The mystery of the missing Joan Carolyn Risch

An unexplained disappearance shook the whole of America in 1961. Joan Carolyn Risch, then 31 years old, a mother of two who had a picture-perfect marriage, disappeared under mysterious circumstances from her home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, on October 24, 1961. Her disappearance without a trace left many questions and mysteries that remain unsolved to this day. On that fateful afternoon, a neighbor alerted the police after discovering a trail of blood leading from the Risch family home to the driveway. She made this discovery after Joan’s daughter, 4-year-old Lillian, came home from a playdate and couldn’t find her mother. Several unconfirmed sightings of a disoriented Joan in nearby streets were reported later that same day. Blood matching Joan’s type O blood type was found smeared in the kitchen. Initially, investigators assumed it was a kidnapping, especially since Joan’s 2-year-old son David was found sleeping safely in his room. But then it emerged that between April 20, 1961, and her disappearance in October 1961, Joan had borrowed several books on unsolved murders and missing persons cases from the library in Lincoln, including one with striking parallels to her own case. This led many to speculate that she may have staged her own abduction, perhaps to escape an unpleasant home life. Other theories suggest that Joan may have been the victim of an accident at the nearby Massachusetts Route 128 construction site, or that she had secretly undergone an abortion that went wrong. The fact is that Joan has remained missing since that day in October. Joan was born on May 12, 1930, in Brooklyn, the daughter of Harold and Josephine Bard. When Joan was 9 years old, her parents moved to New Jersey. Just one year later, on the night of February 23-24, 1940, her parents died in a suspicious fire. Joan herself was visiting her grandmother at the time. After the death of Joan’s parents, she moved in with relatives in New Rochelle. Her aunt and uncle adopted her, and Joan took their surname, Nattrass. She later told an acquaintance that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather during her childhood, but this was never proven. After graduating with honors in English from Wilson College in Chambersburg in 1952, Joan worked in publishing at Harcourt, Brace & World in New York City. She started as a secretary but quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became an editorial assistant, later moving to publishing at Crowell-Collier Publishing. In 1954, Joan, who was 5’7″ tall with blue eyes and short brown hair, met and fell in love with Martin Risch at a football game at Harvard. In December 1955, she married Martin Risch. After the wedding, Joan retired from her career to start a family in Ridgefield. In May 1957, their daughter Lillian was born. Two years later, their son David was born. Joan was a devoted mother and loving wife. In April 1961, the family moved to Lincoln, into the house on Old Bedford Road. While Martin worked as a senior executive at the Fitchbury Paper Company, Joan took care of the children and the household. She settled in well to her new surroundings and became friends with her neighbor Barbara Barker. Joan was also an active member of the Women’s Suffrage Association and wanted to become a teacher once the children were grown. The small family seemed happy, having lived in Lincoln for six months, until that tragic day in October that changed everything. On the morning of October 24, Martin drove to Logan International Airport at around 6:50 a.m. to catch an 8 a.m. flight to New York City, where he had a business meeting. His return flight was scheduled for the next day. While Martin was on his way to the airport, Joan prepared breakfast for the two children, as she did every day. She then took her son David to her neighbor Barbara Barker’s house across the street before driving Lillian to a dentist appointment in Bedford in her blue 1951 Chevrolet. After a quick shopping trip, they returned home around 11 a.m. In the meantime, the milkman had delivered the daily milk and the postman had delivered the mail. Neither noticed anything unusual about the Rischs’ house. Joan changed her clothes and picked up David from her neighbor’s house. Around 11:15 a.m., a dry cleaner rang Joan’s doorbell to pick up Martin’s suits. He later said that Joan and the two children were in high spirits. Joan then prepared lunch. Afterwards, she put David down for his afternoon nap. At around 1:20 p.m., her neighbor Barbara Barker brought her son Douglas over to play. Shortly before 2 p.m., Joan took Douglas and Lillian to the swing in the Barkers’ front yard. She then left them there alone without telling Barbara. She told the two children that she would be back soon. When Barbara noticed the two children in the front yard, she brought them into the house. At around 2:15 p.m., she watched from her kitchen window as Joan, dressed in a gray trench coat, left the house. Joan seemed dazed as she walked toward the garage with her arms outstretched. It looked to her as if she was chasing after a child wearing a red jacket. About an hour later, 13-year-old Virginia Keene, a neighbor’s