A teenager who took a train to London in 2007 and was never seen again is arguably one of the most recognisable faces from a missing person’s poster, but not everyone knows his story.
Do you recognise this poster?
Andrew Gosden vanished in 2007 (Missing People)
The image is of 14-year-old Andrew Gosden and is one that still remains plastered on posters at bus stops and train stations. To this day, we still don’t know what happened to him.
How did Andrew Gosden go missing?
Born on 10 July 1993 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, Andrew Gosden and lived with his family in the suburb of Balby.
A highly academic student, Gosden was part of his school’s gifted and talented programme. The teenager is said to have had a small group of friends at school and his parents were not aware of him being bullied by any other students.
However, the lives of his family would change forever on 14 September 2007 when instead of attending school as usual, Andrew withdrew £200 from his bank account, returned home to get changed and boarded a train to London King’s Cross station.
He was later captured on the station’s CCTV cameras at 11.25am.
This is the last confirmed sighting of him.
Have there been any updates on the Andrew Gosden case since then?
Police and Andrew’s family haven’t been able to find any credible leads or sightings of him in the 17 years following.
He was last spotted on CCTV in London (Missing People)
Various theories have been put forward by his family in the years following, such as Andrew travelling to the capital for sightseeing, to see a band he liked perform in the city or even hand out CVs (as his older sister had previously done) – however none of these ideas provided any credible leads.
Police also investigated whether or not Andrew could’ve made the journey to the capital in order to meet up with a friend online, however this theory was later disregarded after authorities learnt that Andrew did not have an email address or any online accounts linked to his PSP and Xbox.
It appeared that police had a lead in 2022 when South Yorkshire Police arrested two men on charges of kidnapping and human trafficking. However, they were later determined to have no connection to Andrew’s case and released.
Police have not been able to find any credible leads regarding his disappearance (PA)
As of 2024, there have been no confirmed sightings or leads regarding Andrew, with his story remaining one of the most mysterious modern missing person’s cases in the UK.
Andrew’s parents Kevin and Glenys have never given up hope on finding their son, with the couple recently revealing their heartbreaking decision to finally renovate his room after 17 years.
“It is 17 years since Andrew went missing,” Kevin wrote in a blog post (via Sheffield Star).
“A missing loved one is not something that can be moved on from: we simply find ourselves another year on, with no clue where or why he went off that day, let alone where he could be now, even if he is alive.”
For more information on Andrew’s case, click here.
