Missing at Dawn: What Happened to Johnny Gosch?

Missing at Dawn: What Happened to Johnny Gosch?

From Champagne and Murder, Please by Brittany

April 23, 2026 · 32 min · Season 4 · Episode 199

About this episode

This episode explores the mysterious disappearance of 12-year-old Johnny Gosch and its lasting impact on society's perception of missing children.

This week, we’re sitting with a case that has never really let go of the people who know it… or the ones hearing it for the first time. In the early hours of a quiet Sunday morning in 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch set out on his paper route in Des Moines, Iowa. It was routine. Familiar. The kind of ordinary that feels safe… until it isn’t. Somewhere between front porches and folded newspapers, Johnny vanished without a trace. What followed wasn’t just a search—it was the beginning of a national shift in how we talk about missing children. Johnny’s case would go on to spark fear, activism, and questions that still don’t have clear answers decades later. In this episode, I’m walking through who Johnny was, that morning in detail, and the investigation that unraveled in ways both frustrating and deeply unsettling. We’ll also talk about the impact his disappearance had—not just on his family, but on the way America began to understand cases like his. This is one of those stories that lingers. The kind that makes you look twice at quiet streets and early mornings… and wonder what we might have missed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Johnny_Gosch…

People in this episode

Host: Brittany

Topics covered

  • missing children
  • true crime
  • child abduction
  • investigation
  • activism
  • national impact

Keywords

  • Johnny Gosch
  • missing children
  • Des Moines
  • 1982
  • child abduction
  • true crime
  • investigation

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Des Moines, Iowa

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