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

[branmuffin]

Yes, the photos are at the Pinterest link above. Someone must have found them online. I looked at them closely and they appear to be from the same batch of crime scene photos. I’ll try to copy the link down here.

@branmuffin This is the link to the Pinterest page with the photos.

Thanks.

 

[Bit of hope]

I keep looking at the pill bottles on the shelf (but maybe they were just vitamines) and the knife set....It's hard to see. Is there one missing? Did they check the husbands alibi? I also noticed there is an overview of phone-calls made.

What is the use of that? No calls from the house in September, none in October? I don't believe so. I would love to see the other calls made, especially in the days leading up to her missing date and to her husband in New York.

Sadly no incoming calls. Don't know how things worked in those days. Was it technically impossible to registrate the incoming calls?

 

[Richard]

... respedtfully snipped for comment:
What is the use of that? No calls from the house in September, none in October? I don't believe so. I would love to see the other calls made, especially in the days leading up to her missing date and to her husband in New York.

Sadly no incoming calls. Don't know how things worked in those days. Was it technically impossible to registrate the incoming calls?

Back in the 1960's only outgoing long distance calls were billed and recorded by the phone company. Unlike today, where you pay a flat monthly fee and you can call anywhere, phones were assigned to a specific small area and calls within that local area were "free" - that is not billed separately. Sometimes a call to the next town ten miles away might be billed as "long distance" if it was in another calling area.

Long distance calls had to go through a "Long distance operator", which might involve talking to an operator to get your call through. Later, if your phone company/line had this feature, you might be able to simply dial "1" and then the number and you would be billed automatically for the long distance call.

In the example you quoted, it would be possible for an investigator to contact the persons or businesses that outgoing calls were made to and then find if any of them made return long distance calls to the home's number - or to other possible places of interest.

As you can see in the list of outgoing calls from the Risch home, there were not many long distance calls made in the months preceding Joan's disappearance. Two in May, one in June, one in July, and three in August. Long distance calls were relatively expensive and therefor, not made often.

The outgoing calls, however, might have given investigators a lead or two as to who she was interacting with and might lead to clues regarding her state of mind, any home problems, or any possible suspects in her disappearance.

 

[Betty P]

I keep looking at the pill bottles on the shelf (but maybe they were just vitamines) and the knife set....It's hard to see. Is there one missing? Did they check the husbands alibi? I also noticed there is an overview of phone-calls made.

View attachment 441659

View attachment 441660
What is the use of that? No calls from the house in September, none in October? I don't believe so. I would love to see the other calls made, especially in the days leading up to her missing date and to her husband in New York.

Sadly no incoming calls. Don't know how things worked in those days. Was it technically impossible to registrate the incoming calls?

Back in those days, Bell Telephone charged per minute for calls to other "exchanges" than yours. Exchanges were the second set of 3 numbers in your phone number. If you lived in one town or suburb and you wanted to call someone in the next suburb or the big city in your metro area, it cost extra. These were separate from long distance calls, which were calls between different area codes.

So, the toll phone calls listed from the Risch home above were calls made from their phone to other towns and cities nearby. Phone calls made locally, within their exchange weren't itemized. The monthly fee for phone service included local phone calls.

Oops, just saw Richard answered this above. Thanks! Even as late as the early 1990's, phone companies didn't itemize local phone calls, within your exchange. It was a problem investigating the kidnapping and murder of Amy Mihaljevic in Bay Village OH in 1989. The killer who called Amy's home to tell her a fake story about buying a gift for her mother called from a local phone, so there was no way to trace the origin of the phone call.

ETA

Husband's alibi checked out fine. He was out of town on a business trip. He met with customers as well as a boss or co-worker who was also there. Also checked with hotel and airline. They all verified he was where he said he was. He was well liked, well educated and did a good job of raising his children after their mother passed. IIRC, he went to college after serving in WWII and got his Masters in Business Administration, a fairly new graduate degree in those days. He and Joan met while in college.

