The Disappearance of Andrew Gosden.

On Friday September 14th, 2007 in Central London, English teenager Andrew Gosden disappeared. His disappearance occurred under strange circumstances. Andrew was last seen on CCTV leaving King’s Cross Station. On the day of and the days preceding his disappearance, he didn’t behave like he normally did.

Andrew was 14 years old on the day he disappeared. Andrew, his dad Kevin, mom Glenys, and his older sister Charlotte resided in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster, South Yorkshire. A city about a 170 miles north of London. He was regarded as a homebody who preferred to stay home and rarely left the house without informing his parents. At school Andrew was in the "young gifted and talented program." He didn't really socialize much outside of school. Andrew didn’t have a cell phone at the time of his disappearance, he had one, but he lost it, and never asked his parents for a new cell phone.

The morning of September 14th, Andrew woke up later than usual, and he seemed annoyed. This was not like Andrew at all. This is the last time his family saw him in person. Andrew left his home at 8:05 a.m., family friend Rev. Alan Murray saw him cross Westfield Park to a bus stop, where he normally took the bus to school. This morning Andrew walked to an ATM at a nearby garage, instead of taking the bus to school. He took out £200 (around $250) from his bank account and after using the ATM, Andrew walked back home. He was seen on a neighbor's security camera returning home.

After arriving at his house, Andrew took off his school uniform, and placed it in the washing machine. He put on a pair of black jeans and a black Slipknot t-shirt. He took his Playstation Portable System, wallet, keys and a backpack covered with patches of rock and metal bands. As stated earlier Andrew went to an ATM to withdraw money, the weird thing is that he had a £100 (around $125) at home that he didn’t take with him.

At 8:30 a.m., Andrew left the residence for the last time, and started heading for Doncaster railway station. He can be seen on a neighbor's security camera, walking on Littlemoor Lane toward Westfield Park.

He paid £31.40 (about $40) at the train station for a one-way ticket to London. Despite the ticket clerk telling him, he could get a return ticket for less than £1 ($1.25) more. Indicating that he wouldn't be returning, but he didn’t take the charger for his PSP. This contradicts that he wasn’t planning on coming back.

At 9:35 a.m., Andrew boarded the train to London, and within two hours, he arrived at London's King's Cross station. According to the woman sitting next to him on the train, he was quiet and just playing a game on his PSP. At 11:25 a.m., he can be seen on CCTV at the King's Cross station. This is confirmed to be the last time Andrew was seen on CCTV. A boy who resembled Andrew was spotted later that day in a Pizza Hut on Oxford Street. His parents believe it was Andrew at the Pizza Hut.

Since Andrew didn’t show up at school. His teachers tried to get in touch with his parents, but unfortunately the teachers dialed the wrong number, and couldn’t get a hold of his parents.

When they sat down to eat dinner that evening Andrew's family and a family friend assumed he was in his room doing homework or playing video games. Andrew’s parents called his friends, when they realized that he wasn't at home. Andrew's friends told his parents that he didn’t show up at school. The family called the police around 7:00 p.m., they thought something must have happened on the way to school.

Andrew's family and friends searched for Andrew until it was dark. His father and sister followed his route to school and searched the neighborhood, but they found nothing. Within 3 hours of Andrew's disappearance, a missing-person flyer was made. . The police looked through the bushes next to Andrew's family home that weekend, but they turned up nothing.

Police spoke to the lady that sold Andrew his train ticket to London, three days after he disappeared. At this point police confirmed that Andrew had gone to London. Andrew's father stated "buying a single ticket rather than a round-trip ticket doesn’t strike me as odd", because Andrew’s grandparents and other relatives lived in London, so Andrew could’ve stayed with them. All relatives were cleared of any involvement with his disappearance.

The reason Andrew went to London is unknown. He had been to London before and enjoyed it, but he had never gone to London by himself. One scenario is that Andrew traveled to London, to see the band Thirty Seconds to Mars perform that evening. Also that evening, the band SikTh was set to perform at the Carling Academy Islington. According to Mikey Goodman, retired chief of the Central Images Unit of the Metropolitan Police, the SikTh scenario is possibly the reason he went to London. Andrew, was a big fan of rock and metal music, so another scenario is that he went to London to see the band HIM. They were performing at a music store called HMV, 3 days after his disappearance. Making this scenario less likely.

London is one of the cities with the highest number of security cameras. So, it would make sense that Andrew would be seen on CCTV somewhere in London, but the police did not review the CCTV footage until approximately a month after he vanished, by this time nearly all of the CCTV footage had been deleted.

Andrew’s father has said in the beginning of the investigation police have failed to request CCTV footage and check up on reports of sightings of his son. Instead, they focused on trying to put the disappearance, possible abuse or murder of Andrew on him. He even tried to commit suicide, so police would finally start investigating his son's disappearance. Up to 3 years after the disappearance of Andrew, police nationwide would routinely pull over his family to search their car.

In the year following his disappearance, 122 potential sightings were reported across the U.K., they all turned out to be false leads.

In November 2008, a man showed up at the Leominster police station after business hours claiming to have information about Andrew’s disappearance over the intercom, but by the time someone arrived to take down the information, the man had left. A man claiming to be the same person wrote an anonymous letter to the BBC after Andrew’s disappearance was featured on the One show. In the letter, he stated he had seen Andrew in Shrewsbury in November 2008. It hasn’t been confirmed if the man at the police station and the man that wrote the letter are the same person.

In September 2009, the second anniversary of Andrew's disappearance, the family released age-progressed pictures of what he would have looked like at 16. Andrew’s father requested help from the gay community to locate his son in November 2009. The idea that Andrew might have been struggling with his sexual orientation was taken into consideration by Andrew's family.

In May 2011, a maritime rescue business offered to perform a sonar search of the River Thames, which flows through London. A body was found, but it wasn't Andrew's.

In 2016, Andrew’s parents asked anybody with information to come forward during an episode of the BBC’s Panorama.

In 2017, Missing People, a U.K. charity made Andrew the face of their campaign “Find Every Child” he was featured on billboards nationwide.

On September 12th 2017, police asked people to come forward if they had any information regarding Andrew’s whereabouts. Suggesting police believe Andrew’s still alive.

In June 2018, Andrew's parents stated that someone reported an online communication with a user going by the name "Andy Roo" who stated that their boyfriend had broken up with them and that they needed £200 (about $250) to pay their rent. The individual said he didn’t have a bank account since he "left home when he was 14" when someone offered to send him money. Police looked into this lead, but the person was never identified.

On January 11th 2022, South Yorkshire Police announced that two men, aged 38 and 45, had been arrested on December 8th 2021, on suspicion of kidnapping and human trafficking. It’s believed that these men have something to do with Andrew’s disappearance. Both men have since been released.

As of January 2023, the investigation is still ongoing, the men that were arrested on December 8th 2021, are still suspects in Andrew’s disappearance.