In what feels like something straight out of a psychological thriller, a New York teacher named Hannah Upp mysteriously vanished — not once, not twice, but three times — over the course of nearly a decade. Her final disappearance in 2017 remains one of the most haunting modern mysteries.
Hannah, described by friends as bright, adventurous, and deeply kind, suffered from a rare condition called dissociative fugue — a disorder that can cause sudden memory loss and wandering, almost like the brain “shutting off” a person’s sense of identity.
Her first disappearance came in 2008, when she went for a jog in Manhattan and vanished into thin air. For three weeks, no one knew where she was — until she was found alive, floating in the Hudson River, disoriented and barely conscious. Doctors later confirmed she’d experienced a fugue state, leaving her with no memory at all of what had happened.
Five years later, in 2013, Hannah disappeared again — this time in Maryland. Thankfully, she was found safely two days later. Determined not to let the disorder define her, she returned to teaching and later took a job in the U.S. Virgin Islands, hoping for a fresh start.
But on September 14, 2017, Hannah went for a morning swim near Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas… and never came back.
Her car, keys, and clothes were found neatly placed near the water. It was as if she’d simply stepped out of her life and dissolved into the air.
The timing couldn’t have been worse — her disappearance came right after Hurricane Irma and just before Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island and made search efforts almost impossible.
Authorities and her family have considered every possibility — that she may have drowned, been swept away by the storm, or once again slipped into a fugue state and wandered off, never to be seen again.
Years later, her story still chills those who hear it. Hannah Upp’s case blurs the line between tragedy and enigma — a haunting reminder that sometimes the greatest mysteries lie within the human mind itself.
About the Author