 

[Bit of hope]

Back in the 1960's only outgoing long distance calls were billed and recorded by the phone company. Unlike today, where you pay a flat monthly fee and you can call anywhere, phones were assigned to a specific small area and calls within that local area were "free" - that is not billed separately. Sometimes a call to the next town ten miles away might be billed as "long distance" if it was in another calling area.

Long distance calls had to go through a "Long distance operator", which might involve talking to an operator to get your call through. Later, if your phone company/line had this feature, you might be able to simply dial "1" and then the number and you would be billed automatically for the long distance call.

In the example you quoted, it would be possible for an investigator to contact the persons or businesses that outgoing calls were made to and then find if any of them made return long distance calls to the home's number - or to other possible places of interest.

As you can see in the list of outgoing calls from the Risch home, there were not many long distance calls made in the months preceding Joan's disappearance. Two in May, one in June, one in July, and three in August. Long distance calls were relatively expensive and therefor, not made often.

The outgoing calls, however, might have given investigators a lead or two as to who she was interacting with and might lead to clues regarding her state of mind, any home problems, or any possible suspects in her disappearance.

Thank you and Betty P.

 

[jgfitzge]

Yes, it looks like Betty and Richard took care of your question concerning the phone log. Being from the area, I get a kick out of Framingham being a long distance call. One thing to note is it would not account for a long distance call coming in to the home.

On another note it looks like those bottles on the shelf, at least in my opinion, look like vitamin bottles.

 

[fred&edna]

Did the police attempt to get hand prints from any of Joan's family members? (maybe one male relative in particular)

 

[Ciriii57]

Did the police attempt to get hand prints from any of Joan's family members? (maybe one male relative in particular)

Do you mean the adopted half brother/cousin? I don't think they had the chance. IIRC When they went to speak to him he was by all accounts devastated, almost too much. It seemed suspicious. Soon after he left the area I believe and couldn't be located although an acquaintance said he might be in prison they couldn't locate him. I guess if he was in prison his fingerprints would have been available.

His totally shocked reaction has always led me to believe Joan wasn't dead when he left her and he totally assumed she'd made it to a hospital and kept quiet (if it was him of course). Since he and Joan were not getting along, in fact apparently in quite some disagreement at that point, his reaction seemed...off. JMO

 

[fred&edna]

Do you mean the adopted half brother/cousin? I don't think they had the chance. IIRC When they went to speak to him he was by all accounts devastated, almost too much. It seemed suspicious. Soon after he left the area I believe and couldn't be located although an acquaintance said he might be in prison they couldn't locate him. I guess if he was in prison his fingerprints would have been available.

His totally shocked reaction has always led me to believe Joan wasn't dead when he left her and he totally assumed she'd made it to a hospital and kept quiet (if it was him of course). Since he and Joan were not getting along, in fact apparently in quite some disagreement at that point, his reaction seemed...off. JMO

No, I wasn't referring to him (half brother/cousin). Someone Joan was uncomfortable being around (reported by her husband)... and this person was questioned more than once IIRC.

 

[branmuffin]

Back in those days, Bell Telephone charged per minute for calls to other "exchanges" than yours. Exchanges were the second set of 3 numbers in your phone number. If you lived in one town or suburb and you wanted to call someone in the next suburb or the big city in your metro area, it cost extra. These were separate from long distance calls, which were calls between different area codes.

So, the toll phone calls listed from the Risch home above were calls made from their phone to other towns and cities nearby. Phone calls made locally, within their exchange weren't itemized. The monthly fee for phone service included local phone calls.

Oops, just saw Richard answered this above. Thanks! Even as late as the early 1990's, phone companies didn't itemize local phone calls, within your exchange. It was a problem investigating the kidnapping and murder of Amy Mihaljevic in Bay Village OH in 1989. The killer who called Amy's home to tell her a fake story about buying a gift for her mother called from a local phone, so there was no way to trace the origin of the phone call.

