MA MA - Joan Risch, 30, Lincoln, 24 Oct 1961

[Stella]

This case is both fascinating and creepy. I can't imagine that she just walked away from her children, but you never know. I don't know if her husband was in denial or maybe he did know something. I'm sure her children still think of her.

Has anyone seen the 1970 TV movie "The House On Greenapple Road"? I've wondered if it was inspired by the Joan Risch case. The opening sequence especially.

Here's the link to the first part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnU02BYs8f4

I think the movie could very well be based on the Risch case; I remember seeing it on TV and thinking what a clever, unexpected plot twist it turned out to have. I checked it out on IMDB to refresh my memory and apparently someone else on the movie message board thinks so too. However, I find it hard to let go of the abortion angle.

 

[Redux]

Wondering if the fingerprint is from the missing woman herself?

If she had never been fingerprinted before, there would be nothing to match it to. Perhaps they should now run it through AFIS?

Her fingerprints would have been all over the house for them to compare the bloody print to.

 

[Redux]

I haven't gotten all the way through reading that pdf, but I just wanted to point this out as it jumped out at me.

Page 3, one of the witness reports says, "She appeared to be in a dazed condition, walking in a plodding manor with her head down. Her hands were cradled to her stomach as though carrying something and her general appearance was untidy."

As though carrying something? Or possibly because she was experiencing pain in that area?

 

[Redux]

I would love to know if those fingerprints were ever run through the system at a later date. Seems like that would be a given, but who knows with some cold cases.

This is one puzzling case. I could lean towards the abortion angle, except that I find it pushing the limit of credulity to think that Joan would have scheduled it in such a limited timeframe where she couldn't be certain that her daughter wouldn't pop back into the house at any moment. Though it might have been a regular occurrence for her daughter to be at the neighbor's most afternoons for a couple of hours, there would be no guarantee that she wouldn't come home early for some reason.

Then again, if it was a random sexual assault or murder / attempted murder, would the person have bothered to try to clean up the blood? Maybe it was a assault/sexual assault, the person left, and Joan tried to clean up. Then because of the blood loss, she went into shock and became disoriented, hence the sightings of (possibly) her walking along the road. Except that doesn't explain the phonebook & the phone pulled out of the wall.

The more I read, the less certain I am of any scenario.

 

[Redux]

Geez, what the heck. Page 43 of the pdf, an article in the Record American states this:

"And on the wall (at one side of the doorway) was what has been described, up to now, as a palm print.

Actually, there were three distinct fingerprints.

The obvious question is - whose fingerprints?

The answer is Mrs. Risch's-presumably. No one can yet say they were definitely hers. There is no record of her fingerprints. So there is no way to compare those found on the wall."

Um, how about comparing to all the things that she would have touched in the household? Not to mention the fact that in that pdf, page 2, it shows Mrs. Risch's fingerprint from a hospital record, so there obviously was a record of her fingerprint.

I hope the above was just faulty reporting or something, and they actually did eliminate the prints as being hers somewhere along the line (though I have not seen that mentioned anywhere, that they did eliminate them as being hers).

There is such a wealth of information in this case unlike so many others that we see - I wish they all had this much information to look at.

 

[Noirdame79]

There is a blog post that discussed this case and theories into Risch's disappearance; the comments are also interesting.

Here's the link:

http://strangeco.blogspot.ca/2014/10/joan-risch-runaway-wife-or-murder-victim.html

 

[ElsaMaria]

Maybe she had a miscarriage. She tried to call an ambulance by phone, but slipped and the phone gone out the wall. Than, she tried to reach a neighbour to ask for help, but was under shock and took the wrong way.

 

[lindamichelle1]

This is the strangest case!
At the beginning I was thinking definite staged case and shes just gone to start a new life, but after seeing the crime scene photos...there is so much blood!! And the coat hanger on the car.
I feel like maybe the husband didnt know she was pregnant?
Maybe she found out and couldnt handle the thought of another baby after already giving up her career for the ones she already had, maybe she tried to self abort with the coat hanger and its gone wrong and the blood loss has sent her into shock. She may have just wandered off into the distance and died somewhere and just not been found. But surely someone would have stopped if they saw a woman like that.
None of it makes much sense. It does seem kind of staged at the scene with the phone in the bin and the phone book open. Surely she couldnt have walked too far losing that much blood. Wouldn't there also be a trail of blood in the direction she walked in. Too many questions!!!

 

[liz b.]

