UNSOLVED: The Joan Risch Case 2, Abduction or Escape?

Summary

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Murder: True Crime Stories

Episode: UNSOLVED: The Joan Risch Case Part 2 – Abduction or Escape?

Host: Carter Roy
Date: March 5, 2026

Main Theme Overview

In this gripping second installment covering the Joan Risch disappearance, host Carter Roy meticulously examines the baffling case of a 31-year-old mother who vanished from her Lincoln, Massachusetts home in October 1961. The episode delves into the painstaking investigation, eyewitness accounts, crime scene evidence, and the emergence of multiple provocative theories—ranging from abduction to a staged escape inspired by mystery novels. Carter Roy revisits the scene, tracks the investigative twists, and confronts the enduring ambiguity that has haunted the Risch family and true crime enthusiasts for decades.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage: Recap and Discovery (01:06 – 06:30)

• Carter reintroduces the case, focusing on the scene discovered by neighbor Barbara Barker:
  • Joan’s four-year-old daughter Lillian finds her mother missing and reports “red paint” in the kitchen (which turns out to be blood).
  • “[Barbara] realized it wasn't paint all over the kitchen. It was blood. At that point, Barbara knew something was very wrong.” (03:00)
  • Scene details: blood smeared on walls, overturned furniture, torn phone receiver, untouched personal belongings.
  • Joan’s two-year-old son David is found alone and crying in his room.
  • Carter notes: “She couldn't imagine a world where Joan would leave her baby behind.” (05:15)

Police Response & Initial Investigation (06:30 – 13:34)

• Officer McHugh arrives, suspects suicide but finds the evidence doesn’t support it.
• Scene details meticulously recorded; forensics focuses on blood quantity (calculated to be only half a pint), suggesting a superficial wound.
• Personal effects like Joan’s coat and pocketbook remain at home—implying neither robbery nor elaborate preparation to flee.
• The investigation extends to the nearby woods and local hospitals but yields nothing.
• Evidence gathered: “They found more blood on the wall near where the phone receiver had been, on the door frame... on the phone itself.” (09:03)

Interview with Martin Risch and Neighbor Testimonies (13:34 – 20:00)

• Martin Risch (Joan’s husband) is immediately cleared as a suspect by an airtight alibi (business trip in New York).
• He describes Joan as “shy and a little introverted… she never would have left the children alone.” (15:02)
• Martin’s concern: Joan was “way too nice to traveling salesmen. He wondered if maybe something had gone wrong with one of them.” (16:15)
• Neighbors provide timeline:
  • 2:45pm: Joan/similar woman seen walking near her home, appearing confused.
  • 3:15–3:30pm: Another sighting on Route 128; woman is clutching her stomach, blood on legs.
  • 4:25pm: Woman with brownish (possibly dried blood) on legs seen walking; also a blue car spotted near the woods.
  • Nobody stops to help—the community’s inaction becomes a striking note.

Theories and Dead Ends (20:00 – 25:14)

• Forensics: Blood type O (Joan’s); unknown fingerprints found at the scene—not Joan’s.
• Police and FBI consider:
  • Suicide (ruled out by lack of evidence).
  • Amnesia or wandering off after injury.
  • Kidnapping/stranger abduction.
• Multiple searches, including diving in Cambridge reservoir, turn up nothing.
• Investigators canvass Joan’s past, from New York to Florida, uncovering no significant leads.

The “Gone Girl” and Other Theories (25:14 – 31:39)

• Gone Girl Theory: Joan staged her disappearance, inspired by unhappiness with domestic life.
  • Possible staging: “The crime scene in the kitchen looked staged, like someone had created the kind of chaos detectives would expect to find after a murder.” (26:05)
  • “Her husband Martin dismissed it outright. He insisted that Joan loved her kids and being a mom.” (26:55)
• Abortion/Miscarriage Theory: Joan was pregnant, arranged an illegal abortion that went wrong, explaining both blood and possible signs of panic.
• Family Retaliation: Her uncle Frank, possibly aided by his son, might have sought out Joan due to historical sexual abuse allegations, though no evidence is found.
• Amnesia Theory: Supported by Martin—“Martin believed Joan had suffered from some sort of dissociative amnesia, or more specifically, dissociative fugue.” (29:10)
  • Counter-evidence: Unknown fingerprints still suggest a second party.
• Occam’s Razor – Abduction: The most straightforward theory remains abduction by a stranger.

