Agatha Christie's Mysterious 11-Day Disappearance and False Accusations

In 1926, world-bestselling author Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days, opening one of the world's most mysterious disappearances.

One day, Agatha Christie was sitting quietly on a train when she overheard someone mention her name. In the compartment, she recalled, were "two women discussing me, both with paperbacks of my books on their knees."

They were unaware of the identity of their companion, and continued to discuss the most famous author in the world at the time. " I hear ," said one of the women, " that she drinks a lot ."

The story was of particular interest to historian Lucy Worsley, as it almost encapsulates the life of Agatha Christie . The two women must have had her paperback. Agatha wrote more than 80 books, with sales figures second only to Shakespeare and the Bible, it is said. And she was not only a novelist, but also the world's most-produced female playwright.

She was so successful that people thought of her as an institution rather than a pioneer who paved the way for a new field. But the thing is, she was both.

Finally, in the train compartment, Christie herself was not noticed. True, she was easy to miss, like any woman past middle age. But she had deliberately created that appearance - looking very ordinary - to hide her true identity.

If the two people on the same boat asked her, she would simply say she was unemployed. And if an administrative document required her to fill in her occupation, the novelist with 2 billion copies sold would simply write "housewife". Despite her great success, she refuses to let the world define her and chooses to be an outsider, an observer.

The mysterious disappearance of 11 days

But the most interesting story about her must be the first one that comes to mind - the mysterious 11-day disappearance at the height of her career that sent the whole country scrambling to find her. It was the greatest mystery about Agatha's life, no different from the spiritual children she wrote.

To speak of success at this stage, Agatha had published her masterpiece "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and was being urged by her publisher to publish a sequel. Her picture was in the Daily Mail, and a famous publisher had ordered 500 copies in advance for the rights to two other books. That amount was enough to buy a Morris Cowkey car.

But by the winter of 1926, her marriage to Archie Christie was in trouble. She herself later wrote that she was "beginning to have a nervous breakdown" . The couple moved to a 12-bedroom house in Sunningdale, Berkshire, which they named Styles, but Archie was often absent and Agatha became increasingly unhappy there.

The death of her beloved mother, and Archie's lack of sympathy (he didn't even attend the funeral), nearly destroyed their relationship, culminating in Archie's confession that he was in love with someone else - a young woman named Nancy Neele - and wanted a divorce.

It was rumored that Agatha had later staged her husband's disappearance to frame him for murder. But contrary to popular belief, Agatha never spoke out about the incident, but she did.

Agatha Christie.

In fact, her assertions about the whole thing are strung together through a series of statements and even echoes of her own books, including the 'amnesia' plot that is used many times.

"I wanted my life to end. All that night I drove aimlessly… I had a vague idea of ​​ending it all. I drove automatically down the streets I knew… to Maidenhead, where I looked out over the river. I thought of jumping in, but found that I could swim too well to drown… then back to London again, and then to Sunningdale. From there I went on to Newlands Corner,"  wrote Agatha Christie.

Despite being extremely tired and in pain, she finally realized a plan that had been simmering in her mind for 24 hours.

The first time since the disappearance is 9:30 p.m. on Friday, December 3, 1926.

That night, she went upstairs to her Berkshire home, kissed her seven-year-old daughter Rosalind goodbye, and drove off into the night in her Morris Cowkey. She was missing for the next 11 days.

" When I got to a point on the road that I thought was near the quarry I had seen that afternoon, I turned off the road down the hill towards it. I took my hands off the wheel and drove away. The car hit something, jerked and stopped suddenly. I was thrown back towards the wheel and hit my head on something ."

Christie's car was found wedged in a hedge, its front wheels "over the edge of the cesspool". Without the hedge, "the car would have gone down and been smashed to pieces". Christie seemed shocked by what had happened and found life worth living.

And so, dazed, devastated, but still alive, she stepped out of the car. With blunt force trauma to her head and chest, she walked through the winter countryside in a dreamlike state. She had been reborn. ' Up until that moment, I was 'Mrs. Christie ,'' she explained. Now, she had shed her past like a dead skin. It was the only way she could survive. But at the same time, it was an act that left her family, friends, and the police utterly baffled.

