Andrew Gosden: "Unending nightmare," say parents as missing Doncaster teen's room decorated

The 14-year-old was last seen on September 14, 2007 – and despite huge national and international manhunts, he has never been found.

His father Kevin and mother Glenys have never given up on finding Andrew, who was last seen at King’s Cross Station in London after leaving the family’s home in Balby.

In an emotional blog post to mark the anniversary, Kevin wrote: “It is 17 years since Andrew went missing.

"For various reasons, my wife Glenys and I are refurbishing half of our Victorian mid-terrace house. A well-meaning friend said to us recently that it must be good to feel that we can “move on” by including Andrew’s old room in this process.

“We have removed picture rails, rewired, replaced damaged floorboards, even removed the lead piping for gas lighting that was under the floor.

"The old furniture is gone, new cupboards installed, the walls plaster skimmed and coving added. The paint Andrew chose as a boy (blue) has been stripped off, the room has been stripped right back and is being slowly restored.

"As for “moving on”, we find ourselves intending to choose a new shade of blue for the walls and soft furnishings and to include some pictures and belongings of Andrew’s in the final stages.

"A missing loved one is not something that can be moved on from: we simply find ourselves another year on, with no clue where or why he went off that day, let alone where he could be now, even if he is alive.

“It feels as though your life has been stripped back. Everything you expected to happen never did, or if it did, not in the way you expected.

"And now another year farther away from a possible clue. This hurts, in the most unimaginably painful way, all the time, every single day and in some ways that hurt becomes worse as more time passes. It feels we are trapped in an unending nightmare rather than moving on, let alone being restored and improved.

"This doubtless sounds bleak to any reader and is why, as usual, I wish to encourage any reader to support the charity Missing People, who support many families like ours in many ways.

"One of the most important ways to help is to share their appeals for missing loved ones via social media. It costs nothing, yet may save a family or individual from a huge amount of pain.

"Similarly, make family and friends aware of the helpline 116000 so that they could seek support with any aspect related to missing, even if it is to talk through the feelings related to thinking of going missing.

"This feeling of our lives being stripped down year in and year out can seem unbearable and never-ending, but there is an amazing source of support available and I can promise you that it is free, confidential and that you should have no doubts as to the value of making that call, or contacting them online or via text. For us, the pain may never end, but it does help to have someone at your back supporting you.”

In a major breakthrough in the case, in December 2021, two men were arrested in connection with Andrew's disappearance.

The pair were detained on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking and at the time of the arrests in London, police said electronics taken from the pair, aged 39 and 46, could take "six to 12 months" to analyse.

The older man was also arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, the force said at the time.

But they were both later released – and the case still remains open.

On the day of his disappearance, Andrew skipped school and withdrew just under £200 from his bank account before buying a one-way ticket to the capital.

He was last seen on CCTV at King's Cross Station and has not been seen since.

The teenager's motive for travelling to London on the day he was last seen has never been established.

His image – and updated creations of how me might look now – have been widely circulated, not only across Doncaster and London but also across Europe and the rest of the world in a bid to track him down and solve the case.