Marc J. Allen

Marc J. Allen (Courtesy missing kids.org)

Marc James Warren Allen

Missing Person

NAME: Marc James Warren Allen
AGE AT REPORT:
13
DOB:
May 13, 1972
HAIR:
Brown
EYES:
Blue
WEIGHT:
85 lbs.
HEIGHT:
5’00”
CASE TYPE:
Endangered Missing
MISSING FROM: Des Moines, IA
Polk County
CASE NUMBER:
86-12999
NCIC NUMBER:
M-190867573
NCMEC NUMBER:
NCMC1053047
NAMUS MP NUMBER:
5790
MISSING SINCE:
March 29, 1986

 

Case Summary compiled by Jody Ewing

On March 29, 1986 — the day before Easter — 13-year-old Marc James Warren Allen told his mother he planned to walk to a friend’s house down the street but never arrived at the neighbor’s home and hasn’t been seen since.

Based on previous media reports, Allen initially was thought to be the third Iowa paperboy to vanish without a trace during the ’80s. Johnny Gosch, 12, of West Des Moines, disappeared September 5, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Eugene Martin vanished from Des Moines’ south side just two years later on August 12, 1984, under very similar circumstances.

nancy-allen-marcs-mother Courtesy photo WHO-TV Channel 13
Marc Allen’s mother, Nancy Allen, told Channel 13’s Aaron Brilbeck that every time the news reports a body has been found, her feelings jump from not wanting it to be her son yet wishing for the chance to finally bury him and give them both peace.

An in-depth Des Moines Register article on Iowa’s missing persons published August 18, 2013, confirmed Allen was not a paperboy in Des Moines.

Three decades later, however, all three boys’ cases remain unsolved.

Teen was ‘handful’ – shifted back and forth

Marc’s mother, Nancy Allen, admitted her son had been a handful; the teen had been shifted back and forth between her Iowa residence and his father’s Minnesota home most of his young life and he’d often get into trouble.

But in late November 2010 — a week normally filled with family get-togethers, shopping and holiday activities — Nancy took time to speak with WHO-TV Channel 13’s Aaron Brilbeck about what it’s been like waiting so many years for answers and wondering about the fate of a young son who never quite seemed to fit in.

marc-allen-sidewalk Courtesy photo WHO-TV
Marc Allen waved goodbye to his mother while walking along this Des Moines sidewalk and was never seen nor heard from again.

“It was hard because he had been living with [his] dad for a while and then came back and lived with me,” Nancy Allen said in the WHO-TV story broadcast Nov. 25, 2010. “His younger brother and older sister were real close and he wanted to be in there, in tight.”

They never got the chance for that to happen.

The night before Easter in 1986, the teen left his southwest Emma Avenue home to hang out with friends and perhaps take in a movie just as his siblings prepared for a pizza dinner.

marc-allen-young Courtesy photo WHO-TV
Marc Allen as a youngster.

“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,” Allen told Brilbeck. “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.'”

Nancy watched her son walk down the sidewalk, past the bushes, and then he was gone.

“He waved when he got to the bushes and I waved at him and that was that and I never saw him again,” his mother said.

Easter Sunday

The next morning when Nancy realized Marc hadn’t come home the night before, she knew immediately something wasn’t right but hoped against hope he’d prove her wrong.

Marc Allen age-enhanced
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released this age-enhanced photo of what Marc Allen might look like at 37 years of age.

“It was Easter Sunday so I thought maybe he went to Grandma’s knowing Grandma would have an Easter basket there for each of the kids. So I asked my mom but he wasn’t there,” she said. “I had phone numbers for his friends. Called all of them. No one had seen him.”

Allen said she called police, but they told her they couldn’t do anything for 48 hours. Days turned into months.

Police checked in Minnesota where Marc’s father lived, and in Connecticut where the boy’s paternal grandmother lived. Nothing.

Allen told Brilbeck she didn’t know whether her son’s disappearance was linked to the disappearances of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin, but said police seemed reluctant to help her because of the other missing teens.

sgt-jeff-edwards-dsmpd-335px Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des Moines
Sgt. Jeff Edwards of the Des Moines Police Department

“I just feel like, at this time, they were just afraid of …afraid of what would happen with the Eugene Martin and Gosch thing. I got the distinct feeling that they did not want parents to be frightened to let their children sell newspapers or do different things,” she said.

The Des Moines Police Department’s Sgt. Jeff Edwards disagrees.

