History Repeating Itself

She didn’t sleep with her roommate last night and her mother received a call on the very next day for Hannah, she said, “Mom?” before she hung up.  A few hours later, Hannah was seen in a dirty creek, she was holding on a shopping cart in Wheaton, Maryland, a mile and a half from her school. When she met doctors, she was informed that she has been walking for 2 days straight and she called her mother from a stranger’s phone after borrowing it.

Back To Normal

Hannah recovered from the second attack of the fugue state, she went back to work. She started taking more care of herself. “She could remember sending some of the texts, but then there came a point where she said, ‘I don’t remember writing any of this,’” Barbara recalled.

Possible Cause

Doctors said it was the effect of her parent’s divorce or maybe because of traveling stress but her father said, “Hannah and I have been to twenty-five nations together, so it is ‘normal’ not disruptive.” So what was the reason behind her disease? It could also have been due to her spiritual and religious beliefs and classifications. Her job with the needy children might have provoked the disease inside her.

A True Enigma

Both the disappearances took her close to water. Her friend, Amy Scott, said, “The way [Hannah] describes it is she finds herself in a body of water and realizes who she is.” That’s the reason why everyone was looking for her near water the third time it happened.

Psychological Mind Games

Barbara got in touch with Richard Loewenstein, a psychiatrist, a specialist in fugues. According to him, these disappearances are planned and purposeful, depending on Hannah’s mind logics which no one else is aware of. Barbara wanted to understand her daughter’s mindset as she too had a similar experience after her divorce. She thinks it must because of the medication. She was driving to the United Methodist church to share a lesson with the community as usual. But she never made it there.

Still Missing

Barbara too went close to a water body and stayed there for hours. She recalls feeling comfort nearby the Willamette River in Oregon. She drove home hours later. When she looked at her kid’s faces she realized that she was lost.

Hannah is still missing and her friends say, “She lights up the room. Everyone you talk to is going to say she is their closest friend. She has no barriers. She was raised to trust and care for everyone.”