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.

 

[ekardh]

If Andrew just wanted to go to London for the day, why didn't he wait until the weekend? Why risk ruining his school record and upsetting his family by bunking off? Apparently, Andrew's parents had let his sister go to London when she was 14, so, theoretically they wouldn't have had a problem with Andrew doing the same. If he was lured to London, then I wonder why the perp picked that Friday, knowing he'd had to convince Andrew to skip school?

If the perp didn't live in London, were they working in London that day? Would be interesting to know if anyone close to the family could be traced there that day, but probably far too late for that.

As ever, nothing but baseless speculation as there's not much to go on in this case. It reminds me of Jason Jolkowski's disappearance in some respects, and I suspect both boys were exploited by older males.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

If Andrew just wanted to go to London for the day, why didn't he wait until the weekend? Why risk ruining his school record and upsetting his family by bunking off?

Presumably it was okay by him if he didn't have "perfect attendance" anymore. I don't think he was worried about his family's reaction if they found out once he was already back. Maybe he even thought they wouldn't find out at all.

Whereas if he waited for the weekend, what was he going to do? Lie and pretend to be going somewhere local for all those hours? And hope his family didn't realize the truth? It's easier to "ditch school" than to lie to your parents' faces. The chances of being discovered missing sooner would have been much higher on a weekend.

ETA: Some people think he was probably going to a specific event that day or meeting a specific person. Could also be.

 

[Inspector Evans]

If Andrew just wanted to go to London for the day, why didn't he wait until the weekend? Why risk ruining his school record and upsetting his family by bunking off? Apparently, Andrew's parents had let his sister go to London when she was 14, so, theoretically they wouldn't have had a problem with Andrew doing the same. If he was lured to London, then I wonder why the perp picked that Friday, knowing he'd had to convince Andrew to skip school?

If the perp didn't live in London, were they working in London that day? Would be interesting to know if anyone close to the family could be traced there that day, but probably far too late for that.

As ever, nothing but baseless speculation as there's not much to go on in this case. It reminds me of Jason Jolkowski's disappearance in some respects, and I suspect both boys were exploited by older males.

My hunch has always been an event that Friday. Or very early on the Saturday morning.

You could be right though if he was just meeting up socially with someone a few years older as they'd still have had school or perhaps even University/job to attend to and might not have been around to after 4pm hench that speculative sighting of Andrew alive and well eating Pizza at 1pm which suggests he had time to kill and was enjoying London while he waited.