Andrew Gosden: nineteen years on

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I wonder what actually did happen.

It is one of the most baffling cases I can think of.

I agree. So sad. Sadly I think he died very shortly after going missing.

I think of this often, it’s very sad. I can’t imagine how his parents feel never knowing what happened.

Its very sad
I hope his parents get answers

Yes i believe he died shortly after he was last seen.

I have also followed this one from the start. It's not so much baffling as infuriating because if the police had got all the camera footage from all the relevant cameras at the time, then they could at least have seen which direction he went off in or whether he was meeting someone.

For what it's worth, my theory is that he went of his own accord just to have an 'adventure', encountered someone with evil motives and couldn't extricate himself in time. I think he died very soon after arrival.

I believe he was groomed online, the whole thing is very odd. I do not believe he is alive.

Complete failure by the police, who didn't act promptly and get the ctv footage. This case just haunts me.

@FlowerBellsBut there’s absolutely zero trace of any online presence before he went missing, even on his PSP. Honestly, everything was checked and I mean everything. Remember there wasn’t a great deal of tech which actually went online back then and nowhere near as many online communities. His computer was forensically analysed.
I am 60% on your page though, but 40% wondering if that post on Reddit a few years later, asking for money in a crisis, by the username AndyRoo was actually real. Apparently not only did he say he didn’t have a bank account as he left home at 14, but apparently Roo was a nickname ONLY used in his home and nobody else knew of it.
Of course the above could just have been a very cruel prank by someone in their family/friend circle but I find it very odd that it was in the form of asking for money? If you were a prankster, would you try to extort money in the process? Receiving money would create a forensically traceable paper trail.
Apparently whoever it was, no longer needed it after a short while as a friend ended up helping them out.

Another point to make, is how much easier it was to ‘disappear’ and start a new life back then. It still would’ve been very difficult, of course. But you weren’t mandated to have a bank account if you didn’t need one, like you absolutely are now. You could register with a GP without digital records matching up (though that did happen shortly after that time) and in my area at least, registering with a GP didn’t require photo ID back then either. There was also still plenty of cash in hand jobs.

Get a partner on side who’s willing to put everything into their name and allow you to give their name & address for trips to A&E and GP and you might just’ve got away with it in 2007.
However, now you likely wouldn’t and I think that’s why so many people now jump straight to presuming he’s dead.

Personally, I think it’s both. I think he disappeared off to start a new life to be with someone (how he met them is anyone’s guess, given that he didn’t have a mobile phone and smartphones weren’t a thing then and his computer was forensically analysed) and managed for a few years but that he’s since passed on….. Unless there’s some hidden gang somewhere who provide people with a whole new legal identity for a (hefty) price?

I think of him too from time to time. It must be so hard on his family. I do hope that maybe he is still alive somewhere but agree it seems doubtful.

@Foolish1984 it was easier but still not ‘easy.’ You’d need work that paid cash in hand, and that definitely wasn’t common in 2007. IIRC that was largely phased out in the 2000s.

Apperently he didnt have accesss to the internet or even a phone
It was 19 years ago i know we had the internet then
But it wasent like it is now wit most teens having a smart phone

His story is one of the most harrowing mysteries as it seems so odd that he didn't want a return ticket, took money from his bank, but didn't take the money from his piggy bank at home, which was also a substantial amount.

I suspect he was groomed by someone at that maths camp he went to the summer before. I suspect he was told to come to London for some event or meet up and then this person would give him a lift home. Another maths genius also went missing not long after, also from North London.

I also suspect he was gay and bullied at school and kept both of these things from his parents. It's possible he had a secret phone given to him by a groomer, as he stopped taking the bus and started walking an hour home, which could have been in order to chat with this person. He clearly set off willingly of his own accord but it doesn't look like he planned to leave forever.

I think if he were alive, he'd have made contact with his family by now. But it's possible that he ended up in a world he can't imagine them coping with - addiction or sex work.

A few years ago I gave some money to a young homeless man. He was crouched in an alleyway surrounded by books and he was well spoken. Only later I realised he looked very like Gosden might in his early twenties, so I went back to the alley to try and chat with him, but he was gone and I never saw him again.

