Creepypasta Magic ☽☉☾

Joan Risch

Risch was born Joan Carolyn Bard in Brooklyn, New York, in 1930, to Harold and Josephine Bard. By the age of nine her family had moved to New Jersey, where, in 1940, her parents died in what was later described as a suspicious fire. It was also later reported that she told an acquaintance that she had been sexually abused as a child.

Late on the afternoon of October 24, 1961, police went to a house in Lincoln, Massachusetts, after a neighbor reported seeing blood leading from the house to the driveway. She had made the discovery after a young girl living in the house had returned from a playdate to find her mother, Joan Risch (born Joan Carolyn Bard; May 12, 1930), absent. Several unconfirmed sightings of an apparently disoriented Risch walking on nearby roads later that day were reported.

Blood matching Risch's type was found smeared in the kitchen, and other evidence initially suggested to police that she had been abducted, though her two-year-old son was found safe asleep in his room. Later, however, it was discovered that Risch had borrowed several library books about murders and disappearances, including one with similarities to her case. This led to speculation that she had staged her disappearance, perhaps to escape an uncomfortable domestic life; the evidence was later discovered of a troubled past which may have motivated such a scheme. Other theories suggest that Risch suffered an accident on the nearby construction site for the Massachusetts Route 128 freeway. The case remains unsolved.

Possible suspects of the murder

Confirmed alibis proved that Risch's husband, the mailman, and the milkman were elsewhere at the time of Risch's disappearance. Police also investigated a man on whom neighbors had cast suspicion, Robert Foster of East Walpole. In 1959 Congress had designated an area which included the Risch's neighborhood as Minute Man National Historical Park, recognizing its historical importance as the route British troops had taken when they marched out of Boston to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, considered the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Plans called for acquiring and removing all structures built after 1775, thus restoring the area to its historic appearance. Foster, a purchasing agent with the National Park Service, had been visiting homes in the area to discuss the project. According to a state police detective who interviewed him a week after the disappearance, some of the women he had talked to felt he had "overstayed his welcome." Records showed Foster had visited the Risch home on September 25, a month before Joan vanished.

On the day Risch disappeared, Foster told the detective, he went out for lunch with his supervisor around 1 p.m. By 3 p.m., he recalled, he went back to the Lincoln area to meet with a property appraiser. The supervisor verified the account and also vouched for two civil engineers who had been working in the area for him making preparations for the park, saying they were in his office around 3 p.m. as well.