ETA

Husband's alibi checked out fine. He was out of town on a business trip. He met with customers as well as a boss or co-worker who was also there. Also checked with hotel and airline. They all verified he was where he said he was. He was well liked, well educated and did a good job of raising his children after their mother passed. IIRC, he went to college after serving in WWII and got his Masters in Business Administration, a fairly new graduate degree in those days. He and Joan met while in coll. Tege.

Her husband was 79 when he died in 2009. That would have made him born in 1930 or which would have made him around 15 when the war ended in 1945.

 

[Betty P]

Her husband was 79 when he died in 2009. That would have made him born in 1930 or which would have made him around 15 when the war ended in 1945.

Thanks.

 

[MesquiteO21]

Without reading the whole thread my question is what are really skilled crimescene investigators make/made of the blood splatters/drops, direction, pattern, impact, etc.

the detectives and scientists at the time surmised that the blood came from a head wound (this info comes from one of the books written about Joan.) unfortunately i don't think it was ever really fully explained why they thought that or came to that determination--prior scene experience maybe? that's just a guess on my part though. i'll try to go back and see if i can find where in the book it talks about that.

don't think i had heard that about a man's hair before, i find that strange as well

 

[fred&edna]

the detectives and scientists at the time surmised that the blood came from a head wound (this info comes from one of the books written about Joan.) unfortunately i don't think it was ever really fully explained why they thought that or came to that determination--prior scene experience maybe? that's just a guess on my part though. i'll try to go back and see if i can find where in the book it talks about that.

don't think i had heard that about a man's hair before, i find that strange as well

Could the reasoning of a "head wound" be because of the amount of blood found at the house - head wounds bleed more profusely and easily because there are so many blood vessels close to the surface of the skin? And, maybe if blood spatter patterns was a known thing back then... they knew it wasn't likely a stabbing (or similar wound)? There would be cast off blood on higher levels of the walls and/or on ceiling. 'Just thinking aloud.

 

[branmuffin]

Could the reasoning of a "head wound" be because of the amount of blood found at the house - head wounds bleed more profusely and easily because there are so many blood vessels close to the surface of the skin? And, maybe if blood spatter patterns was a known thing back then... they knew it wasn't likely a stabbing (or similar wound)? There would be cast off blood on higher levels of the walls and/or on ceiling. 'Just thinking aloud.

A head wound could just be the result of a slip and fall, too. It doesn't have to have ominous reasons. Sometimes people freak out when they get head wounds because they do bleed so profusely.

 

[Bit of hope]

the detectives and scientists at the time surmised that the blood came from a head wound (this info comes from one of the books written about Joan.) unfortunately i don't think it was ever really fully explained why they thought that or came to that determination--prior scene experience maybe? that's just a guess on my part though. i'll try to go back and see if i can find where in the book it talks about that.

don't think i had heard that about a man's hair before, i find that strange as well

Very interesting, Thank you. I like to hear more.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

This card carries a strange "Secret". JR's own motive to disappear? I've not found any information about the card. It's included on the previously referenced Pinterest page.

I do not know if the 'greeting card' was written and sent by the "crackpot" referenced in a Police Department letter.

According to an article in the Boston American Record, Thursday, January 11, 1962, JR had:
...no known enemies.
...no known grudge-bearers.
...no known detractors.
...maybe one or two unknown enemies?:
1) a man, perhaps, who fancied himself as her lover and brooded over her failure to respond to him.
2) a woman, possibly, crazed by jealousy of her husband's open admirationn for Mrs. Risch.
...no lover, but she may have had a secret admirer. She may have known him without knowing his feelings for her. She may not have known him at all.

A man came under suspicion in early January, 1962, and remained under surveillance for a time. No further information.

The first and only time George Robichaud and his wife met JR was when she showed up at their house (next door) with her two children to introdce herself, three months before she disappeared. GR and Walter Bardsley were working in GR's closed barn less than 70 feet distance from the Risch home during the day of JR's disappearance.

///
I FIND THIS STRANGE: if JR was surprised by an attacker, why did she not SCREAM? Or, maybe she did scream and no one heard. Did JR suffer injury to her mouth/throat? If JR screamed (assuming she was able to do so) after she exited her house I would expect the two men in the barn, 70 feet away, could have heard unless machinery/noise obscured the sound.

