♪ > please contact us if you have our son. we'll work with your demands because we want him back. there was no crime scene, he just vanished. >> my husband and i feel we must do what we can as his parents. >> there was a lot of fear. they didn't catch perpetrator. something like this is going to happen again. >> but every time we found a clue, we ran into a brick wall.

>> and, at that moment, when our eyes met, i knew i was going to hear exactly what happened to my son that day. >> you have no idea what it's like to look for your missing child. it is hell on earth. >> a 30-year case is challenging. it's a jigsaw puzzle with lots of missing pieces. >> the police say they have no crime. i have no son.

the parents now believe the boy is alive and has been kidnapped. >> johnny, we love you. we're waiting for you to come home. >> please, let us know what you want as far as anything that we can do to have john return home to us safely. >> we're leaving the porch light on every night. moms are like that. take care, babe. >> john and maureen gosh are sure their son is coming back. and the front porch light stays on until that happens. nobody saw anything that, to us, was an explanation for the boy's disappearance. this is just that unsolved, unexplained missing personal

case. >> the 30th anniversary has gotten so much more impact. it represents a huge chunk of my son's life. all of those years that we missed, that he missed. and you can't recapture that. ever. ♪ i was born and raised in eastern iowa. i got married relatively young. i was given the news my husband had cancer and there was no way for him to survive. but two months before he died, we were hit with a tornado. everything was destroyed. just a few short weeks later, my husband died.

and i remember just trying to rest a little bit and my little girl came walking over to the couch. and she said are you going to die, too? like daddy? wake up call. time to get up. time to get moving. that experience, it either makes you or breaks you. i was the adult. and i had to pull myself up by the boot straps. >> we met through a friend that i was in the marine corps with. >> we started dating and then we got married, had a nice wedding. and then a couple of years later, we had johnny. life was good. but we were a normal little family. that was our house right there. >> des moines was a very quiet,

peaceful, safe place. low in crime and everything else. >> johnny and i were best friends. i just remember nothing but happiness. you couldn't live in a better place or have a better environment. >> johnny just enjoyed doing so many things that he had such joy about it. >> any time that somebody had a birthday or something, he would spend a lot of time getting the right package for him. >> if he had a pack of gum, he would hand out a slice to you and a slice to you and then look in the gum package and say oh, i don't have any left. i didn't get one. he was that unselfish. >> johnny's first morning on his paper route, he did the sunday morning paper. and he had his way and he would deliver the paper together. he wanted the paper route

because he wanted to get himself a dirt bike. >> he became quite the little businessman. he saved his money and he bought it. well then he and his brother would go riding out in the fields. >> that particular sunday, we get a phone call about 7:00 in the morning wondering where the paper was. got up, got in the car, went to the corner and found a wagon. didn't see him anywhere around and told maureen, something is wrong. she called the police right away. >> it took about 45 minutes before the police arrived. >> the police department was only two blocks away. >> the cop looked at me and said has your son ever run away before? >> the kid never run away. that really upset us. >> i was there that morning. there happened to be a car on 42nd street.

and there was a guy in there. he was talking to johnny gosh. he said hey, can you come over here and help this guy? all of the sudden, this car just swung -- he made a u-turn and took off. >> i thought it was kind of strange that he would do that. >> to say that somebody stopped and asked directions of a paper boy, that would not be at all out of line. we still don't know what happened that morning. john apparently left the residence sometime around 5:45. a neighbor hearing the wagon being pulled through the back of his yard. mike was picking up his morning papers and noticed the car and stopped. backed up to the point where john gosh was walking and it appeared that john spoke briefly to the driver of the vehicle. >> people saw him talk with a man of the car. that car left johnny. johnny proceed to where the

newspapers had been dropped. >> the vehicle is described as a two-tone blue ford fairmont. >> that car came back. >> i think he told police he looked like he was mad or something. but who is to know? >> the next two people who see him are two juvenile newspaper carriers. he says hi to johnny and proceeds to where the newspaper has been dropped. at this time, t.j. smith reported hearing a car door and, upon sitting up in bed, he observed a silver and black ford fairmont start up from where john was last seen and then made a left turn rolling through the stop sign without stopping. >> the sec window is where he slept. of course it all happened right here. the car ran the stop light there and turned left. in fact his wagon was still sitting right there.