“I know detectives followed up on leads that did not pan out,” Edwards told Brilbeck in a separate interview for the story WHO-TV aired Thanksgiving Day 2010. “They were not able to locate him. He’s still listed as a missing person.”

marc-allen-age-progressed-to-43
Marc’s photo is shown age-progressed to 43 years. Age progression completed by NCMEC on June 19, 2015.

Marc’s mother said she doesn’t know whether her son is alive or dead, but that after 25 years she’d like to know for sure so she — and her son — can find peace.

“There are times when the news says they’ve found a body and they’re not sure yet how old it is but they’re pretty sure it’s male,” said Nancy. “And in one instant you hold your breath and bite your fingernails and hope that it’s not your child. And in other ways you wish they would come out and say that it is your child — so you can finally bury them and go to rest.”

Marc Allen was last seen wearing a light blue t-shirt, blue jean shorts, white socks and gray tennis shoes with velcro tabs. He has a small scar on the top of his head, and his first name might be spelled “Mark” by some agencies involving missing children and persons.
 

WHO-TV Channel 13’s Aaron Brilbeck reports on the unsolved March 29, 1986 disappearance of 13-year-old Des Moines paperboy Marc James Warren Allen. November 25, 2010

To date, there is no definitive evidence connecting Marc Allen’s case to that of Johnny Gosch or Eugene Martin.

Dental information and charting is available and entered into NamUs. A DNA sample has been submitted, but as of July 16, 2016, tests were not complete.

Information Needed

If you have any information concerning Marc Allen’s disappearance, please contact Abby Giampolo at the Des Moines Police Department at (515) 237-1430.

Sources:

 

Copyright © 2024  Iowa Cold Cases, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

82 Responses to Marc Allen

  1. anon says:

    It truly is despicable that the Des Moines police claimed that they could do nothing until he had been gone for 48 hours. Too bad the cops involved can’t be named and shamed. Even today certain Des Moines cops lie to people and pretend that the law is something other than what the statutes actually say when doing their job becomes too complex for them. For example, my disabled sister was recently the victim of theft by bailee (among other types of crimes) and despite what the Iowa statutes unambiguously state, the officer involved falsely claimed that it was a civil matter, rather than applying the facts to the lesser-known subsections of the theft statute. Iowa has a far smaller proportion of its citizens incarcerated than does Wisconsin, but having strong ties to both places, it’s clear to me that Iowa simply allows more of its citizens to be victimized without holding the perps accountable. Iowa doesn’t have less crime; it doesn’t have fewer criminals; it doesn’t do a better job with rehabilitation.

  2. Tri State Girl says:

    https://anchor.fm/the-first-24-hours/episodes/Into-the-Darkness-e1o8c6j

    I saw this case was covered on an episode of a podcast called Missing In America: The First 24 Hours. In the episode “Into the Darkness” Marc Allen’s brother is interviewed. According to this podcast interview Marc did have a paper route. In this article on Iowa Cold Cases it says reports first said he did have a paper route, but then it was said he didn’t. I understand he wasn’t on his route like the other two boys, but there seems to be a pattern here. This is my educated guess, but the Register really wanted to hide something. It’s been decades now, and the employees from that time might not be around anymore. So there might be some cover ups that are very hard to expose. I know it also could have been a random person who took Marc as well. There’s just so much information we don’t have, and so much time has passed.

    • TRE says:

      I am with you regarding Des Moines Register connection.. Find it also odd that two of the three usually had someone with them? Were they LURED by secret offer of work bonus?

  3. Tri State Girl says:

    I’ve seen it reported that Marc lived with a Grandmother in Connecticut for his first few years. I know this detail may be lost in time, but does anyone know where? I’m from Connecticut, so I’ve just always wondered where Mark and his Grandma lived. It’s weird to think I have probably been through areas he once went to, before moving to Iowa.

  4. Gay Appelhans says:

    these abductions I truly believe were connected and really think more could have been done to solve them with todays current dna and tools,I wish cold case would jump on this and solve for the families….my heart goes out to Noreen and to all the families..I was raising 4 sons during the 80s and 90s and you can bet I watched them alot more after all the abductions totally changed the way I looked at society,,prayers that someday these will be solved..my heart says they are gone and probably murdered shortly after they were abducted but there is always hope.

    • Allison Thompson says:

      I think perhaps it could be a Jimmy Saville OR Jeffrey Epstein situation…. People’s reputations were @ stake…My heart goes out to the mothers & I know it’s cold comfort…but karma’s a bitch….

