Last seen on October 24, 1961, at her home in Lincoln, MA.

Background:

Joan Risch, a 30-year-old mother and wife, vanished in Lincoln, MA. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Joan tragically lost her parents in a house fire at the age of eight while visiting relatives. Although the fire was deemed suspicious, no further came out from the investigation. After her parents death, Joan was adopted by her mom’s sister and her husband.
After graduating from a Pennsylvania college, Joan embarked on a career in publishing as an editorial assistant. As was the case at the time, she left her job when she married Martin Risch and dedicated herself to raising their two young children, Lillian (age four) and David (age two).
The Risch family had recently relocated to Lincoln, MA, where Joan actively engaged in the community. She aspired to become a teacher once her children were older.

The Story

On the morning of Tuesday, October 24th, Joan's husband, Martin, departed for a business trip to New York City. Joan had a dentist appointment scheduled for herself and her daughter, Lillian. Following the appointment, they went shopping and then picked up two-year-old David from their neighbor Barbara Baker's house, where she had been babysitting.

After returning home, Joan prepared lunch for the three of them. Once David was settled for his afternoon nap, Joan accompanied Lillian and Barbara's son, Douglas, to play in Douglas's yard. This was likely the last time anyone saw Joan.

Timeline

• 9:30 am. Joan went to the dentist with her daughter. David was being watched by the neighbor, Barbara Barker.
• Around 11:00 am, they returned home and picked up David.
• Joan prepared lunch for the kids.
• At noon, David went down for his daily nap (12 to 2 pm).
• Around 1:20 pm, the neighbor's son (Douglas) came over to play with Lillian in Joan’s yard.
• At 1:55 pm, while David was still napping, Joan took the kids to Barbara’s yard to the swing set. Joan told them she would be right back. She didn’t alert Barbara that she had brought the kids to her yard.
• That is the last time Lilliam sees her mom.

Astrology of the drop-off chart - 1:55 pm.

• Joan is represented by the Ascendant in Capricorn, Saturn the ruler of the 1st House.
• We have the Ascendant in the last few degrees of Capricorn. In a regular Horary chart, this disqualifies the chart, late degrees suggest that it is too late to answer the question, the querent already made up their mind, or the situation will become irrelevant as they move into a new one with the impending change of sign. But in this type of charts, Sue Ward says: “Late degrees often ascend in horaries about life or death situations (as with the Moon in late degrees) and are descriptive. Lateness usually shows an imminent change of circumstances…”¹
• Ascendant ruled by Saturn in Capricorn, less than 5 degrees away from the angle so we can call him in the 1st House.
  • Saturn is dignified.
    • He has rulership
    • Angular
    • Near Jupiter, but separating.

This describes a woman who is organized, ambitious, responsible, mature in judgment, and very capable. Of medium height, slender, dark hair, long neck, and pale. 

• Mars is applying to Saturn, which suggests anger, rage, and aggression.

• The Moon, co-ruler of the missing person, is in Taurus, in the third house, and is applying to be Mercury ruler of the 8th House of death.
  • The Moon being in the third house describes the suspicion that her body was taken away in a car.
  • The Moon applying to an opposition to Mars suggests that she was injured with a piercing weapon of some sort.
• The South Node, very unfortunate, is found in the 1st house of Joan.
  • Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson² said that any planet in the same degree as the nodes is very unfortunate. Here, we find Saturn, ruling Joan, in the same degree as the Nodes, in one of Saturn’s signs. Even though technically they are in no contact, a semi-sextile is considered inconjunct, strictly speaking, so they don’t see each other. 

The circumstances surrounding Joan Risch's disappearance have fueled speculation that she may have left her home voluntarily. But, a careful examination of the astrological chart casts doubt on this theory. The chart indicates a sudden and drastic change in circumstances, symbolized by the Moon's connection to Mars. This alignment, coupled with the presence of a violent and cutting weapon, suggests a scenario far more sinister than a voluntary departure.

In addition, the position of Mercury, the ruler of the 8th house (traditionally associated with death), is particularly telling. Mercury's retrograde motion towards Saturn, culminating in a perfected aspect less than five days after Joan's disappearance, strongly hints at a fatal outcome. The fact that both Saturn and Mercury are in Mars' terms further reinforces the ominous implications of this configuration.

In light of these astrological indicators, the theory of voluntary abandonment seems increasingly doubtful. The chart paints a picture of a sudden, violent event that resulted in Joan's change of condition.

Let’s continue.

Timeline continues:

• Around 2:15 pm, Barbara saw Joan in the driveway wearing a trench coat over her clothing carrying something red. This is the last confirmed sighting of Joan. (Joan’s gray coat was missing).
• Before that, at around 2:10 - another neighbor hears Joan scream - shouting, forcing someone to do something.

Astrology of the last sighting of Joan.

The Ascendant has transitioned from the late degrees of Capricorn to Aquarius, with Saturn remaining the Ascendant ruler, and consequently, Joan’s as well. However, Saturn has now fully entered the 12th house, a cadent and debilitated space associated with the unseen, isolation, and imprisonment. 

