Mum of paperboy who vanished four decades ago believes he’s alive – and that he visited her

The mother of a paperboy who went missing more than 40 years ago has refused to give up hope of finding him – and has even claimed that her son visited her years after he vanished. Johnny Gosch mysteriously disappeared while out delivering early-morning newspapers on September 5, 1982. According to witnesses, a blue vehicle pulled up beside the 12-year-old to ask for directions near Marcourt Lane in West Des Moines, Iowa. Around 10 minutes later, as Johnny walked his usual delivery route, a tall man was spotted following him. A short while later two other paperboys found Johnny’s unattended wagon with the undelivered papers inside. Johnny, however, was nowhere to be seen. READ MORE: Eerie final moments of student who vanished after going to bar with friends Johnny’s mother and father, Noreen and John, were unaware of the situation until subscribers started ringing their house phone asking why he hadn’t delivered the papers. Confused, Johnny’s dad John finished delivering the papers while his mum, Noreen, phoned the police. To this day the boy’s disappearance remains a mystery. Some people have claimed he was likely abducted and killed but no evidence has ever been found, such as his remains or body. Astonishingly, one woman in Oklahoma claimed she had spotted Johnny a few months after he went missing, out of breath and asking for help before two men grabbed him and dragged him away, CNN reports. Noreen herself also received calls at the family home from a boy who sounded like Johnny, with the person at the other end of the line saying, “Mum”. Further sightings of Johnny were reported across the country but nothing more has ever come of it. “I believe the boy is alive and I believe he can be found, but I’m not saying when or anything like this,” Guy Genovese, a sheriff’s investigator in Nueces County, said. In early 1997, when Johnny’s parents had divorced and Noreen had moved into her own apartment, something incredible happened. Noreen claims that she was woken up in the middle of the night by two men standing at her door, one of whom looked like her missing son. “It’s me, mom,” one of the men said. “It’s Johnny.” The pair embraced, with Johnny aged 27 at this point. “The eyes don’t change,” Noreen later said, claiming that she recognised the man’s eyes. According to Noreen, the man even showed her the South America-shaped birthmark Johnny was known to have on his chest. The man who claimed to be Johnny did not tell Noreen where he had been or where he was living, however. He claimed he was sexually abused and was now on the run, hiding from the people who took him. Noreen has not seen the man since. A number of people have questioned Noreen’s story over the years and some have even claimed the man could have been someone pretending to be Johnny. For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US. “I don’t know. I don’t know,” Tom Boyd, a retired detective from the West Des Moines Police Department, said when asked if he believed Noreen. “I don’t want to call Noreen a liar. Noreen is likely grieving the loss of her — her son. It seems weird, yes. And I’ve always just kind of thrown the question back. ‘Well, I don’t know. Do you believe it?’” Noreen has since conducted her own investigation into her son’s disappearance and concluded that he was kidnapped as part of a sex trafficking ring. Johnny’s disappearance in fact still remains a mystery but his mum does have one wish before she dies. “I would like to see this case resolved and justice served,” she says. “It would be important to me, before I leave this earth. If the truth would finally be acknowledged.”