  5. Debra Cullen says:

    I can’t even imagine what his family went through. My prayers are with thcuem

  6. Patrick Kerrigan says:

    It appears that we have identified several persons of interest in these Des Moines disappearances. It appears no one connected the dots, but then crime pattern analysis was not as advvsanced as it should have been.

    I think the feds should be looking at these cases, instead of spying on political candidates that were running against the Clinton’s. They could interview the circulation manager and do a work up on Mr Matice.

    I agree that Mr. Matice would not have geen cured of his problem, after one arrest.

    • Patrick Kerrigan says:

      I did some searching on Mr. Roger Dean Matice, and found the newspaper articles and press release for his arrest in 2013.

      What appears interesting is that he filed a federal law suit against an unnamed defendant in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Division in April 2017. It was dismissed in August 2017.

      The other nice part is that he is supposedly living in Westmont, Illinois. Westmont is located, n the Western suburbs of Chicago. It’s about a 40 to 50 minute drive from me.

      I did not find anything to show that he was convicted for the child pornography charge.

      Real nice.

  7. anon says:

    Roger Dean Matice, convicted in Texas of child pornography, and previously accused of molesting a paperboy in Iowa, has filed some sort of lawsuit in federal court in Iowa.

    https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20170809975

    This is despite the federal bureau of prisons saying he is in prison in Texas.

    I wonder what this is about…

    Of course, I don’t want to accuse Matice of being the perp. I merely point out that he #1 was previously accused of sexually molesting an Iowa paper boy and #2 bears a resemblance to the sketch of the suspect in the Johnny Gosch case.

    • Don Potochny says:

      First point to make is Noreen had scathing things to say about the West Des Moines Police Department,not the Des Moines Police Department. Big difference. Second, for the Gosch and Martin cases, Register Circulation Manager at the time of the disappearance of both Gosch and Martin, Frank Sykora, plead guilty to molesting seven newspaper carriers. Third. another Circulation Manager, Wilbur Millhouse, should be considered a suspect in at least the Gosch case. Finally, there were attempted abductions of Register newspapers carriers outside of the Indianola cases. James Pollack was a 15-year old newspaper carrier who stated a man tried to abduct him on a paper route that was located a mere quarter mile from the Gosch home in West Des Moines. This happened in 1986.

  8. Corina Saldana says:

    The police chief in the documentary “Who took Johnny” doesn’t even seem concerned or willing to do his very best to locate this young missing boy. He states over and over again that there was no evidence that Johnny Gosch had been kidnapped??? Makes me think the Chief was involved in a sex ring with the abductors.

    • JR says:

      Yup i thought the same thing. And does not believe that all 3 nappings were connected!? C’mon!

    • Eugene Gosch says:

      If you think Noreen Gosch had contact with Johnny, you are another deluded soul who should keep his or her opinion quiet or risk getting the straitjacket treatment from a mental hospital. There is absolutely no evidence that suggests Johnny ever visited his mother. In fact, he probably dies within hours of the abduction.

      If Noreen told you there is a Santa Claus, you would probably agree because you are a simpleton who is incapable of deductive reasoning.

      • Allison Thompson says:

        You seem awfully knowing…No one can truly understand the victims pain or the parents…We can only speculate….

        • Jimzee says:

          IF Noreen Gosch was actually in touch with her son as she has claimed, by waiting two years to share the story of what he told her that night, she has made herself into an accessory to whatever crimes her son admitted to her that he was still being “forced to commit.” She could be charged with withholding information in a federal case. This has not happened. Her seemingly almost pathological need for the limelight is, to say the least, not indicative of a stable, responsible mind. Draw your own conclusions.

      • Stephanie Rissman says:

        Doesn’t sound like anything even CLOSE to a father’s response! I could be wrong, but I, along with so many others will NEVER forget where we were or what we were doing at that exact moment! My heart BREAKS for these families! Prayers 🙏🙏🙏♥️♥️♥️

  9. Shelly says:

    Noreen Gosch is a strong brave woman who wants to help make things right for other victims. She has had contact with her son Johnny. Go to wwwJohnnyGosch.com and view her whole story. She has uncovered a lot of hidden criminal activity and she continues to fight for the truth to come out. Google her interview with LA former FBI agent Gunderson and in it she tells a huge unfolding story of untold news to the Des Moines public about this case. Its mind boggling, but she is far from being loopy.

    • Jimzee says:

      IF Noreen Gosch was actually in touch with her son as she has claimed, by waiting two years to share the story of what he told her that night, she has made herself into an accessory to whatever crimes her son admitted to her that he was still being “forced to commit.” She could be charged with withholding information is a federal case. This has not happened. Her seemingly almost pathological need for the limelight is, to say the least, ot indicative of a stable, responsible mind. Draw your own conclusions.

