Eleven days
It all started on 3rd December 1926. A
few minutes after 9:30 p.m., a 36-year-old
woman got up from her armchair and
went upstairs to her daughter’s room. She
kissed the girl goodnight. Afterwards,
she got into her car and left her home in
Sunningdale, Berkshire. No one saw her
for the next 11 days. That woman was
Agatha Christie, the famous author of
best-selling detective stories, who just
a few months earlier had published her
sixth book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
I remember the next day very clearly. I
was only 18 and it was my first day as a
reporter for a newspaper in London. I was
in my office when the phone rang. The
moment that I heard what had happened,
I knew it was going to be a big story.
Ten minutes later, I was on my way to
Sunningdale.
By the time I arrived, the search
had already started. Soon the police
found Agatha Christie’s car on the
edge of a steep hill. It looked as if she
had abandoned it in a hurry. The lights
were on. Agatha’s driving licence, her coat,
and a bag of clothes were in the car.
Meanwhile, the newspapers published
the news of the famous author’s
disappearance. The whole country
wanted to help find
Agatha Christie. Over a
thousand police officers
were looking for her, together
with 15,000 volunteers – including
myself. While we were checking the
forests and lakes in the cold countryside,
another famous writer, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, the author of stories about Sherlock
Holmes, began his own investigation.
He was hoping to discover clues which
the police had missed. The question on
everyone’s lips was, ‘Did someone murder
Agatha Christie?’
The search continued until 14th
December, when someone saw Agatha
Christie, safe and well, in a hotel in
Harrogate. She had checked into the hotel
under a false name. When the police
finally arrived, they realized that Agatha
Christie wouldn’t be able to explain
anything. She didn’t remember who she
was or what had happened.
This was more than 50 years ago, but I
still wonder what Agatha Christie really
did during those 11 days. She died last
year, on 12th January 1976, and she
never remembered what happened. It
seems her disappearance will remain
an unsolved mystery after all.