Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - Andrew Gosden: The One-Way Ticket

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

On September 14, 2007, 14-year-old Andrew Gosden left his Doncaster home as if heading to school, doubled back once his family left, changed clothes, withdrew £200 in cash, and bought a one-way train ticket to London. CCTV cameras caught him arriving alone at King's Cross Station. After he walked out of that station, he was never seen again. Andrew was described as academically brilliant, deeply private, and deeply reserved. He left behind his charger and packed almost nothing — as if he hadn't planned to be gone long. In one of the most surveilled cities in the world, a boy simply vanished.For more, follow The Final Hours wherever you listen to podcasts: https://pod.link/1872821250If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Scams, Money, & Murder to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Scams, Money, & Murder is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of Reddit, Crime House 24/7, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories, and more wherever you get your podcasts!Follow me on SocialInstagram: @CrimehouseTikTok: @CrimehouseFacebook: @crimehousestudiosX: @crimehousemediaYouTube: @crimehousestudios

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Are you the type to fall down an internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours? You'll love Crimes of Reddit, a new crimehouse original with Sabrina Deanna Roga and Alexis Linkletter. Every week, one host brings real true crime stories from Reddit, while the other reacts completely blind. No prep, no spoilers, then they swap. It's the feeling of sending your group chat a threat at 2 a.m. that starts with, You have to see this. Except Sabrina and Alexis. are in the chat with you. Follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or subscribe

at Crimes of Reddit Pod on YouTube. This is Crime House. You're watching a surveillance video from Kings Cross Station in the Central London neighborhood of Camden. It was taken on September 14, 2007, at 1124 a.m. on Platform 5. The colors are blown out, and the footage is blurry and a bit jerky because of the low frame rate, but you can see a thick stream of passengers as they exit one of the trains. They walk toward the camera from the platform into the main building concourse. On one side of the crowd is a 14-year-old boy. This is Andrew Gausden. He has longish-brown hair and wears glasses,

a black slip-knock band tea and jeans. He's carrying a black canvas satchel over his shoulder. Another camera then catches him leaving King's Cross at around 1125 a.m. Just unlawful. minute or two after getting off the train. He exits the automatic main doors and walks out of the station onto the streets of London. After that, he's never seen again. Nobody knows what Andrew was doing so far away from home on his own. And, in the 19 years since, his family holds out hope that he might still be out there. Every year, over half a million people go missing, and that's just in the United States alone. Most of those stories barely get a headline. Some don't even get a tip line. And when If cases do get media attention, we only get the broad strokes.

But for those of us who have lived these true crime cases, we know the devil's in the details. This is the final hours. A crime house original powered by Pave Studios. I'm Sarah Turney. And I'm Courtney Nicole. Every Monday, Sarah and I will be looking at the final hours of someone's disappearance to see if there was anything hiding in plain sight. Each episode all offer insight on what those close to the victim might have experienced. Courtney will use her expertise to give more context into the investigation itself.

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This episode were discussing the disappearance of Andrew Gausden. In September 2007, 14-year-old Andrew had just started the new school year. On the morning of the 14th, Andrew left his family home in his uniform, but instead of going to school, he waited for his parents to leave, then went back inside to change. For the first time ever, Andrew played hooky and went on an adventure from which he never returned. Every parent knows the fear.

You look away for one second and your child is just gone. But Andrew Gawston wasn't taken from his bed at night. He was 14 years old, and he made a choice to leave. Whether that was for a night and one quick adventure, or for longer, what he saw as a fresh start, it's a question that's haunted his family for decades. But the pain remains the same. It became a nightmare with no ending.

Even 19 years later, they're asking how and why. But maybe the key to some of those answers lies in who Andrew was before. It's 2007. 14-year-old Andrew Goston was living with his family in Balby in South Yorkshire, England. His parents, 43-year-old Glenys and 42-year-old Kevin, were both speech and language therapist. He had a 16-year-old sister named Charlotte, who he looked up to. According to Andrew's family, he was quiet, gentle, and extremely intelligent. The Gosten said they enjoyed a lot of quality time with each other.

They had family dinners, discussed their problems, played games, and shared hobbies. They were close. and they were incredibly proud of Andrew, who they called Rue, mainly because he was always so bouncy, happy, and energetic. He was a straight-A student with 100% attendance rate at McCauley Catholic High School, where he just started the 10th grade. He also participated in the government's young, gifted, and talented program, which offered extra classes and other resources for the top 5% of students. His teachers had no doubt he'd get into Oxford or Cambridge one day, and graduate with honors, That's because Andrew had always been at the top of his class in every subject, but he was exceptionally good at math.