  10. Teresa Bailey says:

    I think someone needs to ask the man in Minnesota involved in recent recovery of missing child from 27 years ago, Minnesota is close to Des Moines if this child was in Minnesota and Des Moines I would be at prison or finding someone to ask this man some questions

    • Sherry says:

      Thought the exact same thing. The police should b talking to and looking in to Danny Heinrich’s whereabouts at the time of these abductions. He led police to the remains of Jacob Wetterling in Minnesota.

  11. Kim says:

    It is obvious all 3 teen boys disappearances have got to be linked. Really disappointed in the incompetence of the DSM police dept. Great city to move if you want your teen son to disappear and never be seen again. Noreen Gosch had some scathing things to say about the police. Although I think she is a little loopy I think there is some truth to some of her claims.

    • stacy says:

      She is not loopy! Her son, her baby, her world disappeared, the thought of what her child went through has overcome her and she acted out in the best way she could with all of YOU nuts out there. I would know my son in a heart beat with his moles and birthmarks. I know pretty much every mole, birthmark, white spot all over his body. I think she would know if it was her son or not showing up to her house. I also believe her story with the Franklin story and all the way to the white house. But, I would also look into Jacob’s killer, Danny Heinrich. He is quite eager to be quiet (especially 30 years). Only when it helps him, he finally gives up some info. Same timing, only 4 hour drive, all boys around the same age. He seems like a serial killer to me.

      • Lisa says:

        I get so disgusted at the disrespect towards Noreen. Why are you people even here in these threads?? It baffles me how you can say such things about THE ONLY PERSON WHO TRULY CARED ENOUGH FOR JOHNNY TO PUT UP A FIGHT AGAINST THE POWERS THAT BE.

    • Eugene Gosch says:

      Only two of the cases involved the Des Moines Police Department. The big one (Gosch) was committed in West Des Moines.

  12. Pardon my ignorance but I thought Johnny Gosch was murdered by a serial killer?

  13. Has there ever been a suspect or person of interest in these tragic cases?

  14. Cathy Cathy says:

    There is a special place in hell for anyone who is responsible for another person’s disappearance. You might think you got away with it for now, but wait until you meet your maker.

  15. I took my son to school and home after this. I remember every interview with Johnnys mom. And knew a guy that was suppose to be watching the Martin child because his mom was dating his dad at the time. It’ remains in my mind.

  16. Lyro Knights says:

    I remember some of these, I had a young son that carried papers, but not in that area.

  17. Gail Ayres says:

    Has anyone else checked the pattern here? I bet there was 3 more similar in other states there after. I also believe there was a pattern, somewhere else prior to Iowa.

  18. Tom A Allen says:

    Does anyone remember the cop that said he thought that J.G. Was in a wall in the house, there was construction going on when he vanished. I don’t remember the details

    • Patty Vanpilsum says:

      Yes I heard that same statement made also that construction work was going on nearby during the J.G dissapearance and it was thought that his body was in a wall in a house, but never heard anymore about it.

    • patty vanpilsum says:

      Yes, i remember.

  19. Nancy Danks says:

    Prayers to his family! What a horrible nightmare to endure for 30 years!

  20. Sandy Ford says:

    Pray they find out what happened to all three boys

  21. Raised in SE Iowa…never forgot these boys…would never let my son have a paper route because of this…I pray for these families to find some kind of closure!

  22. I will share this, I remember the first two boys, didn’t remember this one, wow, 3 boys, at the time, my sister lived in West Des Moines, and I think the Gosh boy delivered their newspaper.

  23. I so agree with you Kelly Underwood-Dzemske. I live in Iowa also, and remember the same thing. It horrific, and the families do need closure.

  24. Mary Smith says:

    HOW CAN ANYONE NOT SEE THESE CHILDREN NOT UNLESS THEY’RE HELD CAPTIVE OR SOLD BUT. I’LL SHARE THIS. I WISH THAT I COULD FIND EMILY.

  25. Mary Smith says:

    ONE OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS CAME UP MISSING THREE YEARS AGO.THIS IS HER FLYER

  26. I lived in Iowa as a child then. This was the first small break of our innocence. This is when they featured the missing on the milk you receive at lunch. Johnny Gosh and Eugene Martin were names that were brought up daily. The ten year old in me thinks this is too horrific to know the answer of. The grown part prays for closure for these families.

