UK UK - Andrew Gosden, 14, Doncaster, South Yorks, 14 Sep 2007 #2

[dotr]

Thank you for this information. As you say, maybe he intended returning on a different day. Did he know anybody in London? Apologies if all this information has already been stated, I'll have to read through the thread from the start.

Welcome to Andrew's thread, there is a decent summary of the case at this 2018 link..rbbm

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vbjwb3/the-strange-disappearance-of-andrew- gosden

''Andrew Gosden was born on the 10th of July, 1993. He lived in Balby, Doncaster, a suburb of the South Yorkshire town that is largely unremarkable, save for the fact the classic BBC sitcom Open All Hours was once filmed there. Andrew was smart. He was a member of the Young Gifted and Talented programme, a scheme designed to enhance the educational development of the top 5 percent of schoolchildren. Teachers at McAuley Catholic High School believed he was a shoe-in for Cambridge.
"Andrew was too clever by half," remembers Kevin. "He tended to say little about school, but we remember him coming back from summer school for gifted and talented kids, and he was absolutely enthused about what he had been doing. To be honest, I think Andrew saw school as something you sort of had to do just in order to have choices open to you for adult life."



''The police took the computers from Andrew's school and from Doncaster Library – they found nothing. Sony confirmed he didn't have an online account on his PSP. He had no social media; "he just didn’t seem very social", Charlotte told the Thin Air podcast last year.
Though his parents are religious, Andrew stopped going to church 18 months before his appearance. He was a Cub Scout, though stopped attending a few months prior to the 14th of September. That summer, his parents had suggested he stay with his grandmother in London, but he didn’t want to go.''

 

[Helen_Stewart]

Welcome to Andrew's thread, there is a decent summary of the case at this 2018 link..rbbm

The Strange Disappearance of Andrew Gosden

Eleven years ago, Andrew Gosden left home never to be seen again. Here, his father tells us about the family's efforts to track him down.

www.vice.com

''Andrew Gosden was born on the 10th of July, 1993. He lived in Balby, Doncaster, a suburb of the South Yorkshire town that is largely unremarkable, save for the fact the classic BBC sitcom Open All Hours was once filmed there. Andrew was smart. He was a member of the Young Gifted and Talented programme, a scheme designed to enhance the educational development of the top 5 percent of schoolchildren. Teachers at McAuley Catholic High School believed he was a shoe-in for Cambridge.
"Andrew was too clever by half," remembers Kevin. "He tended to say little about school, but we remember him coming back from summer school for gifted and talented kids, and he was absolutely enthused about what he had been doing. To be honest, I think Andrew saw school as something you sort of had to do just in order to have choices open to you for adult life."
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''The police took the computers from Andrew's school and from Doncaster Library – they found nothing. Sony confirmed he didn't have an online account on his PSP. He had no social media; "he just didn’t seem very social", Charlotte told the Thin Air podcast last year.
Though his parents are religious, Andrew stopped going to church 18 months before his appearance. He was a Cub Scout, though stopped attending a few months prior to the 14th of September. That summer, his parents had suggested he stay with his grandmother in London, but he didn’t want to go.''

Thank you for this. I am reading the thread from the start as well. I always hoped he would be found, like someone I knew who ran away to London at 15 years old, many years ago. She was lucky to be found after five days.
I sincerely hope one day, he shows up safe.

 

[WiseOwl]

Thank you for this information. As you say, maybe he intended returning on a different day. Did he know anybody in London? Apologies if all this information has already been stated, I'll have to read through the thread from the start.

Apparently Andrew's grandparents lived in London, as well as other relatives. He had visited London many times with his parents, although i cannot recall which part of London these relatives lived in.

 

[Diavola]

Do we know what games he had for the PSP?

 

[Helen_Stewart]

Apparently Andrew's grandparents lived in London, as well as other relatives. He had visited London many times with his parents, although i cannot recall which part of London these relatives lived in.

Still going through the thread so not quite up to speed, but did any of his relatives in London have anything to say about his visit there?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

He had not spoken to any of his London relatives about visiting or staying there with them that day. They didn't know he was going to London.
After he went missing, it took a few days for everyone to figure out where he went.

