Remember That Time When the Queen of Mystery Went Missing?
It should come as no surprise that the world-renowned Queen of Mystery should have some mysteries of her own.
Agatha Christie is well known for her hard-to-solve detective fiction stories riddled with red herrings but did you know that she has a personal mystery? What’s even better is that no one has ever solved what actually happened and to this day we still only have speculations, leaving us with a case that would give Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot a run for their money.
The Facts We Have
It was early December 1926 when Agatha Christie kissed her daughter Rosalind goodnight, leaving the seven-year-old in the care of nannies as she departed the family home. She wasn’t seen for another 11 days after that. During that time, her vehicle was found on the side of the road and she was nowhere to be found. Locals had thought she could have committed suicide in Silent Lake nearby that was known for it.
An already accomplished writer at this point and just having published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, there was a large and strenuous search that ensued shortly after her disappearance was reported. Police scrounged through Agatha Christie’s books and manuscripts to find a clue, any clue, as to where she might be.
It was no doubt that the English papers were all over the story about the Queen of Mystery going missing, and as a result, the story was printed widely across newspapers throughout the country. It became so widespread that even the renowned author and spiritual enthusiast Arthur Conan Doyle assisted in the search with help from clairvoyants.
The Day She Was Found
On December 15th she was found at a spa resort in Yorkshire, not remembering her own name. As the story unfolded, it was discovered that prior to the disappearance, Christie had learned that her husband Archibald (Archie) Christie, was having an affair with a younger woman, Nancy Neale: nearly the same alias Christie gave when she checked into the hotel spa in Harrogate (Theresa Neale). Was this a conscious decision that she used the name of her husband’s mistress to check into the hotel?
According to the official site, AgathaChristie.com, after “having been recognized by the hotel staff, who alerted the police, she did not recognize Archie when he came to meet her. Possibly concussed but certainly suffering from amnesia, Agatha had no recollection of who she was.”
Aftermath
After living apart for some time after the event, Agatha and Archibald Christie divorced in 1928. Archie Christie later married his mistress, Ms. Neale.
Christie later married the younger Max Mallowan and had from what is understood, a long and happy marriage together. Agatha never spoke of the incident again with anyone.
Deductions
Many people have tried to come up with a logical explanation to determine the true nature of the events from that night all those years ago. Some even go as far as to claim it is the “truth”. According to her official website, Christie was a very guarded and private person and never spoke about the incident with anyone again since, leaving spectators with no answer. Perhaps if she had suffered amnesia as a result of a possible concussion, she wouldn’t be able to relay the true events anyway.
It could be that the distraught Christie used Ms. Neale’s name because the woman occupied a large part of her mind, large enough for her to go missing in the first place. Then when she suffered amnesia, the only name that offered any significance to her at the time was Neale’s.
I’m honestly not sure we can find out the exact truth. We may have the “why” but we don’t have the “how”. It does seem, however, that we are left with a few possibilities:
- Agatha Christie did indeed leave her home distraught, and somehow hit her head during the journey which resulted in short-term amnesia
- The whole scene was planned out by Agatha Christie (perhaps in revenge against her adulterous husband). In saying that, what would Archie Christie’s motive be for playing along with his wife’s amnesia? Possible guilt of the affair?
- She may have left distraught and changed her mind halfway through but felt too ashamed or embarrassed to return
It’s also important to note that from where Christie left to where she was found is about a 3.5-hour drive in modern-day estimates. This was 1926 where the journey would have been longer by car. If she had taken a train, the modern-day equivalent time for the train is about 9 hours.
If she had hit her head when she abandoned her car by Silent Pool (only 30 minutes from her home in Sunningdale in the opposite direction of Harrogate), that is quite a long journey for a concussed person to make. If she also was supposedly concussed, it seems interesting that she ended up being found at the whole other end of the country than anywhere near her home in the South of England.
Christie died in 1976 and anyone who would have any information about the circumstances is long gone, too. Unless there was some documentation about it, there is no way to conclude what happened; we can only speculate.
What Say You?
So what really happened to Agatha Christie for those 11 whole days in December of 1926? Are you familiar with the case? What are your deductions? For more information, there’s another great Medium article about Christie’s disappearance that you can find here!