  27. These 3 cases are so sad, and why have we found nothing all these years. A real puzzle.

  28. andrea says:

    Roger Matice (prior attack on a 12YO newspaper carrier in Cedar Rapids, plus also now in the federal pen for child porn) is a HAM radio operator. His webpage pertaining to that, with a biography, is located here at this link: https://www.qrz.com/db/K0KON

    In the event this link is taken down, I want to preserve here what he has to say about himself. Matice says:

    I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – the home of Collins Radio Co. It was hard not to know someone who was a ham! We probably had more hams per capita than any other city in the world.

    But my interest in shortwave radio started as a SWL at an earlier age of 9 or 10 because a family friend had a state-of-the-art Hallicrafters shortwave receiver. I loved tuning around the bands finding BBC, Radio Moscow, Voice of America, and Duetsche Welle.

    When one of my friends in Cedar Rapids showed me his dad’s ham radio shack with all those knobs and switches and meters and told me that his dad talked to other hams all over the world, I was hooked!

    I got my novice license around 1956 when I was 15. (Yes, I was born in 1941, that makes me 73years oldnow.) My call was KN0KON. I built my first transmitter – 25 watts, crystal controlled – in shop class. I got an “A” because it was such an unique project! I don’t remember what I had for a receiver – nothing special, I’m sure, because I didn’t have much money! And I suppose I had a simple wire antenna. Basic, but what great fun! I was talking to the world! A couple of my best friends in high school were also interested in ham radio. Together, we studied and got our Technician Class licenses.

    VHF and especially UHF were pretty experimental in the late 50’s and early 60’s and Collins Radio was at the forefront in the development of equipment at those high frequencies because of their involvement with the Air Force and the space program. Many of the engineers at Collins were hams and very active on 6 meters – one of the bands Technician Class hams could use A3 mode- AM at that! Does anyone remember the name of the 6-meter transceivers that the Civil Defense Agency provided to hams?

    One of the early memories I have is attending the first EME experiment at the Collins facility. It was a very exciting moment to hear those signals bouncing back from the moon!

    Other memories include visiting Arthur Collins’ (W0CXX) personal ham shack. Hardly a shack! Of course he had state-of-the-art equipment including two full-sized Log Periodic antennas on separate towers in the woods behind the house. Coax cables were enclosed in inert gas-filled pipes running out to the antennas! Collins was an interesting guy. The story was that he gotten bored during his first year at MIT and returned home to experiment and build radio equipment in his basement some of which was used by Adr. Byrd on his expedition to the Antarctic in 1934.

    Many considered Art to be a genius. I heard that he was always experimenting with new ideas and when one got stuck in his head, he would work ’round the clock. Apparently, many of his upper level employees were not always as enthusiastic and Art became known as somewhat of a tyrant! Sometimes his experimenting didn’t end well. Collins was a Mercedes-Benz fan because of their reputa- tion for engineering superiority. He took his 300SL (Gullwing) out on a winding, country road between Cedar Rapids and Mt. Vernon and wrapped the car around a tree at 120 mph. He wanted to find its “limits”!

    Another time the father of my best friend in high school accompanied Collins and a team of engineers aboard an experimental boat off the coast of California. The company had started experimenting with hull shapes constructed of fiberglass. As I recall it was the largest fiberglass hull ever build up until that time (70-ft. +/-). Collins wanted to see how it would handle in high seas and so ordered the boat out in gale force winds with all aboard. The boat survived, but was badly soiled by seasick passengers!

    Now, you might think that I studied electrical engineering in college. Wrong! I was a theater major – “all the world’s a stage…, etc.” I never became an actor, but because I had lots of courses in radio and television production I was offered a job at North German Broadcasting in Hamburg when I was living there in 1967. But that’s a whole other story for another time.

    After returning home from Germany, I went to work for Sears. In 1969 I was transferred to Chicago to work at their headquarters. I lived in a couple of apartment buildings that didn’t allow antennas, so ham radio took a back seat to a budding career. But in the late ‘70’s I moved into a high rise condo building along lake Michigan. My unit was on the 22nd floor of a 40 story building.

    I had seen a large 3-element Yagi on the top of a similarly tall condo building and that got me to thinking how great it would be to get back into ham radio and have an antenna up that high. I asked for permission to install an antenna on the roof of our building, but, of course, the request was denied. I offered all kinds of bonding, guarantees, and insurance, etc. to no avail. (The fact that I had gotten caught dropping a wire down from the roof after picking the lock to the access door probably didn’t help me much!)

