The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 15

Thurs Aug. 16,1984 THE DES MOINES REGISTER 15A REGISTER PHOTO BY DOUG WELLS Branstad gives Mystery men not considered suspects, say police A if xl ))w sL 4 II' moral support to Martin family By TOM ALEX Rrgisttr Stall Wrtttr Gov. Terry Branstad told the family of missing lies Moines newspaper carrier Eugene Wade Martin Wednesday that he had a "personal interest" in the case and wanted to lend his moral support. "There is a substantial amount of information being pieced together," Branstad assured Donald Martin and his wife, Sue, and said investigators "are satisfied that, under the circumstances, the investigation is) going well." The meeting in Branstad's office highlighted an uneventful day in the huge investigation by FBI agents and local and state police into the disappearance of Gene Martin, 13, while he was delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register in a south-side neighborhood. Sitting near the governor and holding a yellow legal pad he had brought along to take notes, Martin praised investigators.

"My main concern is that we get some hints from you to get somebody to help us find our child. If somebody isn't doing something, we want to say that." The governor said, "To my knowl- the car described in the Gosch case carried a Warren County license plate and supplied some of the digits, investigators were unable to find the vehicle or the driver. Neither of the mystery men are considered suspects, but police say they may be able to provide vital information about the disappearances. Investigators were told neither youngster would have gotten into a stranger's car. Donald Martin, Gene Martin's father, said after emerging Wednesday from a meeting with Gov.

Terry Branstad: "It had to be somebody Gene could trust. He was not the type to walk up to someone." There were reports that Herbert Hawkins, special FBI agent-in-charge of the Iowa-Nebraska field office at Omaha, had a psychological profile that fit someone who would kidnap a boy and that it revealed a loner. Hawkins denied those reports saying, "It's impossible to develop a profile unless you have a crime scene to work with and we don't. I would hate to attempt to make a profile at this time, but if it is an abductor in this case, generally these people are normally introverts, loners and don't confide in other people. In fact, they have few friends." The mysteries have invited wild speculation about what happened and how: That the youngsters knew the ab Tullv's Giant Suit BUY TWO SUITS ductor, that he was a sex pervert, that he had posed as a representative of the Register or the police, that he is an itinerant and doesn't stay in one place long.

Earlier this year, a 20-year-old quiet, clean-cut airman from Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha confessed to the knifing deaths of two Omaha-area youths. One of whom, 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle, was pulled off his Omaha World-Herald paper route on an early Sunday morning; the other youngster, Christopher Walden, 12, was kidnapped days later on his way to school. Gosch and Eberle and now Martin are the only newspaper carriers known to have been abducted from their routes anywhere in the nation, according to investigators. The grim Nebraska experience has given investigators in Des Moines little direction. James Miller, Sarpy County, public defender and lawyer for John Joubert, said the airman has been unable to explain why he killed the two youngsters.

"It's an odd situation. He doesn't know why he did it and he can't explain it. The youngsters were not sexually assaulted and there was no torture. They died quickly." Joubert is awaiting sentencing. He could receive a life sentence or death in the electric chair.

Sale AND SAVE! 88 Don and Sue Martin, right, meet with Gov. Terry Branstad regarding the disappearance of their son, Gene. At far left is DCI Chief Tom Ruxlow. edge you have the right people involved." Martin also had praise for Noreen and John Gosch, parents of newspaper carrier Johnny Gosch who disappeared in West Des Moines Sept. 5, 1982, while delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register.

"I don't want to have to hire a lawyer and private investigators unless I have to," he said in apparent reference to the Gosches, who have hired private investigators. Tom Ruxlow, chief of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation who Buy Suit for $149.90 or 2 for $250.00 Buy 1 Suit for $179.00 or 2 for $300.00 Buy I Suit for $224.00 or 2 for $400.00 These include such branos as Johnny Carson. Ratner of California, diMARTINO, Jaymar "Sans-a-Belt" and Fashion Lane. Waist and length alterations free. See us at Merle Hay Mall (Across from Walgreens) 276-1581 Reward fund hits $42,000 Pledges to a reward fund for information leading to the whereabouts of missing newspaper carriers Eugene Wade Martin or Johnny Gosch have climbed to 142,000.