He won a bunch of prizes at math competitions in the UK and all over Europe. In the summer of 2006, he spent two weeks at the University of Lancaster two hours from his home in Balby. He attended the residential summer school for gifted and talented kids, where he took advanced classes on campus. When he came home, he seemed excited about the experience. His dad Kevin thought Andrew saw it as a good opportunity to open doors for himself later on. At 13 years old, Andrew was already strategizing about his future. One teacher described him as, quote, deep and mature beyond his years. Shy, self-sufficient, and happy in his own company.

Something else to note about Andrew was that he was completely deaf in his left ear. Though sources don't say how that happened, or if it had been that way since birth. Because of that, we know that he had a hard time knowing which direction. certain sounds were coming from. He also wore strong prescription glasses for his poor eyesight. But that never stopped him from being social. Teachers said he often had a group of friends around him, and they never mentioned him getting bullied.

On the other hand, Andrew's parents said he never really went to friends' houses or had them over after school. His family called him a home bird and believed that he was happy to stay in with them rather than go out. I don't know, Sarah, I think I relate to Andrew a lot over this. I am a home body, like through and through,

and I think I always have been. When I was growing up, when I was really young, I had really bad teeth and I was super pale, and so I kind of got made fun for that. And so it became part of like my insecurities. And so although he has some struggles with hearing out of one of his ears and he has some poor eyesight, it does sound like he doesn't really let that, like, bug him. I mean, he just seems like a happy kid who doesn't really care what anyone has to say. Yeah, I mean, he seemed to be going through life just fine.

And, I mean, to your point, like, I was just like him, too. I would rather stay home with a book than go out with friends when I was his age, so I totally get it. Oh, also, you know, he was incredibly smart, like, at the top of all of his classes. And, you know, I feel like that is obviously something to be really proud of. Like, that's not really typical, you know? I mean, I like talking about he was smart, right? We know he was smart, right? I mean, he was recognized by the government for being smart.

That's a huge accomplishment. Well, Andrew had plenty of hobbies to keep him busy at home, like playing video games. James, collecting and polishing rocks, shooting pool on the table in his own room, and reading. You could see the wear and tear on some of his favorites, like The Lord of the Rings and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Recently, he'd gotten into thrillers by John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer. But his most recent read was far more philosophical, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, which was a mature book for a 14-year-old to read. His mom wondered if the idea of determining his own destiny with no guilt or remorse appears,

healed to him. In addition to books, Andrew loved music. Band posters wallpapered his room. Some of his favorite groups were Slipknot, Muse, and Funeral for a Friend. His dad even gave him a powerful home audio system to listen to music on. Andrew's parents didn't mind his interest in metal music in goth clothing. Quite the opposite, actually. They supported it. He shared the subculture with his 16-year-old sister Charlotte, who was also a great student. She dyed her hair black and her room was decked out in goth vibes. His parents probably loved that the siblings found something they could bond over. But this wasn't the only thing they connected on.

Andrew and Charlotte were really close. She believed he would confide in her if something was wrong. I really love how much Glenys and Kevin encouraged their kids to be themselves. I learned that they were both religious, but always told the kids it was their choice whether they want to go to church. In fact, they didn't have them baptized because they didn't want to sway their views. So when Andrew decided around March 2006 that he didn't want to go to church anymore, his parents were okay with it.

Charlotte had already stopped going, so his parents suspected he was following her lead. After all, he looked up to her big time. Though it wasn't the only thing Andrew stopped doing, he was also a Cub Scout, but in the summer of 2007, he stopped attending because he said he was bored of it. So that summer, his parents suggested he do something else with his free time. Maybe he should take a solo trip to visit his grandmother in London. But ultimately, Andrew decided against it, not wanting to go through the motions of planning.

Glenys and Kevin noticed the changes in their son, but they thought it was just a quiet phase. It would pass. If there were indications that something was wrong with Andrew, they seemed relatively harmless. Like in early September 2007, when the school year started, on two occasions, instead of taking the bus home like he usually did, Andrew walked the four miles home by himself. At first, his parents thought that he wanted to prove something, maybe that he could take care of himself. Four miles to walk home after school is a really long walk. Like, I mean, even for me as an adult now, so I'm just trying to imagine a 14-year-old doing that.

