The Missing
Janis Louise Taylor
Concord, New Hampshire
🕯️💔 Vanished at 15: The Unanswered Disappearance of Janis Louise Taylor 💔🕯️
On January 9, 1968, 15-year-old Janis Louise Taylor was waiting for a ride home from Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire. She was a sophomore, a daughter, a sister, and a young girl with her whole life ahead of her. But that day, Janis disappeared, and she has never been heard from again.
More than five decades have passed, yet the questions surrounding Janis’s disappearance remain unanswered. Somewhere between the school where she spent her days and the home where she was expected to return, something happened that changed her family’s life forever.
Janis grew up in Warner, New Hampshire, alongside her eight siblings. She loved horseback riding, participated in 4-H Club activities, and worked at a nearby stable. She was only 15, an age when life should have been filled with new experiences, friendships, and dreams for the future.
At the time she disappeared, Janis was living with her sister-in-law, Judy Taylor, and Judy’s young son, Richard, at Alosa Trailer Park in Concord.
Janis was described as having long brown hair and brown eyes. She stood approximately 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed around 110 pounds. She also had a scar behind her left ear from an abscess.
When she was last seen, Janis was reportedly wearing a gold-and-white suit, a blue coat, black nylon stockings, and black shoes. She was carrying a white purse.
These details may seem small after so many years, but they could still help someone recognize her or remember something important about the day she vanished.
🔎 A man named Barry Bickford, who was dating Judy at the time, was supposed to pick Janis up from school that day. Instead, he reportedly returned to the trailer late and said he had been unable to find her.
When Janis still had not returned home by midnight, Judy contacted police. At 12:21 a.m. on January 10, authorities were notified that the teenager was missing.
Janis never contacted her family again.
For those who loved her, the uncertainty must have been unbearable. There was no explanation for where she went, what happened after she was last seen near her school, or why she never returned home.
And as the days passed, another deeply troubling part of the story emerged.
💔 Before her disappearance, Janis had regularly babysat her young nephew, Richard. According to accounts of the case, she had noticed bruises on the child and told relatives she believed Bickford was responsible.
Approximately one month after Janis disappeared, Richard died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen. His death was ruled a homicide.
Bickford later pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Richard’s death.
Investigators wanted to speak with Janis about what she may have known regarding her nephew’s injuries. But by then, she had vanished.
Janis’s brother reportedly believed Bickford might also have been involved in his sister’s disappearance. However, authorities have not established evidence proving that he was responsible for Janis going missing, and his conviction in Richard’s death does not establish what happened to her.
The timing of these events leaves painful questions. Could Janis have known something that investigators needed to understand? Did she witness something that might have placed her in danger? Or did something else happen to her that day?
More than 50 years later, those questions remain unanswered.
🕊️ Janis deserves to be remembered
Janis was a 15-year-old girl who loved horses, enjoyed her 4-H activities, worked at a stable, and grew up surrounded by siblings.
She had a life beyond the circumstances of her disappearance, and she deserved the chance to grow up, discover who she wanted to be, and make memories with the people she loved.
Over the decades, members of her family have passed away, and time has taken away opportunities to ask questions and hear firsthand memories. Yet her case remains open, and information that once seemed insignificant could still matter today.
Someone may remember seeing Janis near Concord High School that January day. Someone may recall a conversation, an unusual event, or a detail that was never shared with police.
Even after all these years, the truth may still be out there.
📢 Do you have information about the disappearance of Janis Louise Taylor?
If you know anything about Janis’s disappearance or what may have happened to her, please contact authorities. No detail is too small to consider.
☎️ Concord Police Department: 603-225-8600
Please reference case number 19-16107-OF.
🕯️ Janis was only 15 when she disappeared. She should have had a lifetime of possibilities ahead of her, not a mystery that has endured for generations.
Her family deserves answers. Janis deserves to be remembered. And after all these years, someone may still hold the key to discovering what happened to her.
Sources:
Taylor, Janis | Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Janis Louise Taylor – The Charley Project
Missing Person / NamUs #MP56295 | NamUs
Missing since 1968 from Concord, New Hampshire: Janis Louise Taylor was only 15 when she disappeared – NewsBreak
Concord Teen Janis Taylor, Missing 56 Years; Case Deemed Suspicious | Concord, NH Patch
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