What do people think happened to missing Andrew Gosden?

[Lovefromjuliaxo]

Just curious.

i sadly thought the arrests would come to nothing a couple of years ago, but it sucked to be right.

Based on the information available online, I believe he went to meet someone he has previously met and who had groomed him or convinced him he was 'safe' and Andrew went to meet him in London but sadly was led away to a place he will never come back from.

I think about Andrew often and sadly agree that he may have met up with someone who had manipulated him. Just wish there were answers for his poor family.

I’m a little older than Andrew but back then capabilities to be groomed online were definitely there but limited compared to today. I imagine they’ve thoroughly checked his computers and ruled that out. I wonder if he had read about something taking place in London that appealed to him - some kind of event related to gaming or a hobby. He took money out suggesting he would need it for something later that day.

I often think of Lee Boxell, who was 15 and who disappeared in Sutton, Surrey, years ago. I remember speaking to a DI there at the time. He didn’t take money out of his account, no mobile phones then. Just gone. Tragic.

Yes I think about him a lot, nearish to where I was living at the time.

I completely agree with this. Unfortunately I think it’s someone who may have known the family (who bless them have seemed naive in interviews in the most well meaning way possible) and Andrew grew up with, therefore would’ve garnered trust.

Wasn’t it thought he was murdered by a known pedophile who worked as a gravedigger and who had a church youth club? They dug the graveyard up around the graves but they couldn’t exhume the graves without permission. They didn’t get the permission.

i feel sorry for Ben needhams family too, again its thought he was accidentally killed by a builder with a digger.

but there is no news about Andrew at all.

That’s awful.

I watched a tv show the The Met a while back. Nearly all crimes now are solved by cctv. All the ones on the show were too. There was no way half of them would have been without so much cctv especially in London.

I think about him often too.

So utterly frustrating about that lost tip that was called into a police station one night.
Cambridgeshire way wasn't it? A man rang the station doorbell claiming to have information on Andrew. By the time and officer got out to the front door, the man had gone.
For some reason I always had a feeling that wasn't a prank.

How can some of you not know this case? Are you all really young?

I was only 7 at the time of his disappearance and didn’t know him or his family. I only know of the case as I live in Balby where he was from. I can easily imagine people not from the area not hearing about it.

I’d never heard of him so I just googled abd it’s so sad. It is astonishing that people can simply vanish without a trace.

A boy that I used to know disappeared in the mid 2000’s as a 20 year old and was never to be seen or heard of again. His sister was lovely and I used to go to the same play group as her with our kids. I thought how sad for her mam and dad to never know what happened.

it was Leominster, and yes I feel exactly the same. The police station was on an industrial estate and difficult to get to, not near any houses or in a town centre etc. I don’t feel like it was Andrew alive, but I often wondered if it was someone who may have known his killer/groomer and wanted to tell the police. The alleged person later wrote into the bbc saying it was just to report a sighting but there is no way to know whether it was the same man, or if he was telling the truth.

Nope I’m mid 40s

I think of Andrew Gosden often. I listen to the Missing Person podcast, and his episode really stood out to me. His father sounds like such a nice man, and though his pain was palpable, he spoke so eloquently and lovingly of his son.

In particular, he described discussing the Madeline McCann case with Andrew, and how they’d agreed that it must be so difficult for her parents not to know what happened, and his disbelief that only a year later, he was in that position himself.

Terrible.

OP, I think of him too, so horribly sad for his family and he was so young. I do hope his family get some answers at some point.

No,in my 50s!

I think he either went to meet someone or he felt a bit rebellious, wanted to do something in London and then while there crossed paths with someone. The someone not being a good person in both cases.

I don’t think his family will ever find out though.

I find Andrew's case so interesting because we have literally nothing to go on.

The police fucked yo completely - I feel so sorry for his family. His sister got married not so long ago and had something at her wedding for her brother

I have also never heard of this case. One of my DC was very young at the time of MMs disappearance and I probably avoided news about cases of missing children. But to have never heard of the case since.. DH didn't know either. How sad. I hope the family get some answers one day

I agree. I had totally forgotten about Andrew. I now live in London so will always be looking now. I hope he’s okay and doing well. He likes the kind of music I like (unless his tastes have changed) so I wonder if we ever crossed paths at gigs and get togethers.

I thought I hadn't heard of him but looked him up and I do recognise the photo so I must've seen him on the TV at the time.
I don't know how you cope with this as a parent, I really don't

I actually only heard about Andrew for the first time on Mumsnet around 2/3 years ago. I’m the same age as him, also from Yorkshire and was very much into the same music at that age. I also went to London a couple of times without telling my parents to visit my dad who lived there, I would get off the train at KX and get the tube/walk to my Dad’s home without prior notice. I knew London well having visited my Dad so much but even I got lost a couple of times. The story of Andrew’s disappearance really hit me because I knew it could have happened to me.

The baffling thing is the lack of online presence- the fact he didn’t have the internet at home to find dodgy people on chat rooms which were quite prevalent in the 00s. At first I figured he maybe wanted to explore London, a classic rebellious teen thing to do but then I found out he wasn’t captured much on camera which is odd in London… It would make sense if he got lost (easily done) and sadly came across the wrong sort of person when asking for help.

Only other explanation is going to meet someone he’d met in person since he didn’t use the internet. His poor family.

I hadn’t heard of this case til reading this. I guess the MM over shadowed it?!

That’s exactly what I thought of - sooo many chat rooms back then.

Reading the wiki article all kinds of things spring to mind. Bizarre thing at the end about someone on a forum/chat room with a similar names saying they ran away age 14. And the man in the police station event.

I am thankful I didn’t listen to the first couple of replyers, and that I have actually managed to inform people who didn’t know about this sad case.

for the person saying how can’t people know? AG’s case was overshadowed by Madeline McCann, and honestly hasn’t got the level of attention it required from the public since. He was/still is the poster boy for the missing people posters, but there aren’t really many of them around here.

sadly I think his groomer is someone who was unrelated to but who knew the family, knew they were a bit naive including Andrew, and knew what they were doing when they decided to groom him.