Foot Spa Appears to Disappear

Above, image from The Foot Spa web site.

The Foot Spa, a massage business directly across the parking lot from the Franklin Municipal Building, presented itself as a business concerned with nothing more exotic than providing relaxing foot massages.

But at least two customers who went looking for those services found the vibe “strange,” and those in nearby businesses noted the shades always drawn, a mysterious influx of mid-evening cars, and a staff that appeared to be exclusively young, and of East Asian appearance....

What other things initially caught the attention of Franklin’s police detectives and the Health Department is not known, but after repeated attempts to contact the business owner and address inspectional issues, access to the premises revealed four bedrooms and walk-in showers as well as clear evidence of permanent habitation – a violation of commercial zoning rules.

So, on Monday, according to Health Director Cathleen Liberty, the business was ordered to shut down until the violations were addressed.

Then, according to witnesses at a neighboring business. The inhabitants and the business seemed to have simply disappeared (though whether the business might resume at some point is not clear).

Liberty would not speculate as to whether anything other than foot massage was happening on premises but abutters were less cautious in their choice of language.

This is not the first time massage-oriented businesses have been problematic in . A Main Street business  was hit by the feds for Pandemic Relief fraud and described in court documents as a business providing sexual services. Proprietor Chynna Savath, 57, of Woonsocket, R.I., was sentenced in that regard last year. Other sightings of young Asian women arriving by bus, were also described by residents at an address near the intersection of Cottage and Union about a year ago.

Partly in response to such issues, the Health Director has developed and implemented more stringent regulations of massage business aimed at preventing abuses.