    I ended up using a hydraulically operated mobile antenna designed for military and commercial use, mounting it out one of the windows. Having the window cracked even a little in the middle of winter in Chicago wasn’t a whole lot of fun! The tip end could be raised and lowered with a hydraulic pump to cover 10 through 80 meters. The big problem up 22 floors was getting a counterpoise positioned just right to achieve resonance. But over time I worked about 110 countries and had a lot of fun being back on the air.

    Having been lucky enough to travel all over the world for work and play, I’ve always been interested in DX operating. And like many DX’ers, I found the idea of being part of a DXpedition to be particularly exciting. Not having time or funds to be a part of a major DXpedtition, I decided to create my own (what is now called) “suitcase” adventure. Knowing the Caribbean fairly well, I did some research and came up with the island of Saba as my base of operation. A Dutch island just a few miles from St. Martin, the population of 1,000 persons and 5,000 goats included one ham who was not very active. Seemed liked a good spot!

    My plans included taking my Kenwood TS-930SAT, a partially assembled KLM V10-40, four band vertical with precut radials, MC-50 microphone, a paddle key and electronic keyer. I planned to take the radio on board and check the crate containing everything else. But when I got to the airport to check in to “Fly By Night International Airlines”, I was told that I could not carry the radio onboard because it was too large. I argued that I had measured the carton and it was within limits. They disagreed, but assured me that the radio would be stowed in a special compartment and would be handled with care. After a delay of five hours in leaving Chicago, we were informed that the flight could only get as far as Puerto Rico that night. So we finally took off, stopped in Miami, and arrived in San Juan around 11:00 pm. I impatiently waited for my luggage and the radio to come off the plane. Suitcase – no radio!It had been stolen.

    I arrived on Saba with my antenna and other paraphernalia, but no radio. Damn! So I sat on the top of the mountain for a week with very little to do but take pictures of fauna and flora – and goats! (By the way, the plane taking us from St. Martin to Saba was a “stall plane” flown by ex-Dutch Air Force pilots especially trained to land on the air strip built along the side of the mountain and aboutas long as an aircraft carrier ship! Exciting!)

    So now I am retired and after 22 years off air, and, again, enjoying a hobby that has been so interest-ing and so much fun for so many years. I am still using the replacement TS-930SAT that I bought in 1982when I returned from the disaster in Saba (fortunately paid for by my home owner’s insurance) and the same antenna that was never taken out of the crate until now. I live in a townhouse complex in Houston near the center of the city. The conditions for a ham radio station couldn’t be worse (even worse than the high rise in Chicago). The vertical is only 10 feet north of the building and 10 feet off the ground. On the other side of my fence is a massive power sub-station! For whatever reason, I’m getting signals in and out. Since getting back on the air March 18, I’ve had 1800 QSO’s and worked 119 countries!

    WOW! I can’t believe it!

    What great fun! What a great hobby!

    73’s Roger/K0KON

    • Dan says:

      Very interesting..it’s possible that he may know something about the 3 missing boys. I hope he is questioned about it.

  29. andrea says:

    So Roger Dean Matice who grew up in Cedar Rapids and who according to various old newspaper articles would visit various relatives in other areas in Iowa including less than an hour West of Des Moines, looks uncannily like the guy in the sketch composite associated with the Johnny Gosch abduction. He has dark brown eyes and when he was younger had black hair even though it is white and grey now.

    Have a look at Matic’s booking photo here and compare it to the sketch of the suspect in the Johnny Gosch abduction:

    Matice had a history of previously sexually assaulting a 12YO paper boy in Cedar Rapids in 1966, when Matice was a 24YO university student. Matice then stayed off of law enforcement’s radar until he was busted for child porn 2 years ago. He’s now doing time in the federal pen for distributing child porn.

    Matice was in his 40’s when Gosch, Martin and Allen disappeared, and that was the estimated age of the perp in the Gosch disappearance.

    Moreover, Matice is, according to his booking information, 5 feet 8 inches, only 1 inch shorter than the witnesses estimated Johnny Gosch’s abductor to be.

    Although Matice appears to have lived in Chicago at the time of the Gosch, Martin and Allen abductions, Matice’s parents still lived in Cedar Rapids and according to old news articles he had grandparents and other relatives less than an hour to the West of Des Moines. It isn’t unconceivable that he could have borrowed a relative’s car when visiting in-state, or that he could have put fake plates on his own car.

