The Disappearance of Joan Risch, Part Two
Joan Risch and the Risch home, edited by Murder, She Told
Joan Risch is Missing
What happened inside Joan Risch’s home on October 24, 1961 may never be fully known.
Blood stained the kitchen floor. Someone appeared to have tried to wipe it away. Her two young children were left behind, but Joan herself was nowhere to be found.
As investigators worked to reconstruct Joan’s final known hours, unsettling witness accounts and conflicting clues began to emerge. Was Joan attacked inside her own home? Did she leave willingly? And if she did, why would she leave her children behind?
The theories surrounding her disappearance only seemed to create more questions. Every clue offered a possible explanation, but none could account for everything that happened that afternoon.
More than six decades later, Joan Risch remains missing—and the mystery of what happened to her continues to haunt the quiet Massachusetts neighborhood where she was last seen.
This is part 2 of the Joan Risch story.
Check back later for updated blog post. In the meantime, listen to Joan’s story free on any podcast platform.
Continue Joan’s story: Listen to the podcast episode. This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Baffling Disappearance of Joan Risch. To hear Joan’s full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform or listen on the player at the top of the page.
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Law enforcement officials planning a search for Joan Risch (Boston Globe)
A search of the woods near the Risch residence (Boston Globe)
Examining Joan’s mail (Boston Globe)
Examining evidence (Boston Globe)
Interviewing neighbors (Boston Globe)
Sgt. Daniel Desmond with telephone (Boston Globe)
Woods behind Risch home (Boston Globe)
Search of the Cambridge Reservoir (Boston Globe)
Search of the Cambridge Reservoir (Boston Globe)
John Droney
Frank Giles
Frank Joyce
George Harnois
Leo Algeo
From left to right, John Droney, District Attorney of Middlesex County; Frank Giles, Public Safety Commissioner of Lincoln; Frank Joyce, Detective Lieutenant of the Massachusetts State Police; George Harnois, Detective Lieutenant of the Massachusetts State Police; Leo Algeo, Chief of Police of Lincoln (All images, Boston Globe)
Officials discussing the Risch case (Boston Globe)
Official missing person flyer distributed to law enforcement nationwide
Risch home, years later (Boston Globe)
Joan Risch (Boston Globe)
Sources For This Episode
Newspaper articles
Various articles from Fitchburg Sentinel, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, The Berkshire Eagle, Boston Globe, and Boston Herald, here.
Written by various authors including A. Raymond Doherty, Charles E. Claffey, Charles L. Whipple, Doug Fletcher, Frank Mahoney, James Stack, Jane B. White, Jeremiah V. Murphy, Jerome Sullivan, Joe Heaney, John Filger, Leonard Lerner, Matt Bai, Patricia Walsh, R. Marc Kantrowitz, Raymond Doherty, Robert J. Anglin, Robert M. Kenney, Sabra Morton, and William Buchanan.
Books
A Kitchen Painted in Blood: The Unsolved Disappearance of Joan Risch by Stephen H. Ahern
Photos
As credited above.
Credits
Research, vocal performance, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey
Research, photo editing, and writing by Byron Willis
Written by Morgan Hamilton
Research by Samantha Coltart
Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.