All language subtitles for Who.Took.Johnny.2014.720p.WEB-DL.H.264.en

[ Crackling ]

-And here is a close-up

of a 14-year-old boy
in terrible trouble.

John David Gosch was kidnapped
on a Sunday morning

as he delivered newspapers
in suburban Des Moines.

With us now live are Noreen
and John Gosch, his parents.

If someone sees him,
what should they do?

Who should they call?

-They should call
our home telephone number,

which is area code 515-225-7456.

-Well, if anyone
sees a little boy

that looks anything
like Johnny Gosch,

call that number.

-Thank you very much.

**

-Sunday, September 5th,
approximately 6:00 AM --

12-year-old John Gosch
had been delivering papers

in this affluent neighborhood
of West Des Moines.

That was the last time
he was seen.

-The parents believe
the boy is alive

and has been kidnapped.

-Let us know
what you want as far

as, uh, anything.

-Johnny, we love you.

We're waiting
for you to come home.

We're doing everything
in our power to get you back.

And we're leaving
the porch light on every night.

Moms are like that.

Take care, babe.

-Johnny Gosch is somebody
that you just say the name

and people know about it.

-Johnny Gosch was a paper boy.

He went to deliver some papers
and just never came home.

And then they pretty much
found zero evidence about it.

-I think ever since then,

parents just don't let
their kids do things

that they did before.

-The Gosches'
busy schedule never stops.

So what keeps them going?

Hope that their son
is still alive

and hope that they can help
prevent future abductions.

-Noreen, the mom,

is kind of looked on as kind
of a nut anymore,

which is too bad, but --

but it certainly affected
her drastically and the dad.

I don't even know
whatever happened to him, so...

-Please contact us
if you have our son.

We'll work with your demands
'cause we want him back.

-The investigation
into the missing John Gosch

is continuing.

-We begin
this half hour

with a desperate search
for two young cousins.

-The search continues for
8-year-old Elizabeth Collins

and 10-year-old Lyric Cook.

The cousins' bikes were found
by the lake last Friday.

Yesterday, we learned
that Lyric's parents,

Misty and Dan Morrissey...

-We're going
to Waterloo, Iowa, today,

and we're gonna be visiting with
Drew and Heather Collins,

uh, who just lost their little
daughter to a kidnapping.

And they have no answers as yet.

And yesterday would've been
Elizabeth's ninth birthday.

What's the biggest thing

that concerns you other
than getting your daughter back

and her safety?

-I don't know what's harder,

not knowing or knowing.
I mean, that's --

If there's something bad
that's happened, I mean...

-I know. It's hard,

'cause when you don't know,
your mind kind of imagines

what might be happening.

-Oh, that's all we do all day.

-Mm-hmm.

-When Johnny was kidnapped,
we lived in West Des Moines.

And I remember
that just vividly,

being scare --

really scared as a --
a kid, a little boy.

The fact
that they've never found him,

just that terrifies me.

-I always tried
to have a plan

for the next day, something,

whether it was an activity,
whether it was something

I was doing on the case
to keep it going,

to keep it, um, alive.

You just take the plunge,

and you start
going back into normal,

day-to-day things.

-It just seems weird
at our house because...

-She was the center
of attention.

-She's, like -- If she was here
in this room,

she'd be upside-down
on that coffee table

or she would be doing
something crazy

to get attention.

I mean, she was the center
of attention wherever we went.

I mean...
So it's --

it's just weird how quiet
it is without her there.

-I'm glad that I went
to visit with Heather and Drew.

This was a pretty dramatic, uh,

gutsy move by the kidnappers,

to take these girls
in broad daylight,

and to take two children.

It's difficult for me

because it just brings back just
every bit of information

during Johnny's kidnapping.

And now, here we are
30 years later,

and Johnny's never been found.

Hello.
How are you folks?

Can I get your names, please?

This is summer yoga.

My name is Noreen Gosch,

and I've been
teaching yoga for 40 years.

It's a long time.

It's a long time
to stick with one thing.

And people often ask me, "Well,

how can you do
the same thing?

Doesn't it get boring?"

No.

It works.

I was born and raised
in Eastern Iowa.

I got married relatively young.

I had two children.

I was given the news
my husband had cancer,

and that there was no way
for him to survive.

But 2 months before he died,
we were hit with a tornado.

Everything was destroyed.

When I started looking
for my children,

I couldn't find them.

I was pulling apart rafters
of the house, walls.

I found the two kids
lying facedown

in gravel and broken glass.

And then the rain
came, torrents of rain.

When the rain hit them,
they started screaming,

and that was,
like, music to my ears.

It meant they weren't dead.

And then, just a few
short weeks later,

my husband died.

There I was with two little kids

to raise, starting over.

And I remember just trying
to rest a little bit.

And my little girl
came walking over to the couch.

She said, "Are you gonna die,

too, like daddy?"

Wake-up call.
Time to get up.

Time to get moving.

I did not want my children
to feel that insecure.

That experience,

it either makes you
or breaks you.

And I had a choice.

I either get up and start moving
or go down in despair.

A couple of years
after the death of my husband,

a good friend called me.

And she said, "It's time
that you need to get out

and start seeing people."

And there was the man
that they wanted me to meet.

-We met through a friend
that I was in

the Marine Corps with.

-We started dating.

And then we got married,
had a nice wedding.

And then a couple of years
later, we had Johnny.

Life was good.

We were a normal little family.

-Johnny and I,
we were best friends.

I remember building snow forts.

We used to dig caves.

And we actually had candles
and different rooms

inside the snow fort.

Um, to us it was,
uh, an adventure.

It was, uh, our little getaway.

We had a lot of fun with that.

-Johnny just enjoyed doing
so many things.

He had such a joy about him.

-Any time

that somebody had a birthday,
he would spend a lot of time

getting the right present
for 'em,

and always wanting
to do something special.

-You couldn't live
in a better place

or have a better environment.

Middle of America, great --

great neighborhood.

-Johnny's first morning
on his paper route.

-He did
the Sunday morning paper.

And he had his wagon,
and he would take Gretchen.

And they delivered
the paper together.

-He wanted the paper route

because, uh, he wanted
to get himself a dirt bike.

-He became
quite the little businessman.

He saved his money,
and he bought it.

And then he and his brother

would go riding out
in the fields.

-At first, I didn't understand.

I think I --
I blocked a lot of it out.

Um, but as I matured

and as life developed, you know,

it became more and more...

I -- I -- I'm at a loss
for words here.

It -- It became shocking
to learn

that your best friend is gone.

-That particular Sunday,
we got a phone call

from one of the neighbors
wondering where the paper was.