I expect JR was unable to scream after the violence occurred, and she did not exit the house under her own power. She was likely manhandled to the perp's car, with attempts to escape his grip occurring when they approached/were passing JR's car (would explain the numerous blood locations on that vehicle).

We may safely assume the perp's car was stained with blood, either in the trunk or on seating upholstery, and possibly on the body. How did the perp ensure that blood was not discovered by anyone? Was the perp a loaner? Did the perp ditch the vehicle, or clean and keep it for years afterward?
///

According to a Boston Record American, Thursday, October 26, 1961 article, State Police Detective Harnois theorized, "Mrs. Risch left under duress, after a furious struggle, to save the lives of her two children. She sent her 4-year-old daughter across the street to the home of Mrs. Barbara Barker. There was a possibility that Mrs. Risch had been carried off by a sex maniac."

A woman neighbor reported receiving a call from an unidentified man a week ago [~5 days before JR disappeared] and then being accosted on the street. Tuesday [same day JR disappeared], another woman neighbor said she received a call from a man who asked, oddly, to speak with the missing woman. She told him Mrs. Risch wasn't with her.

What the posse of state and local police and volunteers and the helicopters, one from Ft. Devens, the other owned by [Martin] Risch's employers were looking for was a gray car.

The Detective said it seemd to him that Mrs. Risch was "so desperate that she even tried to climb a kitchen wall to get away from the intruder." He pointed to a bloody handprint on the wall. There were other signs of her desperation, as well as a trail of blood that led to the upstairs bedroom in which her son was sleeping.

A telephone book lay open to the first page where blank spaces appear to emergency phone numbers, police, fire department, ambulance, doctor, poison information center and Rescue, Inc., the mission to prevent suicide.

The kitchen wall telephone receiver had been ripped off the instrument and flung into a waste basket.

"It looks as if she was trying to call the police when the phone was snatched from her hand.



///
I FIND THIS STRANGE: why would someone who snatched the handset from JR's grip during mid-call attempt and "ripped" the cord from the wall-mounted piece, seemingly 'place' the handset receiver (as if 'hanging it up') on the rim of the basket and then drape the cord in to the basket among empty food can, liquor bottle and other discards so that the cord wouldn't lay on the floor?

Why was the handset not thrown to the floor if it were such a "desperate" encounter? There are possible explanations, some might not fit with logic... unless we assume the 4-year-old daughter discovered the handset-with-cord on the floor when she returned home from the neighbor, and 'hung it up' on the baskt rim, but that introduces a slew of other questions regarding other objects in the scene, such as the son's bloodied overalls; did the daughter use the overalls to attempt to cleanup the 'red paint' before leaving the scene to go back to the neighbor to get help? Did she move the basket or other objects in the scene? LE or MR likely asked the daughter her exact moves and we're not privy to her replies.
///

This is not a cast-off pattern. This is not passive spatter. This appears to be impact spatter, varying size and density, minimal elongation. Maybe by a shoe stepping hard on to a pool of blood. The dark object next to the towel might be a toy and/or a piece from a larger object. No finger, hand or other smudge on the wall. Also, was this a blood cleanup attempt on the floor, or an intent to obscure a shoeprint(s). Again, we do not know if the daughter attempted to cleanup the "red paint". If not, I assume someone wanted to obscure footprints... but then why would they ignore finger and hand prints?

It appears the violent part of the confrontation did not approach the sink side of the kitchen; the countertop appears undisturbed and blood is conspicuously absent from most of this scene; only a few passive spatter blood drops can be seen in front of the waste basket/bucket. It makes sense the kitchen confrontation occurred at the phone location. It is unknown if the violence began before or after JR reached for the phone. Upon looking at this image you'd never know that violence occurred behind the camera. The odd elements are the objects on the floor and handset in the basket, but explainable in a household with young children.

