Family of missing Doncaster boy Andrew Gosden remain 'baffled' 16 years on

The father of a boy who vanished without trace says his family remain "as baffled now as we ever have been" ahead of the 16th anniversary of his disappearance.

Andrew Gosden was 14 when he was last seen at King's Cross Station in London on 14 September 2007, having travelled from his home in Balby, Doncaster.

He had skipped school that day, withdrew £200 from his bank account, bought a one-way train ticket, and boarded the 9.35am GNER service from Doncaster.

There have been no confirmed sightings of him since.

His father, Kevin, said: "Every day we think about Andrew. You can’t not wonder. To be honest I was thinking yesterday, if he’d been missing 16 days it would have been enough trauma for a lifetime, never mind 16 years searching."

The day Andrew vanished was a Friday. Kevin Gosden remembers it as "just a normal day".

He said: "I remember saying goodbye to him in his school uniform. 'See you later, dad,' he said.

"And then we got back from work and we just thought he was in the bedroom or something, reading a book. When we started looking for him at dinnertime, he was nowhere to be found."

He added: "At first you don’t panic. You just start ringing his friends. Just checking that he’s not with a mate.

"And then we found out from his mates that he hadn’t even been in school. That was the first time that had ever happened and was the point at which we got worried and called the police."

Andrew was captured on CCTV at Kings Cross station later that day. He was wearing black jeans, a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of rock band Slipknot, and carrying a bag over his shoulder.

Mr Gosden said: "It was just so, so normal in our house, in our family, until he vanished. You go over and over, in your mind, all the possibilities that might exist for why he might have chosen to disappear, and we can’t come up with anything at all.

"If we’d known that he was struggling with something we’d have been helping him with it. No, we’re as baffled now as we ever have been."

Recalling his son, he said: "He was lovely: funny, witty, very intelligent, quite a bouncy sort of a character. I really enjoyed his company. He was a lovely lad. Couldn’t fault him."

When he went missing, Andrew had very poor vision and wore glasses. And according to information shared by police, he has an unusual and distinctive right ear. He is also deaf in his left ear and struggles to locate the direction of sounds.

Over the years, Mr Gosden has worked with the charity Missing People to raise awareness of his son's case.

A number of age-progression images have been produced showing what Andrew may have looked like as he got older.

Many sightings of people who look like Andrew have been reported, but no positive sighting of him has ever been confirmed.

In 2021 a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of kidnap, human trafficking and the possession of indecent images of children. A 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking.

The arrests were carried out in London by officers from South Yorkshire Police and the Metropolitan Police. 

Both men were released under investigation while enquiries continue. There has been no update on the criminal investigation since then.

Mr Gosden said: "I always do think someone, somewhere, surely must know something. But how you reach that person and ever find out… that I don’t know."

He added: "Bearing in mind, obviously, he’s 30 now, if he didn’t want to make direct contact to say that he was still alive it would help us fantastically if he contacted either Missing People, the charity, or the police, and provided some information to demonstrate that it was him - some shared memories or something.

"And just let us know that he was okay, and if he’s got any problems to let us know if we can offer any help and support."

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