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

[digitective]

Here is a question: it says that the blood stopped at end of driveway, yet she was spotted walking down highway. How far is that highway location? Wouldn't her blood had continued? and was there blood out there on the highway area? Was that searched?

Maybe her blood stopped at the end of the driveway because she got into someone's car -- either hitching a ride, getting a cab or being kidnapped. Then something happened on or near the highway that made her get out, so that's why she was seen wandering there. (e.g. Whoever gave her a ride / the cabbie noticed she was getting blood all over the inside of the car or she escaped from her kidnapper.)

 

[digitective]

I happened to work at Minuteman NHP in the 1990s, and one of my co-workers had been on the Lincoln Police force, and involved in the investigation. He said most of the police were sure who "did it", and there was a man involved, not her husband. He wouldn't/couldn't say more.

Maybe the abusive adoptive father? And that could be one of the "persons" the cops said wasn't sharing all the info they knew, perhaps along with the adoptive mother?

 

[digitective]

It doesn't actually say whether they were bloody prints or not. Only that his prints were found on the phone. jmo

also, I really have to wonder why LE asked martin Risch if Joan was pregnant.

Probably because homicide is a leading cause of death of pregnant women.

 

[digitective]

Since Joan's parents were killed in a house fire described as "strange" I think it's possible they were murdered. I wonder if the key to Joan's disappearance lies in her past ?

Completely speculating but what if her adoptive father (her uncle / mother's brother) burned down her house and killed her parents because he knew he would get custody of Joan if they died? And that's why he did it when Joan wasn't home. Then he molested Joan when he and his wife got custody of her. When Joan grew up and had children of her own, she started processing the abuse she suffered as a child and confronted her adoptive parents about it. Then her adoptive father killed her so she'd stop telling people.

 

[digitective]

The following link contains pics of the kitchen. These pics have caused me to go hmm? more than a few times. Studying them is not easy on my phone so let me know what you see. Am I reading too much into the kitchen?

Blood on the Kitchen Floor: The Unsolved Disappearance of Joan Risch

The roll of paper towels on the floor in a kitchen where there isn't much out of place. They aren't the type of thing you leave on the floor with a small child. There is something on the floor in the blood. Anyone know what it is? My best guess is she was putting a the new roll on when whatever happened happened. Maybe they were knocked off in a struggle or she dropped them and just hadn't picked them up yet. Probably means nothing.

The trash can. Not a trash can. It's a pail. I can imagine no housewife using a pail as a trash can. The little square under the cupboard trashcans, yes, but not a pail. With kids she'd be emptying constantly. The items in/on the pail look placed there.

The kitchen pics scream to me that the pail holds the answers. Is there an inventory of the pail?

Hadn't the Risches only moved into the house a few months before? They might have been using the pail as the temporary trash can until they got around to buying a real one.

 

[digitective]

No Clues To Go On, No Trail To Follow: Massachusetts' Most Baffling Cold Case

Just pasting the full text of this article, in case it disappears from the internet.

It's interesting that the article says "she took nothing with her," when another article says that her cloth coat was missing. And when she was spotted by the highway, she was seen wearing a coat. So it seems like maybe her coat was the only thing she took when she left the house?

LINCOLN, MA – Joan Risch disappeared 55 years ago today. The clues known to the public remain the same: Bloody fingerprints, a telephone ripped out of the wall, and a telling library card. And while the case remains open, it seems that authorities are no closer to solving Lincoln's most baffling mystery.
On Oct. 24, 1961, between 2 and 4 p.m. and in broad daylight, Risch – an "attractive 31 year old wife and mother" according to an issue of the Fence Viewer from the time – disappeared from her home on Old Bedford Road in Lincoln. Her young son was asleep upstairs, her daughter was playing across the street, and her husband was in New York on a business trip. More than 1,000 law enforcement agents were working on the case soon after, analyzing fingerprints, dental records, and – thanks to the research of a local reporter – Risch's library card.

