UNSOLVED CASES AND THEORIES

Disappearance of Joan Risch

Joan was born as Joan Carolyn bard and she was born on may 12, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York, U.S  she had gone through a traumatic childhood because her parents had died in a suspicious house fire.It was also later reported that she told an acquaintance that she had been sexually abused as a child. After the fire, she went to live with some relatives who formally adopted her. She took their last name, Nattrass, as her own, applying for a social security no. under that name.

After graduating in 1952 from Wilson college in Chambersburg , Pennsylvania with a degree in english literature , Joan Nattrass went to work in publishing. She started as a secretary, later moving to supervise the secretarial pool and ultimately became an editorial assistant at Harcourt brace and world and later Thomas Y. Crowell  Co. In 1956 she married an executive at one of the companies, Martin Risch, and left work to raise a family with him.

Living in Ridgefield, Connecticut , the couple had their first child, Lillian, the next year, and a son, David, in 1959. In April 1961 they moved to Lincoln, Massachusetts, outside Boston, where they easily integrated into the community. Joan became active in the *League of Women Voters , while Martin pursued a career with the Paper Company. Joan spoke of becoming a teacher after the children got older.

  *The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs after they won the right to vote.

Disappearance[]

On the morning of October 24, Martin Risch got up early and left the house in his car for Logan airport to catch an 8 a.m. flight to New York City. It was a business trip he had planned earlier, and his intention was to stay overnight in Manhattan .Shortly after his departure, Joan woke the children and served them breakfast. She took her son across the street to the house of a neighbor, Barbara Barker, and left with Lillian in her car, a blue 1951 Chevrolet, for an appointment with a Bedford dentist who had been recommended by her college friend Morton.

Following the appointment, she took Lillian on a brief shopping trip to a nearby department store, paying in cash. At the family home on Old Bedford Road, milk and mail were delivered while the Risches were absent. Neither the milkman nor postman reported anything unusual at the residence when questioned later.

After picking up David at the Barkers', Joan and the children returned home at roughly 11:15 am. Shortly afterwards, a delivery driver for a dry cleaner came to the house to pick up several of Martin's suits. He entered the house to do so, and did not recall anything out of the ordinary about Joan or the house. Following his visit, Joan changed from the more formal clothing she had worn to the dentist's appointment and her shopping into a blue housedress and white sneakers.

She made lunch for her children and put David into his room for his afternoon nap, which almost always lasted until 2 p.m. At 1 p.m., Barbara Barker brought her son Douglas, also 4, over to play with Lillian. During the time they were there, they observed Joan come in and out to prune some plants and put the shears she had used back in the garage.

Shortly before 2 p.m. Joan came out again and took the children back across the street to the Barkers' house. She told the two she would be back. Lillian later told police she did not see anyone else in the area at the time. She and Douglas played on a swing set from which they could not see the Risch house.

Around 2:15, Barker briefly saw Joan, wearing what she thought was a trench coat over her clothing, move quickly up her driveway, carrying something red with outstretched arms from her car towards the garage. At the time she assumed her neighbor was chasing one of the children. It was the last confirmed time anyone saw Joan Risch.