What happened to Agatha Christie?

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in 1890, she had 1 brother and 1 sister. And was born in Devon. Christie was homeschooled in a somewhat unusual fashion. Her mother, didn't want her to learn how to read until she turned 8. Feeling under-stimulated at the age of 5, Agatha learned herself to read. Beginning an obsession with books. In 1914, when Agatha was 24 she married Archie. 5 years later she gave birth to her only child. Agatha had written stories throughout her teens , but when her older sister bet her she couldn't write a good mystery. She penned her debut novel. After several rejections publisher John Lane contracted Agatha to write five more books. Agatha's rise to stardom was meteoric. Unfortunately, within only a few years of achieving fame she suffered a period of great emotional hardship her mother, with whom she had been extremely close. Passed away in 1926. Making matters even worse was the fact that Archie, her husband, had begun an affair. 

The third of december 1926 Agatha put her daughter in bed. The author grabbed an attache case, left her house, and drove off into the night. The next morning, Agatha’s car was discovered hanging over the cliff. It appeared the car had been run off the road. Inside the car was the attache case, a coat and her driver's license. But the driver was nowhere to be found. In short order the authors disappearance became headline news around the globe. Three days later, however, the search for the novelist was called of, after Agatha's brother-in-law reported receiving a letter from her the day after her disappearance, claiming that she went to a spa. The police suspected the letter was fake and reopend the case. Despite reported sightings of the author all across the UK, no tips led anywhere. 8 days after her disappearance there had finally been a break in the case. Before Christie left, she had left three letters behind. One for her brother-in-law, the second for her secretary and the third one for her ex-husband. Archie refused to hand the letter to the police. And instead, burned it. On december 15th one of the residents of the band in a hotel Harrogate Yorkshire thought ‘something looked a bit familiar about a woman on the dancefloor.  The woman dancing in front of him was the real Agatha Christie. It had been 12 days since Agatha had last been seen, but all the time she was just spending time in Yorkshire. Somehow Agatha had gotten from her car to King's Cross Station where she'd boarded a train to Harrogate. Where she was having a pleasant and uneventful stay. Despite the fact that she was the subject of a nationwide search, no one seemed to bother her. Perhaps because she had checked in under an assumed name, Mrs. Teresa Neele. After the bandmember notified police of the author's whereabouts, Archie traveled to the hotel to pick up his wife. Reportedly, Agatha greeted her husband at a total loss for who the man was. Archie told reporters, quote, "she does not know who she is. She has suffered from the most complete loss of memory," After the incident, Agatha and Archie lived apart. With the author taking up residence in a London flat, as she underwent a course of psychiatric treatment.This therapy restored her memory. In 1928, she and Archie divorced. Finally free from her relationship. Agatha continued to write prolifically, sometimes completing two or three books a year. Now it's time we dive into theories surrounding just what happened that December, 1926. 

The first theory is that the dissapearence was a publicity stunt. Her novel, that had been released earlier that year. And the theory goes that Agatha knew that if she went missing, her popularity would grow and mean she'd be headline news, thus driving sales. One big hole in this theory is the fact that the book had already been popular.

The second theory is that Agatha intentionally set the disappearance up to cast a public spotlight on, and thus humiliate, her husband for his adulterous ways. The weekend of her disappearance, Agatha had known that Archie was planning to stay over at his mistress’s place, which was a close to where Agatha's car was found. Needless to say, Archie's weekend was torn to shreds due to his wife's disappearance. However, the disappearance does seem to be a very elaborate and public way to handle a cheating spouse, especially for a person as private as Agatha.

The final theory is the one put forth by Agatha herself, which is that she suffered from memory loss due to her car crash. In February, 1928, Agatha was interviewed about her disappearance. According to Agatha, she had been suffering from insomnia before her disappearance. Christie was known to suffer from depression. And on the day of her disappearance she was even having suicidal thoughts. As she passed by Newlands Corner that afternoon, she saw a quarry and there came into her mind a thought of driving into it. However she dismissed the idea at once. Saying quote, "All that night, I drove aimlessly about, when I reached a point on the road which I thought was near the quarry I had seen in the afternoon, I turned the car off the road, down the hill towards it. I left the wheel and let the car run. The car struck something with a jerk and pulled up suddenly. I was flung against the steering wheel and my head hit something." Up to this moment she was Mrs. Christie, after the accident in the car, Agatha became mrs. Neele.  When she arrived at a big railway station she asked where she was and being surprised it was Waterloo. And then only remembers arriving at the hotel in Harrogate. Saying quote, "I read every day about Mrs. Christie's disappearance. I was greatly struck by my resemblance to her and pointed it out to other people in the hotel." End quote. After the interview, it appears few were convinced she was telling the truth. One inconsistency critics continued to point to was that Agatha's story didn't add up. Literally, the money didn't add up. Many were suspicious about how Agatha, could have afforded the hotel stay. In the interview, however, Agatha noted she'd originally left the house with £60. Today, £60 would be the equivalent of about £3,800.