a random farm that he'd

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00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:06,680
Speaker 1: likely never been to before, or he'd deliberately locked himself

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00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 1: inside to end his life. A single set of footprints

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00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: leading into the barn, thought of being Jacobsen's, seemed all

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00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: but confirmed to police that he'd been alone when he died,

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00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:26,120
Speaker 1: and the case was promptly closed. By early October, there

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00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: was still no sign of twelve year old Johnny Gosh,

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00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: nor any further evidence to help locate him, and despite

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00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 1: Noreen and John's insistence that their son had been abducted,

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00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:42,199
Speaker 1: the police continued to resist their demand to escalate his

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00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: case from being one of a simple missing person to

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00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:51,680
Speaker 1: a potential victim of kidnapping. At some point, the Goshes

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00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: were approached by a man named Kenneth Wooden, a child

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Speaker 1: safety expert who often lectured on the subject Iowa State University.

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Speaker 1: Like many would and couldn't help but be caught up

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00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: in the Goshes story. But more than most, he felt

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00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 1: compelled to reach out to Noreen and John. What he

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00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: had to tell them would shake them to the corps.

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00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 1: It seemed obvious to him that if Johnny had decided

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00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,439
Speaker 1: to run away that Sunday morning, there was no way

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00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: he would have taken the dog out with him. Clearly,

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00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 1: as the Goshes had been insisting the whole time, their

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00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: son had been kidnapped. More than that, for someone who

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00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: had experience analyzing cases of child abduction and abuse, it

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00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 1: was Wooden's belief that Johnny had likely been abducted by

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00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: a pedophile. Back in the early nineteen eighties, Pedophilia was

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00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: not a word that most people were familiar with, and

347
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 1: it was one that understandably struck fear into Nawing and

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00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: John's hearts. Though they'd feared the worst before, this was

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00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: something they'd yet to fully countenance. Despite the terrifying implications

350
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: of what Wooden was saying, it was none the less

351
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 1: reassuring to finally have someone with his type of experience

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00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: on their side, and his next piece of advice would

353
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:29,679
Speaker 1: prove invaluable for navigating the months to come. Whatever you

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00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: have to do to keep the story alive, he told them,

355
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 1: do it, because if you don't, law enforcement will move

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00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: on with their lives and go on their merry way.

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00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: And so the increasingly hopeless and desperate couple took it

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00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 1: upon themselves to keep Johnny's case in the news. In

359
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:56,119
Speaker 1: one report, his mother, gnawing her tired and anguished face

360
00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: barely holding it together, turns to the camera and says, Johnny,

361
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 1: we love you. We're waiting for you to come back.

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00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 1: We're doing everything in our power to get you back,

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00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: and we're leaving the porch light on every night a

364
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: teen solo hiker who was terrorized for days by unknown

365
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: figures dressed in white. Two cops who quit their job

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00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,199
Speaker 1: at a local theater because of unexplained encounters with an

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00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: alleged demon. An isolated forest in Canada where people keep

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00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: turning up headless. These are just some of the strange,

369
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,879
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious stories you'll hear each week on the

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00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 1: Mister Balland podcast. In each episode, Mister Balland shares real

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00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 1: life haunting accounts, like the case of Hailey Zeger, who

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00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: disappeared from a hiking trail for fifty one hours. When

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00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: search and rescuers finally found her and asked how she survived,

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00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,640
Speaker 1: she said simply that a friend helped her. She described

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00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: as friend as four years old with black hair and

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00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 1: brown eyes. This friend was initially dismissed until they realized

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00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: that a girl had gone missing in that exact spot

378
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: twenty three years earlier and was never found. She was

379
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: four years old with black hair and brown eyes. Hey

380
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: Prime members listened to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Missed

381
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:26,040
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382
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: the app to day Soon reported sightings of Johnny began

383
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: to flood in from all over the country, including the

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00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 1: apparent sighting by one woman in Oklahoma of a young

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00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: boy who she claimed begged her for help before being

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00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: swiftly dragged off into a car by two men. None

387
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 1: of it came to anything, but Noreen and john would

388
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: not let up. Now convinced that Johnny had been taken

389
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: by a pedophile or to be sold to a pedophile

390
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: ring for use in child pornography, they urged police Chief