-On weekends, his dad

would help Johnny
on the paper route.

And, um, that's not
what happened.

-I was with him
every Sunday morning

except that particular Sunday
morning that he was kidnapped.

I wasn't there.

Got up.
Got in the car.

Went up to the corner.
Found the wagon.

Didn't see him anywhere around,

and told Noreen,
I said, "Something's wrong."

She called the police
right away.

-It took about 45 minutes
before the police arrived.

-The police department
was only 10 blocks away.

-The cop looked at me,
and he said, "Uh, well,

has your son
ever run away before?"

-That kid never ran away.

That really upset us.

-I was absolutely
panic-stricken.

I couldn't even be sure
I was still breathing.

It was like, "This can't happen.

This isn't happening to us."

-I was there that morning.

Johnny was doing his wagon.

Johnny's dog was there with him.

There were two
or three other, uh,

carriers there,
doing the same...

I --
I was the only adult, though.

Uh, there happened to be
a car on 42nd Street,

and there was a guy in there.

And he was talking
to Johnny Gosch.

Johnny said, "Hey, can you come
over here and help this guy?"

And all of a sudden,
this car just swerved.

He made a U-turn, took off.

I thought it was kind of strange
that he would do that.

-One witness said
Johnny told him,

"There's something
wrong with this guy.

I'm scared."

-There was a consensus,
as I recall,

amongst the other paper boys

that there was somebody
there asking directions.

It became a witness that we
would like to have identified,

but to say

that somebody stopped and asked
directions of a paper boy,

that would not be
at all out of line.

We still don't know
what happened that morning.

-John apparently left
the residence

sometime around 5:45,

as a neighbor reported hearing
a wagon being pulled

through the back of his yard.

Mike was picking up
his morning papers

and noticed a car stop

and then back up to the point
where John Gosch was walking.

And it appeared
that John spoke briefly

to the driver of the vehicle.

-People saw him talk
with a man in a car.

That car left Johnny.

Johnny proceeded to where
the newspapers had been dropped.

-Vehicle is described
as a two-tone blue,

two-door Ford Fairmont.

-That car came back.

The man
in there asked directions.

-I think I told the police

he looked like he was
mad about something.

He wasn't drunk,
but he looked like he's,

uh, been drinking
a lot of caffeine.

You know, that kind of thing.

Not sleepy.
Well, he wasn't sleepy.

He was...
Looked like he was on the...

You know, ready to go.

That's kind of odd
at 6 o'clock in the morning.

-All of a sudden, the witness
that was sitting on the corner

saw a tall man come out
from between two houses

and follow my son.

-Mike saw an individual step
from the curb

onto 42nd and travel
towards John Gosch.

-The next two people

that see him are
two juvenile newspaper carriers

that say, "Hey, Johnny."
He says, "Hi."

They proceeded to where the
newspapers have been dropped.

-At about this time,
P.J. Smith

reported hearing a car door.

And upon sitting up in bed,

he observed a silver
and black Ford Fairmont

start up from the area

where John Gosch was last seen
and made a left turn

after rolling through
the stop sign without stopping.

-The second window
was where he slept.

And of course,
it all happened right here.

The car ran the stop right
there, and it turned left.

In fact, his wagon
was still sitting right there.

Yeah.

-Those two newspaper carriers,

they get their newspapers,
turn around

and walk back
by that same corner.

And when they walk by,
the wagon's there

with the newspapers
and no Johnny.

-There was no crime scene.

Nobody saw anything that,

to us, was an explanation
for the boy's disappearance.

He just vanished.

This is just that unsolved,
unexplained missing person case.

-You know, the trail,
it gets cold real quick.

And they just thought,
like all cops do,

it's a runaway,
a kid ran away.

No.
This kid didn't run away.

He... Johnny was our paper boy.

Knew him, knew his parents, been
out to dinner with them.

Um, Johnny would not run away.

-Altogether, we had
five witnesses

that each saw this crime
that took place.

And the cops stated again,

"Has your son
ever run away before?"

They were completely excluding
the fact that we had witnesses.

-At that time,
when a kid disappeared

it was generally a kid
who ran away from home.

Nobody would believe

that somebody would take
a 12-year-old boy off the street

in the middle of the morning.

That was not acceptable.

And the more you got into it,
the deeper the mystery got.

-We still don't have
a crime scene.

We still don't know if...

What, uh --
What happened that morning.

The only thing that's certain is
Johnny Gosch is --

has -- has not been --
not been located.

-And that began
a whole new dimension of life

that has gone on for 30 years.

-It would be hell
to have a child disappear.

It's just hard to --
hard to fathom.

And I think if that happens,

you're gonna do everything
in your power

to try to find out
what happened.

Why the police didn't take
more interest in right away,

I don't know.

-You'd have a person
that's missing and a family

who misses their loved one.

Society changes, putting kids
on the side of milk cartons

or not letting them walk
to school anymore,

always having to escort 'em,

or creating day cares
in the morning

so they can be there
and protected.

I mean,
gigantic societal changes, um,

probably long overdue changes,

but again, they came
because of what --

what I would say is a tragedy.

-Law enforcement authorities
have no new leads in the case

and had few to begin with.

-Thousands of people
have been searching for the boy,

but nothing positive
has turned up.

-The drivers of cars
in the area

have yet to come forward
with information.

-I need 10 people
on this side...

-Just follow the creek, there.

The psychics said, basically,
close to the creek bottoms.

-As far as any surprises
by the police department, I --

I think every day
was a surprise.

Most of the time,
they weren't doing much.

One day, when we had people
searching all over the area,

I pulled up and there was
a policeman sitting

there shooting radar
for speeders, like,

two blocks from our house.

I told him, I said,
"Put that gun away

and go find my son," you know?

-Psychics have told the Gosches
the boy is dead,

and his body will be found
within 2 miles of their home,

near a creek.

-It's something we have to check
out because, otherwise,

uh, you start getting a bunch
of snow and everything else

that would tear us apart

if we didn't have
any news by then.

-People that we didn't even
know came forward to help

because there was
nothing organized

by the police, nothing.

-All of us were reading
about the turmoil

that was going on
with the search.

The laws at this time
were 72 hours

is what it takes in order
to record a child as missing.

And none of us felt
that was right, of course.

-I've got
a couple boys of my own,

and I'd hate to lose
either one of them.

-The Gosches will inform
the psychics of their search

and possibly plan another one.

-Slowly, the searches stopped.

Everybody went back
to their lives.

So I asked the police chief,

when was the FBI
going to be coming?

And he said,
"Well, um,

I don't really think
we need the FBI.