>> the two newspaper carriers, they get their newspapers, turn around and walk back by the same corner. when they walk by the wagons, there's the newspapers. no johnny.

this is where it would have occurred. the witness had said there was a car up here. and i think the wagon was left in this area with the papers in it. >> and, you know, the trail gets cold real quick. you know, like all cops do, it's a run away. the kid ran away. no, this kid wasn't a run away. johnny would not run away. there was no crime scene and nobody saw anything that, to us,

was an explanation for the boy's disappearance. he just vanished. >> at that time, when a kid disappeared, it was generally a kid who ran away from home. >> we were thinking that around the news room. you get the story in the paper. by the time the paper gets delivered on the porches the next day, this kid is home in bed. >> it didn't seem like he was going to run away. >> no, no. the only thing was his car. i don't know. >> we began a systematic search from the last sighting of johnny gosh on out. >> thousands of people have been searching for the boy, but nothing positive has turned up. >> the one thing that was missing was the f.b.i. so i asked the police chief and he said, well, i don't really

think we need the f.b.i. we just don't really have a crime here. we just don't really have a crime. and i said, well, that's funny. there's five witnesses that says we do. >> law enforcement authorities have no new leads in the case and had few to begin with. the drivers of cars in the area have yet to come forward with information. a massive search has failed to turn up any clues in the case. >> we were told by government agencies, well, you have to prove that child is in danger. to us, he's a run away until you prove he's in danger. >> this story had moved from my son was abducted to a conflict with law enforcement of you're not doing enough, you're not running down the leads. >> remember this? i says i don't give a damn about what noreen gosch has to say.

that set you have the fireworks. >> the police chief had a lot of personal problems and he was tired of the media coming down and bothering him and all of that sort of stuff. >> you can almost go into a state of mind where you don't want to talk to anybody not ever again. >> noreen has not, nor ever has been, a shrinking violet. she will not stay home and cry in her handkerchief. she went out there, aggressively and rightfully so. >> we have been disappointed. things have not been followed through as adequately as we hoped. me and my husband felt we must do what we can as his parents. >> if you want to settle the case, you have to do some things. you can't just sit behind your desk and wait for the driver of the car to come and turn himself in. >> every assumption, we took him

to heart and followed up on him. we did it by what is now the book. what we did that morning and what we've done before that were about the same. slowly, the searches stopped. everybody went back to their lives. we were told by the thief that they just couldn't direct anymore of the total police force to this case. they were going to have to put the case on a back burner. i said then we have to do something. >> we were contacted by ken wooten. >> newspaper boy missing and the dog was still there. it was obvious. if the dog was still there, he was no runaway.

>> he said, hey, get your own investigation going. >> two private investigators agree ared to take the case and they began canvassing the area, doing interviews with neighbors. . well, the first morning they were out on the job, up pulls the west des moines police and there was friction and debate starting. every minute we wasted was wasting my son's life and that i took personally. >> a person could give up very easily. so i think he needs our strength and our support more than anything else. i think people today would be shocked at what the real situation was in 1 1982. police were required to wait 72 hours before they could investigate a missing child case. police could track your car but not your child across state lines. there was no infrastructure to

support the hunt for missing children. >> all of us were reading about the turmoil that was going on with the search. none of us felt that was right, of course. but to help find johnny gosch foundation was something so they would have the confidence this would keep going no matter what happened to them. >> the foundation was started for changing the legislation for law enforcement to respond immediately when a child is taken. >> you have no idea what it is like looking for your missing child. it is hell on earth when there is clear evidence they have been kidnapped than the word is kidnapped, not "went missing."

