Missing Before Dawn

On two quiet Sunday mornings in the 1980s, two paperboys stepped out into the streets of West Des Moines, Iowa.

They never came home.

In September 1982, twelve-year-old Johnny Gosch disappeared while delivering newspapers along his regular route. His wagon and undelivered papers were left behind, but Johnny was gone.

Less than two years later, history seemed to repeat itself.

In August 1984, thirteen-year-old Eugene Martin vanished while delivering newspapers in the same community.

Two boys.

Two Sunday mornings.

One town.

And a mystery that remains unsolved more than four decades later.

The disappearances of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin shocked Iowa, captivated the nation, and helped spark a new era of missing-child awareness in America. Their faces became familiar to millions through the milk carton campaign that forever changed how the country viewed missing children.

Yet despite decades of investigations, media attention, witness reports, and countless theories, the most important questions remain unanswered.

What happened to Johnny Gosch?

What happened to Eugene Martin?

And were their disappearances connected?

In Missing Before Dawn, true-crime author Linda Davidson examines the events surrounding both vanishings, retraces the investigations that followed, explores the theories that continue to fuel debate, and tells the deeply human story of the families left behind.

Through careful research and compassionate storytelling, this book explores one of America's most enduring missing-child mysteries and the lasting impact it had on families, communities, and the nation itself.

This is more than a story about two missing boys.

It is a story about hope, loss, unanswered questions, and the search for truth that never truly ended.

Because some mysteries refuse to fade.

And some children are never forgotten.