The theory on Reddit was he was groomed by someone in that maths camp - went to meet and then got taken by a paedophile gang and was killed shortly after .. either by accident or design. I would think given the publicity and that he was only 14 it would have been impossible to disappear on his own for that amount of time

I wonder if he went to see a band in London.

In his pictures he's often wearing band t-shirts.

When you step back and look at the big picture, it’s not that mysterious. A vulnerable and unhappy 14 year old boy gets fooled by an older male who offers him all sorts of appealing things and persuades him to come to London.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe its been 19 years!

I cannot imagine the endless unknowing agony his family must have to endure on a daily basis.

From everything I’ve heard about this case he had no interest in the internet and phones so it seems unlikely he was groomed before leaving home.
I think a simple explanation is likely. The new school year didn’t start well, perhaps bullying, perhaps boredom. He took himself off to London for a break/bit of adventure. He has died, either by misadventure or murder.

Misadventure - September would have been warm as it is now. Could have been something as simple as he jumped into one of the many canals and got cold water shock. If he’d gone into the Thames he’d be washed out to the estuary in no time, the tide is strong.
Murder - Young boy alone in London, asked for help or was offered help by the wrong person. There are so many people around with sinister intentions who would act when the opportunity presented. Look how easily that black cab driver was able to attack 12 women before anyone took notice.

London was very different in 2007. CCTV was not everywhere. Not everyone had mobile phone and of those who did smart phones were rare. It was a lot easier to not be noticed. It would have been a lot easier to disappear, or make someone disappear.

It must be desperately sad for his family to not know. I hope they have had some happiness in their life despite this situation.

London was very different in 2007. CCTV was not everywhere. Not everyone had mobile phone and of those who did smart phones were rare. It was a lot easier to not be noticed. It would have been a lot easier to disappear, or make someone disappear.

This is true and also quite startling to see how much the world has changed in under two decades. It got my thinking about Claudia Lawrence and if her disappearance would remain unsolved if it happened now, with the rise of doorbell cams and suchlike.

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta
Yes I have also wondered about that case too.

Thinking back to 2007, I had one of those small Nokia phones but mostly used a landline to keep in touch with people. I was a single woman living in a flat share in 2007. If I’d gone missing on my way home from a night out (for example), it might have taken time for anyone to notice. Flatmate might have thought I’d stayed elsewhere. Parents would have expected a call once or twice a week. Work would have noticed me not turn up and called my landline to check perhaps, but got no answer. I spent cash when out mostly. There’d have been no trace of where I had been and any cctv would have been hard to follow up.

Now, my whatsapp shows when I was last active (and my mum checks it!), my iPhone will be connected to whatever phone mast is near, my location settings will show where I have been. My watch records my heartbeat! Ring doorbells everywhere. I pay for everything by card not cash so that would give an idea of my movements. Buses even have cctv. We are tracked everywhere now.

The difference in 20 years is transformational.

Well apart from murder and the body being missing?

It’s strange thinking back to 2007. I don’t know London well at all but I gather King’s Cross and the area around it was still pretty seedy.

Very. It still is now once you’re away from the shiny buildings. But very dark in those days

Such a heartbreaking case. So many missed opportunities. And the double mystery of not only his disappearance, but his reason for sneaking off to London that day. Without a return ticket.

I do find it hard to believe he wasn’t being groomed, or that he didn’t an internet capable device that his parents hadn’t known about.

I do think it would have been difficult to start or maintain a new life with no NI number, passport, birth certificate etc. Also because he still looked very much like a child.

I hope his poor family gets some answers and find some peace at some point.

I read that he apparently had no internet access but I just don’t believe it tbh, kids are good at hiding things. Nothing else really makes sense, he obviously went off to meet someone in London.

I don't believe in the grooming theory, but I do think he was being bullied at school, possibly for being on the spectrum. I think he just met the wrong person when he arrived at Kings Cross (there certainly used to be people hanging round looking for vulnerable people there) and maybe got talked into 'having a lift' somewhere.I think he was killed either accidentally or on purpose and his body just hasn't been found yet.

AndyRoo isn't so totally out of the realms of normal language that it couldn't be someone else's nickname either. Either that or perhaps someone known to the family (Andrew has a sister, I believe) might have thought it was a good way of getting money...

ETA: I don't mean I suspect his sister, but she might have had boyfriends...