But I don't know. When I look at this, I don't really think that stands out. I also kind of think that maybe he just wanted some independence. And that was, you know, a good chunk of time to like wind down after school, have his thoughts completely to himself. I don't see anything wrong with that. Yeah, I don't either, especially if it's like a root that. knows, it's not a dangerous route. Like, let the kid walk. And also, I do admire, you know, his willingness to try new things and if you don't like them to stop doing them. I feel like so many people,

I mean, even now, like a lot of people I know, they can be pressured to continue doing something because they think that's, like, the right thing to do. But Andrew, if he didn't like something anymore, he said, okay, I'm done, like on to the next thing. And I really admire that. Yeah, I mean, I feel like he's the age where you kind of do give some things up that you try as a kid. And if you have a good childhood, you do get to try a good amount of things, right? Like I was in dance and gymnastics. I was in all sorts of stuff. And one day I just decided I didn't want to do it anymore.

And I think that's kind of the beauty of growing up. You're finding out who you are. Yeah, exactly. I was just about to say, I feel like trying new things and stopping, you know, old things. It's part of growing into your teenage years and eventually into adulthood. Yeah. I mean, I even remember getting into like more serious books around his same age too, right? Like I kind of put down the little kid books and I thought it was very grown-up.

by reading like 1984, like Kurt Bonaget, all these, you know, very mature themes for a younger teenager, if you will. But it just, I was curious, and it kind of seems like Andrew's the same way. Despite these little changes, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with Andrew. On the night of Thursday, September 13, 2007, he and his family ate dinner together. Afterward, Andrew and Kevin worked on a jigsaw puzzle for about an hour. Then he and Glenys watched some TV. A completely normal night in the Goston house. The next day, Friday, September 14th, 2007 is just eight days into the school year, but Andrew already seems over it. Charlotte comes into his room to look in his full-length mirror and wakes him up. He's irritable that morning, which his family says it's typically out of character,

but he gets ready in about a half hour or so. Charlotte leaves before him. At 8.05 a.m., he has his uniform on and waves to his parents as he walks out the front door, but he doesn't go to school. Instead of catching the bus to McCauley, he goes to a nearby park and waits for his parents to leave for work. At 8.20 a.m., a family friend, the church vicar, spots Andrew from a distance sitting alone on a bench. But at the time, it doesn't seem like a big deal. Shortly after, when he's sure his parents are gone, Andrew goes back home and walks past his neighbor's security camera on the way. When he gets there, Andrew takes off his uniform. He puts his shirt and slacks into the washing machine and hangs his blazer and tie over the back of the chair in his bedroom.

Andrew changes into jeans and a slip-knock t-shirt. He packs his wallet, keys, and PlayStation portable into his favorite black canvas satchel. One Charlotte made him that's covered in band patches. He doesn't bring a passport, the charger for his PSP, or a sweater or jacket, even though September nights there can get down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. After that, he leaves again. At 9.08 a.m., he's at a nearby gas station using the 18. He has 214 pounds in his bank account, but he can only withdraw in multiples of 20, so he takes out the most possible.

And for some reason, he left 100 pounds in birthday cash back in his bedroom. Next, he heads to Doncaster Station. He arrives at 9.22 a.m. and buys a one-way train ticket to London. It costs 31 pounds and 40 pence. The teller tells him that a return ticket only costs 50 pence more, but he declines. One thing we don't know is if he'd have to commit to a departure time to get the return fare. He might not have known how long he wanted to spend in London and decided to just keep it loose. But if he turned down a flexible return, that's something to note.

I don't know, Courtney, what do you think about this one? This is what's really, really confusing to me. When I look at everything laid out, I kind of think this decision to leave was really like a last-minute split-second decision. Like a 14-year-old planning to be gone would, at least to me, probably bring their people. PSP charger. And putting his clothes in the washing machine, it just kind of feels like someone expecting to come home before anyone noticed. Like maybe he was just trying to be sneaky. I don't know. What about you? No, that's how I took it too, right? Again, of course, the charger for your gaming system, right? I had a PSP. Like they die pretty easily, right? Especially back then. But I think

the clothes are the bigger clue for me. Like you said, to put them in the washer, it felt like he wanted to be back in time before his parents got home. Yeah, I mean, I feel the same way. But on the flip side of that, I think what really throws me off is the one-way ticket. I don't know. I feel like that contradicts like everything else. I feel like everything else that we just mentioned shows to me that he's planning on sneaking out, maybe going to explore by himself, being a little bit risky, his first time ever playing hooky and trying to be back before anyone notices.