We just really don't have
a crime here."

And he put his hands
out like this, and, "We just

really don't have a crime."

-They had to keep doing this.

They had to keep, not agitating,

but reminding the police,
"This is what's happened to us.

You say you have
no crime to report.

We have no son to put to bed."

-This story had moved from,
"My son was abducted,"

to a conflict

with law enforcement
of, "You're not doing enough.

You're not running
down the leads."

-Noreen is not
and never has been,

as far as I know,
a shrinking violet.

She will not just stay home
and cry in her handkerchief.

There were stories about cops
who wanted off this case so bad

because they couldn't
handle this woman.

-People would say that Noreen
was over the top at times.

She was abrasive,
and she didn't really care.

But she was looking for her son,
her little boy.

I mean, the horror of that,

that was lost.

-Following this release
that we made, the FBI

referred to us as loons.

That is a message to America

that if you try
to find your child,

and if you work diligently
at it,

you may be referred to as loons
by the FBI,

who are doing nothing
to help the parents.

-Uh, it's somewhat
of a frustrating,

um, investigation.

But, uh, I am very optimistic.

I think that we will find
the boy, and,

uh, he will be alive.

-I interviewed Orval Cooney.

And believe me,
I remember this, says,

"I don't give a damn about
what Noreen Gosch has to say."

And that set off the fireworks.

-Every time you do
a negative headline like that,

it affects public opinion
about the case

and about the family.

And we had a lot
of that to battle here,

simply because
we were asking questions.

We asked for the FBI to come in.

We were within our rights
to ask for these things,

and yet
we were denied with attitude.

We were told
by government agencies,

"Well, you have to prove
that child's in danger.

To us, he's a runaway
until you prove he's in danger."

You can almost become catatonic.

You could almost go
into a state of mind

where you don't want to talk
to anybody ever again,

not trust anybody ever again.

That's our boy's life.

-The police chief
had a lot of personal problems.

He was tired
of the media coming down

and bothering him
and all that stuff, so...

-The police chief
began screaming at me.

And I looked at him and said,

"There is no need
for you to yell.

I have perfect hearing."

It was a way
to push his buttons.

I will freely admit that.

The man was not handling
the case correctly.

It was later proved
that he wasn't.

He needed to be removed
from office.

-The "Des Moines Tribune"
reports 18 officers

making allegations
against Chief Cooney,

including doing police work
after drinking,

fixing the tickets
of friends and relatives,

being racially prejudiced,
and interfering

with a department investigation
against one of his sons.

Both Cooney
and Mayor George Mills,

say the actions
of this many officers

in a 37-person department
cannot be ignored.

-I know it gets tiring,
but any chance of any TV shows

that they want to do, take it.

Take it.

Whenever you do a show,
especially a network show,

that stirs up the interest
for the leads to come.

-Sure.

-It was our private
investigator that told us.

He said, "You got to keep
this case going,

and it's gonna have to be
you guys that do it.

Nobody else is
gonna step up and do it."

-Yeah, I know.

You, like, had, like,
no help from them.

But for us, it has been, like,
the complete opposite.

-They are completely
working with us and just...

-I wish that would've
happened in your case.

-Well, and see, they've had
a whole revamping

after what happened in the '80s,
'cause it wasn't just us.

There was lots of parents

that had the same thing
happen, concerning them.

And, uh, we all banded together,

and we demanded
something different.

And a few people
can make a difference.

Since Johnny's kidnapping,

I vowed
that this horrible tragedy

that happened to him would not
go down in history for naught.

I'm still standing.

I'm still investigating.

I never quit.

Others have come and gone.

And I wouldn't still
be working in this movement

if I hadn't been honest,

if I hadn't been
straightforward and strong.

-John and Noreen Gosch

say they are receiving hundreds
of phone calls, all calls

except for the one
they're waiting to hear --

the one about
where their boy is.

And a stack of letters
from all over the country,

some of them from parents
who also have lost children.

-Our life has been turned
into suspended animation

at this point.

We take each day as it comes,
and we're very flexible.

We have to be.

And we're ready to move
at a moment's notice

if we have to
to get our boy back.

-I think people
today would be shocked

at what the real situation
was in 1982.

Police were required
to wait 72 hours before

they could start investigating
for a missing child case.

The FBI would track your stolen
car across state lines,

but it would not track your
stolen child across state lines.

There was absolutely
no national infrastructure

to support the hunt
for missing children.

-One of our big breaks
in the case was the fact

that a man by the name
of Ken Wooden called me.

And he was an expert
on pedophilia.

-I was in residence
at Iowa State University,

and an article came out
in the paper.

A newspaper boy,
serving papers,

missing and his dog
was still there.

And it was obvious.

If the dog was still there,

he was no runaway.

-I had never heard
the word pedophile.

And most of the people
around us in this community

had never heard the word either.

-One thing really
sticks out in my mind.

I mean, here's
a Harvard-educated publisher

of "The Des Moines Register,"
sitting there,

and he says,
"What's this word, "pedophile,"

you keep bringing up?
Is that the right word?"

And I said, "Well, that's --
that's the case right there.

The fact that you don't know

what the meaning
of that word is,

that is the undercurrent
of this entire scenario.

-Innocent children
like these can become big money

in the highly lucrative business

of child pornography
and prostitution.

This is a catalog
for pedophiles.

There are ads like this --

"45-year-old man

seeks contact with others
interested in adolescent

and pre-adolescent boys
and girls."

-My heart went out
to her as a parent,

because I knew she had
a big fight on her hands.

-The children need to know

that they must be cautious
with their actions.

He said, "If you'll be willing
to speak out on this,

we will help you.

But be aware --

people do not want to hear

that there are organized
pedophiles in this country,

working to do just
what happened to your son."

-You know,
we brought in George Gallup.

We brought in Ken Wooden,

world-famous,
both of them world-famous.

And we had seats set up
for 500 people.

45 people came.
It's unbelievable.

"The Register" didn't cover it.

No TV stations covered it.

-It was so outrageous
at the time

that somebody would
do something to a kid,

that it was not thinkable.

But if they didn't catch
the perpetrator,

something like this
is gonna happen again.

[ Phone rings ]

-Des Moines Police Hotline,
may I help you?

**

-So right now,
this is all we have.

This is a, uh, what I would call
a composite description

of the six witnesses.

-You just feel completely lost.

You know, you --
you don't know what to do,

where to go, who to talk to.

-It's just like
a movie being rerun,

that we're watching a movie,
except the actors are different.

It's exactly the way
I -- I felt.

-Almost everyone involved
thought, "Okay, this is the --

the same thing.
The same thing happened again."

