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

[ChatteringBirds]

The questions I’m going to ask likely seem to have obvious answers, but here goes:
1. Has Andrew’s family confirmed if the Slipknot shirt was Andrew’s?
2. Was the shirt missing from his closet?

1. We should check the collection of photos of him from their family's website to see if there are other photos of him in that shirt. I could try to check tomorrow if no one gets to it.

2. It's a fact that he wore it to London and then no one seems to know what happened next, so...how could it not be missing?

I am intrigued, though, about how you are approaching the case. Do you have more thoughts you would share?

 

[BethAnn777]

1. We should check the collection of photos of him from their family's website to see if there are other photos of him in that shirt. I could try to check tomorrow if no one gets to it.

2. It's a fact that he wore it to London and then no one seems to know what happened next, so...how could it not be missing?

I am intrigued, though, about how you are approaching the case. Do you have more thoughts you would share?

I had one of those late night thoughts that I dismissed the next morning, but it kept nagging at me.

Feel free to tell me no way or poke all the holes, but here goes…

What if the footage of Andrew is not from the day he went missing? Releasing that visual could have been a direct message to someone suspected in his disappearance. As if to say, you know and we know Andrew was not wearing that Slipknot shirt the day he disappeared but rather on a different day when he came to London.

I highly doubt my own thought, but since it did pop into my mind and we have so little to go on, why not share it.

Often law enforcement knows a lot more than we do. I really, really wonder if Andrew had been visiting London that summer while his parents were at work and he made it home in time before they got home so no one was the wiser. Or he even came home in the evening and said he was with a friend or at the park, etc. No reason to suspect a thing.

I used to think Andrew went to London to self-harm, but I am not sold on that idea anymore. Not for any particular reason.

 

[Inspector Evans]

1. We should check the collection of photos of him from their family's website to see if there are other photos of him in that shirt. I could try to check tomorrow if no one gets to it.

2. It's a fact that he wore it to London and then no one seems to know what happened next, so...how could it not be missing?

I am intrigued, though, about how you are approaching the case. Do you have more thoughts you would share?

Quick google shirt has in pictured with all of these band's logos:

Muse
Funeral for a Friend.
HIM
System of a Down.

He is also pictured wearing Slipknot t-shirt with someone's arm around him. Presume it is his Dad from family trip.

So band t shirts were his choice of casual wear whenever he wasn't going to School seemingly.

 

[BethAnn777]

Quick google shirt has in pictured with all of these band's logos:

Muse
Funeral for a Friend.
HIM
System of a Down.

He is also pictured wearing Slipknot t-shirt with someone's arm around him. Presume it is his Dad from family trip.

So band t shirts were his choice of casual wear whenever he wasn't going to School seemingly.

Thank you for taking a look. I just did too and see the picture of him wearing the Slipknot shirt. So, that just leaves my other question which is if the shirt was missing from his closet or not. There’s no way for us to know, and I acknowledge it was a conspiracy theorist line of thinking that popped into my head in the middle of the night.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I guess if he did go to London on a prior day, he would have needed a stash of secret cash, but that's not too difficult. (Other hidden birthday or Christmas money, saved-up allowances/spending money.)

So that gives me a thought. Why did he use his bank account money only, instead of the birthday money he had at home? He withdrew the maximum amount possible of 200£. Why didn't he bring the birthday money and then withdraw only 100£ from the bank?
Possibilities. Anything I'm missing?:

- He didn't feel "right" about using the birthday money for whatever purposes he had in mind so had to withdraw the full needed amount.
- He actually forgot he had cash at home.
- He wanted to leave a papertrail (the withdrawal would eventually appear on his bank statement.)

 

[lebvidox]

I guess if he did go to London on a prior day, he would have needed a stash of secret cash, but that's not too difficult. (Other hidden birthday or Christmas money, saved-up allowances/spending money.)

So that gives me a thought. Why did he use his bank account money only, instead of the birthday money he had at home? He withdrew the maximum amount possible of 200£. Why didn't he bring the birthday money and then withdraw only 100£ from the bank?
Possibilities. Anything I'm missing?:

- He didn't feel "right" about using the birthday money for whatever purposes he had in mind so had to withdraw the full needed amount.
- He actually forgot he had cash at home.
- He wanted to leave a papertrail (the withdrawal would eventually appear on his bank statement.)

He had to go to the ATM that morning to wait for his parents to leave the house. He took whatever he had unsure of how much he would spend. The 200 quid covered it. He didn't need to get the 100 from his home.

 

[rvlvr]

I’d never considered the possibility that Andrew had made this journey before. Granted, this isn’t a case I’ve followed religiously, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he might’ve visited London ‘on the QT’ during the summer holiday - an interesting one to ponder.

 

[lebvidox]

Whenever I look back at this case, all I can see is a teenager who was still seen as an innocent chid in the eyes of his parents. See here: e looks like an average teenager in the King's Cross footage, not the baby-faced boy in the most promoted pictures, plus he was taller than his older sister and not that much shorter than his father. This boy was running circles against his parents who believed everything he said.

