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

[Cardgame]

It's not a jacket but his satchel, as seen in the King's Cross footage.

It does move more like a piece of material though. If you zoom in and stare at the black shape part below the waist, it has a kind of fluidity to it that doesn't look like a satchel. It flaps.

ETA: JMO but to me the shoes look different also. White trainers on the yorkshire CCTV and black converse style at Kings X. MOO.

 

[lebvidox]

It does move more like a piece of material though. If you zoom in and stare at the black shape part below the waist, it has a kind of fluidity to it that doesn't look like a satchel. It flaps.

ETA: JMO but to me the shoes look different also. White trainers on the yorkshire CCTV and black converse style at Kings X. MOO.

Exactly. The movement is quite distinctive for at least some reasonable doubt to be entertained that either the person in this footage - Andrew or not Andrew - had different items of clothing in their possession. It could just be the jacket was placed inside the satchel when this some boy was spotted in King's Cross. But affirming there's no way this person in Doncaster could be carrying a black jacket around their waist is not something I can't get behind.

 

[rvlvr]

ETA: JMO but to me the shoes look different also. White trainers on the yorkshire CCTV and black converse style at Kings X. MOO.

I think it’s Andrew. The CCTV quality in Doncaster is pretty poor but those shoes look black and white to me.

Continuing my line of thought in my earlier post, maybe Andrew Gosden went to London that day simply because he was tired of being a model student and just wanted a day free. Something unlikely then happened to him, unconnected to his decision to leave for London.

I think this is the theory I’m most sold on. Teenagers often do inexplicable things and push boundaries. The fact he got to London apparently unaided shows he was quite a capable lad, I think he would’ve thought that getting around London wouldn’t prove too tricky either, he’d been before and possibly he would’ve planned to stick largely to the beaten path.

The problem with this line of thought is that it is utterly unprovable.

Imo we’ll never know what happened to Andrew, sadly. I don’t think any of the theories are provable at this point.

 

[Cardgame]

I think it’s Andrew. The CCTV quality in Doncaster is pretty poor but those shoes look black and white to me.

Yes you're prob right, and police must have experts who analyse this kind of footage.

 

[RandyMcDonald]

I think this is the theory I’m most sold on. Teenagers often do inexplicable things and push boundaries. The fact he got to London apparently unaided shows he was quite a capable lad, I think he would’ve thought that getting around London wouldn’t prove too tricky either, he’d been before and possibly he would’ve planned to stick largely to the beaten path.

There is no reason to think he could not be capable enough to play hookie in a city he was familiar with.

I would suggest that taking the PSP without a charger may well have indicated a plan to return, at least before it ran out of power. (Mind, he might well gave forgotten it.)

Imo we’ll never know what happened to Andrew, sadly. I don’t think any of the theories are provable at this point.

That is it. If Andrew had a prior relationship with someone who did him harm, even if it was wholly online in principle this relationship might have been discoverable. (Might. If he had a free online email account containing correspondence somewhere, I think it probably would have been deleted automatically without any further logins.)

Without a prior relationship, the only way this relationship could be discovered would be through chance. And this assumes that there was a relationship: Maybe Andrew was harmed at random, or maybe he even had a freak accident in somewhere isolated.

 

[elframo]

There's a new podcast series called The Unsolved Podcast which recently covered Andrew's case.

Ep 9: Where is Andrew Gosden?

Podcast Episode · The Unsolved Podcast · 2025-09-01 · 28m

podcasts.apple.com

 

[Vivette]

First time posting in his threads, but Andrew lives rent free in my head and I hope there'll be some sort of closure someday.

A couple of things I have been thinking about:
People have been asking "Why London? Why not city X or city Y, closer by?" Obviously we'll neve know, but for me.. I'm in the Netherlands, and I love Amsterdam, even before I had ever been there. So much so that I moved there, and indeed, it feels like this is where I belong. Groningen, Zwolle or Utrecht to name a few are all closer to where I used to live, but I have never wanted to go. I just wanted to go to Amsterdam, simple as that.

The Andyroo post seemed like.. something. But then with the needing 200 pound for rent.. That just seems like a troll to me. If the amount had been any other number, I would have been inclined to believe it could be Andrew.

