Long have historians pondered why the famed mystery writer Agatha Christie vanished in 1926, only to unexpectedly reappear 11 days later at a hotel hundreds of miles from her Berkshire home.
But now, according to BBC historian Lucy Worsley, she believes she has discovered the explanation for Christie’s mysterious disappearance: she was undergoing an unique psychological condition caused by emotional stress.
Christie, who was 36 years old at the time, had entered a “fugue condition” characterized by loss of self-awareness, amnesia, and the impulse to embark on unexpected and unplanned trip away from home.
Enigma resolved? Lucy Worsley, a historian, believes she has the solution to why the famed crime novelist Agatha Christie vanished in 1926. Historians have long pondered this question.
It is possible that two emotional traumas triggered this disease.
Christie had lost her mother, with whom she had been extraordinarily close, eight months before to her disappearance in April 1926, and had been suffering from despair as a result.
Then, in August 1926, her husband Colonel Archie Christie, a pilot in World War I, declared he desired a divorce because he was in love with a younger woman named Nancy Neele.
In 1926, according to Lucy Worsley, Christie entered a ‘fugue state,’ an uncommon psychological disorder.
Worsley, who has been studying Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance for her forthcoming biography, told BBC History Magazine that she believes the writer’s mental health deteriorated during this period.
“She experienced forgetfulness, tearfulness, insomnia, and an inability to deal with daily life,” the historian stated. Her mental health deteriorated to the point where she considered suicide.
By December, Christie was in a “fugitive state.”
Worsley added, “This is a very rare syndrome that causes you to create a different persona in order to avoid thinking about the trauma you’ve been feeling in your current situation.”
The disappearance of Agatha Christie created a media frenzy and a worldwide manhunt.
There were rumors that Christie’s disappearance was a fake, according to news reports.
Christie had a quarrel with her husband on 3 December 1926, and just hours later she kissed her seven-year-old daughter Rosalind farewell and vanished from their Sunningdale, Berkshire home.
The following morning, her vehicle was located parked above a chalk quarry in Newlands Corner, Surrey, with an expired driving license and clothing inside.
The disappearance of Agatha Christie created a media frenzy and a worldwide manhunt.
More than one thousand police officers, fifteen thousand volunteers, and a number of aircraft combed the rural countryside.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, became involved when he gave a spirit medium a pair of Agatha Christie’s gloves to assist in locating the author.
On 14 December 1926, she was situated at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, listed as Mrs. Tressa Neele – the surname of her husband’s lover.
After Christie was located, she said she did not recall any specifics of the 11 days she had been missing and hardly mentioned the incident again.
After being discovered, Christie claimed she did not recall what transpired during the 11 days she was missing, and she rarely mentioned the incident again.
Worsley disagrees with the claim that she faked the entire affair to spite her straying husband or, worse, to frame him for her murder.
She stated, “That is not framing your cheating husband for murder; that is a severe mental health disorder.”
Christie divorced Archie in 1928 and afterwards wed Max Mallowan in 1930.
She was created a Dame in 1971 and died in January 1976 at the age of 85.
She has sold more than two billion books, and her play The Mousetrap has been performed for a record-breaking seven decades.