In the days after her disappearance, authorities, headquartered at the Middlesex District Attorney's office in Cambridge according to an Oct. 28, 1961 article in the Boston Globe, investigated the theory that Risch was kidnapped and murdered. There was blood, of Risch's type, on the walls and floor of the kitchen, and it didn't seem that Risch has fled because she took nothing with her. Fingerprints were found on the telephone receiver and on the kitchen wall, but they were not Risch's and were never identified.

In February of 1963, the DA's office got its "biggest break to date," according to a Boston Globe article from the time. Sareen Gerson, the Lincoln editor of the Fence Viewer, investigated Risch's reading habits by compiling the books taken from the library under the Risch family library card. The card showed Risch checked out books that detailed a wife's disappearance, a man running away to escape his problems, and a story about a woman who "flees her home to start life anew," according to the Globe article.

Risch reportedly worked in publishing before she met her husband. Police sent fliers to libraries and bookstores across the East Coast with the theory that Risch either couldn't resist her love of books, or would seek work at a bookstore.

"If she is still alive – and neither police nor her husband have ever given up hope that she is – then she must still love books." – The Boston Globe, Feb. 21, 1963

One theory on Risch's disappearance came from a British author, whose book "Put Out That Star," U.S. title "Into Thin Air," was among those checked out by Risch. Risch's disappearance mirrored the book, according to a Globe article, leading some to believe she used it as a map to guide her disappearance. Leopold Ognall, pen name Harry Carmichael, told the Globe in 1964 that he suspected Joan Risch was alive, living somewhere between Boston and New York.
The case is still open under the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, and the Lincoln Police department is still accepting tips.

 

[digitective]

Boston Globe article from 1996 below.

It's interesting that Martin refused to discuss the case. It seems like usually loved ones of missing people want to talk about them, to get publicity and bring out leads that might solve the case. But it's also possible that talking about Joan was too upsetting / traumatic for him.