Added Wednesday to the $35,000 announced earlier were $5,000 from Woodward Communications publishers of the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald and the Waverly newspapers; $1,000 from the Ma and Pa Stores of Oskaloosa; and $1,000 from the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation. Pledges of $500 or more from individuals or organizations are being accepted by The Register's promotion department at (515) 284-8510. No cash will be accepted. Cash contributions of any amount may be sent to a reward fund set up by the Iowa PTA. These should be sent to Valley National Bank, P.O.

Box 906, Des Moines, la. 50304 or dropped off at Valley National Bank offices at Sixth and Walnut; East Twenty-eighth and Euclid; and Second and Euclid in Des Moines, or at 1200 Thirty-fifth St. in West Des Moines. Checks should be payable to the Iowa PTA Eugene Martin-John Gosch Reward Fund. Cash contributions for the search effort for Eugene Martin should be sent to Brenton National Bank of Des Moines, P.O.

Box 891, Des Moines, la. 50304. Contributions can be left at the Brenton branches at Capital Square, Wakonda Shopping Center, Southwest Ninth and McKinley, Valley West Mall, 2805 Beaver Avenue, Tenth and Grand or Twenty-ninth and Inger-soll. Checks should be made payable to the Help Find Eugene Martin Fund. Cash contributions on behalf of the search for John Gosch should go to the Help Find Johnny Gosch Fund, P.O.

Box 228, Ankehy, la. 50021. 3 Continued from Page One a south-side Des Moines neighborhood. Gosch was 12 when he vanished from his newspaper route in West Des Moines nearly two years ago. Both quiet, residential neighborhoods yielded little information for investigators.

Both youngsters disappeared early on a Sunday morning about the same time of the year. Both were carrying the Des Moines Sunday Register. In both cases, there were no signs of a struggle, no reports from neighbors of cries for help. Only their undelivered newspapers were left behind. "We went over it with a fine-tooth comb and found nothing," Sgt.

William Mullins, Des Moines Police Department spokesman, says of the south-side neighborhood where Martin disappeared. "We know that they were interrupted in some manner," he said. Six people say they saw Martin talking to someone. But the descriptions of the man, who was on foot, varied. He was white, from 30 to 40 years old, from 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall and clean-cut, the witnesses said.

In addition, an anonymous caller told the Register he saw young Martin and a man standing beside a 1972 or 1973 green Chevrolet Malibu with gray primer marks at Southwest Fourteenth Street and Highview Drive, where the youngster's papers were found. The caller said the man "had his hands on Eugene." Mullins said Wednesday the car "lead" had been turned over to detectives, but he did not know how far they had been able to develop it. At least five people, including an adult and other carriers, saw Gosch talking to a man in a parked car near his West Des Moines newspaper route. The man was asking directions. He was described as being in his mid-30s, weighing about 200 pounds.

He was dark complected, sloppy, and spaced out, the witnesses said. Although one of the witnesses said JMk (WHfc yr BILLY KID I. was at the meeting, told the Martins they had an invitation to visit investigators at the police station and view the progress of the search for Eugene. A press conference at the Des Moines police station, the fourth since the youngster's disappearance, produced little new information. In other developments, an FBI artist from Washington, D.C., was expected to make a composite drawing based on descriptions supplied by six witnesses who claimed to have seen a man talking to Martin before the youngster disappeared.

Meanwhile, searchers continued pushing their way through the underbrush and wooded areas around Den-man Woods, Water Works Park and Gray's Lake, just southwest of downtown Des Moines on Wednesday. Tips and leads continued to come in on the police hot line (515) 246-9988. "If the calls dry up so will the leads we've been getting," said Sgt. William Mullins, police department spokesman. John Miksich, director of circulation for The Des Moines Register, said Wednesday that most Sunday newspaper carriers will have the option of having their bundles delivered to their homes instead of on street comers in their neighborhoods.

This is a procedural change since the disappearance of Martin. Most daily newspaper carriers have had the option of home delivery for some time, the exception being carriers who live on dead-end streets and areas where streets are not plowed quickly in the winter. Miksich said other options being considered include later delivery of the newspaper, but he stressed that it was only being considered. He said that 35 of the paper's 1,900 metropolitan Des Moines carriers have quit since Martin disappeared. only) iATsT Iowa City Plaza Center I 123 South Dubuque Waterloo 2747 University Ave.

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