Forever Searching For Andrew Gosden

Forever Searching is always looking for volunteers who can spare at least a few hours per week helping out online with their various projects worldwide.

I believe it is a very worthwhile cause to champion and I have read through a lot of their information. If you feel you could help out in even a small way then please contact them. They are all lovely, caring and helpful people. I am now a volunteer with them as finding missing children is something I feel passionate about.

All the cases are sad and tragic, of that there is no doubt. Missing Children are a huge worry and I would never have believed so many children go missing and we never really hear about them in media.

One such case in particular has really got to me. That is the one of young Andrew Gosden who is 14 years old and went missing in September last year. I pray Andrew is found safe and well.

You can see details about him on http://www.bebo.com/FindAndrew and on

http://andrewgosden.blogspot.com/.    These are sites I have made to try to let people see all about Andrew.  Please pass them around, you never know it may help.

Andrew is small for his age and slim, he is 14 but looks younger, perhaps 12.

The case is intriguing because Andrew lived what seemed to be the perfect life, with loving parents and a sister.

The bare facts are these. At 8am on Friday, September 14, eight days into a school term, Andrew left home — a neat Victorian terrace in Doncaster, South Yorkshire — in school uniform for his short walk to the bus stop. His sister Charlotte, 16, had already set off.

The night before had been a standard evening at home. The family ate together and Andrew played a jigsaw game with his father on their computer before watching some of his favourite television comedies with his mother, Glenys.

On that Friday morning, however, he had no intention of going to school, where he had a 100 per cent attendance record. Instead, he walked to a park and waited until 8.30am, when he knew that his parents — both speech and language therapists — would have left for work.

Andrew then returned home, let himself in with his key and changed out of his uniform, leaving his blazer neatly hanging from the back of a bedroom chair and placing his shirt and trousers in the washing machine.

In T-shirt, jeans and trainers, he walked to a local garage, withdrew £200 from his savings account at a cash machine and headed for the station, where he bought a one-way ticket to London. The woman who sold him the ticket remembers thinking that he looked quite young. She asked him whether he was sure he wanted a single. Andrew was adamant. A passenger on the 9.35am Doncaster-London train recalled sitting opposite a boy matching Andrew’s description exactly. He sat quietly, playing on his portable PlayStation.

When staff at the McAuley Catholic High School, in Doncaster, realised that he had not arrived they phoned the family at once. Critically, the contact list was misread and the numbers phoned were those of a different pupil.

Mr and Mrs Gosden, therefore, did not realise that anything was amiss until late afternoon, when Andrew — known to the family as Roo — did not come home from school.

His uniform was soon found. Andrew is the sort of boy, his father says, “who leaves you a note if he goes to the shop on the corner”. After a few quick phone calls drew a blank, Mr Gosden contacted the police.

Detective Inspector Martin O’Neill heads a team of officers from the South Yorkshire force who are working on the case and have paid several visits to London in search of Andrew.

They did an immediate risk assessment and put Andrew in the highest category because of his age, his perceived vulnerability and his vanishing act being “totally out of character”.

It took only three days to establish that Andrew had arrived in London at 11.20am on the Friday. It would take another 24 days before the CCTV footage of him leaving King’s Cross was discovered. The police have paid several visits to the school. They have spoken at length with his family and friends. They have no theories that would explain his disappearance.

Andrew seemed unusually content to stay at home in the evenings. He never went to a friend’s house or had anyone round, still less hung around on street corners. He was given a mobile phone for his 12th birthday, but rarely used it and did not want to replace it when he lost it.

Could it be that beneath a surface contentment at spending most of his free time at home, Andrew felt stifled and nursed a desire to rebel?

Although the Gosdens are Christian, they encourage their children to make their own choices. Andrew had not been to church for 18 months. His interest in goth clothing and music was not a source of friction.

Mr and Mrs Gosden had suggested that Andrew travel alone to London during the summer holidays to stay with his grandmother. He did not want to go. Had his trip been planned as an awfully big adventure, then surely it would have lasted for a few days at most. If the worst has not happened and he has not fallen in harm’s way, then what sent him to London in the first place may also be keeping him from making contact with home.

Mr and Mrs Gosden are keen to send their son a message: “We love you and we care about you. You have left a huge gap in our lives. We want you back with us but we also want to know that you’re OK. Even if you don’t want to come back, please let us know that you’re OK.”

If you think you have seen a missing person, call Missing People’s 24-hour, confidential Freefone service on 0500 700 700, or

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