391
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: or Volconey to do more for their son, imploring him

392
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 1: to bring in the FBI and widen the search, but

393
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: Cooney continued to resist their demands, and soon many in

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00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: the force began to grow tired of the Goshes, In

395
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 1: particular Norene, apparent desperate to find her missing son, who

396
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: many felt was too pushy in her approach. Some even

397
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 1: asked to be removed from the case so they wouldn't

398
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 1: have to deal with her anymore. The couple were referred

399
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: to as loons by some in the FBI, and Cooney

400
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: himself was quoted as saying, I really don't give a

401
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: damn what nor In Gosh has to say. I really

402
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: don't give a damn what she thinks. As a result,

403
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: public opinion soon turned again them two, and before long

404
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 1: Johnny's case had drifted out of the news. Feeling abandoned

405
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: by the police and utterly helpless, the Goshes hired their

406
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: own private detectives at a rate of two hundred dollars

407
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: a day to keep the search for Johnny alive or

408
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: the while to help deal with it all, the couple

409
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: turned their attention to the specifics of the alleged crime

410
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 1: and doing what they could to raise awareness of the

411
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: dangers that potential pedophiles could pose to children. In time,

412
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 1: the goshes tireless efforts led to the enacting of a

413
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: new law named in honor of their son, which compelled

414
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: police to search for missing children as soon as they

415
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: reported missing, rather than wait seventy two hours before considering

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00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 1: it a possible crime. In the summer of nineteen eighty three,

417
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 1: eighteen offers made allegations against police Chief Orvale Cooney, accusing

418
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: him of racism and numerous counts of corruption, from fixing

419
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: tickets for friends to interfering with an investigation into his

420
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: own son. Cooney resigned from the fourth six months later. Sadly,

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00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: for Noreen and John Cooney's departure did little to alter

422
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: the overriding sense among the West Des Moines police that

423
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: Johnny was far more likely to run away than being kidnapped.

424
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 1: After all, why would people go around abducting children from

425
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: street corners when they could much more easily prey on

426
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: the homeless and drug addicts, they reasoned. And still, the

427
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: sightings of Johnny by then from all across America continued

428
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,479
Speaker 1: to come in. By nineteen eighty four, there were twelve

429
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 1: separate apparent sightings of him in Florida alone. Each time

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00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: a sighting was made, the gosh's private detectives would rush

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00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: to the location, but would always be too late to

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00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: pick up any meaningful leads. One night in February nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty four, Noreene claimed she received three phone calls from

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00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 1: a boy she was convinced was Johnny. The boy, who

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00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: she claimed seemed to be drunk or drugged, made little sense,

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00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: and the calls were deemed too short to be traceable.

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00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 1: It was just after five am on the morning of Sunday,

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00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: August twelfth, nineteen eighty four, when thirteen year old Eugene Martin,

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00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:53,960
Speaker 1: another Des Moines Register and Tribune newspaper deliverer left his

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00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: home in South Des Moines, about a twenty minute drive

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00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 1: from where Johnny Gosh had last been seen two years before,

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00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: to begin his newspaper round. At some point around six am,

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00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 1: Eugene's route manager began receiving calls from irritated customers demanding

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00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: to know where then newspapers were. Having never had any

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00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: trouble from Eugene before, the confused manager apologized profusely to

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00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,960
Speaker 1: his customers, then set out to look for the boy.

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00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: It had just gone six to fifteen am when the

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00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 1: manager arrived at the corner of Southwest fourteenth and high

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00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: View Street to find Eugene's paper sack with ten undelivered

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00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: newspapers poking out of it, seemingly abandoned on the pavement,

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00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: and Eugene Martin was nowhere to be found. You've been

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00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained Season six, episode twenty five Once There

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00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,800
Speaker 1: Was Away, Part one. Part two will be released next Friday,

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00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:11,799
Speaker 1: November eleventh. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to

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00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,279
Speaker 1: help supporters, you can now do so via Patreon. To

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00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,720
Speaker 1: receive access to add free episodes, just go to patron

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Speaker 1: dot com Forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained,

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00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 1: the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never

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00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to

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00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,

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00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including

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00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.

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00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,

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00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts

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00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.

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00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like

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Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast

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Speaker 1: dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and face book

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Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, forward slash Unexplained Podcast