 

[rvlvr]

I agree re his appearance, a lot of people say he looked young for his age but I disagree, in the footage I think he looks like a typical ‘year ten’ boy. Teenagers change so quickly, even in the space of 6 months - not just in terms of height, but also facially. IMO Andrew’s face seems less soft and round, and his features more defined, compared to the pictures that usually accompany stories about his disappearance - pictures which potentially give a slightly misleading impression of who he was.

 

[Inspector Evans]

I’d never considered the possibility that Andrew had made this journey before. Granted, this isn’t a case I’ve followed religiously, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he might’ve visited London ‘on the QT’ during the summer holiday - an interesting one to ponder.

Again we only have the families account but apparently he was leading a more reclusive and enclosed existence in summer 2007 compared to previous years? Stopped wanting to go to summer camps (which may or may not be relevant to his disappearance). Infact Kevin Gosden actually said they wanted to get him out of the house and actually asked if he fancied going to London to visit a grandparent.

So a little odd if he wasn't up for this yet was making trips down to London anyway in that period.

 

[lebvidox]

Again we only have the families account but apparently he was leading a more reclusive and enclosed existence in summer 2007 compared to previous years? Stopped wanting to go to summer camps (which may or may not be relevant to his disappearance). Infact Kevin Gosden actually said they wanted to get him out of the house and actually asked if he fancied going to London to visit a grandparent.

So a little odd if he wasn't up for this yet was making trips down to London anyway in that period.

He was talking with people online on his PSP. The family just believed he was playing offline games while locked away in that cellar for god-knows how many hours.

 

[maamager]

He was talking with people online on his PSP. The family just believed he was playing offline games while locked away in that cellar for god-knows how many hours.

source? there isn’t any evidence he was talking to anyone on his PSP. we haven’t found the PSP.

 

[lebvidox]

source? there isn’t any evidence he was talking to anyone on his PSP. we haven’t found the PSP.

Logic, experience and common sense. Plus his parents knowing nothing of what that boy was doing.

 

[maamager]

Logic, experience and common sense. Plus his parents knowing nothing of what that boy was doing.

logic, experience, and common sense don’t move the needle. hopefully we get that tangible evidence but as of now, there isn’t a shred that suggests he was using his PSP to communicate online.

 

[lebvidox]

logic, experience, and common sense don’t move the needle. hopefully we get that tangible evidence but as of now, there isn’t a shred that suggests he was using his PSP to communicate online.

Nothing else have move this particular needle so far, so your take is as good as mine.

 

[maamager]

Nothing else have move this particular needle so far, so your take is as good as mine.

not trying to offend you here! just pointing out that you’ll need to bring evidence when you say something as a fact, such as your original statement that AG was online chatting on his PSP.

 

[lebvidox]

not trying to offend you here! just pointing out that you’ll need to bring evidence when you say something as a fact, such as your original statement that AG was talking to someone on his PSP.

I guess I forgot to include 'IMO' before stating my view. My bad!

 

[rvlvr]

So a little odd if he wasn't up for this yet was making trips down to London anyway in that period.

Maybe. But going to London to visit your grandparents, and secretly going to London on an adventure / to meet someone, are quite different things imo. Likewise, he might’ve just felt he’d outgrown something like summer camp. I’m from a different generation to Andrew but things I enjoyed doing aged 13 were very different to the things I enjoyed doing at 14.

 

[lebvidox]

Maybe. But going to London to visit your grandparents, and secretly going to London on an adventure / to meet someone, are quite different things imo. Likewise, he might’ve just felt he’d outgrown something like summer camp. I’m from a different generation to Andrew but things I enjoyed doing aged 13 were very different to the things I enjoyed doing at 14.

I'm sure he was acting behind his parents' back for a long time. He didn't just wake up one day and went so far without testing the waters before. The parents just believed anything Andrew said. 'Oh so distracted that boy, just lost another mobile', or 'Oh he came home from school late because he chose to walk in this nice summer day'. Come on...

 

[davidt]

I guess if he did go to London on a prior day, he would have needed a stash of secret cash, but that's not too difficult. (Other hidden birthday or Christmas money, saved-up allowances/spending money.)

So that gives me a thought. Why did he use his bank account money only, instead of the birthday money he had at home? He withdrew the maximum amount possible of 200£. Why didn't he bring the birthday money and then withdraw only 100£ from the bank?
Possibilities. Anything I'm missing?:

- He didn't feel "right" about using the birthday money for whatever purposes he had in mind so had to withdraw the full needed amount.
- He actually forgot he had cash at home.
- He wanted to leave a paper trail (the withdrawal would eventually appear on his bank statement.)

I've always wondered if it was as simple as the birthday money and any other money he may have had at home was in the form of coins etc. If that was the case it may just have been the case he didn't want to lug around a bag of loose change.