But then that one-way ticket, like, I don't get why he wouldn't buy a return fare. Well, it makes me wonder if maybe he was meeting somebody who offered to give him ride home. No, no, that makes perfect sense. I mean, I feel like that would probably be the only reason that I could think of of not buying a return ticket. Like whoever he was possibly going to meet would offer him a ride. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Andrew boards the train at 9.35 a.m. According to another passenger, he sits quietly in his seat playing his PlayStation portable.

At 11.20 a.m., his train pulls into Kings Cross Station in London. Five minutes later, a CCTV captures him walking through the building and exiting out of the main entrance. And that is the last confirmed sighting of Andrew Gostin. I'm Josh Maykowitz, and I hope you'll join us for Season 5 of Dateline Missing in America. In each episode of Dateline's award-winning series, we will focus on one missing person's case and hear from the families, the friends, and the investigators all desperate to find them. Maybe you could help solve a mystery. Search Dateline Missing in America to listen completely free.

or subscribe to Dateline Premium to unlock new episodes early. It's Friday, September 14th, 2007. 14-year-old Andrew Gosten has taken the train to King's Cross Station in London, but his family has no idea. The last time they saw him was that morning, when he walked out the door supposedly heading to school. Glenys and Kevin get home from work at 5 p.m. They assume Andrew's already home from school,

and is in his bedroom or in the converted cellar playing video games. his usual after-school activity. His sister Charlotte is in her room on her laptop. So they prepare dinner and then shout across the house for their kids to come join around 6 p.m. When Andrew doesn't respond, they look around the house for him, and that's when they realize he isn't there. Their first thought is that maybe he forgot his house key. Their friend and neighbor, the vicar, keeps their only spare.

So maybe Andrew walked to his house and ended up hanging out with his son, a friend of Andrews. Glennis and Kevin called the vicar to check, but he says Andrew hasn't been over, and that's when they start to worry. Once they see his McCauley blazer and tie hanging neatly over his chair, they know he came home at some point to change, so they think that maybe he went to a different friend's house after that.

So they call around, but nobody has seen him. Later, they find his shirt and slacks in the washing machine. When Andrew still isn't home by 8 p.m., his parents contact the school. That's when they learned that he never showed up that more. morning. In fact, as soon as the McCauley Catholic high school staff realized that Andrew hadn't arrived, they attempted to call Kevin and Glenys, but they misread the contact list and dialed the wrong family. Unfortunately, they say they didn't realize that until now. This was kind of a big

shocker for me to learn. I do think that school should have more responsibility when a child doesn't show up unexpectedly. I mean, especially in Andrew's case when he's never missed a single day of school before. I feel like that's a major red flag. I think the school contacting the wrong family, it was a huge oversight and probably did hinder the investigation. I understand the accidents do happen. And just unfortunate that sometimes those consequences, they can be devastating like in this case. Yeah. I mean, that's where I'm out with it.

It's not like the school didn't call it all or make any attempt like I've seen in other cases. And that drives me insane. This seems like a very unfortunate accident. From everybody's description of Andrew and his family, like they're very responsible. So nobody probably thought anything of it. Maybe he's sick or something. And like you said, they did attempt to call. It was just a minor, you know, accident by attempting to call the wrong family.

Yeah, I mean, I would love more information there. I wonder if they just, like, left a voicemail. I could see that. And then it just kind of going under the radar, nobody notices until 8 p.m. that night when Andrew has never came back home. Like, I could see that. Yeah. I mean, especially with 100% attendance, I feel like it could almost go both ways, right?

It's alarming that he's missing. a day, but at the same time, you know, you kind of trust that this family has a good kid that they take care of. He's an excellent student who's there every day. So it's hard. It's like, which do you choose? Are you alarmed over this? Or do you just assume that, you know, maybe for the first time he's sick? Well, by 9 p.m. that night, Glenys and Kevin called the South Yorkshire police to officially report Andrew missing. Over the weekend, they searched the area around Andrew's family home, but they don't find anything. Actually, Courtney, in the early days of this investigation, Andrew's family makes the discoveries.