Meanwhile, Mercury, the ruler of the 8th house of death, has also moved deep into this 8th house. In the previous chart, Mercury was positioned at the cusp of the 9th house. Additionally, the Moon, which serves as a co-ruler of Joan, is deposited by Venus. Venus is in and the co-ruler of the eight houses of death.

The Timeline continues:

• At approximately 3:45 PM, Barbara began to worry as Joan had yet to return for Lillian. Barbara chose to walk Lillian home but did not enter the house.
  • Lillian couldn’t find her mom, but she found a bloody scene in the kitchen which she described to Barbara as “the kitchen painted red”.
    • David was crying in his crib with a very wet diaper.
  • Lillian walked back to Barbara and asked her to find her mom.
• Some sources have some unaccounted time, from 3:45 to 4:30 pm, others say that Lillian, at her return home, heard David crying in his crib and went to play with him for half an hour; after some 30 minutes, Lillian went to look for her mom and after not finding her, goes to Barbara and asked her to find her mom.
• Around 4:30 pm. Barbara got another neighbor (Mary Jane Butler) to go look for Joan. They didn’t find her.
• 4:33 pm Barbara calls the police.

The investigation

The police arrived within five minutes of being called. They found ‘blood smears on the walls, an overturned table, and the handset of the wall-mounted telephone ripped loose and thrown in the wastebasket, which had been taken from its usual place under the sink and left in the middle of the floor.’³

It looked like someone might have tried to clean it up.

Forensics

There was blood in the kitchen, the staircase, upstairs, master bedroom, and near a window in the children’s bedroom. There was a trail of blood from the kitchen to the driveway and it ended near Joan’s car, and it had three smear blood stains. The blood amounted to a pint.

There were some unexplained beer bottles on the wastebasket. 

The trenchcoat Joan wore earlier to the dentist was found in the downstairs closet, but not her gray coat.

 They found her wallet with money, so it rules out the motive of theft.

There were some of David’s clothes, underpants and overalls stained with blood and they looked like they were used as rags to clean up.

What happened to Joan Risch?

There are many theories due to the very unusual circumstances of her disappearance..

1. Initially, the policeman first in scene, thought she might have committed suicide, but he didn’t find her body anywhere.
2. There were also some “sightings” of someone who could have been Joan walking alongside Route 2A. Later on, there was another sighting of a woman with blood running down her legs alongside Route 128. Which gives way to a couple of theories:
   • Joan staged the incident, having taken a couple of books about women disappearing and missing from the library in the weeks before. In one of them, Into Thin Air, a woman leaves behind some blood smears before she goes missing. Because the topics coincide, it is thought that she abandoned her home and children.
   • She suffered from amnesia and left her home confused. Maybe she fell on Route 128 and got buried while it was under construction.
3. Five days before Joan Risch's disappearance, her regular milkman noticed an unfamiliar blue car in the neighborhood. In the afternoon, she vanished; a neighbor saw a similar blue car parked in Joan's driveway. Later that day, a vehicle of the same color was spotted near Route 2A. A man exited the car, cut some tree branches from the nearby woods, and then drove away.
4. There are mentions of some broken hangers in the kitchen, so there’s speculation about an abortion gone wrong. Mercury also rules the 5th house of children. 
5. Some think that she now lies under Route 128, which was being built then. And I would add that maybe her body got buried by whoever murdered her and then was paved over.

Astrology of the Suspects

• The perpetrator is ruled by the 7th house of “the other.”
  • In the chart of her disappearance, the 7th house cusp is in the sign of Cancer, ruled by the Moon. 
  • Because we have the Moon as the co-significator of the missing person. I want to follow Lilly’s ruled to determined the ‘Thief’ - (p. 396) by the peregrine planet in an angle.
    • It give us Jupiter in Capricorn. The perpetrator is near her, someone in her house.
    • In both charts, Jupiter rules the 11th house, of friends, and in the 2:10 pm chart, he moved to the 12th House of unknown enemies -those who we don’t know are our enemies.

The Suspects

• Robert Foster, an agent for the National Park Service, had been visiting homes in the neighborhood. Some of the women in the neighborhood reported him as “overstaying his welcome”, which simply means that he made them feel uncomfortable. But he was alibied his boss and other co-workers.
• She had been sexually abused by her step-father, so there is some talk about him hurting her.

What do you think?

In my opinion, the chart suggests that she was attacked, maybe by someone she knew, and died as a result of the attack.
What do you think? Share in the comments.

Source

Buried Bones, Ep. 97 & 98.Vanished.
Goldstein-Jacobson, Ivy M. Simplified Horary Astrology. 1960. Pasadena, CA. Pasadena Lithographers. 
Louis, Anthony. Horary Astrology: The Theory and Practice of Finding Lost Objects. 2021. Woodbury, MN. Llewellyn Publications.
Mile Higher. Ep. 267. A Bloody Kitchen, Coat Hangers & a Missing Mother: The Disappearance of Joan Risch
https://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/1996/08/28/8_28_96_spatterd_blood_and_speculation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Joan_Risch

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1. Louis. P. 25. ↩︎
2. Goldstein-Jacobson. P. 52) ↩︎
3. Wikipedia. Blood evidence. ↩︎