I was confused seeing this type paper roll in the R's kitchen; it is not the typical roll of paper 'towels' with which we are familiar. It does not appear to be perforated. It is likely from MR's workplace (was an exeutive at the Fitchburg Paper Company). The core tube is larger than what we see in a consumer product. I'm not sure if it's paper 'towel' or paper for other purpose. In front of the roll are two books, one a chidren's book with a rabbit on the cover, the larger is indeterminate.

A "secret" phone call (police hid this call from the public until months later when MR compained LE was not doing their job) was received at the Risch home within one week of JR's disappearance. A temporary housekeep (hired to mind the children) answered the phone, and a woman on the other end of the call hesitantly asked, "Flossie? Is that you?" The woman sounded confused. The housekeeper said she wasn't "Flossie", but tried to keep the woman talking. There was no response from the woman, only silence. The housekeeper then hung up. Attempts to trace the call were unsuccessful.

JR had a blood-aunt named, Florence Bard. Only JR and MR called her "Flossie". FB eventually came to the house a few days after the phone call and stayed a few weeks. Was it JR who placed the mysterious call less than a week after she disappeared? Why did she call and then ultimately remain silent? Maybe she thought she misdialed? Was FB (also) in on the 'disappearance' and JR was expecting to hear FB, but was confused when she heard a stranger's (the temporary housekeeper) voice? That last question remains relevant based on information that JR had read "many books on vanishing into new life".

It never made sense to me that a blood trail lead 'up to the bedroom." Assuming the confrontation began on the first floor/in the kitchen why would JR run upstairs and lead her attacker to where her 2-year-old son was napping?

It would make sense if JR was already in the bedroom when an attacker appeared in the bedroom and attacked her there first, or she found the attacker in the bedroom when she went upstairs to check on her son. Initial confrontation there, then JR runs downstairs to the kitchen and attempts to call police, etc. Another element that supports an "already upstairs" theory is there were only blood drops in and leading from the bedroom to downstairs and then with further confrontation occurring in the kitchen, the greater amount of blood was discovered there. It's safe to assume the confrontation escalated with the attempt to use the phone.

If it was an abduction, we'll likely never know what happened. I would expect blood evidence was retained. If JR fought back, maybe advanced DNA testing might reveal a mixture of blood?

Fifteen days after JR's disappearance, searches hit a dead end. JR's foster mother was questioned in San Francisco and JR's and MR's backgrounds were checked; there were no standout issues.

Newspaper headlines indicated the "blood" evidence was key. If all of the blood on the broad scene was from only JR, then there is no hope. The "gray car" sightings and the finger/handprint evidence are likely useless today.


THIS IS A QUOTE FROM AN ARTICLE IN AN UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER, DATED NOVEMBER 8, 1961:
"Police at first believed Mrs. Risch has been kidnapped after a bloody battle for her honor and her small children, but detectives have been unable to locate anybody who saw a strange man at the house after Mrs. Risch returned from a dental appointment."

The information in that quote might explain why MR had reason to complain LE was not doing their job. LE may have given more weight to the possibility JR staged her 'attack' and 'disappearance'.

But this mystery remains: the unknown "gray car" in the driveway.

 

[Richard]

The dark object under the towel is a toy tractor made by the Auburn Company.



Auburn Farm Toy Tractor

The paper roll probably was used by the children for drawing pictures. It was likely standing on end and got knocked over during the attack. When it fell, it began to roll on the floor, unrolling the paper until it stopped in the corner. It is not paper towel type of paper, but heavier. Perhaps wrapping paper or paper meant to be fed through a printing press of some sort.

The phone receiver being perched on the full trash can seems odd. Why would someone take such care to hang it there in light of the violence and struggle that took place?

 

[branmuffin]

The dark object under the towel is a toy tractor made by the Auburn Company.


Auburn Farm Toy Tractor

The paper roll probably was used by the children for drawing pictures. It was likely standing on end and got knocked over during the attack. When it fell, it began to roll on the floor, unrolling the paper until it stopped in the corner. It is not paper towel type of paper, but heavier. Perhaps wrapping paper or paper meant to be fed through a printing press of some sort.

