It was an Autumn afternoon like any other. The date was October 24, 1961, and Joan Carolyn Risch had just returned with her daughter from shopping after a dentist's appointment earlier that day. Her husband Martin had traveled to New York on business, leaving at home Joan alone while her infant son slept upstairs, and her daughter Lillian played across the street at the home of their neighbors, the Barkers. 

At around 2:15, Barbara Barker said she saw Joan across the street wearing what appeared to be a long trench coat, and perhaps carrying something red. The children playing nearby said they thought Joan had probably been chasing little David, who might have run out into the driveway. Mrs. Barker would have never guessed that this would be the last time she ever saw Joan Risch… a woman whose disappearance would remain one of the strangest and most disturbing events in Massachusetts history. 

This week we are joined by Michael C. Bouchard, an author with decades in law enforcement whose book Masquerade examines the strange events leading up to the unsolved disappearance of Joan Risch. 

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Show Notes

Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode:

• An Atlantis might wait beneath the Great Lakes
• Another ‘man in jet pack’ seen above LAX as China Airlines crew ‘spots mysterious flier at 6,000ft’ and FAA alerts cops
• MYSTERY: Is someone really flying around LAX in jet pack?
• The British Royal Navy is testing out jetpack assault teams
• Exoskeleton Suits Turn Factory Workers Into Human Robots
• Joan Carolyn Risch - The Charley Project
• Masquerade: The Joan Risch Cold Case - A Cop's Perspective
• Also by Michael C. Bouchard: Forever Searching: Lost in the Smoky Mountains

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