. >> i understand that you got three phone calls just a week ago. was it johnny? >> yes, it was, jane. we received the first of three calls. they were six minutes apart and each call lasted about 40 seconds. >> what did he sound like? and what did he say? >> he was pleading for help and the phone was disconnected. on the second call, i reashaured him that we would find him and they disconnected the phone again. they intentionally made the phone calls to be short. >> you think they were tormenting you and him? >> we feel that johnny was forced to make the calls, yes. >> who are "they"? any idea? >> we have descriptions of two men that were seen the morning he disappeared. >> i think he was definite ly about duktd. was it someone who was sexually crazy or someone who put him in to human trafficking? >> scientifically they say half to 1% of the population are

technically pedophiles, they are sexually attracted to children and those children will appear in all levels of our society from coaches to priests to teachers to police officers. >> reporter: this is a catalog, a catalog for pedophiles. 45-year-old man seeks contact with others interested in adolescent and preadolescent boys and girls. >> i feel that our son was kidnapped. it was for some organized effort, for profit. >> predators, especially wealthy v.i.p.s, like the younger the child the better. there are people that know that, pimps and they grab kids or they seduce kids and they become part of human trafficking. >> there was a lot of fear. they didn't catch the perpetrator. something like this is going to

happen again. that's what happened. >> good morning, police hotline. may i help you? >> it can't happen again. >> we never had any and now all of a sudden therein were two with paper boys gone. woman: my mom and i have the same hands. same eyes. same laugh. and since she's had moderate alzheimer's disease, i've discovered we have the same fighting spirit, too. that's why i asked her doctor about new once-a-day namzaric™. vo: new namzaric is approved for moderate to severe alzheimer's disease in patients who are currently taking, and can continue to take certain doses of both namenda and donepezil. new namzaric is the first and only treatment to combine 2 proven alzheimer's medicines into a single once-a-day capsule that works 2 ways to fight the symptoms of moderate to severe alzheimer's disease. once-a-day namzaric may improve cognition and overall function and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. namzaric does not change how the disease progresses.

it shouldn't be taken by anyone allergic to memantine, donepezil, piperidine or any of the ingredients in namzaric. before starting treatment, tell the doctor about any medical conditions they have... including heart or lung problems, seizures, stomach ulcers, bladder, kidney, or liver problems. tell the doctor if the patient will have any procedures involving anesthesia, which may cause muscle problems. other serious side effects may occur, including slow heartbeat and fainting; increased stomach acid, which may raise the chance of ulcers and bleeding; nausea and vomiting; difficulty passing urine, seizures, and worsening of lung problems. the most common side effects associated with namzaric are headache, diarrhea, dizziness, loss of appetite, and bruising. woman: mom and i share a lot of moments. and we're making the most of each one. vo: ask your doctor if new namzaric is right for your loved one.

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♪ >> so right now this is all we have. this is what i would call a composite description of the six witnesses. >> we had never had any and all of a sudden there were two paper boys gone. >> you feel completely lost.

don't know where to go, what to do, who to talk to sfwlit is like a movie rerun and we are watching the movie but the actors are different. >> everyone involved thought the same thing happened again. >> we worked to death trying to find a connection. we did not find a connection. the boys were dissimilar in most aspects other than gender. >> police say they cannot connect those two stories, which i find incredible. there are so many similarities, the same day, time, conditions. how could you not think they were connected? >> how can it happen twice? mr. martin, did your son eugene know about the johnny gosch case. >> he's heard of it and been aware of the story of johnny gosch and all. >> it is possible the same

person kidnapped both boys or is that a coincidence? >> it is possible. at this point they havent determined whether there is a link between but there is a great many facts that are striking. >> are you hopeful that the trail for eugene martin might lead to johnny, too? >> yes, we are. >> i think people thought i can't believe this happens here. this stuff doesn't happen here. >> you are talking about the early 1980s. kids were out playing at dark, moms let kids go out unescorted to school. this is part of americana for a long time. it is gone an it started with those two stories.