-We were in-depth, uh,

trying to find a connection.

We did not find a connection.

The boys were dissimilar in --

in most aspects,
other than their gender.

-The police say they cannot
connect those two stories,

which I find kind of incredible.

There's so many similarities,

you know, the same date, time,

uh, conditions.

How could you not think
they were connected?

-How can it happen twice?

Mr. Martin,
did your son, Eugene,

know about
the Johnny Gosch case?

-Yes, he's heard of it.

And he's been aware of the story
of Johnny Gosch, no.

-Is it possible

that the same person
kidnapped both boys?

Or is that just a coincidence?

-It's possible.

At this point,
they have not determined

whether there is a link
between the two cases yet,

but there is a great many facts
that are very striking.

-Are you hopeful
that the trail for Eugene Martin

might lead to Johnny, too?

-Yes, we are.

-What I'd do if somebody
kidnapped me,

because it'd be
kind of scary,

'cause they might kill me
or take me away and,

um, brainwash me
or something.

-You're talking
about the early 1980s.

Kids were out playing
in the dark.

Their moms let 'em go
to school unescorted.

And this was part
of Americana, uh, for --

for a long, long time.

And it's gone, and it started
with those two stories.

**

-The gal over there,
that's Heather.

That is Elizabeth's mother.

-Okay.
Okay.

-So you'll want to get her, too.
-If she wants to talk, sure.

Absolutely. Had you met
these folks before today?

-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
-Okay. Well, great.

-This is Roger.
-I'm Roger.

-Nice to meet you.
Yeah.

-What -- What's life
like for you every day,

getting up, going
to bed at night?

How are you coping?

-Um, a lot of prayer.
"Lord get me through another day

without having
my daughter here."

And so I just ask
for a lot of strength

to get me through each day.

Um, yeah.
It has been.

Um, she's given a lot
of information, um,

a lot of things that she did,
a lot of good advice.

It's sad to see

that she didn't get any help
or anything like that.

But she's worked so hard
to get it -- You know,

things have changed
because of what she has done.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks for coming out, Roger.
It was good to see you again.

**

-Noreen was always
very intense,

and so sometimes,

the general feeling
in the newsroom was,

[Sighs] "Here we go again."

At that time,
when most of the people

in the newsrooms
in this market were young,

most not married,
we were chasing the story.

And I think what we failed
to think about was that,

that was somebody's life
who was falling apart.

And their son was lost.

And how do you go on?

And she went on and on and on.

And for a young reporter,

that, at times,
would be frustrating.

But now, as somebody
who has four children,

thank you.

**

-A lady called us one night
about 9 o'clock at night

and said that she had received
a bill and change

at a grocery store
in Sioux City, Iowa.

And I asked her, "Could you
please send us the bill?

I'll send you
a dollar back for it."

That's what she did.

-The signature
is right in this area.

He was somehow able
to communicate

that he was still alive.

It was just such
a helpless feeling.

When you are a victim
of violent crime,

only to be there,

you know the pain
and the frustration

in trying to get
a case like this resolved.

We've been disappointed.

Things have not been followed
through as adequately

as we had hoped.

And so therefore, my husband
and I feel we must do

what we humanly can
as his parents.

-He walked out the door,

and the kids were getting
ready to have pizza.

And I'll never forget it
as long as I live.

The last thing he said to me
as he walked out the door was,

"Save me some pizza, mom.
I'll be hungry when I get home."

And he waved when he got to
the bushes, and I waved at him.

And that was that.
And I never saw him again.

There are times when the news
says that they've found a body.

In one instance,
you hold your breath

and bite your fingernails

and hope
that it's not your child.

And in other ways, you wish
that they would come out

and say that --
that it is your child

so you could finally bury them
and -- and go to rest.

-I believe all three
of 'em met the same fate

by the same trafficking network.

But back in the day,

they didn't call it
human trafficking.

That name wasn't given
to it until much later.

-Seems every time
I try and --

I want to try and do something
to help people,

it gets pushed
right back in my face.

I mean, I was...
What I want to do

is try and help find
these guys who did this stuff.

I was just supposed to,

um, hold this person down
in the back of the car

and put the stuff over his face.

-And that was Johnny?
-Mm-hmm.

-Paul Bonacci was a victim
of a child prostitution network

that was centered
in Omaha, Nebraska.

And 9 years after
Johnny Gosch's abduction,

Paul Bonacci came forward

and claimed that he helped
abduct Johnny Gosch.

That was the big bang
in the Johnny Gosch case.

-24-year-old
Paul Bonacci,

a victim of sexual abuse
since the age of 6.

He is, himself,
a convicted sex offender

and has been diagnosed with
multiple personality disorder.

-I can hear what these other
personalities are saying

and stuff and the things
they've done, I mean,

like, with Johnny.

-We spoke to Bonacci recently
at the Nebraska State Prison.

He showed us dozens
of portraits,

drawn and signed
by the personalities

which haunt him.

-And this is bunch
of the different personalities

right here and...

-It is only
through these personalities

that he remembers the day
he helped kidnap Johnny Gosch.

-Every time he would
put his head down

and call up somebody,
it seemed authentic.

He seemed to me
that he couldn't fake that.

This guy probably wasn't capable
of coming up

with all these voices and all
these different things to say.

-Bonacci can call forth
his alter egos at will.

First to emerge,
Mark Anderson, 15 years old.

-All I remember
'em talking about was

that this was the boy
that they were gonna, um --

one of the boys
they were gonna take.

-Paul says
a Des Moines accomplice

snuck up from behind
as the abduction was made.

Bonacci did his part,
chloroforming Johnny.

-I held him down for a second.
I put this thing

that Emilio told me
to over his face.

And, um,
few seconds later, he went out.

-I don't know
how long we shot, though.

I think we filled up
every tape that I had.

Jim, who is as unflappable
a guy as you can get...

He just, you know,
handles everything well.

At one point,
just turned around and --

and, like, looked at me
in disbelief like,

"What do I make
of all of this?"

Jim always has a handle on it.

And even Jim
didn't have a handle

on what was going on there.

-Bonacci says
child pornography,

sex magazines and films
involving children as young

as the age of 6

had always been the reason
behind Johnny Gosch's abduction.

-And after it was over with,
we -- me and Mike talked to him

and told him it was gonna
be all right,

that if he just
did what everything

he was told to, he --
he'd be alive,

that we didn't know
what was gonna happen to him,

but at least he'd live.

-When Paul Bonacci
first surfaced,

I needed some time
before I could go to the prison

and sit down and meet with him.

I could've strangled him.

But I also knew that he had
been forced to do it.