 

[Helen_Stewart]

He had not spoken to any of his London relatives about visiting or staying there with them that day. They didn't know he was going to London.
After he went missing, it took a few days for everyone to figure out where he went.

I thought that would be the case, because if he was trying to cover up his journey to London, why would he stay with relatives, who would inform his parents where he was.
So he didn't want his family to know where he was going or why.
Just one question, why did it take a few days for people to know he was missing?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

They knew he was missing that same evening, but they didn't know right away where he went. It took a few days for police to figure out that he left Doncaster and took a train to London.

I believe he just intended to have a day to himself in London and return home in the evening when he felt like it (hence not yet buying a specific return ticket), but that something happened in London (?) that kept him from returning home.

 

[wcasewatch]

Back in 2007 you could talk to people 'live' while playing on a PSP. I know because my 10 year-old nephew had one. I remember visiting him one day, i can't remember what game he was playing (maybe Halo?), but he had his headphones on and was talking to someone. I asked who he was talking to and he said some kids from America - i was shocked! I never knew that was possible, and neither did his parents when i told them.

I believe it's extremely likely Andrew was talking to someone while playing on his PSP, and that's why he ended up travelling to London. We know he bought a one-way ticket, maybe this person had offered to pay for his ticket back home? Or even offered to drive him back to Doncaster?

I always have the belief that the truth about Andrew will surface one day.

They contacted Sony and learned that he hadn't played online with his PSP.

 

[Aluev]

Welcome to Andrew's thread, there is a decent summary of the case at this 2018 link..rbbm

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vbjwb3/the-strange-disappearance-of-andrew- gosden

''... That summer, his parents had suggested he stay with his grandmother in London, but he didn’t want to go.''

So he didn't want to go live with his grandmother in London during the summer and preferred to stay at home. Was he home alone during the summer months while his parents were working? Or was his sister also with him?

 

[BethAnn777]

I wonder if there were by other days Andrew could have gone to London the summer before he went missing? Were his parents home with him all summer? Could he have gone to London for the day other days as well? He went missing in September, if his parents were not home with him all summer he could have gone other days as well or perhaps someone from London was coming to see him? Was his sister home with him all summer?

I just wonder how much alone time he had that summer?

 

[WiseOwl]

They contacted Sony and learned that he hadn't played online with his PSP.

Thanks for the info about the PSP.

While it's difficult to ascertain whether Andrew had planned the trip to London or if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, i do believe that he intended to stay in London for a few days, hence taking £200 out of his account and also not buying a return ticket. There are of course plenty of places to visit and also to get food and drink in London, but what were his plans for the evening and for sleeping? I think in mid-September it would start to get dark around 7 - 7.30pm, so where would he go around this time?

Of course, we don't know if anything happened to him on that day, but if he did get through it ok i can't help but wonder what he had planned to do that night.

 

[BethAnn777]

The fact that he’d never taken off unannounced for London over night, without permission… it’s just so hard for me to believe that he decided to do this spur of the moment. He ditched school, another thing he supposedly never did before. Why not at least wait until the weekend so he didn’t have to miss school? I just can’t believe he did all this on a whim.

 

[Diavola]

I wonder if there were by other days Andrew could have gone to London the summer before he went missing? Were his parents home with him all summer? Could he have gone to London for the day other days as well? He went missing in September, if his parents were not home with him all summer he could have gone other days as well or perhaps someone from London was coming to see him? Was his sister home with him all summer?

I just wonder how much alone time he had that summer?

Interesting point.
He could have done this dozens of times and we have no way of knowing for sure.

 

[WiseOwl]

The fact that he’d never taken off unannounced for London over night, without permission… it’s just so hard for me to believe that he decided to do this spur of the moment. He ditched school, another thing he supposedly never did before. Why not at least wait until the weekend so he didn’t have to miss school? I just can’t believe he did all this on a whim.

His parents were probably at home at the weekend, so by going on a school day he didn't have to explain what he was up to. The fact he went out in his school uniform could point to a possible subterfuge as regards his parents, making them think he was on his way to school when he obviously had other plans.