Evidence revealed

For a long time, investigators of Agatha's disappearance were split in two directions.

One , in the days after the accident, she experienced dissociative identity disorder — a condition caused by stress and trauma that made her forget who she was.

Second , she staged the incident to try to blame her husband for killing her. Only one thing is certain:

Saturday, December 4, 1926

Agatha suffered a series of psychological breakdowns due to the trauma of her mother's death and the breakdown of her marriage. She lost her way in life and lost her sense of self from Saturday to the next few days.

So what should we believe?

When questioned by the police about her car, Agatha reported that she had 'lost her memory' that Saturday morning. With the help of a therapist, she would later begin to piece together a narrative of the omitted details. ' I remember arriving at a major railway station ,' she eventually recalled, ' and being surprised to learn it was Waterloo .'

" It was strange ," she said, " that the railway authorities there did not remember me, because I was covered in mud and had blood on my face from a cut on my hand ."

Christie's mind began to protect itself from further pain by "inventing" a new identity. " In my mind, I had become Teresa Neele of South Africa ," she said - a name similar to her husband's lover and a place where the two had once tasted the sweetness of happiness.

What the novelist wanted most at that moment was to create a character through whom she could do whatever she wanted, including escaping the unbearable life of Mrs. Christie.

"Teresa Neele" went to Kings Cross Station and bought a ticket to the spa resort in Harrogate.

She continued to take a taxi as usual to a randomly chosen hotel, as usual, preferring the anonymity of this type of residence to have a place to concentrate on writing alone.

Photo illustration: Resort in Harrogate.

Agatha had no luggage with her but explained that she had just arrived from South Africa and was checking her luggage in with a friend. She identified herself as Teresa Neele and signed the papers in her usual handwriting.

Mr W Taylor, the hotel manager, later recounted that she hired a first-floor suite, complete with hot and cold water, for seven guineas without hesitation, as if she had as much money as she wanted.

Agatha's room was served by a young maid named Rosie Asher, who seemed to have kept a close eye on her. Asher discovered that "Mrs. Neele" carried almost nothing with her.

Desperate to build a life that seemed orderly, she went out to dinner and even went dancing.

Christie seemed to enjoy her life in a state of balance between life and death.

Sunday, December 5

Her chambermaid noted that while the police were searching Surrey Downs for her, the novelist "slept until 10am, had breakfast in bed and then went out".

Monday morning, December 6

News of Agatha's disappearance hit the headlines on Monday - three days after she went missing.

Asher noticed that Agatha had received "the London papers served with breakfast in bed". When the news of her disappearance was all over the papers, the woman somehow managed to "magically" put the information out of her head.

She began to equip herself with a new wardrobe. Later that day, after visiting the stores, packages began to arrive in her room: "new hats, coats, evening shoes, books and magazines, pencils and fruit, and various toiletries."

People noticed that she often carried a book in her hand. The librarian where she visited commented that this woman was very fond of thriller and mystery books.

That evening, Agatha went to dinner in a neat evening dress, with a new "scarf" . The hotel staff reported that "she made some friends". She played pool and even sang loudly.

At the hotel, people begin to suspect who "Mrs. Neele" really is when they see her so confident with her large sum of money.

Next up, on Tuesday, December 7th.

A portrait appeared on the front page of the Daily Express. The resemblance was unmistakable. During her four-day stay at the hotel, the hotel manager's wife also vaguely recognized her true identity, and she was not the only one.

The following day, the Westminster Gazette reported that no fewer than 300 police officers and special forces had joined a search in Surrey. They were fairly certain they were hunting for a body.

But Agatha had forgotten and found life as Mrs. Neele much better, she later admitted.

She even read the news about herself and thought "Mrs. Christie" was stupid for acting like that. At the same time, people also noticed signs of depression in her when she occasionally put her hand to her forehead and said, " My head. I don't remember anything ."

Her news and pictures in the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Archie, nervous and fearful that his infidelity would be revealed, made a terrible mistake. He gave an ill-advised interview to the Daily Mail. Perhaps hoping to divert attention from his mistress, he suggested that his wife had deliberately disappeared, even falsely claiming that it was her writing plans they had discussed.

