Hannah Upp was a young lady who had a cheerful outlook on life. She was a seemingly happy, successful woman who aspired to become a Montessori teacher in order to make a difference in the world, despite having divorced parents and having difficulty understanding religion on a personal level.
She unfortunately also had a rare condition that Jason Bourne, the fictitious protagonist of The Bourne Identity and its sequels, was most famous for having. Due to this issue, she twice went missing and was subsequently discovered without any memory of what had transpired. Upp vanished a third time in 2017 but was never located.
First reported missing on August 28, 2008, was Upp.
Students waited at their desks on the first day of class in the Harlem district of New York City without a teacher present. There was no sign of Hannah Upp. Her roommate discovered her wallet and cellphone in her bedroom, but she had vanished without a trace.
By all accounts, Upp, who was in her early 20s, was a kind person who exuded good vibes. Even her friend made a joke:
Her friends and family claim that she wasn’t the kind of person to skip work or go on an unexpectedly long vacation.
A sizable search group led by Upp’s family combed the city for any indication of her whereabouts. One of Upp’s closest friends, Hannah Wood, even launched a Facebook group with over 1,200 members asking for help in finding her. The United Federation of Teachers, meanwhile, provided a $10,000 reward for any information that helped Upp make his discovery.
Upp Was Caught On Several Security Cameras While Missing.
As a result of many sightings of Upp roaming through different parts of the city captured on security cameras, the investigation into her abduction took an odd but promising turn. In order to determine whether the woman on tape was Hannah Bellus’ daughter or not, a detective asked Hannah’s mother, Barbara Bellus, to visit the 30th Precinct in Harlem.
A young woman was captured on camera mounting the stairway of an Apple Store while wearing a sports bra and running shorts. When a guy approached her and inquired as to whether she was the missing person he had seen on posters throughout the city, she instantly rejected him with what her mother described as a “characteristic gesture.”
She had even logged onto a public computer to check her email when she was seen there and in a Starbucks in Soho. She had been silent for weeks, yet there she was, strolling around New York City as if nothing were wrong.
Hannah Upp was discovered face down in the Hudson River in September 2008.
A Staten Island ferry captain spotted a woman’s body bobbing in the ocean on September 16, 2008, 20 days after Hannah Upp vanished. Robbins Reef Light Station is a lighthouse on a rocky reef southwest of the Statue of Liberty. In the mistaken belief that they were bringing in a corpse, two guys directed a small boat toward the body. Among the men, one said, “I honestly thought she was dead.”
Upp gasped for air and started crying as they seized her legs and shoulders. She appeared to have spent a lot of time in the water because she had terrible sunburns on half of her body. She was transferred to the hospital where she received care for cold and dehydration.
Dissociative fugue was identified as Upp’s condition.
Upp was identified as having dissociative fugue disorder, a rare condition that also affected the fictitious Jason Bourne in the Bourne novels and movies. It’s common for someone going through a dissociative fugue episode to travel significant distances across cities, nations, or even continents for periods of time ranging from hours to years because they lose track of their identity and recent travels.
Humans have episodic and procedural memories, according to Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford University. We can remember the things we did, the people we did them with, and the setting thanks to episodic recollections. This can be considered our autobiographical memory. We can perform tasks like checking our emails, using an ATM, or placing a coffee order thanks to procedural memory. Because the two types of memories are kept in separate regions of the brain, it’s possible that a person experiencing dissociative fugue can access their procedural memory but not their episodic memory.
Although uncommon, dissociative fugue has been described multiple times in modern times. Unaware of it, a Minnesota minister crossed the country and enlisted in the Navy. Another professor vanished for years and started working as a dishwasher somewhere else.
Preacher Ansel Bourne, who traveled 200 miles from home and founded a stationery and sweets store, was the most well-known American fugue sufferer. He wasn’t back to reality for a few months before he questioned his landlord about where he was.
Strange Parallels Appear To Link Upp’s Disappearances.
Upp went through two, and possibly three, episodes of dissociative fugue. Despite the differences between each case, some similarities can be seen. For instance, they all happened when the school year was about to start, at the beginning of September. According to reports, Upp found the fall to be extremely challenging.
She awoke in a creek the second time she went missing and on a reef the first time, both during her first two episodes of fugue. The third time, her friends believed she would be discovered close to the beach, and Sapphire Beach was where her items were discovered.
Who To Contact If You Have Any Information About Upp’s Whereabouts is Listed Below.
Upp is still unaccounted for. It is crucial that you alert the authorities if you believe you have seen her because she might still be alive.
The Virgin Islands Police Department should be contacted right once at 340-772-5605. If you’ve seen her anywhere else, you can also get in touch with the local police force. You can receive important updates or report any potential information regarding the case on the Facebook page “Find Hannah Upp.”
