DE MOINES, Iowa -- The mother of a ...

DE MOINES, Iowa -- The mother of a lad abducted 24 years ago said she's bewildered by way of two photographs left at her assurance door, apparently showing her son and pair other children bound and gagged.

The advanced in years photos appear to show 12-year-old Johnny Gosch with his entrance gagged and his hands and feet tied. The lad is wearing the same sweat pants Johnny was wearing when he disappeared while delivering newspapers in succession the morning of Sept. 5 1982 his mother said.

"It's like reliving it," Noreen Gosch said Thursday night. "But the bigger picture is, 'Why are they doing this?'

'SOME KIND OF MESSAGE'

"Whoever had these photos had them for 24 years. I don't understand wherefore they would do this now. It must be one kind of message."

Gosch said investigators confirmed the photos were authentic and likely taken within "hours or days" of the abduction. She said they were checking for fingerprints that could lead them to the source and possibly a breakthrough in a case that has baffled authorities. The other lads in the photo were unidentified.

"We are in the proces of researching where they came from and whether they've been doctored up" West De Moines police Lt Jeff Miller told the De Moines Register.

AN EARLY MILK CARTON KID

Johnny's disappearance triggered nationwide fears of child abductions. He was individual of the first faces of missing or abducted children to appear in succession milk cartons nationwide.

Several theories have bring outed since he vanished. His newspaper wagon was discovered near his West De Moines domestic circle but few substantial clues have surfaced.

Gosch told authorities her son contacted her in 1997 however feared for his life and declined to give details about where he was.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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