He had been a victim also
by the same people.

I don't have
hate for Paul at all.

I thought I would,

and a lot of people want me to,
but I -- I don't feel that.

-The video can't pick up
just how badly Noreen Gosch

is shaking

as she sees Paul Bonacci
in the flesh for the first time.

He fills out a consent form,

not knowing who this woman is.

-This is Johnny's mother.

Mrs. Gosch wanted
to talk to you.

-Just tell me
what happened, please.

-I mean, I feels so...

I feel so bad about it 'cause...

[ Sniffles ]

...of what they made me do.

-It was a moment in time
that I'll never forget.

I was anxious.
I was upset.

But I was thankful to him

for going out
on a limb to share it.

He didn't have to.

He didn't get a better deal.

He still had to serve
his sentence.

So I had to admire the young man
for the courage to do that.

-Bonacci drew a map
of the plan,

a replica of one drawn
by the kidnappers.

-Noreen Gosch says this X marks
the exact spot of the abduction.

She says

most people mistakenly believe
it happened at the corner.

-"Why did they want Johnny?"

Everybody asks me that.
I don't know the answer.

-They wanted to get
kids that...

And they also liked to get kids

that were close
to their families.

-Why?

They did a good job of that.

-This is a composite sketch
of Emilio.

The mastermind of the plot

gave Bonacci the job
of chloroforming Johnny.

-Is everything
that you're telling me

the truth about Johnny?

-Yes.
Absolutely.

-For me, to --
hearing all of this,

it was just like
my whole body seized up.

I kept thinking,
"I can't listen to any more,

but I have to.

I have to hear the rest
of what he has to say,

that they kept him tied
and gagged a good share

of the time and that Paul

was indeed the first one
to molest him on film.

The kidnappers took pictures
of that to either advertise him

for sale or, in some way,

entice another pedophile
to pay for services.

-He talked about something
about meditation,

but I don't know
what that meant, or yoga or...

some kind of...

Then, he'd -- he'd say
something about that

he'd seen his mom
do that or something.

And she told him --
taught him how to do that.

-I have never told the press

that Johnny went with me
to yoga classes.

It wasn't relevant
to his kidnapping.

Did you ever see any, um, marks

or anything on Johnny's body?

-When we got him in there,

he had a birthmark on his chest
or something on his chest.

It was like,
uh, looked like South America.

-While information
on Johnny's large chest

birthmark was widely circulated,

Bonacci described
other markings

which were never made public.

A scar on Johnny's tongue.

Noreen says he bit
through his tongue

after falling from a tree house.

A white scar on Johnny's leg
just above the ankle.

He'd received a burn

after touching the hot tailpipe
of his brother's motorcycle.

Bonacci also described

the stammer Johnny
suffered when he was upset.

-These are all things
that start to fit a puzzle

that we've known about
for a long time.

And these are important things.
They might be little things.

And they might not be big things
to the police department.

But it's forming a picture.

-After viewing
our unedited interview,

West Des Moines police
say Bonacci said little

to prove that he had firsthand
knowledge of the crime.

-There is no way right now
that you can say,

"I'm convinced,
and we got to go talk to him."

You can't say that
at this point.

-I can't, myself,
at this time, no.

-I would have to think that,
after all the years

and all the frustration
and all the dead ends,

what does it hurt to go
and talk to him?

You know, why not do that?

Kind of tends to that whole
conspiracy-theory-type,

uh, flavor that the -- the whole
thing has is, why won't they?

Why don't -- I mean,
just go out there and eliminate

that as a possibility for once
and for all if you can do that?

-And so investigators from
this department went to Omaha.

They did not interview
Paul Bonacci,

but they did interview
his siblings.

His siblings put him in Omaha

at the time of the disappearance
of Johnny Gosch.

Now we can only go
on the information

that was given to us, so,

that information that says,

"We shouldn't continue to go
down the path of Paul Bonacci

based on what siblings
are saying.

And that's how we do it,
is evaluate that evidence.

So, um...

you can make a judgment on that.

We'll stand by what we've done.

**

-It takes 2 hours to get from
Omaha to Des Moines, 2 1/2.

And if you've kidnapped
somebody,

you're probably driving faster.

I mean, you could get there
and back in a day

and your sister
might not know you're gone.

[ Laughing ] I don't know.

-You realize you're hanging all
your hopes on a child molester

who's done unspeakable things
to your son.

-There's just been
so many things

that Paul has shared with us
that would've been impossible

for him to know had
he not been with Johnny.

-Among that information,
letters to Bonacci

from around the country
that he says are from members

of the alleged sex ring

that kidnapped Johnny Gosch,
complete with descriptions

of Johnny's physical condition
and his whereabouts.

-Think you can
help find Johnny?

-Yes.
-Do you think he's alive?

-Yes.
-You've got a case

that's been unsolved
for 10 years.

I would think you'd be kicking
the doors down

to want to talk
to him at this point.

-When the time
is right, uh, again,

I will reiterate, we may well
interview Paul Bonacci.

But it will be
when we're ready to do it.

-How much more time
has to go by?

-I have no idea.
-It is a major cover-up.

-We can't get
law enforcement help.

This is when we need it.

We can't take somebody
to court without them,

and they know it.

-There was so much information
put out about this case.

And of course,
the mother

would certainly know
more than anyone

that he had information
that wasn't publicized.

But I'm skeptical.
I really am.

I think some of these people
are con men

who knew how to take advantage
of the situation.

-I know what it's like to
search for your missing child.

I know what it's like
to not know what happened.

And so I thought,
"Let's go back and look.

Maybe somebody'll have the guts

to finally tell us
what happened to Johnny."

For 10 years,
they have been fighting,

but Johnny's never been found.

Two years ago,
a convicted child molester

surfaced and said
he helped kidnap Johnny.

Bonacci claims that
an organized ring of pedophiles

abducts children and forces

them into a life
of child pornography

and prostitution,

and that it happened to him.

-"America's Most Wanted"

was focused on missing children
because our host,

John, uh, had, had his son
abducted and killed.

And so we did a lot of stories
about missing children.

And as the anniversary
approached

of Johnny's abduction,

that was one of the stories
we wanted to look at.

-Nobody had found Johnny,

so any excuse is a good excuse
to keep it in the light.

-We didn't know
who we were going after,

and we had a missing child who
had been missing for 10 years.

And the FBI was waving us off
right from the very beginning,

saying, "These are not
credible witnesses.

We don't believe
this information is valid."

So we went into it
pretty skeptically,

particularly when you have
a character like Paul Bonacci,

who was clearly suffering from
multiple personality disorder,

who had huge credibility issues,
and who had been in prison.