    When Matice was busted for child porn 2 years ago in Texas, the county prosecutor said to local media (before the case was transferred to the feds) that Matice had never been in trouble with the law before. I called the prosecutor up to disabuse him of this notion and also emailed him a scanned article in PDF format from Matice’s 1966 assault on the 12YO paperboy in Cedar Rapids. Somehow that was not in *any* computer system anywhere.

    It seems to me that Roger Matice probably therefore was not on anyone’s radar during the Gosch, Martin and Allen investigations.

    But given his physical appearance, ties to Iowa, and his prior assault on a 12YO newspaper boy (plus thte fact that Matice himself had been a newspaper boy when a kid) he needs to be looked at in the Gosch, Martin and Allen cases.

    What sort of car did Matice drive back then? What sort of cars did his relatives own?

    The Allen, Gosch, and Martin disappearances all occurred on a weekend, indicating that the perp probably had a weekday job, he would have had to do his abducting on a weekend. What sort of job did Matice have back then?

    Could the witnesses in the Gosch and Martin abductions who gave physical descriptions maybe look at photos of Roger Matice?

  30. andrea says:

    Here are links to photos of Matice (including one from his short wave radio internet profile that talks about his life).

    https://www.qrz.com/db/K0KON

    Looks like Matice was living in the Chicago area at the time of the disappearance of Johnny Gosch, Marc Allen, and Eugene Martin. Close enough to drive, I suppose.

    When he was younger Matice had black hair.

  31. andrea says:

    This has a photograph of Roger Dean Matice in it. This is the guy that I had referenced in my May 2013 comments above. Any resemblance to the guy who took Johnny Gosch? Matice was indicted back in the 1960’s for sexually assaulting a paper boy.

    https://www.houstonpress.com/news/roger-dean-matice-river-oaks-man-latest-prominent-houstonian-caught-in-child-porn-dragnet-6724355

    • jessie says:

      The article says he hssnt been arrested before. That according to records it was his first arrest. Maybe they just meant locally?

  32. Monica Kirby says:

    I’ve been following this case for years. Still think all 3 are connected.

  33. I bet there is a lot more to all three of these missing boys “now grown men” than we will ever even know. So sad and also scary.

  34. Heidi Ludawn says:

    And Anna Shields son as well sounds fishy all these teen boys missing from DM. Js

  35. andrea says:

    There are a few good photos of Matice in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, for instance on June 6, 1954, February 4, 1955, March 22, 1957. June 4, 1959,

    Maybe if anyone knows who the intended victim was in 1989 in Indianola they can be shown the photos (available on access newspaper archive) just to rule this guy out, if nothing else.

    The March 22, 1957 Cedar Rapids Gazette article (which has a really good and clear photo of Roger with his dark hair) says:

    “Roger Saving Money and Buying Things He Wants

    “Why does Roger Malice, 15- year-old Franklin high school sophomore, like his Gazette route? “Oh, it’s not a difficult route, and the customers are real nice.” That’s Roger’s answer. Roger has been taking The Gazette to 73 subscribers every day for 25 months. His route lies along the north side of Washington avenue SE from Fifteenth to Twentieth streets.

    “Equipment for his ham radio set, photography outfit and hi-fi set have taken a big share of Roger’s carrier income. On top of that, he’s saving some money.

    “Roger is the son of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Matice, 2035 Park avenue SE.”

    • Jesz says:

      They should have never given his newspaper route.

      • anon says:

        Why not? The article pertains to Roger Dean Matice, a paperboy in the article, who later went on to allegedly abuse a 12YO paperboy when he, Roger, grew up to be an adult, and who then went on to do time in the federal pen for child porn.

  36. andrea says:

    OK, I’ll say the guy’s name, and copy the article from 1966.

    “C.R. Man Arraigned On Lewdness Charge

    “Roger Matice, 24, of 363 Eastland drive, waived preliminary hearing and was bound over to the grand jury when he was arraigned in municipal court Monday on a charge of lewdness.

    “Matice, who was arrested Monday, was accused in connection with an alleged incident at his home last Friday. Complainant in the case is a 12-year-old newspaper carrier boy who went to Matice’s home to collect on his route.

    “Matice is free on his own recognizance.”

    The court records in the pending Texas child porn case gives Matice’s DOB as 11/17/1941 and his height of 5’8″. He likely isn’t the guy in Indianola, whose height the victim estimated as 6’2″, but one never knows.

    It would be interesting to learn what ever happened to the torn shirt in Indianola from 1989.

    • Pam says:

      A friend of mine had a similar incident occur on the northwest? Side of des Moines. I think it was 1986, he was a paper boy and the man grabbed him and he was able to get good arms out of his shirt to get away.

