US Virgin Islands - Hannah Upp, 32, St. Thomas, 14 Sept 2017

[eucalyptuz]

From https://www.facebook.com/FindHannahUppUSVI/

HURRICANE MARIA: HANNAH UPP, YOUNG TEACHER WITH RARE FORM OF AMNESIA, GOES MISSING ON ST. THOMAS

A young schoolteacher with a rare form of amnesia disappeared in the U.S. Virgin Islands on September 14, and remained missing as Hurricane Maria struck the region.
Hannah Upp was last seen leaving her apartment on St. Thomas about 8 a.m. last Thursday. Her car was later found in a parking lot at Sapphire Beach, where locals often go to swim, and her sandals, sarong and dress were found on the beach, her colleagues tell Newsweek.
Upp has a rare form of amnesia called dissociative fugue—best known as the medical condition that affected the character Jason Bourne—which can cause people to forget who they are for days or months at a time.

From: http://www.newsweek.com/missing-tea...t-thomas-virgin-islands-hurricane-irma-668471

"On Sept. 14, one week after Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean, a 32-year-old teacher named Hannah Upp left her apartment on St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, to go for a morning swim at a nearby beach. According to a note she left for her friends, she then planned to go to the Virgin Islands Montessori School, where she worked as a teacher. It seemed as if she’d be home before the curfew the government had imposed in the wake of the storm."
From: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/nyregion/missing-teacher-virgin-islands.html

Very detailed, long piece in the New Yorker about Hannah, her condition, past disappearances and the psychology of a "dissociative fugue state".

How a Young Woman Lost Her Identity by Rachel Aviv
Hannah Upp disappears for weeks at a time, forgetting her sense of self. Can she still be found?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/how-a-young-woman-lost-her-identity

I cannot find a thread for Hannah Upp despite an earlier high profile disappearance in NYC in 2008. I read the long piece in the New Yorker (linked above) and my interest was piqued as we often look at "dissociative fugue" as a possible scenario for many missing persons cases.

Tags: Hannah, Upp, St Thomas, dissociative fugue, amnesia

 

[eucalyptuz]

Article after her first disappearance:

“I went from going for a run to being in the ambulance,” the woman said several months later in describing her ordeal. “It was like 10 minutes had passed. But it was almost three weeks.”

On Aug. 28, a Thursday, a 23-year-old schoolteacher from Hamilton Heights named Hannah Emily Upp went for a jog along Riverside Drive. That jog is the last thing that Ms. Upp says she remembers before the deckhands rescued her from the waters of New York Harbor on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 16.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/thecity/01miss.html

 

[kdg411]

Searchers still looking for missing teacher

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/breaking/searchers-still-looking-for-missing-teacher/article_8119ac07-4007-5f1a-9324-2a1256754d6f.html

Virgin Island Daily News article

 

[happyperson]

Very detailed, long piece in the New Yorker about Hannah, her condition, past disappearances and the psychology of a "dissociative fugue state".

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/how-a-young-woman-lost-her-identity

I cannot find a thread for Hannah Upp despite an earlier high profile disappearance in NYC in 2008. I read the long piece in the New Yorker (linked above) and my interest was piqued as we often look at "dissociative fugue" as a possible scenario for many missing persons cases.

Highly recommend listening to the new yorkers audio of the story. Amazing. Hope to hear of a good outcome.

 

[chinacat67]

Highly recommend listening to the new yorkers audio of the story. Amazing. Hope to hear of a good outcome.

The New Yorker article is a must read. It is fascinating on dissociative fugue and also the particulars on Hannah's situation.

I hope she is found soon. The hurricane is the most worrisome part to me.

Moo

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Aescwynn]

Bumping for a little more visibility to the New Yorker piece, which is an amazing read.

 

[Stunned]

The New Yorker article is a must read. It is fascinating on dissociative fugue and also the particulars on Hannah's situation.

I hope she is found soon. The hurricane is the most worrisome part to me.

Moo

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

The article was amazing! What an interesting family. I hope they find her safe!

 

[cybervampira]

Inside Edition video about Hannah‘s disappearances:
https://youtu.be/ujbW9c17BM4

 

[eucalyptuz]

This is the pinned post from the Find Hannah Upp FB page:

MISSING: Hannah Upp, 32. Last seen Thu 9/14 near Sapphire Beach, St. Thomas. **Has episodes of amnesia and may not know who she is.** CALL 911 & 340-474-9774 WITH ANY INFO OR POSSIBLE SIGHTINGS.
LOCATIONS:
We are continuing the search in St. Thomas but we're considering the possibility that Hannah may be in any of the following locations:
*British Virgin Islands
*Punta Cana, DR
*Cap Cana, DR
*Fajardo, PR
*San Juan, PR
*Miami, FL
*Fort Lauderdale, FL
*Bahamas

DESCRIPTION: 5'7", short light brown hair, brown eyes. May be wearing a bathing suit or shorts and a sports bra.
Several tattoos, including: a triangle with a wave inside on inner side of right ankle; a sunflower on right thigh; a “woman” symbol with extra line (see photo) on left side of lower torso.
CALL 911 & 340-474-9774 WITH ANY INFO OR POSSIBLE SIGHTINGS.