-'Cause these people,

when they get ahold
of young kids and stuff,

and they force you to do things,
and they photograph it.

They film it.

Um, and the whole purpose of
that is to either blackmail you

into staying with them or to
make -- to split your mind up

so that you don't even
remember who you are.

-Paul Bonacci's a tough read.

There were so many facts

that he seemed to know
that lots of people didn't know.

And the Gosches were convinced
that the only way Paul

knew those facts was
if he had talked to Johnny.

-Paul claims to have
seen Johnny in 1986

on a trip to Colorado,

where Johnny was being kept
by a man called the Colonel.

-I guess he tried
to run away from him one time,

and they branded him.

-We gave some airtime
to Paul Bonacci's story.

He talked about the branding.

He talked about what were
pretty amazing accusations.

And then these kids
started calling us.

This one kid
came forward named Jimmy,

who had the brand
and was telling these stories

and confirming
what Bonacci was talking about.

"We went to Colorado with
Bonacci," you know, he said,

"I'll show you the house where
they used to keep us."

And he described this house
with a secret,

underground chamber

where they would hide the kids
when the police would come.

And there it was.

-So what happened here?

-You okay?

-[ Sobbing ]

I remember this house
being where they brought us.

They kept us here to make sure

that we couldn't leave and...

I almost couldn't do it,
to even go near the house,

'cause I got up there,
and I just...

The memories
flooded back of, uh,

the last time I was here.

Before we went in the building,
I described it.

And there was a little grate.

We pulled the grate off stuff,
and they looked under there

like, "Oh, no.
There's the hole."

-It's abandoned.
We go underneath it.

And sure enough, there's this
chamber dug out under the house

with kids' initials
carved in the wood.

-Uh, this is where they kept
some of the kids hidden away,

underneath of here so
that if anyone ever

tried to come looking for 'em,

they could, uh, run 'em
underneath the house here.

-And so that
there was this sense

that we're really close.

You know, something
is going on here.

But every time we found a clue,
we ran into a brick wall.

The owner of the house,
which had been abandoned,

was a former prison guard
who disappeared.

You know, the people

who had composite drawings
never became real people.

We never had names.

We never could go after them
as individuals.

We couldn't expose them and get
them brought in for questioning.

There's the things
you think are true.

There's the things
you know are true.

And then there are the things
you can prove in court.

And the only thing that matters
is what can be proved in court.

And we didn't have anything
that we could prove in court.

The Johnny Gosch case
has haunted me, you know,

in a way that nothing else

that I encountered on
"America's Most Wanted" has.

And we encountered
horrific crimes.

If "America's Most Wanted,"
with all of our resources,

couldn't solve this case,

then chances are, no one would.

And as I looked around,
no one else

was trying to solve the case.

-Um, you know, I don't know
what else they need.

It seems like
they're never happy.

But no matter what comes up
on the case,

no matter what it is,

they refute it and say,
"It isn't genuine."

"Oh, we're not gonna
go see Paul Bonacci.

We're not gonna do this.
We're not gonna do that.

But, oh, we want to
solve the case."

If you want to solve the case,
you have to do some things.

You can't just
sit behind your desk

and wait for the driver
of the car

to come in and turn himself in.

I guess I'm just more appalled
than shocked anymore.

This young man admitted helping
to kidnap my son,

molesting my son.

And I was being told
by the West Des Moines police

that they would not
go talk to him?

-I've been investigating
the cover-up of

a pedophile network
for about 10 years.

This child prostitution network
was centered in Omaha, Nebraska.

And they flew children
from coast to coast

and pandered them
to the rich and powerful.

The network also
deployed blackmail

to compromise the rich
and the powerful.

That's when I first heard
Johnny Gosch's name.

-Number one,
Paul had repeated

the very same story,

word for word, to his attorney

before I ever went to see him.

He never changed a word.

-I was a young senator
at the time

and was hearing these strange,
insane stories about --

from kids
that were telling about

how they were sexually involved

with this prominent individual
or that prominent individual.

And I get this letter
from a kid in jail

who had just been arrested,

this kid named Paul Bonacci.

And it led to a horrible,
horrible, horrible picture

of young children

being used to provide
sexual pleasure for adults,

and in so many of the cases,
very prominent adults.

God.
It just is a monster thing

that I still wish
I didn't even know.

I know that sounds crazy.

But I wish I truly
didn't even know all this.

-In 1989, the Franklin
Credit Union scandal

burst into the headlines.

Paul Bonacci was one
of the witnesses

who made shocking allegations
of child sexual abuse

by some of Omaha's most
influential citizens.

-I -- I don't know
who they all are.

All I know is those are the guys

that were controlling
everything.

I -- I was not a kept kid.

I was not a, uh,
one for sale that way

because I was doing things
other for them

that they couldn't --
didn't want to sell me.

Plus, I was damaged goods.

These guys wanted kids

that had not been involved
in any sexual stuff.

And Johnny got bought by a guy
that was actually in Colorado.

So he ended up there.

And he'd been
with a lot of guys there

too that this guy
had made him for money, so...

But he never got the money.
The guy got the money.

-There were
two different kinds of kids.

There were the throwaway kids,
the runaways,

drug addicts living
on the street hustling for sex.

And then there were the virgins,

and that some of
these sick individuals

would pay large sums of money

to have clean kids to abuse.

And that's the part of the story

that I found most horrific
and most disturbing.

-Before Paul even admitted
that he abducted Johnny Gosch,

he was receiving letters
from kids around the country

who did discuss Emilio

and who also discussed JG.

So I think that that's
pretty powerful evidence

that Paul did take part
in Johnny Gosch's abduction

and that Emilio was involved.

-We couldn't find any reason
why he would be making this up.

The dates of some
of his earlier interviews

with John DeCamp
and some of the recordings

that he made early on,

these things sort of predated
a lot of the publicity.

So, yes, it's possible

that he could've gotten
some of those details,

but it seems highly unlikely.

Now, whether he was actually
there, I don't know.

Did he know people
who was there?

I think that's very likely.

Did he know Johnny Gosch

at some point
after the abduction?

Yes, I believe he did.

-A grand jury investigated
and called the allegations

"a carefully crafted hoax."

Bonacci was charged
with perjury,

but the perjury charges
were eventually dropped.

During the investigation,
the court-appointed psychiatrist

diagnosed Bonacci as having
multiple personality disorder

caused by years of sexual abuse.

-The only people I ever spoke
to about it was some media.

And they kept asking me

if anybody had come
to talk to me about it.

I was like, "Nobody's really
come to investigate anything.