The Gostin talked to the neighbors who find home security footage of Andrew from the morning he went missing. He seen walking home from the park, then out toward Doncaster Station. The Gostens also speak to the teller at Doncaster Station, who remembers selling Andrew the ticket to London. He stood out because he seemed too young to be traveling alone and didn't want to return ticket. The Gostens also locate someone who sat across from Andrew on the train. They got off in Piedabra, halfway through their son's journey, but it does help confirm the timeline of it. By Monday, September 17, 2007, three days after Andrew's disappearance, the Gostens know he withdrew 200 pounds from his bank account, and that he bought a one-way ticket to London on Friday,

which arrived at 11.20 a.m. The Gostens are totally baffled by this info. Andrew's the kind of kid who leaves a note just to go to the corner store. But Kevin's also really frustrated that they uncovered all of this on their own. He calls the South Yorkshire police investigation, quote, too slow, too chaotic and disorganized. So they keep looking themselves. Glenys and Kevin call everyone they know in London to check if they've seen or heard from Andrew, like Kevin's parents, a couple of aunts and uncles and old friends. But none of them have. As soon as they realize he went to King's Cross Station, the South Yorkshire police supposedly asked the British transport police, or BTP, to search the CCTV footage there, but the BTP struggles to identify him in the crowd,

and London's Metropolitan Police haven't been brought into the case to help yet either. While Andrew is incredibly intelligent, the police worried that he might not be streetwise. They also mentioned that the deafness in his left ear and his poor eyesight could make him more vulnerable. Sarah, have you seen this in other missing person cases that you've covered where, you know, somebody has gone missing who has like a vision or hearing impairment like this? No, I haven't, but I do know that in my state in Arizona, there's something that's called a silver alert that exists that is specifically for older people and people with cognitive disabilities, which I know is different. But I do think that there should be some type of alert

out there for people with even just hearing or visual impairments. That's actually great to know. I feel like I heard of that like a while ago, and then it just completely slipped in my mind. So that is amazing that they have like its own category to alert the public. Yeah, I don't know if his, like if being deaf in one year would qualify for that or just wearing a strong prescription, but I would argue that it should. I mean, I'm really like a proponent for alerts for missing kids all over. But it's a hard balance, right? I mean, with so many kids that go missing every year, how do you make each and every one a special alert? I don't know what the perfect solution is. I just wish that some. type of alert went out. Yeah. I mean, I've seen cases where people with hearing and vision impairments, you know, autism, dementia, and other disabilities, they go missing. And those circumstances, they can impact both their vulnerability and how investigators approach the case. I mean, I do think it should add another layer of urgency. In Andrew's case, being deaf in one year and having poor eyesight, it could have made it harder for him to navigate an unfamiliar city like London, or even just recognized danger. It doesn't mean the case should be treated completely.

differently, but I do think it should absolutely be a factor in how quickly and aggressively investigators respond, because you just, you never know what can happen. I mean, let alone it's a kid going missing, but then add in these other factors. And I just think that it should be more of an urgent situation to try and find him because of that. I definitely don't think the parents should have been the ones to track down this information. I think that's absurd. They should not have to be doing that. I feel like that's very basic level police work. And the fact that they, the police weren't the ones to find that, that's crazy to me. Absolutely. I mean, no family should have to do that. Like, it drives me nuts. And I think they should be thankful that this family was skilled enough to be

able to do that because unfortunately, not all families can. And that's not their fault. You know, their job isn't being a police officer or detective. So I really hate to see it when the burden lies on the family. It's just not fair. Well, I can tell you this. As soon as they realize where is, Glenys and Kevin scour the streets of London looking for their son. They question strangers put up posters around the city and scout Andrew's favorite destinations, places like the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. They also try to attract media attention to the case, but they have minimal success at first. What they do receive is a lot of reported sightings.

One tipster says they saw Andrew inside a Pizza Hut on Oxford Street in London's West End the day he disappeared, which would be about two and a half miles from King's Cross Station, and he was seen there again three days later on Monday, September 17, 2007. The day after, Tuesday, September 18th, someone said they saw him sleeping in a park in Southark, Central London. The morning after that, Wednesday, September 19th, someone claimed to see Andrew getting off a local train at the Mortlake Station in southwest London. From there, he supposedly walked along Upper Richmond Road, which happens to be near the main office of a charity organization called Missing People. They actually started helping with the search early on, but employees have no record of him going there,

and the employees didn't see him. In fact, none of the sightings ever get confirmed. So the South Yorkshire police sends an investigator to London to review CCTV footage again. And finally, this officer pinpoints Andrew in a crowd, getting off the train at King's Cross. The problem is, Andrew's been missing for 27 days at this point, and the CCTV tapes are routinely wiped after 28 days, so the timing is terrible. By the following day, it's too late to follow Andrew's trail, especially in a city with 8 million people.

