Missing Monday: Hannah Upp Graduate of Bryn Mawr College

A woman named Hannah Upp is missing. Many on the Main Line are receiving a message we are about to post because this young woman, now a teacher in NYC, went to Bryn Mawr College and lived in our area as a student:

Last week Hannah Upp, a New York City public school teacher and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, disappeared from her apartment in Harlem. The last time anyone saw her was around 2pm on the afternoon of Friday, August 29th. She had been planning to go away for the weekend so her roommates did not expect her until Saturday, or Sunday at the latest. When they had not seen or heard from Hannah on Sunday afternoon they began calling her phone but it went straight to voicemail each time. By Monday evening they were frantic and went into her room, where they found her keys, her phone, and her purse containing her ATM card, her Metro Card, and her only ID. They called the police. The police searched the apartment and when she did not show up for work on Tuesday, her first day of teaching for this school year, and it became clear that she had not gone in on Friday either, a Missing Persons report was filed.

Hannah is one of my dearest friends. I lived and studied with her for four years, and spent a summer in Europe with her. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever met or had the pleasure of knowing well. Loving her has been a great joy.

Hannah's army of friends has just about wallpapered New York City in Missing posters and her story has received more media attention than we ever dreamed possible. There is nothing else anybody can do now but pray, and when there is nothing left to do but to pray, you have to pray like hell. Which is what I am asking all of you to do now.

You are just everybody in my gmail contact list. I don't know anything about your spiritual background. I don't care, either. Here is what I believe:

I believe that there is a divine presence, and that this presence is good. I believe that the divine creator that created human kind, or put into motion the series of events and conditions that allowed for the evolution of human kind, endowed every human being with a divinity all their own, for a divine creator cannot create anything but divine creations. I believe, therefore, that a sincere human expression of will, coming from a place of genuine love, understanding and wisdom, is in fact an expression of divine will, and that this is true prayer.

Please pray for Hannah. Pray for her safety and her happiness. You can pray in any way you like. You can make the sign of the cross and ask Jesus for help. Or meditate. Or chant. Or just think good thoughts about a good soul.

I also believe in the transformative power of pain and suffering. I believe that the pain Hannah is going through now, wherever she is, and the pain of her friends, missing her, can be used for good. It can remind us to tell our family and friends that we love them, to renew connections with loved ones, to appreciate the comfort and safety in our lives. Or, as in my case, it can strengthen a resolve to create a world where things like this do not happen to women.

Please do not let any pain or suffering be in vain. Tell your loved ones that you love them. And then tell them again.

Please forward this email to any or every one you know and ask them to pray for Hannah. Even if you, or they, don't know Hannah from a hole in the wall there is nothing wrong with one soul asking for another soul to be okay.

Also, if you, or anyone you know, have any media connections (TV, radio, newspaper, internet blogs, anything at all) please let them know about Hannah's story. We need all the press we can get. You never know when or how it will reach the one person that saw something that will help us find her.

Love,
Amanda (amanda.j.conroy@gmail.com)

Here is a news report (an excerpt):

ABC News: Teacher's Disappearance Baffles Friends, Family
Friends, Family Take Search to the Web
By ASHLEY PHILLIPS
Sept. 5, 2008

The disappearance of a young New York City school teacher just days before classes began has launched a massive search by her army of friends.

Hannah Upp, 23, was last seen a week ago.

Upp's distraught mother, Barbara Bellus, is keeping a vigil in her daughter's apartment.....Upp's two roommates, a man and a woman, became worried about her Sunday night when they hadn't heard from her, roommate Samantha Gallardo, 25, told ABCNews.com.

According to Gallardo, Upp's other roommate, fellow teacher Manny Ramirez, searched her room and saw that her purse, wallet, cell phone, ATM card and subway card were all there.

"My roommate woke me up and we went down to the police station. They didn't seem too concerned about it at first, but at 4 a.m. that night there were already detectives in our apartment," Gallardo said. "There's been police in our apartment since." ...When they found out she was missing, Upp's network of friends from around the city and from her alma mater, Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania, sprang into action. Several flew in from out of town and plastered the city with flyers