Agatha Christie checked into the Hydropathic Hotel under the name Theresa Neele after having arrived by taxi on December 4^th (“Disappearance”). Unknown to the rest of the world at the time, this is where she would spend her 11 missing days. For that week and a half, the only major clue anyone had to go off of was her car that had been found abandoned on the side of the road.

     Her departure was sudden, raising the question of why she decided to travel and spend her time at a place that was quite a distance away from her own home (the distance between London and Harrogate can be seen on the map below). According to the symptoms of a fugue state discussed in Igwe’s case report, Christie’s sudden disappearance can be most likely be credited to a fugue: “People with dissociative fugue temporarily lose their sense of personal identity and impulsively wander away from their homes or places of work. They may travel far distances during the fugue, as far as several thousand miles. They may remain in the fugue state for a couple of days, several weeks or even months”. While a resident of the hotel, Christie participated in the recreational events there, carrying on interacting with the people and activities offered to her (“Disappearance”).

     While there, Agatha Christie had no recollection of who she was. Even when looking at newspapers that featured her face and name, she seemed to display no reaction to it. It is probable that if Agatha Christie had any idea of who she was, she would have responded in some way to the massive hunt going on in search of her. It was not until a musician at the hotel recognized her that the police were alerted and the whereabouts of the writer for those 11 days were finally discovered. Archibald Christie was brought to the Hydropathic Hotel so that he could properly identify Agatha, who at first did not recognize her husband, saying instead, “Fancy, my brother has just arrived,” (Burton).

     Christie quickly regained her memory, but claimed that she had suffered a form of amnesia during those days (what was deemed to be a fugue state). Such a claim is supported by her sudden departure that resulted in a journey many miles away, her inability to recognize herself in pictures, her association with a false-identification, and her misidentification of her husband. These are all traits of someone experiencing a dissociative fugue.