I actually think more sightings can make a case harder. Every tip should be investigated, but when none can be confirmed, like in this case, they can create a false timeline and pull investigators in a bunch of different directions. So on one hand, I feel it's good and it gives a family a sense of hope that Andrew is still in this location. Like, people are seeing him. It can create a false timeline and it kind of can be overwhelming to police.

Like they don't know where to look first. Yeah, I mean, if you see something, you should say something. And police do need to investigate all of those tips. But to your point, it does kind of bog things down sometimes and can prevent them from getting to things earlier like seeing this CCTV footage. It's just so hard to know for sure. just how much large numbers of sightings like this can impact the case. Yeah, I mean, I just wish that they got to that video sooner. Like, why aren't we doing that as soon as we find out he went to that station?

At this point, people know that Andrew is, or at least was, in London. The next piece of the puzzle is to figure out why he went. The police's theory? Andrew might have gone to meet a stranger off the internet, but this seems to be a stab in the dark. Investigators check the computers at Andrew's home, school, and the local library he frequented. And they can't find evidence that he'd even created an email address.

Even for 2007, he's pretty disconnected. His parents gave him a cell phone for his 12th birthday, but he hardly ever used it. He lost it pretty soon after, and he didn't want them to replace it. He said he'd rather have a new Xbox. He didn't have an online account for his Xbox or PlayStation either. Investators even sent Sony the unique identifier for Andrew's PlayStation portable

and found that it was never used to connect to the internet. Not having a digital footprint makes Andrew harder to track. So the family starts looking for events that were happening in London around the time of Andrew's trip, ones that might have been of interest to him. They actually find a lot. The night Andrew disappeared, two bands were playing that Andrew likely would have been a fan of. The American rock band 30 Seconds to Mars played at the Brixton Academy. It was a five-mile walk from Kings Cross Station.

The same night, the English progressive metal band, Sixth, played at the Carlington Academy in Islington, just one mile or a 20-minute walk from the Kings Cross Station. And it was the last show they were playing with their lead singer Mikey Goodman. Three days later, on Monday, September 17th, the Finnish rock band Hym had a signing at a popular spot called Music and Video Club, or NBC. And Andrew was definitely a fan of them. There are pictures of Andrew in a Hymn shirt. Still, there's no evidence that he went to any of these events, no sightings, for online ticket purchases. Besides, Andrew didn't need a special event to make the trip worthwhile.

His family knew that he enjoyed London, and he knew that kids got free bus fares on some public transport, so he would have been able to get around easily. So Andrew's parents had another theory. Maybe he went to London to visit something uneventful, like the King Tut exhibit at the British Museum. That was the only thing in London he actually talked about before he went missing. But that's not the Gostin's only theory.

Two years before the disappearance, when Charlotte was 14, she traveled to London to hand out her resume to Banks on the Strand. Maybe Andrew was following her lead and looking for work experience. As their father says, Andrew idolized Charlotte, and he was already thinking about his future. While the Gostens and their friends are trying to figure out why Andrew went to London, the police are more focused on his home life, and this part of the investigation proves to be incredibly harmful.

A trigger warning here, We're going to talk about suicide. So please listen with care, and you can always skip ahead a minute and 30 seconds into the story. According to Kevin, the South Yorkshire police unlawfully recorded interviews with him. He says they act like he has information that he's not sharing, but he's told them everything.

And they ask him questions that feel pointed, like they're trying to get him to admit that he did something to Andrew, but he didn't. All of this pressure builds up on top of the loss of his son, and pretty soon it boils over. In December 2007, three months after Andrew's disappearance, the Gotson family suffers another heartbreaking event, one they did talk about publicly, which is why we're sharing here. Kevin almost dies by suicide.

