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Disappearance of Joan Risch

1960s missing person cases1961 in MassachusettsHistory of Middlesex County, MassachusettsLincoln, MassachusettsMissing person cases in Massachusetts
October 1961 events in the United States
Joan Risch
Joan Risch

Late on the afternoon of October 24, 1961, police visited an address in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States, after a neighbor reported seeing a trail of 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 Carolyn Risch (née 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; 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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Disappearance of Joan Risch (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Disappearance of Joan Risch
Hosmer Road,

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N 42.45475 ° E -71.29897 °
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Minute Man National Historical Park

Hosmer Road
01742
Massachusetts, United States
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Joan Risch
Joan Risch
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Captain William Smith House
Captain William Smith House

The Captain William Smith House is a historic American Revolutionary War site in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States. Part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park, it is associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. Believed to have been built in 1692 (or possibly a decade or so earlier), in what was then Concord, it is believed to be the oldest house in Lincoln.It is located on North County Road, just off Battle Road (formerly the Bay Road), a few hundred yards east of the Hartwell Tavern and the contemporary Samuel Hartwell House. Its first known occupant was yeoman Benjamin Whittemore (d. 1734). It was latterly the home of Captain William Smith (1746–1787), commanding officer of the Lincoln minutemen and the only brother of Abigail Adams, wife of the prominent patriot John Adams. The house has been restored by National Park Service to look as it would have in 1775.William and Elizabeth Dodge purchased the home as a rental property in 1758. When they moved to New Hampshire, they gave the house to their only daughter, Catharine Louisa Salmon. Catharine married William Smith in 1771. The couple lived in the house with their three children: Elizabeth, Louisa Catharine and William Jr. Their African slave, Cato, is not believed to have fought in the battles of Lexington and Concord, but on April 24, 1775, he enlisted as a soldier in Smith's newly formed company in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel John Nixon. He died in New Castle, New York, in January 1777.Smith died in Philadelphia on September 3, 1787, aged 40, after abandoning his wife and (now six) children and becoming an alcoholic. Smith's father, Revd. William Smith, had assumed ownership of the family house in 1780. Catharine, who left Lincoln in 1795, survived her husband by 37 years; she died in 1824. The house had a series of owners before it was added to the Minute Man National Historic Park in 1975. (Manuel Silva purchased the property in 1924. A hog farmer, Silva had about four hundred swine at the time of his 1945 death. It is believed his wife divided the interior into four apartments around 1956.)