If the sighting at Pizza Hunt is legit, and I think I do believe it is, then meeting someone in London makes no sense to me. This was 1.5 to 2.5 hours? after getting to London? And he had been alone the entire period? It could be that they had agreed to meet at a later time, and it wouldn't have made sense for him to hang around his town where he could have been spotted.. But still, why would you agree to meet at 15.00 or later, while you had to travel at 09.30? Plus, I read somewhere that this train had been delayed, which is why Andrew took this train. If he had wanted or needed to have this particular train due to meeting someone at a specific earlier time, he would have been too late if the train had run on time. So I guess I'm going with a day out, by himself. There was no one waiting for him.

Apologies if my English sucks.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

@Vivette Your English is great, and I tend to agree, but it does make it all the more baffling.

 

[TheRockingRev]

First time posting in his threads, but Andrew lives rent free in my head and I hope there'll be some sort of closure someday.

A couple of things I have been thinking about:
People have been asking "Why London? Why not city X or city Y, closer by?" Obviously we'll neve know, but for me.. I'm in the Netherlands, and I love Amsterdam, even before I had ever been there. So much so that I moved there, and indeed, it feels like this is where I belong. Groningen, Zwolle or Utrecht to name a few are all closer to where I used to live, but I have never wanted to go. I just wanted to go to Amsterdam, simple as that.

The Andyroo post seemed like.. something. But then with the needing 200 pound for rent.. That just seems like a troll to me. If the amount had been any other number, I would have been inclined to believe it could be Andrew.

If the sighting at Pizza Hunt is legit, and I think I do believe it is, then meeting someone in London makes no sense to me. This was 1.5 to 2.5 hours? after getting to London? And he had been alone the entire period? It could be that they had agreed to meet at a later time, and it wouldn't have made sense for him to hang around his town where he could have been spotted.. But still, why would you agree to meet at 15.00 or later, while you had to travel at 09.30? Plus, I read somewhere that this train had been delayed, which is why Andrew took this train. If he had wanted or needed to have this particular train due to meeting someone at a specific earlier time, he would have been too late if the train had run on time. So I guess I'm going with a day out, by himself. There was no one waiting for him.

Apologies if my English sucks.

I agree with certain parts of your post - but I don't necessarily see any problem with Andrew having arrived earlier if he was meeting someone. As you say, a bit like Amsterdam for you - perhaps it's just somewhere he enjoyed going to. He probably wanted to get the most of his time there.
I fully agree with him wanting to get away from the town he lived in as soon as possible, so even taking that early train makes sense. He could've gone to the British Museum (somewhere I believe he had enjoyed visiting) as it was an easy walk from Kings Cross - or multiple other places.
It doesn't IMO rule out him going to meet someone. That person's day may have meant he couldn't meet him earlier - or perhaps whatever they were planning to do that day (a gig?) didn't start until late.
But for the biggest reason for meeting someone later is that the longer they hung around with Andrew the more likely they would be seen and remembered by the public, or picked up on CCTV.

 

[Vivette]

I agree with certain parts of your post - but I don't necessarily see any problem with Andrew having arrived earlier if he was meeting someone. As you say, a bit like Amsterdam for you - perhaps it's just somewhere he enjoyed going to. He probably wanted to get the most of his time there.
I fully agree with him wanting to get away from the town he lived in as soon as possible, so even taking that early train makes sense. He could've gone to the British Museum (somewhere I believe he had enjoyed visiting) as it was an easy walk from Kings Cross - or multiple other places.
It doesn't IMO rule out him going to meet someone. That person's day may have meant he couldn't meet him earlier - or perhaps whatever they were planning to do that day (a gig?) didn't start until late.
But for the biggest reason for meeting someone later is that the longer they hung around with Andrew the more likely they would be seen and remembered by the public, or picked up on CCTV.

Yeah, maybe. But nothing points to him having any contact with anyone at all. So when I add everything up, to me he went out on his own.

But honestly, I guess the odds of getting murdered or accidentally dying the one time you leave alone for London are nihil, so anything could have happened apparently and is fair game anyway in my book.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

From September 8, 2025:

Police issue update on missing boy after false information is spread

South Yorkshire Police’s investigation into the disappearance of Andrew Gosden, who went missing from Doncaster 18 years ago this week, is still ongoing, but officers have put out a warning about disinformation which is currently circulating.

www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk

From September 22, 2025:

My boy vanished age 14 - cops accused ME of murder…2nd theory was more chilling

THE dad of a missing schoolboy – who vanished 18 years ago – has revealed how cops initially pointed the finger at him before coming up with a bizarre second theory. Kevin Gosden claims…

www.thesun.co.uk

This one was recently published in a few areas of MSM and has a few (awful) details regarding the original investigation (not the current team on the case).