Nobody's come to,

you know, hear anything
I have to say about it."

-Sometimes, there are forces
just too powerful,

people just too big
and rich and interests

that you don't even understand
or know anything about involved

that make it impossible

for them to allow you to succeed

in getting this exposed
or corrected.

-* Oh, say can you see

-A Republican from the Midwest,
Lawrence E. King

is serving
a 15-year prison sentence

for a multimillion-dollar
fraud.

-* We hailed at the...

-But financial crime
is only half the story.

-Paul Bonacci was a victim
of King's abuse.

He was also sent by King

to lure Boys Town youngsters
off campus.

-We didn't go to Nebraska
with a conspiracy theory

in our mind, hoping to prove it.

We went to Nebraska to try
and work out what happened.

And we found a conspiracy
of silence.

-King was arrested,

and a federal investigation
showed he'd stolen $40 million.

The money trail led quickly
to the original allegations

of child abuse.

But the FBI's inquiries
were secret.

-They didn't ask me very much
about Larry King.

They treated the allegations
I made about people

who abused me
almost like a joke.

-I was very disappointed
with the way

the FBI and law enforcement
treated the victims.

They, in fact
turned them into the offenders,

so to speak.

-"It's not gonna be believed,"
they said.

"It will not be believed.

You will be found
guilty of perjury."

I mean,
they weren't telling me maybe.

-We got a message
from the Discovery Channel

saying that all work
on this program must cease.

Yorkshire Television
actually paid

for me to go out to Bethesda

to talk to the senior executives
of the Discovery Channel

to try and persuade them
to run the program.

And, uh, they just
didn't want to know.

They didn't want
to talk about it.

They just turned me around,
sent me home.

-If you control the media,

if you control
the justice department,

if you control the police,

you own the system.

It was just unreal.

When you're talking to somebody,

let's say
a law enforcement officer,

and they just...

"I'm not talking
to you about this.

I -- I don't --
I don't know.

I don't want to talk about it."

-Excellent.

Um, are you familiar
with the Johnny Gosch case?

Uh, he was an Iowa paper boy
who disappeared 30 years ago.

-I am not personally familiar
with that case.

-But do you know about it?

-Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
I -- I didn't...

-Yeah.

-Um, how --
how are, um...

-The FBI
is a good organization.

The Catholic Church
is a good organization.

It doesn't mean
they don't have individuals

who do terrible things.

And the natural response
of most organizations

is to protect the organization.

So I do think that there was
some institutional protection

of people
who had done bad things.

I think that
transcends this case.

That happens everywhere
all the time.

So I think it's important
to understand that

these organizations are not
trying to cover up

some grand conspiracy.

They're just trying to cover up
some wrongdoing

at a very, very low level

to protect the reputation
of the organization.

And I think the Catholic Church
is the perfect example

of how that happens

and how it can go on for decades
without resolution.

-I still go back
to the same thing

I've said from the beginning --

a poor pedophile must go out

and take the risk

of being caught
by grabbing their own victim.

Does the rich pedophile
take that risk of being caught?

Heavens no.
They pay someone.

That's when we develop
supply and demand

that now has the name
of human trafficking.

And it's going on everywhere
in the United States.

-I know that what happened
was wrong and I need to,

um, do what I can to try
and help stop these guys

from doing this to other
children.

**

-I've known Noreen
for maybe 30 years or longer.

You know, at our age,

I think it took several weeks
or even more than weeks,

maybe a month or 2 month,

before we actually
talked about Johnny.

It's quite the story.

More so than I ever believed
or could have ever imagined.

I think I was probably
like the other 98%

of the people out there
that think, "This...

There's so many things
involved in here

that it can't be true.

It just can't happen
in our society."

I felt somewhat sorry for her,

uh, because nobody believed her.

So you know, it --
it took a while.

It's just been amazing,
unfortunately.

-What's --
What's great about Noreen?

What are things
that you love about her?

What's...

-It's her willpower.

It's just not the easiest thing
in the world to be Noreen Gosch

because so many
of the victims' parents have...

You know, it's just torn
them apart.

So she's done a great job.

-I could not get my breath.

And I thought
I was gonna pass out

as seeing my son like that.

And if you look closely

at this one,

over in this area,

there's dark pigmentation.

It is not a shadow.

That is the birthmark
that Johnny had.

It was always up
in that area of his chest.

-The hair texture
looked similar,

but the face was too small.

We can scan
in that entire image,

isolate the face,

but when we make it larger,
it gets really worse.

And all the details

that we're looking
for just aren't there.

So it -- it wasn't
a good candidate

for a serious facial comparison.

-First of all, there's
no birthmark on his chest.

And the -- the picture
does not even look like him.

His feet
were much larger than that

even when he was kidnapped,
so as...

Your feet, even if you'd lost
a lot of weight,

still say he's stayed
the same length, so...

-We located a law enforcement
agency in Florida

who has identified
the specific pictures

to say,
"That was a case we worked.

We identified some of
the individuals

in those pictures.

Those pictures did not have
Johnny Gosch in them."

-These boys were
all from Florida.

This is a case
that I worked in 1979.

It was a case

that involved several boys
tied up and gagged.

Of course,
when I saw the pictures,

there was no doubt in my mind

that this subject
was a pedophile.

None of the boys ever admitted
that anything happened to 'em,

so no arrests were ever made.

-Have you ever
seen this before?

-I -- I -- I can't say
that I remember that one.

Uh, you know,
it was 33 years ago.

I can't really recall this one.

-Those photographs are my son.

And, you know,
it matters not to me

if people think it isn't Johnny.

We know that it is.

And the West Des Moines
Police are mistaken.

**

-My wife has been there for me
through a lot of things.

She's right there
to straighten me out

and correct me and put me back
where I need to be.

And she doesn't let
me just give excuses.

We've had our rough times,
but we've made it 10 years.

You know, if she's made it
through this,

that part of it and stuff,

I think the worst is over
in our marriage

because I had a hard time
getting close.

And communicating has been
a big problem.

When I was in prison,
I started getting visited

by Reverend John Morrow
from Lincoln.

And at that point and stuff,
I still had a lot of hatred

and a lot of bitterness towards
these people who had abused me.

And actually, getting even more
because of all the memories

that were now flooding my mind.

I just wanted to see these guys
die in the most horrible way.

And I told Reverend Marrow that.

And, you know,
many times I told him that.

And then one time he told me,
he says, "You know what,

you're never
gonna get any better

till you learn to forgive,
give up the bitterness,

the anger and the hatred."

And I remember going back
to my cell,

and I said, "I know
that what he's saying is true."

Doesn't mean they shouldn't have
to answer for what they've done.