The Library Clue and Renewed Speculation (31:39 – 36:20)

• In February 1963, local reporter Serene Gerson uncovers a striking pattern: Joan had borrowed 25 books from the library, many about disappearances and staged crimes, including Into Thin Air—a novel with a plane vanishing and blood left at the scene.
• Notable connection: “It seemed like an incredible coincidence that a housewife who had vanished had been reading about another woman who'd done the same thing.” (33:32)
• Carter recounts Gerson’s detective work: “Serene abandoned her previous project and started scouring the library for any other books Joan had borrowed… She knew she was on the right track.” (34:17)
• The lead strengthens the ‘Gone Girl’ theory, though Martin and authorities remain skeptical.
• Police distribute flyers to bookstores and libraries along the East Coast, following the bibliophile angle.

The Unresolved Ending & Reflections (36:20 – 38:21)

• Joan Risch remains missing; her children never publicly speak out.
• Martin never declares Joan legally dead, keeping the case open until his own death in 2009.
• Carter closes with a poignant thought:
  • “At this point, it seems unlikely that we'll ever know the truth. But maybe Joan would have wanted it that way. Maybe she really was setting the stage for a hard hitting mystery novel. One without a definitive ending.” (37:25)
  • “What we do know is that Joan Risch overcame a traumatic childhood and became a brilliant young woman. And while she was certainly a caring wife and mother, Joan was much more than any of those labels. At the end of the day, she was a person. And we're the most complex animals of all.” (37:51)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon.”
  — Carter Roy (01:13)
• “She couldn't imagine a world where Joan would leave her baby behind.”
  — Carter Roy, reflecting on Barbara Barker’s discovery (05:15)
• “To find her, they would need to expand their search, starting with Joan's husband, Martin.”
  — Carter Roy (11:51)
• “And yet, despite all of these sightings of a woman in obvious distress, no one stopped to help her.”
  — Carter Roy, discussing the neighborhood’s reaction (19:27)
• “Some argue that the crime scene in the kitchen looked staged, like someone had created the kind of chaos detectives would expect to find after a murder…”
  — Carter Roy, on the ‘Gone Girl’ theory (26:05)
• “If Joan had never disappeared, that list could have been chalked up to a specific interest. But given what happened in October 1961, it seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore.”
  — Carter Roy, on Joan’s library books (35:11)
• “Perhaps she was trying to send us a message that sometimes we don't need to know all the answers.”
  — Carter Roy (37:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & scene discovery: 01:06 – 06:30
• Police response and forensic findings: 06:30 – 13:34
• Martin Risch’s alibi and initial suspect interviews: 13:34 – 20:00
• Eyewitness sightings and the blue car: 17:20 – 20:00
• Theories and FBI involvement: 20:00 – 25:14
• Deep-dive into speculative theories (Gone Girl, abortion, etc): 25:14 – 31:39
• Serene Gerson’s discovery and library angle: 31:39 – 36:20
• Closing reflections and the unsolved status: 36:20 – 38:21

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Conclusion

This episode adeptly distills the enduring riddle of Joan Risch: a case defined by evocative but elusive clues, public theories that mirror the plots of her favorite novels, and a haunting absence that refuses to yield finality. With characteristic poise, Carter Roy weighs empathy and skepticism, reflecting on what it means for families and communities to live with the unknown. “At the end of the day, she was a person,” Carter notes, grounding the mythic in the personal. For listeners who missed the episode, this summary traces the uncertainties, the evidence, and the human cost—leaving the question open, just as the case remains.

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Transcript

[Carter Roy]

Hey, it's Carter.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

If you're enjoying Murder True Crime Stories, there's a new crime house show for

[Carter Roy]

you to check out.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

It's called the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah is an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller who has seen firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, examining the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, the small details that often get overlooked because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal.

