Eventually, reporters discovered that Archie had spent the weekend in the country with friends-and in the company of a mysterious woman. Even though Archie’s brother Campbell finally told the police that Agatha had said that she was at a spa in Yorkshire, nobody believed him. As time went on, and the police were convinced that it was foul play, the newspaper reports got bigger. Meanwhile, the police continued looking for her. Then she took a train to Harrogate and checked into the Hydro spa under the name of Theresa Neele. In London, she went shopping for a winter coat and posted a letter to Archie’s brother Campbell, telling him that she was going to a spa in Yorkshire. From there, she walked back into town and caught the train to London. At 9:45 that Friday night, she told her secretary that she was going out, got into the car, and drove to Newland Downs, where she left the car. On that fateful day in December, Archie had told Agatha he was going to spend the weekend with some friends and would not be coming home. Agatha pleaded with Archie to give their marriage another chance, and he reluctantly agreed. Just prior to taking an Italian holiday, her husband Archie told Agatha that after twelve years of marriage, he had fallen in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. If that wasn’t bad enough, Agatha was soon hit by another bombshell. But instead, it turned into her annus horribilis.ġ926 was the year that Agatha’s mother, Clara, died. 1926 should have been the greatest year of Agatha’s life because it was the year that tour-de-force The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published. Her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles was finally accepted for publication in 1919, and with it, the world was introduced to Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. What led Agatha Christie to leave her home that cold December night? Even today, her biographers differ on what exactly happened during those two weeks in December 1926.īy the date of her disappearance, Agatha Christie had published more than ten novels and short stories, each more successful than the last. When she was eventually discovered at a spa in Harrogate she claimed to be suffering from temporary amnesia. For eleven days, the nation was riveted as the newspapers speculated about what had happened to the author of The Mystery of Roger Ackroyd. Rumors of his infidelity spurred the gossip-and caused police to tap his phone. Her husband, Colonel Archie Christie, told reporters that she was suffering from a nervous breakdown, but suspicion was immediately raised that perhaps the Colonel had done away with his wife, like one of the plots in his wife’s mystery novels. The police organized fifteen thousand volunteers to search the surrounding countryside. A quarter-mile from where her car was found was a lake called Silent Pool which Agatha used for inspiration for one of her character’s deaths. One, to her brother-in-law, said she was simply going for a vacation in Yorkshire another, to the local chief constable, said she feared for her life. Agatha had written several confusing letters before vanishing. There were no signs of foul play, but newspapers immediately reported that the car was believed to have been deliberately run down Newlands corner with its brakes off.
Her car was found abandoned several miles away, with some of her clothes and identification scattered around inside.
On December 3, 1926, British mystery author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) disappeared from her home.