Doubt if an abortionist would have used a coat hanger. jmo

She had worked in publishing in NYC before her marriage. Many people in publishing also like to write. I think she was planning to write a murder/ disappearance book,and that explains the many such books she read over the summer. She may well have still had some publishing contacts in the city. But one area she likely had little knowledge of was police procedure, and how murders are investigated. I think she may have approached someone in LE, and met with them,several times, to discuss investigations. Perhaps things went beyond her comfort zone, and she decided to end this relationship. This would explain the unmarked patrol car in her driveway. I think the driver of that unmarked car got into a fight with Mrs. Risch, and he hit her. harder than he realized,and more than once, causing the blood evidence found. He put her into his vehicle,and left the house. Either she was deceased when he left the house with her, or he killed her and buried her away from her house. I do not put too much stock in eyewitness accounts in this case. .jmo

 

[liz b.]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...v4HAAg&usg=AFQjCNG5yvhG66zIHg28D-APX2aq0CGydg

I found a wealth of information and crime scene photos at this site. This is more than a nose bleed or a few spots of blood as we've been led to believe.

TY for posting this. From this article I found out that she did indeed like to write prose. Fascinating to learn that the Risch home was actually located within the boundary of the Minuteman National Park, which is federal jurisdiction. So technically the FBI should have been the lead investigative agency. But, it seems that local LE never told the FBI. Had the FBI, with their many investigative resources, been in charge of this case, I feel it would have been solved quite quickly. As it was,though, the FBI never got involved beyond an initial report,because there wasn't enough evidence to indicate a crime. Interesting that Mr. Risch refered to his wife in the past tense during his interview with LE.

 

[dogperson]

The blood looks like a lot to me, more than the written reports had led me to believe. Still, a heavy nosebleed or a non life threatening cut on the heat might produce that much blood.

The phone book part might or might not be staged. If an intruder were in the house, you wouldn't stop to look up the number for police, especially not when we know she had a neighbor at home next door. Plus, you wouldn't leave the baby behind if you could possibly help it. But if she were injured, she might have intended to call for help and then decided it would be faster to seek help from a neighbor.l

Someone had tried to clean up some of the blood, which sounds to me like something she might have done herself. I can't see an attacker hanging around to clean the place. Maybe she thought her nosebleed or injury wasn't that serious at first and began to clean the mess up but then the bleeding started again.

If she was the woman seen walking by the road that same day, didn't that lady have a coat on? I'm wondering if she grabbed the coat, hanger and all, as she came out the door and then laid the hanger on the car.

If any of the above is true, it sounds like maybe she became faint or disoriented. If that's the case then she may have wandered into the construction pit or into a wooded area and perished.

The strange car in the driveway, that may or may not have been a police car, could be unconnected or maybe she had a gentleman caller of some type, someone who smacked her across the face and started a nosebleed. This might explain why the car may have been there at the very time her daughter was at the neighbor's house and her son was down for a nap, so that she and the male caller could be alone. If a man did hurt her, he evidently left the scene alone and allowed her to wander off injured, or else he put her in the car and took her with him. Either of those scenarios point to an unhappy outcome.

 

[Sutton]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...v4HAAg&usg=AFQjCNG5yvhG66zIHg28D-APX2aq0CGydg

Snipped. The PDF at this link ^^ is a must read. It is 57 pages, of which about 40 are the original police logs and photos, and excellent newspaper articles. The other 17ish pages seem...misplaced. How are they are related, other than by geography?

The compiler of the PDF did a good job, and he presents the first part of how he thinks the events played out near the end of the document. It is the only thing I've ever read that makes sense.

Telephone

Handle = part you hold in your hand, includes the mouth and ear pieces

Cradle = part attached to the wall, where the dials are, where the handle sits when not in use

Cord = spiral cord that attaches handle to cradle

The telephone was the type that was affixed to a wall, not the kind that sits on a table. The cord and handle had been detached from the cradle.

I found pics online that show some older phones with the 'quick connect' cords and some with permanently attached cords.

Did someone just disconnect the cord from the cradle? Or did they grab the cord and yank hard to rip the wires from the cradle?

A small trash pail (size of a bathroom trash can) had been moved to the middle of the kitchen floor. It was full and the handle of the phone was hung on the rim of the can. Newspaper reports said the mouth piece, the spiral cord, and the cradle portion (dials) all had blood on them.

The whiskey bottle and beer in the trash can is explained by Jane's husband--They purchased beer that weekend when they had company, and he made himself and Jane a drink the previous evening, finished the last of the whisky.

 

[STANDREID]

That phone is a puzzler. It looks like it was purposely placed there but why? I would think it was a one in a thousand shot that could have landed that way by accident. All the booze sure caught my eye.

Hard to believe she left voluntarily knowing her 2-year-old could have gotten out of the house and met with an accident. Also, it wouldn't explain the foreign bloody prints. I wonder if someone was in the house who attacked her and she tried to clean up the blood not knowing how seriously she was hurt then wandered out in a daze and died somewhere and was just never found.

 

[liz b.]

Snipped. The PDF at this link ^^ is a must read. It is 57 pages, of which about 40 are the original police logs and photos, and excellent newspaper articles. The other 17ish pages seem...misplaced. How are they are related, other than by geography?

