FORGOTTEN BUSINESS. The Eugene Martin case, this little newspaper delivery man that no one ever saw pass again

Eugene Wade Martin’s name probably means nothing to you. However, in the 1980s, the story of this little boy plunged an entire country into fear. It is in Des Moises, Iowa, that this obscure affair takes root. In the early hours of August 12, 1984, 13-year-old Eugene Wade Martin got on his bike to distribute the Des Moines Registerthe morning daily in his region. Residents see him going from one house to another, taking care to throw his newspapers right outside their doors. But shortly after 6 a.m., the telephone rings at the editorial office of the Register. Several customers complain that they have not received their newspaper. And for good reason, around 6:10 a.m., little Eugene’s bag was discovered on a sidewalk. Inside, magazines he will never distribute.

Around 8:40 a.m., the disappearance of the young “paper boy” is reported to the police. Dozens of people join the search and the authorities conduct a neighborhood survey. Several witnesses then claim to have seen Eugene chatting with a man between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. around Southwest 12th Street and Highview Drive. According to them, the conversation was relaxed, almost as if the teenager was chatting with his father. The man, in his thirties, is described as Caucasian and clean. However, no one is able to give their identity.

From Josh Hosch to Eugene Wade Martin, history repeats itself

While the search continues to find the young Eugene, the police make a terrible observation: his story resembles in all respects that of John Gosch, another young delivery man from the Des Moines Register disappeared two years earlier. On September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Gosch was doing his morning rounds when he vanished. His red cart full of newspapers had also been found and a suspect, described as a “lonely man“, had also been mentioned. Nevertheless, the police believed in a runaway.

Faced with these findings, the Des Moines police opened a kidnapping investigation. Inspector James Rowley, in charge of the case, studies more than 2000 leads, in vain. Eugene Wade Martin and John Gosch remain untraceable. “This case haunts mehe would say later. She’s the one I’ll take to my grave.” In the Iowa of the 1980s, until then considered a safe state, it was amazement. Josh and Eugene became the symbols of a “white childhood in danger“and all parents use their story to warn their own children…

A mysterious visit without follow-up

However, in the 1990s, a twist in the Johnny Gosch affair gave hope to his parents, as well as to those of Eugene. About ten years after the disappearance of her son, Noreen Gosch is visited by a strange man claiming to be John Gosch. He says he was sold to a prostitution ring and now lives in hiding, for fear of being found. Unfortunately, the police were never able to prove what Noreen Gosch said was true, and the alleged John Gosch never showed up at his mother’s house again.

Forty years later, Eugene Martin and Josh Gosch remain untraceable, and their parents died without ever knowing what had happened to their sons. The files nevertheless remain open, in the hope that one day, progress in the scientific police will make it possible to find their trace. “If somehow we managed to identify a suspect, we would definitely investigate.“¸ confided Sgt. Scott Raudabaugh, spokesperson for the authorities, in August 2014.