LINCOLN -- There are ghosts rustling in the hallowed woods off the old Battle Road here. The footsteps of British soldiers echo through time, winding their way toward the ambush at Bloody Curve, just around the bend on what is now Route 2A.
Mixed in, perhaps, are the frantic steps of Joan Risch, running through the weeds -- running from an attacker, or maybe from a life she no longer wanted.
It has been 35 years since Risch -- a wealthy, 31-year-old homemaker and mother of two -- vanished from her white, Cape-style home here. She left behind a spattering of blood and a trail of speculation.
Today the stagnant case file is yellow with the years. All but one of the investigators who obsessed over it have died. Even the house where Joan Risch lived is gone, moved to a lot in nearby Lexington. Her husband, who lives quietly in town, declines to discuss the case.
But Risch's specter haunts this community. Coming less than a year before the Boston Strangler first struck, her disappearance foreshadowed the end of a brief, idyllic time in suburban America, before laser sensors and dead-bolted doors.
Most people believe that Joan Risch is dead and has been since that October afternoon in 1961. Some say her body lies under the asphalt of Route 128. Others speculate that she is living out her days somewhere, confident that no one will ever recognize her.
``This is one of the things that I would most like to see happen before I pass on, to have some resolution to that,'' said Leo J. Algeo, the one-time police chief in Lincoln and the last of the gumshoes who worked the case. ``It's sort of a stone around my neck.''
Risch, a college-educated socialite with pale eyes and dark hair cut in the style made popular by Jacqueline Kennedy, was last seen by neighbors on Oct. 24, 1961 -- six months after she and her husband Martin moved to Lincoln.
That afternoon, Risch's 4-year-old daughter ran to a neighbor and said, in a quote that would become notorious, ``Mommy is gone and the kitchen is covered with red paint.'' Her 2-year-old brother was napping.
The paint turned out to be Joan Risch's blood. The telephone was ripped from the wall. Police lifted a bloody fingerprint but were never able to match it. No weapon was ever found.
A trail of blood ended in the driveway. Droplets were on the side of Risch's parked car. Two neighbors said they saw a strange sedan in the driveway, but police determined that what they saw was probably an unmarked cruiser.
From the start, police believed Risch was abducted. Then, they theorized, she was either put into another car or she ended up in the woods, chased or carried by her assailant. That would explain the abrupt end to the blood trail.
A neighbor said she had seen Risch outside the house that afternoon, running and looking dazed. She had assumed Risch was chasing one of the children. A few motorists said they had spotted a bloody woman looking dazed near the site where Route 128 was being built. But no one had stopped to help her.
On the day his wife disappeared, Martin D. Risch, an executive at a paper company, was on a business trip in New York. He was questioned, but investigators ruled him out as a suspect.
Then the search for Risch took a new turn in, of all places, the musty town library. It was there that Sareen Gerson, then a 40-year-old reporter for the local newspaper, The Fence Viewer, found a clue while browsing through a book about Brigham Young's 27th wife, who had mysteriously disappeared.
On the check-out card for the book was Joan Risch's signature, dated Sept. 16.
Gerson prowled the stacks and found another book Risch had recently taken out called ``Into Thin Air.'' It was about another woman who vanished, leaving no trace but blood smears and a towel.
A hastily assembled group of volunteers from the town's library committee soon compiled a list of some 25 books Risch had apparently read that summer. Most concerned murders or unexplained disappearances.
``The whole thing added up to our feeling that she had planned the disappearance and was looking for a way to do it,'' said Gerson, now 74 and living near Washington.
Risch had led a life at once tragic and rewarding. People close to the case said she had been sexually assaulted as a child. Newspapers reported that her parents had been killed in a suspicious fire in New Jersey when she was nine.
Before marrying, she had worked in New York publishing houses. Gerson recalled that Risch seemed like a driven woman whose ambitions had been stunted.
But Sabra Morton, a college friend of Joan Risch who still lives in Lexington, disagreed. She said she had never seen Risch happier than she was in Lincoln.
``I think Joan is almost certainly dead,'' Morton said. ``She would never have left her family on her own.''
As months and then years passed after Risch's disappearance, there were scores of reported sightings in the Lincoln area. Several skulls and bodies were unearthed and thought to be hers. None were.
In 1975 the house where the Risches lived was moved to Lexington to make room for Minuteman National Park. Martin Risch moved to another house nearby, where he lives with his son, David, now 37. Martin Risch has kept quiet about the case for years and said last week that he was ``not interested'' in discussing it now.
Like some law enforcement officials, Martin Risch once said that he thought his wife was alive somewhere, suffering from amnesia. Several years ago one investigator hypothesized that she had wandered into an excavation pit near the new highway and was buried accidentally when the pit was filled.
Leo Algeo sat in a sun parlor at his home in Stow last week and recalled the frustrating years he spent trying to track down Joan Risch.
``I thought they'd find a body or bones or something,'' he said. ``Things do turn up. People don't disappear without a trace.''
Algeo said he has his own theories about what happened but is keeping them to himself. Asked if he would be willing to bet that she was dead, he said, ``No.''
Algeo stared into the woods beyond his home. For a moment, it seemed he was again chasing Joan Risch's ghost.
Then she was gone.

 

[digitective]

I tend to believe Joan perished on the day she disappeared as the result of a medical emergency. Although there were several sightings of a blue sedan in the neighborhood, I'm not sure it's connected, because all the sightings and supposed sightings of Joan involved her being seen alone. If the owner of the sedan is connected, then he/she fled the scene when things went bad, leaving Joan to deal with her emergency on her own. There were beer bottles in the trash which Mr. Risch had no explanation for, and these could have belonged to a visitor, but maybe Joan liked to drink beer and her husband wasn't aware of it?

I also doubt her choice of reading material was preparation for staging her disappearance. If anyone ever checked my reading list, it's full of true crime books and fictional stories about disappearances and murders. This doesn't mean I'm planning to run away or kill anyone.