The compiler of the PDF did a good job, and he presents the first part of how he thinks the events played out near the end of the document. It is the only thing I've ever read that makes sense.

Telephone

Handle = part you hold in your hand, includes the mouth and ear pieces

Cradle = part attached to the wall, where the dials are, where the handle sits when not in use

Cord = spiral cord that attaches handle to cradle

The telephone was the type that was affixed to a wall, not the kind that sits on a table. The cord and handle had been detached from the cradle.

I found pics online that show some older phones with the 'quick connect' cords and some with permanently attached cords.

Did someone just disconnect the cord from the cradle? Or did they grab the cord and yank hard to rip the wires from the cradle?

A small trash pail (size of a bathroom trash can) had been moved to the middle of the kitchen floor. It was full and the handle of the phone was hung on the rim of the can. Newspaper reports said the mouth piece, the spiral cord, and the cradle portion (dials) all had blood on them.

The whiskey bottle and beer in the trash can is explained by Jane's husband--They purchased beer that weekend when they had company, and he made himself and Jane a drink the previous evening, finished the last of the whisky.

View attachment 85405

Also in these reports : it was estimated,from the amount of blood stain and blood splatter, that Mrs. Risch had lost about 1 pint of blood. that's a lot. jmo

 

[STANDREID]

Regarding the phone, perhaps the attacker was OCD or maybe the daughter put it there in all the excitement when she came home and just didn't remember.

OK-I wonder if this case has ever come up in the Boston Strangler investigation. Albert DeSalvo was in prison when this occurred but not everyone thinks he was the Boston Stangler and not all those cases were strictly stranglings.

 

[Sutton]

That phone is a puzzler. It looks like it was purposely placed there but why? I would think it was a one in a thousand shot that could have landed that way by accident. All the booze sure caught my eye.

Hard to believe she left voluntarily knowing her 2-year-old could have gotten out of the house and met with an accident. Also, it wouldn't explain the foreign bloody prints. I wonder if someone was in the house who attacked her and she tried to clean up the blood not knowing how seriously she was hurt then wandered out in a daze and died somewhere and was just never found.

Whoever put the PDF together proposed a similar scenario:

Jane's son (2) was taking a nap. Jane went outside while her daughter (4) and the little Barker boy from across the street played in the driveway. Jane may have seen or heard someone in the house, so she quickly walked her daughter and the friend to the Barker driveway and hurried back to make sure her sleeping child was okay. Jane entered the house and was attacked.

I like this scenario.

I wondered if the attacker maybe hit Jane with the handle/mouthpiece of the phone. You can see in this photo that there is blood on the wall beside the roll of note paper, in the corner and underneath the phone. The telephone table, that must have sat beneath the phone, was knocked into the hallway. The items on it were all over the floor.



The alcohol made me suspicious as well. I think the husband's explanation is plausible. Does it sound believable to other posters?

But what happened after the attack--Jane wonders off and dies?

Also, this doesn't explain how the phone got there. The daughter may have done it, or Jane in a daze or the attacker wiped his prints and set it there.

 

[Sutton]

Regarding the phone, perhaps the attacker was OCD or maybe the daughter put it there in all the excitement when she came home and just didn't remember.

OK-I wonder if this case has ever come up in the Boston Strangler investigation. Albert DeSalvo was in prison when this occurred but not everyone thinks he was the Boston Stangler and not all those cases were strictly stranglings.

I can never decide if DeSalvo did all the stranglings or not. I heard there is an excellent book on the case, maybe I'll read it and see if it offers any insight on Jane's case.

 

[Sutton]

Also in these reports : it was estimated,from the amount of blood stain and blood splatter, that Mrs. Risch had lost about 1 pint of blood. that's a lot. jmo

Agreed. One part of the report says half a pint, while others say a pint. Either way, it's a significant amount of blood.

The report details there are blood smears around the bottom of a doorframe, as if someone had used the frame to help them stand up.

I don't want to make one long post after another, but there is good evidence the woman seen walking on the road was Jane. Passersby described her as having noticeable blood on both both legs.

How much blood can you lose before you pass out?

 

[dogperson]

Agreed. One part of the report says half a pint, while others say a pint. Either way, it's a significant amount of blood.

The report details there are blood smears around the bottom of a doorframe, as if someone had used the frame to help them stand up.

I don't want to make one long post after another, but there is good evidence the woman seen walking on the road was Jane. Passersby described her as having noticeable blood on both both legs.

How much blood can you lose before you pass out?

If only someone had stopped to see if she was ok, we probably wouldn't have this mystery, because I too feel it was most likely her. She might be alive today if somebody had just checked on her.

 

[STANDREID]

As best I can tell, Route 128 is more than 3 miles from Joan's house. That's quite some distance. In her purported condition, I think that would be more than an hour's walk.