One way ticket to nowhere:
14 year old Andrew Gosden left for school at 8:05am on Friday September 14th 2007.He returned not too soon after both his parents had left for work, took off his school uniform and put it in the laundry basket. As he would usually do when coming home from school, he hung his blazer over the back of the chair in his bedroom.
Later that day, when his parents returned home, they assumed that he was playing video games in the basement, but upon discovering he wasn’t there, began to call his friends locally, who informed them that Andrew hadn’t even attended school that day.
Police searched the local area over the weekend, but turned up nothing.
It was only the following Monday that Andrews bank records revealed a £250 withdrawal and the purchase of a one way ticket to London Kings Cross. A counter clerk at the train station recalled serving him and remembered having a conversation about Andrew purchasing a return ticket for only 50p more. Andrew declined, and bought a single ticket.
A passenger on the train confirmed that Andrew had made the journey, and had sat quietly playing with his PSP.
CCTV footage from Kings Cross station confirmed the story of the passenger, however the footage wasn’t found until 24 days later and by then the trail had gone cold.
On the CCTV footage, the teenager is shown with medium length brown hair and is clad in a Slipknot T-shirt, glasses and has a messenger bag over his shoulder. His parents didn’t believe that he had taken any extra clothing, however the messenger bag looked to have been fuller than it should have considering that he was thought to be carrying only a PSP and a wallet.
A search of the boy’s bedroom revealed that he had neglected to take an extra £100 in cash along with the charger for his PSP.
Despite a police investigation of the family’s PC and the school computers, nothing turned up. It is speculated that Andrew was intelligent enough to permanently erase his browser history and cover his tracks if he wanted to, and the thoroughness of the police search is unknown.His parents noted that Andrew didn’t use his phone or computer much, however the PSP 1000 and PSP 2000 both had the ability to connect to the internet via WIFI, and so it is possible Andrew could have accessed the internet via his device. The police do retain the serial number and box for Andrews PSP in case it turns up as evidence at a later date.
Just under a month had passed by the time the last recorded images of Andrew had surfaced, meaning it was too late to follow the surveillance trail of bread crumbs as most footage is erased within a 28 day period.
Andrew came from a supportive middle class family, with whom he lived in his family home in Doncaster, UK. His parents had been described as Christians.Both he and his older sister were intelligent with Andrew excelling in Mathematics and being something of a genius in the subject. Both siblings were into alternative sub-cultures and Andrew was into alternative music. In photographs he is shown wearing T-Shirts from bands such as Slipknot, HIM and Muse.
Other than photographs of Andrew pre-disappearance, and the age progressed generated images of what he may look like now, he also has the distinguishing feature of a double ridged ear, as portrayed in the “Still missing” photo.
Some speculate that Andrew wanted to and intended to disappear and start a new life, much like one of his favorite fictional character Reginald Perrin, from the series “The fall and rise of Reginald Perrin”.
Andrews family have suffered greatly since his dissaperence, with his father even attempting suicide.
What happened to Andrew Gosden?
If you have any information regarding his case, please contact:
South Yorks Police on 0114-220 2020
Missing People on 116 000
NPIA Missing Persons Bureau on 0845 000 5481
For more, go to the REAL LIFE IS HORROR blog.