If Joan were planning to stage a disappearance she wouldn't need to cause an injury to herself and smear blood around the house. She could have disarranged some furniture to indicate a struggle and maybe even have taken some money or jewelry with her, as if someone robbed the house and kidnapped her. But by all accounts Joan was a good mother and a happy wife; I have trouble picturing her abandoning her children this way. Why would she leave her son alone in his crib (who was found crying and with a dirty diaper) and allow her daughter to come home to the distressing sight of the blood and a missing mother?

It's interesting, though, that her husband appears to have always believed she was still alive somewhere, so maybe there were things that led him to believe she would run away and start a new life. And maybe she did, I just feel like so much blood in the house indicates something was wrong with her physically.

This Wikipedia article gives a lot of details. Disappearance of Joan Risch - Wikipedia

Joan's husband Martin said they had visitors over the weekend and they drank the beer. He just wasn't sure why the empty bottles were sitting in the wastebasket in the kitchen, since she usually emptied it when it was full.

 

[digitective]

Confusing things:

1) Totally different date of birth (just a typo??)

A typed Massachusetts State Bureau of Investigation Bulletin shows Joan's birth date as: May 12, 1930.

The Charley Project lists date of birth as: August 4, 1931.


2) Was Frank Nattrass her uncle (her father's brother) as well as her foster father (they already shared the same last name)?? Or was she given "Nattrass" name by foster family?


The Charley Project profile states:

"Another account stated that her parents died in a strange fire in New Jersey in 1940, when Risch was nine years old; she was raised by an aunt and uncle after that."


Per the October 1993 Boston Herald report:

On Feb. 1, 1963, some 15 months after Joan Risch vanished, State Police detectives went to New Rochelle, N.Y., to question for a second time Joan Risch's late foster father, Frank E. Nattrass.


1940 Census (estimated birth year 1930):
Joan Nattrass in the 1940 Census | Archives.com

<modsnip - link now leads to an inapppriate site>

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/risch_joan.html

<modsnip - link now leads to an inapppriate site>

Frank Nattrass was Joan's uncle, her mother's brother. He and his wife adopted Joan after her parents passed away and gave her the name Nattrass. Her surname was Bond before that.

 

[digitective]

I feel like this Jane Doe found in Westport, CT could possibly be Joan. Several details align.

Westport is only 14 miles away from Ridgefield, CT, where Joan lived just a few months before moving to Lincoln, MA. And it's only 30 miles away from New Rochelle, NY, where her adoptive parents lived. If her adoptive father who abused her was involved in her disappearance, Westport could be an area that he was familiar with.

 

[digitective]

Frank Nattrass was Joan's uncle, her mother's brother. He and his wife adopted Joan after her parents passed away and gave her the name Nattrass. Her surname was Bond before that.

Here is the obituary of Frank E. Nattrass (Joan's uncle / adoptive father who allegedly abused her). He died in 1970, just a few months after moving out to Hollywood, CA -- I believe to join his wife out there?

The name of his company is written incorrectly -- it was actually Nattrass-Schenck. He wrote songs and published sheet music. His company also apparently published this "humor print," which is pretty creepy, especially coming from someone who was accused of child molestation.

Frank's son, Frank Peter Nattrass, was Joan's cousin / adoptive brother. He died a few months ago, in August 2024. Here's an interview he did in 2015 about his family history.