The man also denied that he and his wife had any disagreement.

Worse, the Telegraph on Saturday morning appeared to advertise her work based on the news of her disappearance, partly leading the public to think the novelist was trying to create a scandal to gain publicity.

Also on Tuesday 7 December, the Daily Mail ran an editorial. " If Christie were alive ," its author argued, " she would have been willing to cause her relatives intense anxiety and impose heavy costs on the public " in " a callous practical joke ".

Wednesday, December 8

After three days of searching for the novelist, the police called off the search. They said Agatha's brother-in-law had received a letter from her, saying he was going to a spa in Yorkshire 'for rest and treatment'. Was that the end of the case? Not quite.

By Friday, December 10

The police, seemingly unconvinced by the letter, returned to expand the search, even bringing one of Agatha's pets to the scene to see if it could trace its owner's scent. (The dog only "whined pitifully." )

Investigators attempt to track down missing novelist.

The Times reported at the time that detectives had begun to suspect suicide. The search appeared to focus on a pond known as the "Silent Pool" , which according to local legend was bottomless.

There was a particularly tantalising detail near the end of the story: Christie, the paper claimed, was haunted by her own house. " It was in a deserted alley, unlit at night, which had a reputation for being haunted. The alley had been the scene of a murder of a woman and a suicide of a man… 'If I don't leave Sunningdale soon, Sunningdale will be the end of me,' she once told a friend ."

Saturday, December 11

A week after Agatha went missing, police were left baffled. ' There had been no credible witnesses who had seen her since the night she left her Sunningdale home a week ago ,' reported The Times.

But there was an important development. Christie left three letters: one to her secretary, one to her brother-in-law, and a third to her husband, who refused to reveal what she had written.

And so the search continues.

Sunday, December 12

Detectives are appealing for help from drivers and amateur sleuths: "Without saying why, police still believe she is somewhere. not far from where her missing car was found."

One memorable detail is that her private secretary indignantly protested that the novelist had made up the story because she was "too decent for that". He also produced a letter from her, claiming that its contents were merely a timetable.

At this point, the police were stumped and began investigating her manuscripts for clues.

Monday, December 13

10,000 to 15,000 people have joined the search so far, not including a "regiment" of all kinds of sniffer dogs.

That same day, police speculated that Agatha might be in London, "disguised and perhaps dressed as a man". And rumours began to spread that she had left behind a sealed envelope that was only to be opened in the event her body was discovered.

Tuesday, December 14

The newspaper reported that police found several important clues nearby, including: "a medicine bottle labeled for lead and opium, pieces of a torn postcard, a woman's fur-lined coat, a powder box, the end of a loaf of bread, a cardboard box and two children's books."

Perhaps more ominous, is the detectives' new theory: " The police have information which they refuse to disclose and which leads them to the view that Mrs Christie had no intention of returning when she left the house ."

Found - Wednesday, December 15

She was eventually found still at the spa in Yorkshire, and the details and suspicions about her identity there by people like the hotel manager's wife were finally cleared up.

Teresa NeeFle and Agatha Christie are one and the same.

According to the story, when her husband came to pick her up, the woman looked at him with a face as cold as stone.

March 17, 1928

Fifteen months after the incident, Agatha officially filed for divorce from her husband.

At the time of finding his wife, her husband told reporters, " She didn't know who she was. She had completely lost her memory ."

A perspective that is no longer one-sided

Unfortunately, her reputation continues to be attacked by male historians who claim to have greater investigative abilities than the police or the press. They argue that she deliberately set things up to blame her husband, beyond any doubt.

The idea has since spread to films and novels. The lighter versions portray her as a frustrated, abused woman with an understandable desire for revenge. The more extreme versions – notably the 1979 feature film Agatha – portray her as the murderer of Nancy Neele, her husband's lover.

But perhaps it's time we looked more closely at the facts - that it was the psychological affliction of a woman who had just suffered some of the worst shocks of her life, and whether the "memory loss" argument was actually true.