daughter, spotted a strange, dirty General Motors car near the Risch house. At 3:45 p.m., Barbara accompanied Lillian to her parents’ house. Since Joan’s car was parked in the driveway, she left Lillian in the front yard. Barbara then drove away with her children to run some errands. Meanwhile, Lillian entered the house through an unlocked side door. She looked for her mother, who was nowhere to be found. When she heard David crying, she went to him in the children’s room. She comforted David. When Barbara returned from shopping at around 4:15 p.m., Lillian ran to her. She told Barbara that she couldn’t find her mother and that there was red paint everywhere in the house. Barbara didn’t hesitate and went to the Risch house to check on them. When she saw the blood in the kitchen, she called the police at around 4:33 p.m. Just five minutes later, Sergeant Mike McHugh arrived at the scene. The investigation was complex. In the kitchen, there were bloody smears, an overturned table, and a torn-off telephone receiver, which initially indicated a struggle. Further bloodstains led from the house to the driveway and Joan’s car. However, investigations revealed that the amount of blood was not life-threatening. It almost seemed as if someone had tried to make the injury look much more serious than it actually was. In addition, three fingerprints and part of a handprint were secured that did not belong to anyone living in the house. The police compared these prints with those of 5,000 people until 1993, but there was no match. Further witness reports provided varying clues. Some saw a woman matching Joan’s description bleeding and apparently disoriented, walking along Massachusetts Route 2A and Route 128. Other sightings referred to a strange car and a man who was said to have been in the area of the Risches’ house. Although the blood in the house indicated Joan’s blood type O, investigators could not clearly determine if and how she had been injured and whether it actually came from her. It was also unclear how the bloodstains had been created. In the middle of the kitchen, a trash can that normally stood under the sink was discovered. It contained an empty whiskey bottle, several beer bottles, and the torn-out telephone receiver. Martin later said that he and Joan had emptied the whiskey bottle the night before and that the beer bottles were probably from a previous visit with guests. The phone book was also open to a page where emergency numbers could be written down, but there were no entries. In addition, Joan’s handbag, including her wallet, makeup, and keys, was in the house. Dinner was also prepared and waiting in the refrigerator. In addition, Joan had made a new appointment for next week during her visit to the dentist that morning. There was no indication that she wanted to leave her old life behind, or had she staged all this to start a new life somewhere else undisturbed? The key question was, what had happened to Joan? The investigation was in full swing. A tracking dog was brought in, but it could only follow Joan’s trail to the Barkers’ yard and house. The investigators also checked all the hospitals. But here, too, there was no one who had been admitted who matched Joan’s description. The search seemed cursed. How could a woman just disappear without a trace? Even the FBI, which was called in, was at a loss. The story took a turn when a local reporter discovered that Joan had borrowed books about fictional missing persons cases that bore striking similarities to her own case. This reinforced the theory that she may have planned her disappearance to escape an unhappy life. A friend of Joan’s, Sabra Morton, disagreed with this theory, emphasizing how happy Joan was with her life as a housewife and that she would never have left her children behind. Another theory suggests that she died on Route 128 when she fell into a construction pit, from which she was unable to escape, and which was later filled in. Joan’s husband Martin believed that his wife may have suffered a nervous breakdown that caused a kind of amnesia and that Joan could no longer remember anything. Another speculation was that Joan had performed an abortion at home. The search for concrete clues came to nothing, and despite numerous theories, there is still no definitive explanation for Joan’s disappearance. There was one suspect. This was Robert Forster, who was an employee of the National Park Service and was door-to-door canvassing as part of a monument preservation project. Some women claimed that he had stayed with them far too long. He had visited Joan a month before her disappearance. But this lead also came to nothing. Her husband Martin lived in the house until 1975, when it was acquired by the National Park Service to develop the area for a park project. Martin rarely spoke about the case and, until his death in 2009, believed that Joan might still be alive, possibly suffering from amnesia, and would eventually return to him, which never happened. Nevertheless, Martin never remarried. Lead investigator Leo Algeo also continued to pursue the case until his death without finding a solution. Joan Carolyn Risch remains missing to this day, and her case is one of America’s most fascinating unsolved mysteries.