[Carter Roy]

Until it doesn't.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or

[Carter Roy]

wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

New episodes drop every Monday.

[Carter Roy]

This is crime house. When something doesn't make sense, we try to give it meaning. Even if those explanations raise more questions than answers. When 31 year old Joan Risch disappeared in the fall of 1961, there wasn't much to hold on to. There was a disturbing crime scene inside her home, a handful of uncertain eyewitness accounts, and almost no physical evidence that led to Joan or her possible captor. Then a reporter uncovered a detail that changed the course of the investigation. Joan loved mystery novels, and before she went missing, she checked out several books that seemed to mirror her own disappearance. And from that small fact, a whole new theory took shape. Maybe Joan hadn't been abducted or killed at all. Maybe she had vanished on purpose. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Friday's episodes covering the cases that deserve a deeper look. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for early ad free access to every episode. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the second of two episodes on the disappearance of 31 year old Joan Risch. In October 1961, she vanished from her home in the Boston suburbs, seemingly without a trace. Last time I traced Joan's life leading up to her disappearance. Though her childhood was marked by sudden loss, her marriage and growing family seemed to heal some of those wounds. But when a neighbor discovered the strange, unsettling scene inside Joan's home on October 24, those assumptions were called into question. Today I'll walk through the initial investigation and the many theories that took hold. Maybe Joan was kidnapped, had hurt herself, or experienced a bout of sudden amnesia. Or maybe, just maybe, she chose to disappear and start a new life. The idea seemed far fetched to a lot of people, but as decades passed and the case went cold, it began to feel like a real possibility. All that and more coming up. On October 24, 1961, 31 year old Joan Risch disappeared from her home in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Her daughter, 4 year old Lillian, was the first to discover she was missing. As soon as Lillian saw the neighbors were back home, she ran across the street to Barbara Barker. Lillian was good friends with Barbara's son and Barbara often watched the little girl when Joan needed a hand. The first thing Lillian told Barbara was that her mom was gone and their kitchen was covered in red paint. After hearing that, Barbara rushed over to the Risch house. As soon as she stepped inside, she realized it wasn't paint all over the kitchen. It was blood. At that point, Barbara knew something was very wrong. She frantically searched the house for Joan, but like Lillian said, her mom was missing. The only person still there was Joan's other child, her two year old son David, who was crying in his room. Barbara followed a trail of blood all the way upstairs. It led to David's crib. Barbara picked him up and realized his diaper was soiled. She couldn't imagine a world where Joan would leave her baby behind. The only explanation Barbara could think of was that someone had forced Joan out of the house, which meant time was of the essence. At 4:33pm, about 15 minutes after Lillian had run across the street, Barbara called the authorities. Massachusetts Patrolman Michael McHugh arrived at the Risch's house five minutes later at 4:38pm he'd heard Barbara's report, so he walked right through the side door which opened up to the kitchen. The place was a mess. It was covered in blood, including smears on the walls. The table had been flipped over. The phone receiver had been ripped from the wall and tossed into a trash can, which now sat in the middle of the room instead of under the sink where it belonged. McHugh's first thought was that they were dealing with a suicide attempt. But he needed a lot more information before he could say anything for certain. McHugh searched the house but found no one. So he headed outside and walked the perimeter of the property, keeping an eye out for any sign of Joan. But again, he came up empty. He gazed at the wood surrounding the house. He worried that