 

[RandyMcDonald]

Yeah, maybe. But nothing points to him having any contact with anyone at all. So when I add everything up, to me he went out on his own.

But honestly, I guess the odds of getting murdered or accidentally dying the one time you leave alone for London are nihil, so anything could have happened apparently and is fair game anyway in my book.

The only thing I think we can conclude is that something really unlikely happened to Andrew. It might have been an instance of grooming leading to murder, it might have been a spontaneous suicide attempt, it might even have been a bizarre accident no one expected. What if he had decided to run away from a whim, leaving London for another destination and meeting a fate someplace else?

 

[lebvidox]

From September 22, 2025:

My boy vanished age 14 - cops accused ME of murder…2nd theory was more chilling

THE dad of a missing schoolboy – who vanished 18 years ago – has revealed how cops initially pointed the finger at him before coming up with a bizarre second theory. Kevin Gosden claims…

www.thesun.co.uk

This one was recently published in a few areas of MSM and has a few (awful) details regarding the original investigation (not the current team on the case).

The article with Kevin Gosden is terribly misleading. He was NEVER accused of killing Andrew and OF COURSE police had to rule him out before entertaining other avenues.

 

[Gordon_]

The article with Kevin Gosden is terribly misleading. He was NEVER accused of killing Andrew and OF COURSE police had to rule him out before entertaining other avenues.

Is that true? I thought there was always a stage of the investigation where at first the police went heavy with the groomed online theory and when that led no where they turned on the father. And that pressure caused him to do a suicide attempt.

 

[Sarahlou]

Is that true? I thought there was always a stage of the investigation where at first the police went heavy with the groomed online theory and when that led no where they turned on the father. And that pressure caused him to do a suicide attempt.

I remember him saying something like he thought the police became fixated on him/the family.

 

[Bahshudc]

Builders make grim 'human bones' discovery outside church as police launch probe

Two builders uncovered a plastic bag containing what they believe to be human bones on October 6 in Doncaster, prompting South Yorkshire Police to cordon off a 50-metre area for investigation

www.mirror.co.uk

Interesting. In Doncaster today - be warned there are some graphic images of the remains on this link.

 

[FaerieDust]

Builders make grim 'human bones' discovery outside church as police launch probe

Two builders uncovered a plastic bag containing what they believe to be human bones on October 6 in Doncaster, prompting South Yorkshire Police to cordon off a 50-metre area for investigation

www.mirror.co.uk

Interesting. In Doncaster today - be warned there are some graphic images of the remains on this link.

Police have now confirmed that the bones found in the bag are human remains. Extensive enquiries have established that the remains were human, with officers saying they date back a "number of decades".
Police have said the discovery is not being treated as suspicious. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Cartwright said: "We are looking into the circumstances which resulted in these bones being found by contractors carrying out works in the area.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. However it seems like they think it’s a very old grave that has been dug up and moved. Next to a cemetery as well. Shame in a way, thought it might be a break in the case finally.

We are still thinking of you Andrew, wherever you are.

 

[davidt]

The only thing I think we can conclude is that something really unlikely happened to Andrew. It might have been an instance of grooming leading to murder, it might have been a spontaneous suicide attempt, it might even have been a bizarre accident no one expected. What if he had decided to run away from a whim, leaving London for another destination and meeting a fate someplace else?

Yes indeed. We can all speculate and that's all we can do as there is virtually nothing in the way of evidence or leads. To this day as far as I am aware mot one person has ever come forward to say Andrew had mentioned any plans or had given any hints at all and he left no clues behind. We just don't know what he was up to and whether or not what eventually happened to him was directly connected to what he was doing or if something else altogether happened. It seems him bunking off school and then going yo London came as a total surprise to everyone.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

In Doncaster today

I wonder if the plastic bag is the same type used by the workers when old remains are moved. Maybe some were accidentally set aside. (You can tell just how much I know about this stuff. Not sure who would be responsible for digging there or what they use.)

 

[Deadbeat]

I do wonder what the police had on the two people they arrested a few years ago? Evidently not much, as they were cleared but I’m still curious as to why they were arrested or considered suspects in the first place. Devices were seized, which made me think they could have had pictures of Andrew or had online contact with him in the past.