by FourthBase » Thu Sep 14, 2006 4:21 am
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/9840293/detail.html">www.kfoxtv.com/news/9840293/detail.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Hoax Worry In Photo Of Child Missing Since '82<br><br>POSTED: 11:10 am MDT September 13, 2006<br>UPDATED: 11:41 am MDT September 13, 2006<br><br>WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- West Des Moines police said that if two photos of boys tied up and gagged are not of Johnny Gosch, then someone is playing a "horrible prank'' on his mother. Gosch was 12 when he disappeared in 1982 from his West Des Moines neighborhood while delivering the Sunday newspaper.<br><br>Police are investigating a lead out of Florida that the pictures recently delivered to his mother's front door date back to the 1970s. A retired investigator from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa said the photos of boys tied up and gagged are not Gosch.<br><br>The sheriff's office is now going through every roll of microfilm in its archives to find the police report, which has the photos attached. West Des Moines police Lt. Jeff Miller said the investigation is continuing to look into who dropped the photos off at Noreen Gosch's house. KCCI-TV put in a call to her and hopes to hear from her later Wednesday.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Nelson Zalva, a retired police detective in Tampa, Fla., <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>who now works for the Florida state attorney</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, told KCCI-TV that he believes these are pictures from a case he worked on in the late 1970s, several years before Gosch disappeared. He said at the time, police tracked down and identified all three boys and the man who took the pictures.<br><br>Zalva said the boys posed voluntarily and police did not file charges. He does not believe these three boys have anything to do with the case.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :rolleyes --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/eyes.gif ALT=":rolleyes"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Officer: Gosch photos may be 'horrible prank' <br>3:10 PM<br><br><br>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The photos of bound and gagged boys that were sent to an Iowa woman whose son disappeared 24 years ago were investigated in the late 1970s and are not her missing son, a retired Florida sheriff's investigators said Wednesday.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Nelson Zalva, who now works for the Hillsborough County, Fla., State Attorney's Office</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, said he investigated the same photos while working for the county's sheriff in 1978 or 1979.<br><br>"I remember this case," he said. "I identified the kids portrayed in the photos. It was definitely investigated by me several years prior to the disappearance of Johnny Gosch."<br><br>The photos were in an envelope left at the West Des Moines home of Johnny's mother, Noreen Gosch, on Aug. 27.<br><br>One photo, in black and white, shows a boy bound and gagged on a bed. Another is a color photo of the same boy in a similar pose with two others boys.<br><br>Noreen Gosch turned the photos over to police, who have been investigating the authenticity of the photos and any connection to her son.<br><br>Johnny was 12 when he disappeared from his neighborhood before daybreak on Sept. 5, 1982. His photo was one of the first of a missing child to be put on a milk carton. Police have said they believe he was abducted but they have few clues.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Zalva said his investigation never resulted in an arrest because the children in the photos never admitted that the suspect touched them inappropriately. He said the boys in the photos had voluntarily posed for the photos, but he couldn't recall why.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>"Basically, what happened is <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>someone, maybe it was one of the parents</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, found the photos and called the sheriff's office and deputies went out there, impounded the photos and the case was assigned to me for investigation," Zalva said. "<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>I worked a long time on it, getting the kids identified</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->."<br><br>Lt. Jeff Miller, a West Des Moines Police spokesman, said the investigation is continuing into who left the photos at Noreen Gosch's house.<br><br>"If they are not of Johnny Gosch, someone is playing a horrible prank," he said.<br><br>Miller said Gosch has been informed of the Florida investigation.<br><br>A telephone message left Wednesday morning for Gosch was not immediately returned.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br>- Those kids don't look like they're posing voluntarily.<br>- He worked on it a long time but doesn't remember who found the pictures?<br>- Florida state attorney office...yeah.<br><br>I have a feeling Zalva's claims will never be verified. <p></p><i></i>