>> lady called us at 9:00 one night and said she received a bill and change at a grocery store in sioux city, iowa and i asked thoer send it to me and i will give you another dollar. so that's what the did. >> the signature is in this area. >> he was somehow able to communicate he was still alive. it was just such a helpless feeling. >> almost three years old. we have are to make some attempt to try to reach the people that actually have him. this is the reason for this plea. >> he walked out the door. the kids were getting ready to

eat pizza. the last thing he said is save me pizza. i will be hungry when i get home and he got to the bushes and i never saw him again we received a two-page typewritten letter. it said dear mom and dad i will never be permitted to return home. they have cut and dyed my hair. i look different and it was signed love, your son, johnny gosch. from the time johnny could write, he always signed little notes to mom and dad love your son josh. i think the reason he did that is because his father's name was john, too and that was his identity. >> one thing you learn if your

case goes long term, you don't start jumping up and down like this is it. i hope we can check this out so it is valid. but if it is not, i can handle it. because when you crash down in disappointment, it is so devastating. that became my vehicle for handling things. >> seems every time i want to do something to try to help people, it is pushed back in my face. i want to try to help find the guys who did this stuff. >> i remember them talking about how i was supposed to hold this person down in the back of a car and put this stuff over his face.

>> that was johnny. >>. >> uh-huh. ♪ ♪ it's the final countdown! ♪ ♪ the final countdown! if you're the band europe, you love a final countdown. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do.

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x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. i'm richard lui with the hour's top stories. the pontiff ended historic strip to the united states. before his departure he greeted droves of faithful who turned out to wave at his motorcade. he held his final mass in the united states which concluded the world meeting of families them event that trigger ed his visit that happens every three years. massive communion as well. 1 million people turned out to see him on the final day. now back to our msnbc special. ♪

>> 24-year-old paul gnocci, a victim of sexual abuse since the age of 6. he is himself a convicted sex offender and diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. >> i can hear what the other personalities are saying and things they have done. >> reporter: we spoke to him at the nebraska state prison. he showed us pictures drawn and signed by the personalities that hunt him. only through these personalities he remembers the day he helped to kidnap johnny gosch. >> every day het put his head down and called up somebody it seemed authentic. he couldn't fake that. >> he says child pornography, sex magazines and films involving children as young as the age of 6 had been the

reasons behind johnny gosch's abduction. >> i felt sorry for him because i felt he would go through more than i did. >> he drew a map, a replica of one drawn by the kidnappers. nor reen gosch marks the spot of the abduction. she said most mistakenly believe it happened at the corner. >> when paul first surfaced, i needed some time before i could go to the prison and sit down and meet with him. i could have strangled him. but i also knew that he had been forced to do it. he had been a victim also. by the same people. >> reporter: the video can't pick up just how badly norreen is shaking as she sees paul in the flesh for the first time. he fills out a consent form, not knowing who this woman is. >> this is johnny's mother.

she wants to talk to you. >> just tell me what happened. please. >> i feel so -- i feel so bad about it because what they made me do. >> when he stepped forward to give us that information, he didn't get anything out of it. so i had to admire the young man for the courage to do that. >> why did they want johnny? everybody asks me that. i don't know the answer. >> they wanted to get kids, they liked to get kids that were close to families. >> why? >> they like to hurt people. >> they did a god job of that. >> asked me if i knew anything about them and i didn't.

