Sign-In
Cart
Missing Before Dawn: The Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin Case
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 6 2026
Pages: 178
Weight: 0.49
Height: 0.45 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
On two quiet Sunday mornings in the 1980s, two paperboys stepped out into the streets of West Des Moines, Iowa.
They never came home.
In September 1982, twelve-year-old Johnny Gosch disappeared while delivering newspapers along his regular route. His wagon and undelivered papers were left behind, but Johnny was gone.
Less than two years later, history seemed to repeat itself.
In August 1984, thirteen-year-old Eugene Martin vanished while delivering newspapers in the same community.
Two boys.
Two Sunday mornings.
One town.
And a mystery that remains unsolved more than four decades later.
The disappearances of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin shocked Iowa, captivated the nation, and helped spark a new era of missing-child awareness in America. Their faces became familiar to millions through the milk carton campaign that forever changed how the country viewed missing children.
Yet despite decades of investigations, media attention, witness reports, and countless theories, the most important questions remain unanswered.
What happened to Johnny Gosch?
What happened to Eugene Martin?
And were their disappearances connected?
In Missing Before Dawn, true-crime author Linda Davidson examines the events surrounding both vanishings, retraces the investigations that followed, explores the theories that continue to fuel debate, and tells the deeply human story of the families left behind.
Through careful research and compassionate storytelling, this book explores one of America's most enduring missing-child mysteries and the lasting impact it had on families, communities, and the nation itself.
This is more than a story about two missing boys.
It is a story about hope, loss, unanswered questions, and the search for truth that never truly ended.
Because some mysteries refuse to fade.
And some children are never forgotten.
Also from
Davidson, Linda
The Tragedy of Betty Broderick: Divorce, Obsession, and the Double Murder That Shocked California
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Beautiful Lies: The Casey Anthony Case, a Missing Child, and the Story That Never Added Up
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Beneath the Baltic: The Murder of Kim Wall and the Submarine Case That Shocked the World
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Jackal's Shadow: Carlos the Jackal, the Birth of Modern Terrorism, and the Making of a Global Manhunt
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Surgeon of Sin: Inside the Twisted Mind and Crimes of Jack Wayne Rogers
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Cop with a Secret: The Murder of Jesse Valencia by Steven Rios and the Life He Killed to Keep Hidden
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Watcher Next Door: The Circleville Letters, Anonymous Threats, and the Mystery That Never Ended
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Justice Denied: The JonBenét Ramsey Mystery: Inside the Case That Shook America and Still Haunts a Nation
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Golden State's Ghost: Joseph James DeAngelo and the Hunt for the Golden State Killer
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Cult of Control: Inside NXIVM, Keith Raniere, and the Secret Empire of Sex, Power, and Manipulation
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Three Days in October: The Disappearance, Discovery, and Unfinished Case of Sharon Marie Thor
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Vanished on the Open Road: The Gabby Petito Story: Love, Lies, and the Digital Trail That Led to a Killer
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Grim Sleeper: Lonnie Franklin Jr. The Killing Spree That Terrorized Los Angeles
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Numbers That Killed: How Flawed Statistics Turned Lucia de Berk Into a Murderer-and Shattered European Justice
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Emotion on Trial: How Guilty, Bias, and Media Narratives Helped Shape Three High-Profile Cases
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Beast of The Bayou: Derrick Todd Lee and the Murders That Terrorized Louisiana
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Diane Downs Case: The Night She Shot Her Children and the Lie That Fooled a Nation
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Red Light Vanish: The Disappearance of Bryce Laspisa and The Night That Haunts California
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Buried in the Sand: Thirteen Victims. One Quiet Monster. A Decade of Silence.
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Last Mile He Walked: A True Story of Loss, Confusion and The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Down The Hill: The Girls Who Captured a Killer and The Secrets Still Buried in Delphi
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Beneath the Perfect Picture: Beneath the Perfect Picture The Watts Family Murders
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Vanished in the Pines: The Disappearance of DeOrr Kunz Jr. and the Secrets Beneath Timber Creek
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Behind the Blue Barrel: The Murder of Shannan Gilbert and the Women of Gilgo Beach
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Baby Who Disappeared: The Azaria Chamberlain Case and the Cry in the Dark
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Vanished in Aruba: The Natalee Holloway Case and The Mystery That Haunted a Nation
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Taken From Campus: The Disappearance of Yingying Zhang and the Investigation That Followed
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
A Day That Changed the Games: Munich 1972, the Olympic Hostage Crisis, and the Tragedy That Reshaped Global Security
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
He Was Almost Home: The True Story of Jason Landry's Disappearance and the Miles That Vanished With Him
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Inside the Abu Nidal Network: Power, Paranoia, and the Global Campaign of Terror No One Could Control
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Vanished on the Line: The Disappearance of Angela Hammond and the Call That Ended in a Scream
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Unseen Stalker: The Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott and the Calls That Predicted Her Death
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
The Quiet Predator: Gary Ridgway, The Green River Killer, and the Pattern No One Stopped
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Fatal Seduction: The Jodi Arias Case, a Secret Affair, and the Brutal Murder That Shocked America
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Behind The Badge: The Gerard Schaefer Case, A Killer Cop, And The Brutal Crimes Hidden Behind The Uniform
Davidson, Linda
Paperback
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Toby Byron (ED.)
Pete Welding (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Erdoes, Richard
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
Through Mom's Eyes: Simple Wisdom from Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans
Jones, Sheinelle
Hardcover