Descendants Speak: Mr. Frank Nattrass​

This post is the first in our series Descendants Speak, in which I interview descendants of those buried at the church. Mr. Nattrass’s interview is particularly moving, as he talks about what it means to him to learn about the life of his great great grandmother who is buried at the church. If you think you might be related to an individual who was buried at Spring Street, please contact us. –Meredith A.B. Ellis

Mr. Nattrass, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born Frank Peter Nattrass on November 19, 1932 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York. The Nattrass family had been living in the area since my gg grandfather John Nattrass and his family moved there from Dutchess County, NY in about 1828. John is listed in the directory as a grocer at 204 Varick corner Hamersley from 1828-1837. In the 1830 Census the family is enumerated on Hamersley. My gg grandmother Sarah (Sally) died January 19, 1836 and was buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. Since I suspect that the business was probably a Ma & Pa type grocery business he found that after her untimely demise that he couldn’t run the business without her, and the next reference I found for him is in the 1850 Census where he is living with one of his sons who is in the business of manufacturing and repairing stoves in Brooklyn. My gg grandfather John died on April 30, 1851, and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Shortly after my birth, my parents moved to New Rochelle, Westchester, NY, which is where my Nattrass grandparents had moved previously. My father was a music publisher and would commute to NYC to his office at 145 W. 45th St.

I graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1951 and went on to The Art Institute of Chicago Goodman Memorial Theater on a scholarship. From there I served 2 yrs. in the United States Army during the Korean War. I have lived in the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco area of California, Minneapolis area of Minnesota and now the Phoenix area of Arizona. I have had a colorful and wonderful life so far and am happily married to my wife Sherrie who you met.

Why did you get involved with your family’s genealogy?

I have been interested since childhood. My mother told us stories about our grandfathers both of whom had died before I was 3 yrs old. In 1973 I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and began doing research in earnest. In the Church we believe that families can be sealed together for eternity. So as members of the Church we search out their names and perform sealing ordinances for them in our Temples.

What have you learned about your family, particularly about your relatives buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church?

Sarah (Sally) Nattrass was born Sarah Nelson on 9 Aug 1777 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York to Thomas Nelson and Sarah Wright. Sarah is the only ancestor who was buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. I have a good deal of family history on the Nelson line with that lineage traced back to the 1620’s.

What favorite stories have you learned about your ancestors during this time period?

Recently I was very interested to learn that the Spring Street Church was an abolitionist congregation and that the Sunday School and other services were multiracial. This information gives me new feelings of pride for my heritage knowing that they stood up for what was right in spite of the political correctness and social stigma of the time.

How did you find out about the Spring Street Archaeology Project?

I knew where the other members of my family were buried but I had no idea about the location of the Spring Street Church. In my mind, I pictured a quaint old church with a graveyard adjoining. I decided to find the address of the church so I did and online search and got the surprise of my life!

What did it mean for you to attend the memorial for the Spring Street congregation?

It was an honor to be in attendance and to celebrate the lives of those brave people who believed that all men are created equal in the eyes of God.

Why does this archaeology and history project matter to you?

It is a search for truth. Uncovering truth is a way to understand our past and gives us a sense of our heritage. For me especially, I received a great feeling of pride in my ancestors who risked everything to follow their conscience and stand firm on their beliefs regardless of the type of persecution they must have endured.

Why is important to you, as a descendant, to be a part of a project like this?

I have learned that my direct ancestors turned out to be heroes. It gives me an incentive to be a better citizen and a better person.

I'm not finding much else about him, other than the fact that he and his wife Sherrie were the defendants in several lawsuits brought by debt collectors around 2010 - 2011.

 

[Simply Caustic]

Hm, it didn't attach and I tried again but it doesn't seem to work. I think it might be too large of a file to attach.

Try this link

 

[MesquiteO21]

Maybe she only told her friends about the abuse but didn't share it with her husband, so that's why he denied it.

and just to clarify, i'm not quite sure if he necessarily "denied" it, my understanding was always that he just said he didn't know anything about it. Denied to me would be him saying she never told her friends that, it never happened, etc. versus she never told me directly about it, i don't know what she would've told others.

MOO

 

[jgfitzge]

and just to clarify, i'm not quite sure if he necessarily "denied" it, my understanding was always that he just said he didn't know anything about it. Denied to me would be him saying she never told her friends that, it never happened, etc. versus she never told me directly about it, i don't know what she would've told others.