>> did he know, did he ever know we were trying to find him? >> no. >> is everything that you are telling me the truth about johnny? >> yes, absolutely. >> for me, hearing all of this, it was just like my whole body seized up. i kept thinking, i can't listen to anymore but i have to. i have to hear the rest of what he has to say. they kept him tied and gagged a good share of the time. the kidnappers took pictures of that to either advertise him for sale or in some way entice another pedophile to pay for services. >> he talked about something about meditation but i don't know what that immigrant or yoga or -- some kind of -- he said something about, that he had seen his mom do that or

something. taught him how to do that. >> i have never told the press that johnny went with me to yoga classes. it wasn't rel tant to his kidnapping. these are important things. they might be little things and might not be big to the police department but it is forming a picture. >> reporter: after viewing our unedited video, he said he had firsthand knowledge of the crime. >> there's no way right now that you can say i'm convinced and we have to go and talk to him. you can't say that at this point? >> not at this time, no. >> i would have to think after all of the years, frustration and dead ends, what does it hurt to talk to him? why not do that? >> so investigators from this department went to omaha. they did not interview paul but they did interview his siblings. his siblings put him in omaha at the time of johnny gosch. we can only go on the information given to us.

that information says that we shouldn't continue to go down the path of paul based on what siblings are saying. that's how we do is evaluate that evidence. you can make judgment on that. we'll stand by what we have done. . >> you realize you are hanging all of your hopes on a child molester who has done unspeakable things to your on. >> so many things that paul has shared with us that would have been impossible for him to know had he not been with johnny. >> reporter: among that information, letters to him around the dhaunt he says are from members of the alleged sex ring that kidnapped johnny gosch. >> you think you can help to find johnny? >> yes. >> you think he is alive? >> yes. >> when the time is right i will

it rate we may interview him but it will be when we are ready to do it. >> how much more time has to go by. >> no idea. >> we can't get law enforcement help. this is when we need it. we can't take somebody to court without them and they know it. >> there was so much information put out about this case. of course the mother , who had certainly known more than anyone, that he had information that wasn't publicized but i'm skeptical. i really am. i think some of these people were con men who knew how to take advantage of the situation.

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a sleep number store. i know what it's like to search for your missing child. i know what it's like to not know what happened. so i thought, let's go back and

look. maybe somebody will have the guts to tell us what happened to johnny. for ten years there had been sightings but johnny has never been found. two years ago, a convicted child molester surfaced and said he helped to kidnap johnny. >> reporter: he claims an organized ring of pedophiles abducts children and forces them in to a life of child pornography and prostitution and it happened to him. >> america's most wanted was focused on missing children because our host john had his son abducted and killed. as the anniversary approached it is one of the stories we wanted to look at. we didn't know who we were going after and we had a child missing for ten years and the fbi was waving us off saying these are not credible witnesses. we don't believe the information is sglald these people when they get ahold of young kids and stuff they force you to do stuff, they photograph and film

it. the purpose of that is to blackmail you staying with them or split your mind so you don't remember who you are. >> there were so many facts that he seemed to know that lots of people -- convinced the only way paul knew the facts is if he talked to johnny. >> paul claims to have seen johnny in 1986 on a trip to colorado where johnny was kept by a man called the colonel. >> i guess he tried to run away one time and they branded him. >> you talked about what were pretty amazing accusations. and then these kids started calling us. >> noreen received a letter after our broadcast signed jimmy. in the letter, he claims he was abducted by the same people that took johnny. >> one kid came forward named jimmy who had the brand and was telling the stories and confirming what he was talking

about. we went to colorado. he said i will show you the house and there it was. >> what happened here? >> i almost couldn't do it. got to the house and memories flooded back. >> before we went in the building i just krooid cried. there was a great and they are like oh, no. here's the hole. it is abandoned we go under it and there is a chamber under the house with kids' initials carved in the wood. there was a sense that we are really close, you know, something is going on here. every time we found a clue we ran in to a brick wall. the owner of the house was a former prison guard who

disappeared. the people who had composite drawings never became real people. could never go after them as real individuals. the johnny gosch case haunted me in a way that nothing else i encountered on america's most wanted has. if we couldn't solve this case with all of our resources chances are no one would with. as we looked around, no one else was trying to solve the case.