It just meant

that I wasn't gonna
let it destroy me anymore.

The only person

that I'm destroying
by hating them wasn't them.

It was me.

[ Siren wailing ]

-I was asked to be
a part of Paul Bonacci's trial

when they were suing
his perpetrator.

I was asked
during the questioning

whether I had ever seen
or talked to my son

in all the years
he had been missing.

And I didn't answer.

And the judge instructed me
that I would have to answer

or I'd be in contempt of court.

So I said, "Once.

I saw my son once."

**

-If somebody disappears
into thin air once,

that's a really unusual,
amazing thing.

If they disappear
into thin air twice,

that's something that
even I have never heard of.

That has happened to Noreen.

-There was a knock on my door,
a persistent knocking.

And I went to the door.

And I could see a young man
standing out there.

And I kept looking at his eyes.

And the eyes don't change.

And so I said, "Who is it?"

And he said,
"It's me, mom, Johnny."

He had another young man
with him

who didn't say anything.

And Johnny
did not introduce him.

I said, "Let me call
somebody to help."

He immediately got very upset.

And he said, "They'll kill me
if they know I've been here."

He shared some information
about how they traffic the kids

through the country.

He did not go into great detail
about the sexual abuse.

And that the kids
were forced to do a lot

of things that were illegal.

So therefore none of them would
ever go to the police for help.

And then, in a very short time,
it was over.

And he said, "I have to go."

Looking back on it,

I probably should have refused
and been in contempt of court,

because all hell broke loose.

Before we even drove home,
the news was everywhere.

Everywhere.

And then
all the criticism started.

-For someone
who's so outspoken

and you tell
the media everything,

now suddenly,
you don't say anything.

-It was very simple.

My son asked me
not to say anything.

-She said
she didn't tell anybody it.

She didn't tell her mother,

which I thought was kind of odd.

Her explanation was
that he asked

not to have this put out
because it would endanger him.

I thought, "That's the last
thing you'd want.

You'd say something
and all of a sudden

you find out this boy
is in deep danger."

-Noreen, she either
said nothing or,

if she said something,
she blew it out straight.

And I made it clear to her
we were in court, federal court.

This was a trial.

And either she should say
nothing

or tell the absolute truth.

-Johnny truly believes
that the reason

they don't want him coming out

is because he knows
too much information.

Which is why he believes
that if he ever comes out,

he'd be killed immediately
or he would disappear.

And that's the main reason,

besides the fact he doesn't want
the media circus,

he doesn't want
to come out is because,

you know, he either figures
he's gonna be killed

or he's gonna
go to prison for something.

Which I don't think
there'd be much...

I don't think
any jury in the world

would convict him
of anything with everything

that he's gone through.

-He said, "The kids formed,

uh, kind of a family
of their own

to try and look out
for each other."

The only part
about the mind control

was that he said,
"They controlled us.

They did things to us."

Things like that.
He kept it...

And I think part
of the reason

he kept it a little bit
aloof was 'cause

he was talking to his mom.

And maybe he felt
some of the raw material

might be too raw.

And it would be not only
upsetting to me

but maybe embarrassing
to him to do that.

That's the only thing
I can figure out.

But knowing that he had gotten
away from these people

and probably didn't want
them to find him again,

I can totally understand

why he only stayed
for about an hour.

I can totally understand

why he slipped away
into the night,

wouldn't tell me
where he was living

and a few things
that were evasive.

That was for his protection
and also probably mine.

But I kept that information
to myself for 2 years

before I was
on the witness stand

and had to answer
the question for the attorney.

Lot of parents feel guilty
if they enjoy food

because maybe their child
isn't getting food,

if you get a good night's
sleep because maybe your child

is not permitted to sleep.

There's never anything
about that process

that a parent
should feel guilty about

because you have to do
every single thing possible

to maintain yourself
physically and emotionally.

-Yeah.
Right -- Right now --

Right now I just look forward
to tomorrow every day.

-Mm-hmm.

-I want today
to be over already.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then the day
after that could be over, too.

-What do you
think happened to Johnny?

-I don't have a clue.

I mean,
there's all these options,

whether a stranger
came by, grabbed him,

sold him.

Who knows?

There are a lot of missing
people in this country

that they never get resolved.

-I believe that my son

deserved 110 percent
of my energy

to try and rescue him
if possible.

Or at the very least,

try to find out
what happened to him.

And 30 years
after the kidnapping,

I am so much farther
down the road

with the knowledge
of what happened to him.

It doesn't mean
that he's been brought home

and doesn't mean
the case is solved,

but at least I know.

And that is huge.

-It's almost impossible
for anyone

who hasn't lost their child

to understand
what that does to you.

And I think what Noreen and John
did on the national level

of trying to make people
understand

that you had
to have a structure in place

to find these missing kids
was really heroic.

And what they did for
the missing children movement

can never be underestimated.

-You have to live with,

"What if I could have
done something more?"

You know?

What if?
What if?

I guess we live with what-ifs
all the time, don't we?

**

-Why on Earth would Johnny
even want to come forward

and be scrutinized
like he's some kind

of a specimen
from another planet?

Whatever his life is now,
assuming he's alive,

it's working for him.

Sometimes the better decision
for a parent

is do what's best
for your child,

not just what you want
to have happen.

And if that's what's
best for Johnny,

rather than stepping out

and being the brunt
of all of this,

then he has to do that.

**

-Do you think you have a right
for the West Des Moines Police

and the FBI to at least go
and talk to Paul Bonacci?

-I think Johnny has a right.

I think his civil rights
have been violated unbelievably

since the time he was taken.

Johnny's civil rights.

I have felt,
through all of this,

that I have been guided to make
the decisions that I have.

And I hope that anyone
that sees this film really

realizes what a problem
we do have in America

with regard
to our children's safety.

-Scientifically, they say
about a half

to one percent of the population
are technically pedophiles,

are sexually
attracted to children.

And those people
are gonna appear at all levels

of our society, from coaches

to priests to teachers

to police officers.

-Every day,
it's being reported,

but it's such an ugly issue.

People either skip it
or don't read it.

-Right now,
there are thousands of kids,

children

that are being brought
into these exact same abuses.

If one of those kids
is looking at this right now,

what do you say to them?

-To tell somebody.

If it's someone in the family
doing something, tell a teacher.

Tell a counselor.
Tell a minister.

You know, you're not doing
anything wrong if

you're the one being victimized.

But you need help.

You need someone
that's gonna care for you,

someone who's gonna love you,

someone who's gonna
stand up for you.

It'll destroy your life
if you --

if you let it continue,
if you let it go on.