He thinks that if the police no longer have him to look at, they will search for a son more effectively. One day, their friend the vicar decides to stop in and check on the Gostens unannounced. He stands outside their townhouse and hears a loud and concerning noise, so he lets himself in. And thankfully, if you recall, he's the one with a spare key. The vicar runs inside and finds his friend Kevin unconscious, so he calls for help. Several hours later, Kevin returns to consciousness in the hospital. After that, Kevin spends 15 weeks in acute psychiatric care.

He loses about 40 pounds and has to leave his job to care for himself. Sarah, this part, literally, it just has me in tears because it should not have to come to this. I understand that the family, they're going to be the main ones the police initially look at because they are closest to the victim, obviously. That makes sense. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do that. But I think it gets to a point where the facts are laid out and it kind of points to it not being the family, especially not being the dad. And it's just really sad in this case that he felt that this was the necessary next step just to get help for his son. It feels like every step of the way this family has been let down. And it just should not have gotten to this. I really feel for this family. Yeah, I mean, I think it shows the desperation that some families get to when they just want to find their missing loved one. You know, if he thought that this would help solve the case, he was willing to do it. And that is heartbreaking. As a parent, like, you want the best for your kids. And when something this horrific happens, like, you will do anything possible just to get all of the attention on your child to hopefully find some answers and quickly too, because, you know, like we mentioned before, nothing is happening quickly in this case, not by any means.

Yeah, I mean, to be totally honest, when people would ask me, like, am I afraid of my dad? I would usually say, well, if he comes after me, at least he'll be arrested for something, right? Like, I think that's the desperation that families feel. And I just, I don't wish it on my worst enemy. Yeah, I'm not sure about things over there, but in the U.S., police can question anyone voluntarily, but if you're under arrest or in custody, you do have constitutional protections, like the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney. If someone believes they're being questioned inappropriately, the best thing they can do is stop the interview and get a lawyer involved. And I just want to throw that in there because, you know, there are some other options if you feel like, like in this case, Kevin was feeling like he was being recorded under the radar and that is not okay. So I want to point that out. Like, that is not okay. You have rights and you have every right to like act on those rights. Innocent or guilty, no matter what you are, get a lawyer. I don't care what the media says. I don't care what the public says, get a lawyer. Eventually, the South Yorkshire police claim they've thoroughly examined all

leads and have scoped out Andrew's favorite tourist attractions. They've circulated his DNA, fingerprints, dental, and health records to various agencies. And they brought on an investigative behavioral analyst to determine why he left home. In the year after Andrew's disappearance, 122 potential sightings are reported from all over Britain, 45 in London, 11 in Britain, and more farther out all the way to South Wales, but none ever get confirmed. It seems like multiple people have seen Andrew, but he's nowhere to be found. Years later, the police will finally make an arrest, and it's someone no one ever suspected. It's 2011, four years after Andrew's disappearance, there are still no leads, so the Gostens hire a team of specialists to conduct a sonar scan of the

River Thames that yields nothing. Another, another seven years passed before there's a glimmer of hope. In June 2018, 11 years after Andrew's disappearance, someone reaches out to the Gostens with a tip. The person's been talking to someone online with the username Andy Rue, like Andrew's nickname, Rue. Even though they'd never met in person, Andy Roo told the tipster that his partner had just walked out on him.

He needed 200 pounds to make rent. The tipster noticed that Andy Rue's profile said he lived in a place called Lincoln, closer to where Andrew grew up in Balby than London. It was too far for the tipster to deliver cash, so he offered to transfer some money to help him out. But Andy Rue said he didn't have a bank account because he left home when he was 14. When the tipster asked why, he said he just felt like it.

The police contact the administrators of the website Andy Rue and the tipster were chatting on. But they can't provide information on Andy Rue since they lost a ton of user data during a recent platform update. So instead, the Gostens drive around Lincoln, just 40 minutes from where they live regularly to look for Andrew. But they don't find him. Three more years pass before there's any movement on the case.

On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the Metropolitan Police assist in arresting two men in London on suspicion of kidnapping and human trafficking. One of them is also suspected of possessing indecent images of children. The police believe may be connected to Andrew's case, but the police believe that they're not. they keep almost every detail other than the charges under wraps, so we don't know why. The men are released quickly pending investigation, but the police sees numerous electronic devices from the pair, which they say could take six to 12 months to analyze. A year passes and the men's electronics are still being investigated. It's a long process, but it's also a false start. Because nearly two years later, in September 2023, the South Yorkshire police announced that both men

have been formally released. They're not being charged and are no longer thought to have any involvement with Andrew's disappearance. Those two unnamed men are the last formal suspects as of this recording.