>> it tloed a horrible picture of young children used to provide sexual pleasure for adults. so many of the cases very prominent adults. >> i was on the witness stand. i was asked during the questioning whether i had ever seen or talked to my son in all of the years he had been missing. the judge instructed me i would have to answer, i would be in contempt of court. so i said once. i saw my son once. >> there was a knock on my door

in the middle of the night. i could see a young man in the hallway and i said who's there and he said, it's me, mom. it's johnny. it's me, mom, it's johnny. that was always his phrase, rather than saying it's johnny. so i let him in. i said let me call somebody to help. he immediately got very upset and he said, i can't stay. they'll kill me if they know i have been here. so i had a choice right then and there. i chose to listen. he shared some information about how they traffic the kids through the country, what they were used for. and then in a very short time it was over and he said i have to go. >> johnny going to his home. ''d love to verify that.

>> she said she didn't tell anybody that. she didn't tell anybody. she didn't tell her mother or the police which i thought was odd. her explanation was that he asked not to have this put out because it would endanger him. that's the last thing you would want. you say it could endanger him. you would find out this boy is in deep danger. >> it was very simple. my son asked me not to say anything. this is miriam trejo. she's a high school teacher and a stage three breast cancer patient. miriam chose to fight her breast cancer at cancer treatment centers of america. there, she has one team of doctors and specialists, working together under one roof, with one integrated cancer care plan that attacks the breast cancer, addresses the side effects, and keeps her going strong. it's a comprehensive plan just for her.

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when i was in prison, i started getting visited by the reverend from lincoln. i had bitterness. i wanted to see these guys die in the most horrible way. i told the reverend that.

one time he told me, you're never going to get better till you learn to forgive, give up the about bitterness, anger and red. i wasn't going to let it destroy me any more. the only person i'm destroying by hagt them wasn't them, it was me. >> i could not get my breath. i thought i was going to pass out at sighing my son like that.

if you look closely at this one, over in this area, there is dark pigmentation. it's not a shadow. it's a birth mark that was always up in that area of his chest. >> the hair texture looks similar but the face was too small. we can scan in that entire image, isolate the face. when we make it larger, it glitz worse. all the details we are looking for is not there it wasn't a good candidate for a serious facial comparison.

>> first of all, there is no birth mark on his chest. the picture does not even look like him. his feet were larger than that, even when he was kidnapped. your feet stay the same length. so -- >> we located law. agency in florida who has identified the specific pictures to say that was the case. we identified some of those individuals in those pictures. they did to the have johnny in them. >> this is a case from florida. this is a case i worked in 1979. it involved several boys tied up and gagged. of course when i saw the pictures, there was no doubt this subject was a pedophile. none of the boys admitted anything happened to them so no arrests were ever made.

>> did you ever see this before? >> i can't say i remember that one, no. it was 33 years ago. i can't really recall this one. >> those photographs are my son. it mat iters not to me if peopl think it is johnny. we know it is and the police are mistaken. what do you think happened to johnny? >> i couldn't have a clue. all these options.

whether a stranger came by, grabbed him. sold him. who knows? there are a lot of missing people in this country that they never get resolved. >> when your best friend is taken away, you know, it never ends. i know he's out there. i know he's -- my soul tells me he's in. >> you almost have a guilt. the way things turned out for you. >> you have to live with, what if i could have done something more what if? we live with what-ifs all the time. >> here is our time period 1982.

we have an individual that will never say i was that person. i think the case is that simple to that individual. if that person today would say, i would sure like to help noreen with what happened, i would like that to happen. >> why on earth would johnny even want to come forward and be scrutinized like he's some kind of a specimen from another planet? whatever his life is now, assuming he's alive, it's working for him. sometimes the better decision for a parent is to analyze and do what's best for your child, not what you would have wanted to have happened. rather than stepping out and

being the brunt of all this, he has to do that. i read the statement last night he gave. it d