BBM
This list of potential locations is worth noting. I think this list includes the destinations of known boats leaving the island ahead of the hurricane’s landfall. Additionally, she is known to be a very strong swimmer so possible locations could include any region within a swimming (drifting) distance.

 

[dove28]

Read about this in the NYer and was captivated. I imagine at some point, if she's still alive, she must come out of her fugue?? Also interesting how the article portrayed the relative parents (I won't say more)

 

[scriabina]

I just read the New Yorker article in addition to a long piece in the NYT about her first fugue state in 2008. In both her previous fugue states, she was found in the water. In the first case, she was found face down in the water and had she not been found when she was, she would have died. I fear with all the chaos surrounding the hurricanes IrMaria, she has drowned.

On the other hand, it is possible to stay dissociated for years, so the fact that she may be living another life elsewhere cannot be ruled out. It is interesting that during the 3 weeks she had disappeared in 2008, she didn't seem to take on a new identity, but just drifted about mysteriously. Not taking on a new identity would be even more dangerous because she would lose any sense of purpose beyond the desire to travel and go into water, which could lead to life-threatening situations.

 

[Tjk2201]

I checked the Facebook page for her and she's still missing.

 

[Dnp2be]

Bumping for Hannah, seems an awfully long time to be unspotted. Hopefully I’m wrong.

 

[YaYa_521]

I'd never heard of Hannah's case before coming across her story while searching for a match to these unidentified remains. This is such a mesmerizing case! This case has too many potential outcomes for me to even try to figure it out. I will put Hannah and her loved ones in my prayers and hope that she comes waltzing in the door one day soon. In the event that she did meet an untimely death, I'm left wondering if perhaps she ended up in the ocean. Does anyone know if these skeletal remains have been compared against Hannah's DNA? These were located one year after Hannah's disappearance (23 Sep 2018).

3450UMVI

Date of Discovery: September 23, 2018
Location of Discovery: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Estimated Date of Death: Unknown
State of Remains: Near complete or complete skeleton
Cause of Death: Unknown

Circumstances of Discovery
Human remains were discovered off Inner Brass Island, an uninhabited island off St. Thomas. The decedent was taken to Schneider Regional Medical Center for an autopsy. Gender, age, and race of the body could not be identified do to the state of remains.

 

[BlisseMai]

I'd never heard of Hannah's case before coming across her story while searching for a match to these unidentified remains. This is such a mesmerizing case! This case has too many potential outcomes for me to even try to figure it out. I will put Hannah and her loved ones in my prayers and hope that she comes waltzing in the door one day soon. In the event that she did meet an untimely death, I'm left wondering if perhaps she ended up in the ocean. Does anyone know if these skeletal remains have been compared against Hannah's DNA? These were located one year after Hannah's disappearance (23 Sep 2018).

3450UMVI

Date of Discovery: September 23, 2018
Location of Discovery: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Estimated Date of Death: Unknown
State of Remains: Near complete or complete skeleton
Cause of Death: Unknown

Circumstances of Discovery
Human remains were discovered off Inner Brass Island, an uninhabited island off St. Thomas. The decedent was taken to Schneider Regional Medical Center for an autopsy. Gender, age, and race of the body could not be identified do to the state of remains.

Well, it is a possibility.

 

[PayrollNerd]

If the body washed up onshore, it must have mostly intact. Otherwise it would be referred to as bones, remains or something descriptive. At least I would think so anyway. Interesting that they couldn’t even tell the gender. No DNA listed either and nothing about dentals.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Circumstances of Recovery
The body was found washed up on the shore of an uninhabited island off the coast of St. Thomas.

 

[dotr]

May 16, 2019

 

[RedHaus]

May 16, 2019

Thank you, @dotr.

And for those with access to the A&E channel through your TV provider (possibly just those of us in the U.S.), there is a riveting 45 m. show done by Elizabeth Vargas about the Hannah Upp story. Her poor Mom is still on the island looking for Hannah. There are interviews with friends, Mom, LE, psych expert, etc. so it is very informative.

Vanished in Paradise: The Untold Story | A&E.

 

[RedHaus]

I'd never heard of Hannah's case before coming across her story while searching for a match to these unidentified remains. This is such a mesmerizing case!... In the event that she did meet an untimely death, I'm left wondering if perhaps she ended up in the ocean. Does anyone know if these skeletal remains have been compared against Hannah's DNA? These were located one year after Hannah's disappearance (23 Sep 2018).

snipped for focus and BBM.
Hello @YaYa_521. You raise a very good question. I would like to presume all unidentified remains in the vicinity of St. Thomas have been matched against Hannah Upp. But in case not, how might we confirm this one way or another?

 

[sammyed]

Bumping for Hannah. Is there nothing more recent to report, coming up on anniversary date of her being reported missing four years tomorrow? I must admit to be a bit of a cynic about the dissociative fugue diagnosis, can't completely buy into it even now though I say this a little sheepishly as I know it can happen. It's just a feeling I have I can't explain. And I agree with whoever posted previously that, despite Hannah being a strong swimmer, it's very possible she has drowned. Anyone have info about her mother's efforts to keep the case active lately? Thanks.