  37. andrea says:

    Every abduction occurred on a weekend. Marc Allen disappeared on a Saturday evening. Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin disappeared on Sunday mornings.

    And then early Saturday morning, July 15, 1989, a newspaper carrier in Indianola was almost kidnapped. The article read:

    “INDIANOLA (AP) — State investigators have joined the probe into the weekend assault of a Indianola newspaper carrier because they believe there may be
    a link with the disappearances of two other carriers.

    “Eugene Meyer, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), said there are similarities in the weekend attack on an 11-year-old boy, the 1982 disappearance of Johnny Gosch of West Des Moines and the 1984 apparent abduction of Eugene Martin of Des Moines.

    “”All three boys delivered the Des Moines Register newspaper. “There are obviously things here that we want to explore,” Meyer said. He said Indianola police requested help from the DCI. Authorities said the Indianola boy was approached early Saturday
    by a man who threatened to stab him if the youngster didn’t get in his car. Police said the carrier ripped out of his shirt, which the man had grabbed, and ran to a nearby home for help.

    “The assailant was described as white, about 6 feet 2 inches tall, 40 to 45 years old, slightly stooped with dark hair flecked with gray. The car he was driving was white with a dark vinyl top. Two other Register carriers were chased last year by men who
    have never been identified.

    “Investigators have uncovered no information about what happened to Gosch and Martin.”

    Either late last year or early this year, after reading that article, I contacted the Iowa DPI to see if they still had the ripped shirt, from which, in this day and age, one could obtain touch DNA. There was no response from the state. The Indianola police chief stated that the shirt was not in Indianola’s evidence.

    Also, I found an article from 1966 in the Cedar Rapids Gazette in which a 24YO man (initials being RDM) had been arrested for sexually assaulting a 12YO paper boy. I then found an older newspaper article where there was a photo of this guy, and he had dark hair. This intriqued me, so I googled RDM’s name and lo and behold he had recently been busted for child porn in Texas. The Texas authorities didn’t even know about this old 1966 incident, so I forwarded it on to them. In my way of thinking, there is no way that this guy could have offended in 1966, and then again in 2012, but have done nothing against kids in the 46 years between the two known events.

    But I also forwarded the information (regarding the 1966 offense that I read about in the newspaper) to the Iowa DPS months ago and thus far have heard nothing back. One would think that they could at least track down the kid who was almost abducted in 1989 in Indianola and show him a photo array that would include this guy’s current photo, his old newspaper photo, and perhaps drivers license photo from 1989.

  38. Chaden says:

    Yes, these have to be connected, not coincidence…I find it interesting that it seems to be every 2 years. I don’t think the Police are incompetent, more like covering something up, especially if you look at the Johnny Gosch case…something dark and sinister for sure…resemblance of the Franklin Scandal.

  39. brooks says:

    In a number of these cases the abductor ( s ) are locals who go under the radar
    in the investigation…they have families, good jobs, may serve on community boards..they have a sick, perverted side of them that family members may be aware of, but they play osterich, bury their heads in the sand and just don’t want to know..BTK guy was a Lutheran minister, coached Little League, had a family and was uncovered through DNA yrs after his initial crimes..

    • Pat Wicken says:

      BTK was not a minister. He was an animal control officer, had a family and was active in his church. He was a publicity seeker who sent a computer disc to investigators…a disc from his church that had church information on it. That is what led authorities to him.

  40. Me too Tammy. I actually am getting teary-eyed. I remember hearing a lot about Johnny Gosch, a little about Eugene Martin and nothing about Marc at all.

  41. Tammy Hallam says:

    i live in iowa..not far from des moines so these cases really get to me

  42. Shared in MD. Please have Marc’s mom get her DNA on file, if she hasn’t already.

  43. Jeff says:

    It would be helpful if law enforcements around the country would add all they know in a case. When they make public announcements. I personally experienced some
    thing once where the information, if I had it all. Would have aided a case.
    In the cases of these three news paper boys. Had law enforcement investigated the News paper workers? Had the law enforcement checked into arrests, to connect the 2yr gaps? In one of the cases, witness said.. a man in a vehicle asked for specific street number directions, did law enforcement investigate the street in question?
    There is a number of things that would help the public, help law enforcement.
    Jeff

  44. allissa says:

    @Mike
    That is so true! It’s crazy how someone could raise their family up there…

  45. Mike says:

    I don’t know how any parent could raise their children in Des Moines.The police there are INCOMPETENT.Thre young boys have disapeared off the face of the earth and all the police do is twiddle their thumbs!

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