Hannah Upp

The other night I watched a documentary about an American teacher named, Hannah Upp. She was living in the U.S. Virgin Islands when she went missing in 2017, around the time of Hurricane Irma and Maria. It was the third time she had gone missing.

The first time was in 2009. She was living in New York and was found, alive, three weeks later – floating, face down, in the Hudson River.

THE HUDSON RIVER.

The second time she went missing was in 2013. She reappeared after two days.

In 2017, she went missing for a third time and still hasn’t been found.

She has a rare condition known as a dissociative fugue, which is a temporary form of amnesia. The media calls it Jason Bourne Syndrome. She forgets who she is and it takes days, months, or maybe years to snap out of it.

That is terrifying. To just wander around, not knowing who you are, and not even aware that people are trying to find you. If people went up to her and asked if she’s Hannah, she’d say no.

All three times she went missing were right after school started, so they’re assuming something about that acted as a trigger, perhaps the stress of it.

The first time Hannah went missing, they found surveillance of her at an Apple store. She logged into her Gmail account, but immediately logged out. Her mom still sends her emails, hoping her daughter finds them and remembers who she is.

A psychologist attributed that to muscle memory (potentially), rather than her knowing who she was and what she was doing.

The whole thing is scary to think about, but to her family and friends, it’s a reality they have to wake up to every day.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this today. If you want to know more about it, feel free to look into it with a Google search. I’m sure I left out a bunch of details.

Have you heard about this story before? Were you aware of what a dissociative fugue was?