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

[Inspector Evans]

I wonder if he may have met someone who was going off to uni or back to uni. University start dates are generally later in sept or early oct rather than school start dates which are early sept.

Student accommodation varies wildly in the UK, from shared apartments & houses to solo studio+ apartments, if you go for a private rental instead of university associated accommodation. This would give more cover potentially for a perp or associate. I knew plenty of people in university who had partners, siblings and even parents stay over in their shared university accommodation, but that leaves a lot of opportunity for someone to be found out.

I can speak from experience here as I actually started university in September 2007 exactly a week later from the day he went missing so one of the reasons the case sticks in my mind.

 

[TheRockingRev]

Difficult to be precise but according to reports Andrew walked home from school once or possibly twice in the week before he disappeared. There doesn't appear to be any reports of anyone seeing Andrew walking and that we only have Andrew's word that he did so. So there are various possibilities and as usual we have absolutely nothing in the way of evidence. It's actually quite striking that Andrew doesn't seem have left a single hint or clue about anything. Not one person has come forward with anything of note and Andrew himself left nothing either. No one seems to have any notion of anything going on or that Andrew might have been meeting someone or anything at all.

One of the things we've not really had any clear clarification on is his movements and activities in the summer holiday weeks proceeding his disappearance. This would've been the perfect time for someone to groom him, and with the school term having started they would've had to have moved quickly in order to carry out their nefarious plan before he went back to a school routine.

 

[Inspector Evans]

One of the things we've not really had any clear clarification on is his movements and activities in the summer holiday weeks proceeding his disappearance. This would've been the perfect time for someone to groom him, and with the school term having started they would've had to have moved quickly in order to carry out their nefarious plan before he went back to a school routine.

Yes I'd love to know if he was always at home during 2007 summer holidays (as we know he was at the gifted camp for a few weeks the previous year). Was he coming home late some days? Perhaps that fateful visit to London wasn't actually the first trip in that period especially with no school to inform in the weeks before?

His parents also seem to be ones who encouraged their children to be independent well before late teenage years which is more the case in this era with them being alright with his sister going down to London at 15 to hand out her CV. That is certainly unusual.

And if they both go in after 5pm on the Friday they didn't realise until two hours later he wasn't actually in the house so seems they just let Andrew get up to what he wanted to do outside meal times.

 

[davidt]

Yes I'd love to know if he was always at home during 2007 summer holidays (as we know he was at the gifted camp for a few weeks the previous year). Was he coming home late some days? Perhaps that fateful visit to London wasn't actually the first trip in that period especially with no school to inform in the weeks before?

His parents also seem to be ones who encouraged their children to be independent well before late teenage years which is more the case in this era with them being alright with his sister going down to London at 15 to hand out her CV. That is certainly unusual.

And if they both go in after 5pm on the Friday they didn't realise until two hours later he wasn't actually in the house so seems they just let Andrew get up to what he wanted to do outside meal times.

About the only thing I've seen is that his parents tried to get him to visit his grandparents in London but he declined. I've always wondered if that was an attempt to get him out of the house?

 

[TheRockingRev]

Yes I'd love to know if he was always at home during 2007 summer holidays (as we know he was at the gifted camp for a few weeks the previous year). Was he coming home late some days? Perhaps that fateful visit to London wasn't actually the first trip in that period especially with no school to inform in the weeks before?

His parents also seem to be ones who encouraged their children to be independent well before late teenage years which is more the case in this era with them being alright with his sister going down to London at 15 to hand out her CV. That is certainly unusual.

And if they both go in after 5pm on the Friday they didn't realise until two hours later he wasn't actually in the house so seems they just let Andrew get up to what he wanted to do outside meal times.

All so very true. I think there was something mentioned by his sister about how Andrew was at home during the holidays, but of course if she had been there too. It sounds like they were allowed to roam free, so who knows if he'd been out of the house if no-one else was there to see it. As long as he was back by a certain time, no-one would know. And of course on the day he disappeared they thought he was in the house anyway. In those weeks he could've been meeting anyone, and been here, there and everywhere. The thing with the sister and her CV is very odd IMO.

 

[TheRockingRev]

About the only thing I've seen is that his parents tried to get him to visit his grandparents in London but he declined. I've always wondered if that was an attempt to get him out of the house?

We don't seem to get much out of his parents in terms of Andrew's movements in the school holidays, but of course if they weren't there then they wouldn't know. He could've been out and about during the day quite easily as they were, as far as I know, at work.

 

[Inspector Evans]

All so very true. I think there was something mentioned by his sister about how Andrew was at home during the holidays, but of course if she had been there too. It sounds like they were allowed to roam free, so who knows if he'd been out of the house if no-one else was there to see it. As long as he was back by a certain time, no-one would know. And of course on the day he disappeared they thought he was in the house anyway. In those weeks he could've been meeting anyone, and been here, there and everywhere. The thing with the sister and her CV is very odd IMO.

Just seems a hardworking family with perhaps old fashioned values of going out to work at 16-17 if you're not continuing at School or going to university.

Andrew I'm sure would've gone on to Uni being a high grade student and you'd like to think he would've found a sense of belonging there if that was troubling him over summer 2007.

Probably a case of also wanting their children to find summer jobs although why they'd want the sister to go down to London to hand out CVs when Sheffield and York are both 20 minutes away by train from Doncaster is pretty baffling.

 

[Sjöberg]

Probably a case of also wanting their children to find summer jobs although why they'd want the sister to go down to London to hand out CVs when Sheffield and York are both 20 minutes away by train from Doncaster is pretty baffling.

AFAIK, there were grandparents (or at least relatives) living in London. So probably more job options + a free and supervised place for the kid to stay.