Joan was out there, injured and possibly disoriented. But he knew he couldn't search the forest alone. He called for backup. This was going to be a job for the whole department. More officers arrived on scene, along with Police Chief Leo Algio. After talking to McHugh, Chief Algio sent officers out into the woods to look for Joan. He also ordered a search of the local hospitals in case she'd been admitted somewhere. While his men searched for Joan, Algio took Barbara's official statement. She described her afternoon in detail and explained how she'd last seen Joan standing in her driveway around 2:15pm Then she told him everything she'd noticed when she first walked into the Risch's house. She also spoke to Joan's character. She told Algio that Joan was level headed and faithful. We don't know whether Algo asked if Joan was having an affair or Barbara offered up that information unprompted. But Barbara made it clear that as far as she knew, Joan wasn't involved in anything remotely scandalous. Algio noted it all down, but it would need to be corroborated. He couldn't take one housewife's word for it. Inside the Rish's house, officers took another sweep of the property. They found more blood on the wall near where the phone receiver had been, on the door frame between the kitchen and dining room, and on the phone itself. Almost all of the blood had dried, except for a few pooled spots on the floor. There were a few other clues, too. The first was the phone directory. Someone had flipped through the yellow pages. The book was open to the section where you can list helpful emergency numbers. Except in this case, no numbers had been written down. The page was blank. Officers weren't sure what that meant, but it felt like something. Scanning the kitchen, they noticed some empty beer bottles in the trash can, along with the phone receiver that had been thrown inside. There were also lots of bloody paper towels and a pair of children's overalls. Those were covered in blood too, and looked like they'd been used to clean up. But Joan's trench coat was still in the house, untouched, along with her pocketbook full of cash. So it didn't seem like this was a robbery gone wrong or that Joan had planned to leave. In addition to the trail of blood leading from the kitchen to David's crib, there was also a trail from the kitchen to Joan's car, which was still in the driveway. Police found a few droplets of blood on the Trunk. The other detail police noticed was four unopened letters in the mailbox. That wasn't necessarily suspicious, but the officers wrote it down anyway. After combing through the house, it seemed like the authorities had a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing concrete. As for the search of the woods, that was less helpful. Officers scanned the entire forest surrounding the Risch property and even used bloodhounds to try to pick up a scent. But if Joan had been there, she was long gone. For the Massachusetts police, this seemed to rule out the idea that Joan had attempted to die by suicide. If she had, they either would have found her body in the house or the woods, or at the very least, they would have seen more blood that indicated she had tried to run for help after her attempt was unsuccessful. So they turned back to the evidence they did have, namely the blood in the kitchen. Investigators were able to lift some fingerprints from the wall and sent them off to state police chemists for analysis. And they also planned to send blood samples to forensics. DNA testing wasn't available at the time, so they were looking at the blood type. And they wanted to see if the blood in the kitchen was a match for Joan, who was type O. But they didn't need a lab to tell them what they could see with their own eyes. Although it looked like there was a lot of blood in the kitchen, that was probably just because it had been smeared everywhere. In reality, they estimated it was only about half a pint total. Well, that's just one US cup and less than the size of a standard can of soda. Based on all that, the authorities thought Joan had suffered a superficial wound, one that wasn't serious enough to cause death. That meant there was a strong possibility Joan was still alive. But to find her, they would need to expand their search, starting with Joan's husband, Martin.

