DES MOINES (AP) - Police said Friday that state crime experts were examining photographs to determine if they are of a newspaper delivery boy who disappeared 24 years ago.

The photos were left Sunday at the front door of Noreen Gosch, the mother of Johnny Gosch, who disappeared on Sept. 5, 1982, while delivering newspapers in West Des Moines.

Lt. Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the West Des Moines Police Department, said the photos were given to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation's computer crime task force.

Miller said police have not positively identified the boy in the photographs as Johnny Gosch. He also said it was not immediately known when the photos were taken.

"That's one of the reasons we're going to the DCI and let the experts take a look at them," Miller said.

Noreen Gosch found the photos Sunday and said she gave them to police on Tuesday. It wasn't clear why Gosch didn't immediately give the photos to police.

While police said they have not positively identified the boy in the photo as Johnny Gosch, Noreen Gosch said it is her son.

She said one photo shows her son with his mouth gagged, his hands and feet bound, and he is wearing the same sweat pants he wore when he disappeared. She said the other photo shows him with two other unidentified boys, also bound and gagged.

Miller would only say the photos were of young boys. He estimated their ages at 10 to 14.

Finding the photos raises questions and memories, Noreen Gosch told The Associated Press on Thursday.

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

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

Johnny Gosch's disappearance triggered nationwide concern over abducted children. He was one of the first faces of missing or abducted children to appear on milk cartons across the country.

Several theories have developed about his disappearance. His newspaper wagon was discovered near his West Des Moines home, but few clues have been discovered since then.

The boy's mother believes her son was taken by child pornographers. She has told authorities her son briefly contacted her in 1997 but feared for his life and declined to give details about where or how he could be contacted to hide his identity.