MOO

According to the book, “A Kitchen Painted in Blood,” by Stephen Ahern Joan intimated such abuse to her husband Martin, as well as her stepbrother, Peter, and some of her Manhattan roommates. However, it sounds like she kept it on a high-level without providing extensive details.

 

[MesquiteO21]

According to the book, “A Kitchen Painted in Blood,” by Stephen Ahern Joan intimated such abuse to her husband Martin, as well as her stepbrother, Peter, and some of her Manhattan roommates. However, it sounds like she kept it on a high-level without providing extensive details.

i've read that book so i must have misremembered, thank you for the clarification

 

[Betty P]

Try this link

Any idea who wrote the notes in this compilation of articles and police reports? Where do they get the idea that Joan was killed and later buried in Litchfield?

 

[jgfitzge]

Any idea who wrote the notes in this compilation of articles and police reports? Where do they get the idea that Joan was killed and later buried in Litchfield?

Betty,

Guy’s name is Lawrence Ford. Check a couple of comments back on 1/9/2018 in this thread for more information. The link was moved a few times since then and eventually devolved into a site full of spam and pop ups. The user, Digitective was able to access this document via the “Wayback Machine.”

 

[Betty P]

Betty,

Guy’s name is Lawrence Ford. Check a couple of comments back on 1/9/2018 in this thread for more information. The link was moved a few times since then and eventually devolved into a site full of spam and pop ups. The user, Digitective was able to access this document via the “Wayback Machine.”

Thanks. When I tried to trace it back, the guy's original post was deleted. He doesn't mention any sources or background for his belief that someone killed Joan, then buried her in an unmarked grave in the next town over. What would the motive have been? Was she being stalked? If that scenario were true, it would probably be someone local. Someone from out of town wouldn't have been comfortable driving around town with her body, then burying it in an open, public place thats close by other homes and businesses.

Since there are no sources for that theory, I'm not sure I'd accept that explanation. It's possible, but there's just no information about who or why, etc.

 

[jgfitzge]

Thanks. When I tried to trace it back, the guy's original post was deleted. He doesn't mention any sources or background for his belief that someone killed Joan, then buried her in an unmarked grave in the next town over. What would the motive have been? Was she being stalked? If that scenario were true, it would probably be someone local. Someone from out of town wouldn't have been comfortable driving around town with her body, then burying it in an open, public place thats close by other homes and businesses.

Since there are no sources for that theory, I'm not sure I'd accept that explanation. It's possible, but there's just no information about who or why, etc.

Betty,

I might’ve mentioned this before, but I think his file is pretty thin. There seems to be pages missing. It seems to be a series of pages with photocopies of newspaper articles, conjecture, pictures from the crime scene, a brochure about Minuteman Park, real estate records, and a plot plan for a development in the town of Lexington. He seems to make the leap that Joan is buried in one of the plots in this Lexington development where one of the neighbors has a plot for new house nearby. Without me spelling it out I think I know what he is trying to say, maybe you do as well but I’d rather not put it in a comment here.

 

[Betty P]

Betty,

I might’ve mentioned this before, but I think his file is pretty thin. There seems to be pages missing. It seems to be a series of pages with photocopies of newspaper articles, conjecture, pictures from the crime scene, a brochure about Minuteman Park, real estate records, and a plot plan for a development in the town of Lexington. He seems to make the leap that Joan is buried in one of the plots in this Lexington development where one of the neighbors has a plot for new house nearby. Without me spelling it out I think I know what he is trying to say, maybe you do as well but I’d rather not put it in a comment here.

I think I get what you’re saying. I kind of recall some of this speculation, now that you mention this.

I’ve always wondered if she had a stalker. I recall police searched the woods behind her house and found a stash of magazines. They wrote it off, but I wondered if someone was hanging out back there, watching her when her husband was out of town. They may have snuck into the home and surprised her after she returned.