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[Carter Roy]

After 31 year old Joan Risch went missing from her home on October 24, 1961, detectives believe they were dealing with a possible suicide. But after scouring the area and not seeing any sign of Joan, they knew they had something else on their hands. Maybe a kidnapping or worse. Joan's husband, 32 year old Martin, had been in New York City on a one night business trip when she disappeared. Now the Massachusetts police were eager to speak with him. After finishing their initial investigation, they called Martin at around 11pm they broke the news and asked him to come back to Lincoln immediately. Martin got on the first flight home. When he landed, he went straight to the police station and gave his statement. Martin walked the investigators through his day. He left home at 6:50am and drove to Logan Airport in Boston, then flew to New York. He detailed his time in the city, including all the phone calls he made and the name of the hotel where he planned to stay before the police had called him. When asked to describe Joan, Martin said she could be shy and a little introverted. Sometimes she got so nervous that she would break out in a rash on her neck. He told police that the only extracurricular activity she participated in, aside from reading her mystery novels, was volunteering with the Women's League of Voters. Her daily routine was pretty consistent and rarely changed. And she never would have left the children alone. But there was one thing that might be worth looking into. Joan was way too nice to traveling salesmen. Martin said she often bought into whatever they were selling. He wondered if maybe something had gone wrong with one of them. Officers said they would look into it. Then they asked him some questions of their own. First, they ran through the contents of the garbage can they found in the kitchen. Martin could account for everything except the beer bottles. He said he and Joan hadn't drunk those. They also asked if she wore any expensive jewelry. He said the only thing she consistently wore was her wedding ring, a narrow platinum band with five diamond chips. The officers wrote it all down and told Martin they'd be in touch if they had any further questions. Detectives quickly confirmed that Martin was in New York like he'd said. For police, this meant he couldn't have been involved in Joan's disappearance and he was ruled out as a possible suspect. Thankfully, authorities had other leads. While detectives had spoken with Martin, other officers had interviewed the Risch's neighbors. They managed to put together a rough timeline filled with possible sightings of Joan and an unknown stranger in a blue car. At approximately 2:45pm Someone said they saw Joan or someone who looked like her walking along Route 2A. That was the two lane highway near Joan's home. Reportedly, she had a scarf wrapped around her head and seemed confused. Half an hour later, at 3:15pm A neighborhood kid was getting off the school bus when she saw a car that she didn't recognize backing out of the Risch's driveway or maybe the Barker's driveway across the street. The girl wasn't sure. All she knew was the car was blue and she'd never seen it before. Between 3:15 and 3:30pm there were two more sightings of a woman who matched Joan's description, now on Route 128 just off Route 2A. Both eyewitnesses said they saw blood running down the woman's legs and that she was clutching her stomach. An hour later, at 4:25pm One more person spotted a woman walking along Route 128. They said they saw brownish colored mud on her legs. If the previous sightings were correct, it might have actually been dried blood. Five minutes later, at 4:30pm Another Lincoln resident said she saw an unfamiliar blue car parked on the side of a road. It was next to the woods, not far from the Risch's house. A man she didn't recognize got out, cut a tree branch, then got back inside with the branch and drove off. At the same time, someone saw a woman wandering on Trapello Road just off Route 128, where there'd been earlier sightings. The woman seemed disoriented and confused. And yet, despite all of these sightings of a woman in obvious distress, no one stopped to help her. But at least the Massachusetts police now knew where to look. The authorities next step was to search for that blue car and its driver. They believe the man behind the wheel was the one who attacked Joan and likely drove off with her. Then she either escaped or he let her go, leaving her stumbling along the side of the road. After talking to the two witnesses who had seen the car, an adult neighbor and schoolgirl, they believed the vehicle was either a 1954 or 1955 Oldsmobile. Unfortunately, what seemed like such a promising clue led nowhere. Police followed several leads, but they all quickly dried up. It seemed like the car and the driver had vanished just as quickly as Joan. With that, the authorities turned back to the evidence they'd collected from the crime scene. Forensic experts determined the blood was the same type as Joan's. They didn't have the technology to glean anything more than that. Meaning they couldn't definitively say it was hers, Just that the blood type in the room was type O and. And Joan also had type O blood. However, forensics did show the fingerprints were not hers. They had no idea whose they were. But police had found old hospital records with Joan's prints, and they weren't a match for the ones in the kitchen. At that point, the authorities had two working theories. Either Joan had been kidnapped and possibly murdered, or she had hurt herself in some way, then wandered off from her home, disoriented. Both scenarios raised questions without answers. Massachusetts police had called in the FBI for assistance, but even those agents weren't sure if the amount of blood found in the kitchen was enough to indicate a murder. Still, the fact that there were unknown prints seemed to point to foul play. And the only way to know what had gone on in that kitchen was to either find Joan or find her body. After two weeks without any new developments, police sent divers out to search the Cambridge reservoir along Route 128. The reported Jones sightings had been nearby, and it was possible that she'd find fallen in. Or maybe someone had thrown her in. On November 4, about 50 divers searched the three mile shoreline. They all came back to search again on Sunday. They found nothing. By then, detectives had already started digging into Joan's past. They wanted to see if her disappearance had anything to do with her personal life. They'd visited her old friends and family in New York. Then they went to New Jersey, where she'd spent some of her childhood. Then to Ridgefield, Connecticut, where she and Martin had lived before moving to Lincoln. Again, nothing really came up. They notified departments in other states and contacted any relatives they could find. From New York to Florida to California. But none of them had seen or heard from Joan. The FBI continued to help the Massachusetts State Police however they could, but their hands were tied. There was no proof that Joan had crossed state lines, so there was no potential federal violation. Which meant all they could do was advise the state police. As November came and went, the case grew cold. It seemed like the Massachusetts police would never learn what had happened in that kitchen. Until eventually, an unlikely source came forward with a tip that changed everything.