The phone receiver being perched on the full trash can seems odd. Why would someone take such care to hang it there in light of the violence and struggle that took place?

If someone threw that toy tractor it could cause serious injuries. Even if a child was holding it waving it around they could cause injury if they whopped someone on the head with it accidentally. Imagine her son lying in his cot or on a change table waving it around while Joan was changing him and he accidentally hit her with it. Head wounds do bleed profusely even if the wound is superficial. If Joan had an anesthetic when at the dentist that could cause her to bleed even more. I like your scenario with the roll of paper. It never looked like a paper towel roll but I couldn't figure out why it was on the floor without knowing where its home was.

I know I've said it before way back in the threads but I know for a fact that back in those days the idea of preserving a possible crime scene was sadly lacking in LE circles. Numerous cops have traipsed through crime scenes, even those who are not actively investigating it, because they could. They picked stuff up and didn't return it to its original place, the tromped over existing footprints, used the bannisters going up and down stairs effectively obliterating any useable prints.

I don't know what happened to Joan. Posters have come up with many viable scenarios which probably have already been thought of by LE. One thing that always troubles me when reading about possible crime scenes like this, a respectable middle class woman with a sterling reputation, is that many of the articles related to this possible crime scene, talk about a woman preserving her honour as if to banish the idea that JS could have manufactured her own disappearance (which I don't think she did) or was involved in an affair.

 

[Proton]

If someone threw that toy tractor it could cause serious injuries. Even if a child was holding it waving it around they could cause injury if they whopped someone on the head with it accidentally. Imagine her son lying in his cot or on a change table waving it around while Joan was changing him and he accidentally hit her with it. Head wounds do bleed profusely even if the wound is superficial. If Joan had an anesthetic when at the dentist that could cause her to bleed even more. I like your scenario with the roll of paper. It never looked like a paper towel roll but I couldn't figure out why it was on the floor without knowing where its home was.

I know I've said it before way back in the threads but I know for a fact that back in those days the idea of preserving a possible crime scene was sadly lacking in LE circles. Numerous cops have traipsed through crime scenes, even those who are not actively investigating it, because they could. They picked stuff up and didn't return it to its original place, the tromped over existing footprints, used the bannisters going up and down stairs effectively obliterating any useable prints.

I don't know what happened to Joan. Posters have come up with many viable scenarios which probably have already been thought of by LE. One thing that always troubles me when reading about possible crime scenes like this, a respectable middle class woman with a sterling reputation, is that many of the articles related to this possible crime scene, talk about a woman preserving her honour as if to banish the idea that JS could have manufactured her own disappearance (which I don't think she did) or was involved in an affair.

Good points! That would explain a lot of the blood evidence and possibly her confusion.

 

[charminglane]

If someone threw that toy tractor it could cause serious injuries. Even if a child was holding it waving it around they could cause injury if they whopped someone on the head with it accidentally. Imagine her son lying in his cot or on a change table waving it around while Joan was changing him and he accidentally hit her with it. Head wounds do bleed profusely even if the wound is superficial. If Joan had an anesthetic when at the dentist that could cause her to bleed even more. I like your scenario with the roll of paper. It never looked like a paper towel roll but I couldn't figure out why it was on the floor without knowing where its home was.

I know I've said it before way back in the threads but I know for a fact that back in those days the idea of preserving a possible crime scene was sadly lacking in LE circles. Numerous cops have traipsed through crime scenes, even those who are not actively investigating it, because they could. They picked stuff up and didn't return it to its original place, the tromped over existing footprints, used the bannisters going up and down stairs effectively obliterating any useable prints.

I don't know what happened to Joan. Posters have come up with many viable scenarios which probably have already been thought of by LE. One thing that always troubles me when reading about possible crime scenes like this, a respectable middle class woman with a sterling reputation, is that many of the articles related to this possible crime scene, talk about a woman preserving her honour as if to banish the idea that JS could have manufactured her own disappearance (which I don't think she did) or was involved in an affair.

"Preserving her honor” to me means she was trying not to be raped.