There haven't been any updates to the case, but there have been some really disturbing developments. In late 2025, Andrew's dad Kevin speaks up. He says the family's being targeted by internet trolls making deep fake AI videos of Andrew. There doesn't seem to be a purpose for them

other than trolling and harassing the family for clicks. I have seen deep fakes like this, and I think they are awful. I don't support using AI at all, especially in missing person cases. And the fact that Andrews parents have to see fake videos of their son after all these years, it's just cruel. Like, it doesn't help solve the case. It muddies the waters. It creates false hope and can even generate fake tips that waste investigators time.

Like the list just goes on and on on why this is just a horrible and mean. thing to do. Yeah, another reason to hate AI in my book, right? It just gives people one more way to troll these families and do these cruel hoaxes. I just can't stand it. Yeah, I think AI has a potential to do real damage in this true crime space if it's not used responsibly. And we need to be really skeptical about anything that can't be verified before sharing it. Especially in today's day and age, I feel like I'm scrolling on TikTok, 80% of the videos are AI, like they're not real. I think it's already doing a lot of damage to the world as is, but especially in this true crime space. Like, it can cause a lot of damage.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a door that's been open that cannot be closed now. And I think for anybody listening out there, if you see a video that looks like a deep fake, or even if you're not sure of it being a missing person, just send it to police. You don't need to share it. Just like, he's so careful before you share a video. Well, Andrew's family isn't giving up, even after all these years. They keep his bank account open and topped up, even though it hasn't seen a withdrawal since the day he disappeared. And thankfully, they now have more police support.

The case is still open, and the Gostens think highly of their current police liaison. He looks into every lead they bring in, no matter how small. They're still holding out hope and looking for answers. What we do know is that after a totally normal evening the night before, Andrew woke up on Friday, September 14th, a little grumpy, which was unusual for him. He got ready quickly in about a half hour and was out the door wearing his Macaulay Catholic school uniform

at 8.05 a.m. But Andrew didn't go to school. Instead, he walked to a nearby park, sat on a bench alone, and waited. He was still there by 8.20 a.m. when his family friend, the vicar drove by. Shortly after, Andrew went home and changed out of his school uniform.

He hung his blazer and tie neatly over the back of his chair in his bedroom. Then he stuck his head. shirt and slacks in the washing machine. Andrew changed into a more casual outfit. Jeans in a slip-knot tea. He also packed some things into his favorite bag, a black canvas satchel covered in band patches. He took his wallet, keys, and PlayStation portable, but he didn't bring a charger, a warm outer layer, his passport, or the 100 pounds of birthday money he'd saved up. With only a few items, Andrew headed back out the door of his family's townhouse. He walked down Littlemore Lane and was captured on his neighbor's home security camera at 905 a.m.

At 908 a.m., he stopped at a gas station ATM to withdraw 200 pounds. Then he proceeded to Doncaster Station, where he arrived at 922 a.m. He asked the teller for a one-way ticket to London. He didn't buy a return fare. Andrew boarded the train at 9.35 a.m. He sat quietly in his seat playing his PlayStation portable for the next hour in 45 minutes. Then at 11.20 a.m., his train pulled into London's King Cross Station. Five minutes later, the train station security camera captured him walking through the building and exiting the station's

main entrance. This was the last known footage of Andrew, and the last confirmed sighting. Agostin still don't know what happened to their son, but in all these years, they've never moved, and they've never changed their locks, because their hope is that one day, Andrew will will come walking through that door. Andrew Gostin will be about 33 years old as of this recording. He is Caucasian with brown eyes and naturally brown hair. He's a deaf in his left ear and has poor eyesight, so he wears strong prescription glasses,

but could have switched to contact lenses. Andrew has a very rare, unique double ridge on his right ear. If you have any information about Andrew Gaudsden, you can contact the South Yorkshire Police via telephone. at plus 44-114-220-20-20 or online at MIPP. Police.uk-U-K slash operation slash 14SY 26A-01-P-P-O2. Thank you for listening to the final hours. If you have any other details about Andrew Gawston's case,

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and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Final Hours team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pritzofsky, Sarah Camp, Alyssa Fox, Dana Brazil Solovey, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Hi, listeners, it's Vanessa. Are you the type to fall down an internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours?

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