On September 14th, 2007 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, Andrew Gosden woke up later than normal for school. He was 14. He was lethargic and irritable, something which was out of character for Andrew. He left the house at 8:05 a.m., later than usual, and made his way to wait for the bus.
However, after waiting long enough for his family to have left the house, Andrew returned home where he changed his clothes to jeans and a slipknot t-shirt and packed a bag, taking with him his PSP. Then, leaving behind the PSP charger and £100 in his room, at 8:30 a.m. he left the house once again where he withdrew £200 from an ATM and made his way to Doncaster Railway Station.
Once at the station, Andrew purchased a one-way ticket to London’s King Cross Station, and although a return ticket was offered at only £1 extra, Andrew declined the offer. At 9:35 a.m. he boarded the train to London.
At 11:40 a.m. the train arrived in London and Andrew got off the train, CCTV captured him arriving at the main concourse. This image is the last confirmed image of Andrew.
At 7 p.m. on the evening of September 14th, Andrew was reported missing by his family. They returned home that day, assuming he was in his room playing video games as he normally was.
Police searched the local neighbourhood and areas but found nothing. Days went by without a hint of where Andrew may have gone. With the belief that Andrew may have gotten on a train somewhere, police checked Doncaster Railway Station and found that he had in fact gone to London. This discovery didn’t shock the Gosden family as Andrew apparently loved the city and had family there.
Andrew had 100% attendance at school and was part of the Young Gifted and Talented Programme, so it was strange for him to skip school. Unfortunately, an admin error meant that Andrew’s dad never got a phone call to notify him that his son wasn’t at school that day. Instead, another parent was called by mistake.
The police focused quite heavily on the Gosden family at the time, and unfortunately, this led to a long delay in them requesting the CCTV footage from London. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that they actually tried to retrieve the footage, and by then any potential footage of Andrew had been overwritten with new footage.
To this day Andrew is still missing. He will be 28 years old.
Theories:
There are a few theories as to what Andrew was doing that day. One is that he went to London to go to a concert. He was a fan of rock music and 30 Seconds to Mars were playing that evening, and so were SikTH, however, there is no proof that Andrew was into these particular bands, and people argue that he wouldn’t have bunked off school to go considering his 100% attendance.
Andrew had changed his routine slightly before going missing. Instead of getting the bus home from school, he started walking home. People have theorised Andrew started walking home with someone and they planned the trip together, but Andrew travelled alone that day. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t planning on meeting someone when he got there. Police checked and there was no evidence of Andrew being groomed online as he had limited access to the internet. Maybe someone he already knew convinced him to go and he fell victim to foul play. And there is the unfortunate chance that Andrew just took a spontaneous trip to London and fell victim to a completely random act of foul play.
It seems that Andrew had intentions to come home as he took his PSP without the charger. He also left money behind. His family said there were no problems or anything that would have made him want to run away from home. He was a normal kid.
Sightings:
There was a suspected sighting of Andrew in Pizza Hut in London on the day he went missing, said to be a strong possibility by authorities, however, it wasn’t followed up straight away. By the time the woman was questioned about what she saw her memory was cloudy.
Since then, possible sightings have been reported, but so far nothing solid has come about.
Other Leads:
In 2008, a man came forward to the Leominster Police Station in Herefordshire. He claimed to have information regarding Andrew. The reception was unmanned and the man ended up speaking to an intercom. He was never identified, even after appeals from police to come forward.
In 2018 a man calling himself ‘Andy Roo’ appeared in a chatroom asking for money. He said he didn’t have a bank account and ran away from home because he ‘felt like it’ when he was 14. ‘Roo’ was a nickname Andrew had, which was never made known to the press back in 2007. The individual was never found so the man remains a mystery.
Hopefully, Andrew will be found one day. It is possible that he has been living with a new identity, but we also have to face the possibility that something bad happened to him. All we can do is hope his family gets the answers they deserve.
Sources:
https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/andrew-gosden-07-019198
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/dad-missing-doncaster-teenager-andrew-17902519
https://www.themissingpodcast.org/andrew_gosden
https://www.heart.co.uk/plymouth/news/local/missing-andrew-gosden/
