On the morning of Sunday, September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch left his home in the suburb of West Des Moines, Iowa, on his newspaper delivery route.

Around 7 a.m., his parents, Noreen and John, began receiving calls from neighbors complaining that their papers had not been delivered.

John found his son's wagon full of papers abandoned on the sidewalk a block and a half away. Johnny was gone.