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[Carter Roy]

Hey, it's Carter.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

If you are enjoying Murder true Crime stories, there's a new crime house show

[Carter Roy]

for you to check out.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

It's called the Final Hours and it's hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah is an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose sister disappeared in 2001 and Courtney is a true crime storyteller and investigator who witnessed firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, looking not only at what happened,

[Carter Roy]

but what led up to it.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

Each episode examines the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, and the small details that often get overlooked. Because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal.

[Carter Roy]

A text that doesn't raise concern, a

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

routine that goes unchanged, a door that

[Carter Roy]

closes just like it always has. Until it doesn't.

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

The final hours puts those moments under

[Carter Roy]

a microscope because when it comes to

[Narrator/Promoter (possibly Sarah Turney or Courtney Nicole)]

justice, there's no such thing as overanalyzing. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. New episodes every Monday.

[Carter Roy]

By December 1961, 31 year old Joan Risch been missing for over a month. She was last seen on October 24 when her friend Barbara Barker noticed Joan standing in her driveway. By the time Barbara went to check on Joan at 4:30pm she was gone. Detectives had spent weeks searching for Joan but didn't seem any closer to locating her. And they still weren't sure what had led to her disappearance. But there were several theories. The first was the gone girl theory. It wasn't called that at the time, considering this case happened five decades before Gillian Flynn wrote the best selling novel or David Fincher made it into a movie. But here's the idea. According to some of Joan's friends, she had only been pretending to embrace motherhood and her role as a homemaker. In reality, she regretted leaving behind her career in publishing. They didn't think she was happy. And maybe it went beyond that. Maybe she was a little resentful that her husband got to keep working while she stayed home. So one day she decided to leave. She faked her own death, then disappeared. Some argue that the crime scene in the kitchen looked staged, like someone had created the kind of chaos detectives would expect to find after a murder in this Scenario, Joan would have given herself some kind of self inflicted wound. One that would leave enough blood to make a mess, but not enough to cause serious damage. Then, after creating the scene, she fled on foot. Where she went after that, nobody knew. When her husband Martin heard that theory, he dismissed it outright. He insisted that Joan loved her kids and being a mom. The authorities also found no evidence that Joan had been planning to leave. The second option was the abortion theory. According to this version, Joan had accidentally gotten pregnant and didn't want a third child. So she arranged for an illegal abortion. But the operation had gone terribly wrong. That could explain the blood and the obvious attempts to clean it up. Maybe the beer bottles that were found in the trash had been used as an anesthetic. And if Joan had tried to call for help, it was possible the doctor had ripped the phone off the wall to stop her from contacting anyone. If he'd been involved in an illegal procedure, he wouldn't want anyone to know. In this scenario, Joan had panicked and run outside until she reached the highway. That's when several people spotted a woman matching Joan's description with blood running down her legs. Still, it's not clear why Joan would have left the house. Whether she was looking for help elsewhere or trying to deal with the situation on her own was perhaps anyone's guess. The third theory was that Joan's uncle, Frank Nattress, was somehow involved in her disappearance and potential murder. There was no proof that Joan's allegations of sexual abuse had gotten back to her uncle. But if they had, even decades after the fact, he might have retaliated to keep her quiet. Some people wondered if Frank had enlisted the help of his son Ben. Maybe they had gone over to Joan's house to confront her. But things spiraled out of control. But again, there was no proof of this theory. It was just another possibility amid a whole slew of them. The fourth possibility was the amnesia theory. Martin believed Joan had suffered from some sort of dissociative amnesia, or more specifically, dissociative fugue. It's caused by intense trauma or stress and can come on very suddenly, even for those without a history of amnesia or related issues. Although dissociative fugue is rare, Martin thought it was the most likely explanation. He believed Joan was suddenly overcome with a condition. Then, without realizing what she was doing, she hurt herself and wandered off. If that was the case, it meant Joan might still be alive without any memory of her previous life. But the evidence called this theory into question. The fingerprints showed a second person had been in