Liz - I am not so sure about the calls coming from Joan's friend, Sabra Morton's phone. Any reference I found about the calls never identified the source. Yes, Sabra lived fairly close to Joan then (Bedford) and now (Lexington). Bedford is the next town over (NW direction) and it would have been 6-7 miles away. Liz, I don't believe it was Joan who made those calls from her friend Sabra's house for a couple of reasons, 1. Sabra just got home from the hospital with new baby and I assume there would have been several people including the husband in the house. The calls came over several days so Joan would have to have been staying there with a newborn? Also, I posed a question on the forum whether LE had the ability in 1961 to pull phone luds and someone said yes, they could with a subpoena. So, I suppose LE could have found out who was making those calls and why? Yet, I never read where it came from Sabra. IMO, that would be very significant. Why was she calling the house,asking for Joan when the search for her is all over the news? Then calling for her at the Barkers? It would just about implicate her in the disappearance.
Do you want to hear an odd coincidence? Her friend Sabra Morton, still alive and in her 80's worked her whole life in the publishing field as a free lance writer.
Your questions concerning Martin are the same as mine. That is why this is such an conundrum, there seems to be a lot of information about the case but, yet not really. My guess, is he never hired a PI, I think if he did, that would have been public. Martin not declaring her legally dead may have been his coping mechanism. That is why I really believe on the one hand he had nothing directly to do with her disappearance and/or death. He never remarried (so no "other woman") and I don't think he had a financial windfall after her death. However....I really believe deep down he knew more than he led on...