Comments by "" (@CYMotorsport) on "The Creepiest Cases of People Disappearing" video.
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3 things to add to the first story that I think make this feel all but solved atleast IMO. 1. Quakerism & Pendle Hill 2. Her father's mission work 3. Her Montessori degree
The first 2 are wrapped in eachother. You correctly touched on the religious aspect of her life but this is pretty important because her parents werent just casual Western Christians... the split you reference was her father being closer to a missionary but the kind of evangelist who does the literally "building" work in small nations or ones where the gospel isn't even known. One belief of note that her mother and father starkly deviated was homosexuality and her father's staunch belief in favor of "biblical morality" without "compromise with sexual deviance". After their divorce, her mother went to not just any compound, but Pendle Hill. Which is a well established Quaker Mecca of sorts. Interestingly, Quakerism is a bit split on homosexuality. Atleast it's not as clear cut as her father's position. Which is notable because it was confirmed in a New Yorker article in 2018 that had heavy involvement with her mother and it seems very thorough and credible that Hannah was dating a woman as early as her junior year at Bryn Mawr. Most reports only cite her graduation from Pace but that was graduate school. She went to Bryn though which is important because of it's ties to Quakerism and also her possible developing sexuality.
When you add on her trips to see her father while also spending time with her mother at Pendle Hill where she also worked by the way, you can imagine how one might be EXTREMELY torn in their personality with this aspect of their life extremely divided by her parents no less who don't even speak to eachother. You cant be half committed to the life either parent was living. And Hannah was stuck in the middle. Which is complicated by the aforementioned relationship - only relevant to point to the kind of stress one would be under. she usually took these trips to see her father in the summer or during breaks. The interesting thing for me is this first incident was her 2nd year teaching at Thurgood, not her first. so the first day jitters wouldn't have applied here. she's already experienced this. However, imo something could have changed in her personal life. I also think it's possible she made a trip to see her father before but I can't 100% confirm this however this would make perfect sense. add on the stress of a new year, it could have easily put her over the top and into fugue. I actually think this is very credible. You mention she "checked" her email at the apple store but police confirmed she never actually read an email. so she either stared at the screen scanning email subjects or did it as a habit of muscle memory which i think the latter is more likely. So a fugue here seems highly credible. Also worth noting - this was the EXACT same time as the major stock market crash. no one ever mentions that for some reason. she's literally in the financial capital of the world. I was worked on a high yield & a high grade bond desk at that time - sht was insane. her world would be upside down at this time in september 2008. it
Her 2nd disappearance would be much of the same. This was the first day of work away from Pendle Hill & her support structure. I'm not sure what reports you saw mention it being prestigious but still it would be HIGHLY stressful especially bc for some reason taking the job in Maryland. I would imagine she would stay near to a support structure. She seemed to be constant in a fight for change away from her traumatic event which may have potentially provided the exact kind of fuel to trigger it again. Which appears happened in her second fugue state.
As for her third, this is where #3 comes into play. This is when she proved she could successfully negotiate such a major change in her life but keep in mind she wasn't head teacher in St. Thomas.She only just finished her degree to do so that summer so now she's be able to lead her own class in the Montessori system. So it seemed as she aged she became much better equipped to handle the stress. she showed up for the first day, then the first week no problem. it wasn't only until Force majeure would kick off the next and final fugue: an act of god so profoundly unlucky in the form of consecutive hurricanes in Irma and Maria. When add you in the fact that she was likely already under a lot of pressure and stress to finally make this work with the weight of a class on her shoulders (montessori's system are unique to teaching in normal schools and she was a huge believer in the system), the devastation of Irma and maria would add immense pressure because keep in mind - this place had essentially changed her and in many ways saved her from her previous fear of losing herself. she didn't want to leave. in fact the investigation showed she spoke to an ex who was ferrying ppl to safety and she told him directly she was can't leave. But she certainly should have.
One last thing i found interesting picking this back up was Barbara told The New Yorker journalist something she hadn't mentioned before which was she herself had actually experienced what her daughter is experiencing when she got her divorce - disassociating for a much shorter time but the event she described is powerful. I found that fascinating and something i'lll likely look at later. thanks for re-opening this! hard to explain how much this gripped new york around this time. I was there actually and this was in the midst of that crash and it still grabbed headlines!
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