the Kitchen. Which left the fifth and final possibility. Joan was kidnapped by a stranger and potentially murdered. Occam's Razor would suggest this was the most likely of all the scenarios. But by the start of the new year, two months after Joan disappeared, there were still no answers. On January 3, 1962, Boston's Record American newspaper offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could help move the search forward. That would be over $50,000 today. But once again, nothing came of it. The reward went unclaimed. Detectives worried there would be no further developments. But then, a whole year later, a reporter uncovered something that threw the entire case back into overdrive. In February 1963, 40 year old Serene Gerson was at the Lincoln Library. Serene was a reporter for the local paper, the Fence Viewer. That day, she was doing some research that involved reading a book about Brigham Young's 27th wife who had mysteriously disappeared. That was when Serene noticed something interesting on the checkout car. Tucked into the front was Joan Risch's name. She had borrowed the book On September 16, 1961, just over a month before she disappeared. Something about that nagged at Serene. It seemed like an incredible coincidence that a housewife who had vanished had been reading about another woman who'd done the same thing. Serene abandoned her previous project and started scouring the library for any other books Joan had borrowed. It wasn't long until she found another one. This next book was Into Thin Air, the 1957 mystery novel about a woman who vanishes, leaving no trace but blood smears and the bloody towel. Serene knew she was on the right track. She asked the librarians for help and a group of volunteers started searching through the stacks with her. In total, they found Joan had read 25 books from April 1961 until her disappearance in October. In addition to Into Thin Air, it was a book about a schoolboy who disappeared on purpose, an Agatha Christie novel, a book called Rabbit Run about fleeing from problems, more books about missing people, an autobiography from a leading authority about murders and disappearances, and a few travel and nature books were scattered in between. If Joan had never disappeared, that list could have been chalked up to a specific interest. But given what happened in October 1961, it seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore. And it gave a whole new level of credence to the Gone Girl theory. Maybe she really had been planning on escaping her life and disappearing into the woods. Serene wrote a letter to the author of Into Thin Air, Leopold Ognall, whose pen name was Harry Carmichael. She asked if he had any insights into what might have happened with Joan? Her disappearance mirrored the plot of his book so closely that Serene and others thought Joan Joan might have used it as a guide. Leopold gave it some thought. Eventually, he said he suspected Joan was still alive, living somewhere between Boston and New York. He kept any further guesses to himself. He said he was thinking about writing a book inspired by Joan's case. Despite Serene's discovery, the authorities still weren't convinced Joan had purposely disappeared. However, they agreed that if she had left her old life behind, there was one thing that probably remained constant. Her love of books. They figured she would have found work at a bookstore or at the very least tried to get her hands on new reading material. So police sent flyers across the east coast to libraries and bookstores asking if anyone had seen her. Well, Martin thought that was a good strategy. He also thought she might have found a teaching job, since that had always been her plan once the kids were older. But if anyone knew where Joan ended up, they kept it to themselves. Once again, any hope that might have come from the library clue only deepened the mystery. Joan's case has never been solved. Until the day he died in 2009, Martin believed she was still alive. He refused to legally declare her dead. That way, her case file and the investigation could stay open. And technically, it still is. Today, Joan would be 95 years old. Her children, Lillian and David have stayed out of the public eye. But there's no doubt that the trauma of their mother's disappearance has stayed with them. Especially David, the only witness to what happened in that house so many decades ago. At this point, it seems unlikely that we'll ever know the truth. But maybe Joan would have wanted it that way. Maybe she really was setting the stage for a hard hitting mystery novel. One without a definitive ending. Perhaps she was trying to send us a message that sometimes we don't need to know all the answers. What we do know is that Joan Risch overcame a traumatic childhood and became a brilliant young woman. And while she was certainly a caring wife and mother, Joan was much more than any of those labels. At the end of the day, she was a person. And we're the most complex animals of all. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media. Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode early and ad free. We'll be back on Friday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Natalie Pertzofsky, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Sheila Patterson and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.

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