The 14th September 2007 was on a Friday, Andrew had put his school uniform in the washing machine and left his blazer over the back of a chair. Is this something he regularly did on a Friday, to have his uniform washed ready for the following Monday? Again, did he do this to fool his parents (they were not aware that he wasn't at home at first after they had got in) or did he expect to back home ready for school on Monday?

 

[BethAnn777]

His parents were probably at home at the weekend, so by going on a school day he didn't have to explain what he was up to. The fact he went out in his school uniform could point to a possible subterfuge as regards his parents, making them think he was on his way to school when he obviously had other plans.

The 14th September 2007 was on a Friday, Andrew had put his school uniform in the washing machine and left his blazer over the back of a chair. Is this something he regularly did on a Friday, to have his uniform washed ready for the following Monday? Again, did he do this to fool his parents (they were not aware that he wasn't at home at first after they had got in) or did he expect to back home ready for school on Monday?

Thank you. That does make sense, but then that makes me think he planned to be home before they got home from work, so why not buy a return ticket?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Interesting point.
He could have done this dozens of times and we have no way of knowing for sure.

He would have had to pay for the train tickets each time, though, and there wasn't evidence of that (such as bank withdrawals). He also had not been marked absent at school before.

 

[BethAnn777]

He would have had to pay for the train tickets each time, though, and there wasn't evidence of that (such as bank withdrawals). He also had not been marked absent at school before.

For the folks who believe he was meeting someone in London, or wherever he went from London, that person could have been giving him money so there wouldn’t have been any missing money or withdrawals.

He went missing in September, so if he was off school all summer, just weeks before he went missing, he could have been going back and forth to London without anyone knowing. If parents were at work and if his sister was gone or in and out, who would be the wiser? Even if his parents were home, Andrew still could have gone to London by saying he was going to a friends, etc. When I was his age, some summer days I would be gone all day and evening just out and about.

 

[dogperson]

I just recently began reading stories and listening to podcasts about Andrew, so forgive me if this has been mentioned before (this thread is almost 40 pages long now and I can't recall everything in it), but what really stood out to me was that he stopped going to church and stopped being in Cub Scouts a while before his disappearance, then just prior to his disappearance he stopped riding the bus even though walking home would take him nearly an hour and a half. This makes me wonder whether he was avoiding a person or persons who would have been at his same church and in his Cub Scout group and on his bus. I haven't found any info that he was being bullied though, which was my first thought. But if so, something about that situation might have prompted his disappearance or have led to something happening to him. It would be interesting to know if the same person attended the same church, was involved with the same Cub Scout group, and rode the same bus home from school.

Of course another possibility, and perhaps even a more likely one, is that avoiding these activities gave him more time to see someone who was not at those locations, which puts us back at the theory that someone was grooming him. I wonder who lived or worked along his route home and if that avenue of investigation has been checked out. If someone was grooming him they might have encouraged him to meet them those couple of times he walked home instead of taking the bus. It could have been during those meetings that they asked him to meet them in London. It seems there would have to be a compelling reason for a kid to prefer walking home along such a long route rather than taking the bus. I had to walk a bit less than a mile home from school when I was a kid, from the point where the bus dropped me and a bunch of other kids off at the end of a long rural unpaved road, and it was not always pleasant due to heat or cold or rain. If the bus had come all the way to my door I'd have ridden the bus rather than walking, no doubt about it, and my walk home wasn't nearly as long as Andrew's. Something caused him to want to take the very long walk instead and that seems like an unusual choice.

One final thought is that his avoidance of activities he formerly participated in could be a symptom of depression. His parents don't appear to believe he was depressed, though, just that he enjoyed solitary activities. But stopping his participation in these activities and even preferring a very long and solitary walk home from school sounds like he was withdrawing from things that required socializing and that can often happen with depression.

 

[Konstantin]

another possibility, and perhaps even a more likely one, is that avoiding these activities gave him more time to see someone who was not at those locations

Or he was just a teenager and scouts and church weren't cool anymore. Maybe he'd decided he didn't believe in God or he didn't want to do something just because his parents did. He was an adolescent. They do stuff like that