still out there
HANNAH Upp gasped for air and looked around in confusion as she was wrenched out of the freezing river by two boatmen.
She's been missing for three weeks and couldn't remember anything about her disappearance - after being struck down with a rare Jason Bourne-style amnesia that made her temporarily forget her own identity.
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Fortunately, this time the party-loving teacher had been saved - but two years ago, she vanished again in eerily similar circumstances, never to be seen again.
Now, a new TV documentary, Vanished In Paradise, reveals how Hannah's loved ones haven't given up hope since she disappeared from a paradise Caribbean island on September 14, 2017.
Despite Hannah's clothes and belongings being found abandoned at a beach, they believe the 34-year-old could still be "out there", living a new life with no idea of her real identity.
"I think there's a strong possibility that she's alive," says Hannah's mum Barbara Bellus, who regularly drives around the streets, searching for her daughter's face.
She adds: "There are moments when she seems so close that I think she's around any corner... there is something beyond explanation."
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Lost for days, months or years
Hannah, originally from Oregon, US, has dissociative fugue, a form of amnesia where sufferers temporarily forget their identity for days, months, or even years at a time.
Those with the condition still have the ability to survive, sometimes wandering off for long periods of time, embarking on unplanned journeys or taking on new identities.
The disorder has been dubbed 'Jason Bourne syndrome' after Matt Damon's character in the Bourne Identity films, who can't remember his identity or background.
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Hannah, a "fierce" and "vibrant" young woman, sometimes forgets her own identity
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First sign of terrifying amnesia
For Hannah - described by pals as the "centre of the party" - the first sign of the condition was in August 2008, when she left her apartment to go jogging and failed to return.
Then living in Manhattan, New York, she disappeared without her belongings just as she was set to start her second year of teaching at Harlem's Thurgood Marshall Academy.
Detectives searching for her feared she may have been murdered.
But just nine days later, Hannah was incredibly spotted at an Apple store in the borough, where a man asked her whether she was the missing teacher in the news.
She casually brushed him off, dismissing the possibility.
In following days, Hannah was seen at Starbucks and using the showers at The New York Sports Club - but each time, she vanished before police or her loved ones arrived.
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What is 'Jason Bourne syndrome'?
HANNAH suffers from dissociative fugue, a rare form of amnesia that is often dubbed 'Jason Bourne syndrome'.
People with the condition temporarily forget their identity or other important autobiographical information for days, months, or even years at a time.
However, they still have the ability to survive and function.
Sometimes, they will wander off for long periods of time, embark on an unplanned journey or even take on a new identity altogether.
They may suddenly 'wake up' and find themselves in a new place, with no memory of travelling there.
Dissociative fugue is typically triggered by trauma - such as sexual or physical abuse, or another highly distressing experience.
People may use dissociation as a defense against these ordeals, to help them disconnect from it. However, in Hannah's case, neither she nor her family could recall any traumatic events she'd endured.
According to Psychology Today, dissociative fugue is extremely rare, thought to affect as little as 0.2% of the general population.
It was only on September 16, 19 days after her disappearance, that she was finally tracked down after she was spotted bobbing face-down in the river near the Statue of Liberty.
Two Staten Island deckhands raced towards her in a rescue boat.
A near-death experience near Lady Liberty
Appearing in tonight's Crime + Investigation documentary, deckhand Ephraim Washington recalls: "She was face-down in the water. She wasn't trying to turn over, she wasn't trying to swim.
"It's as close to drowning you could get."
Lying in hospital, badly dehydrated and sunburned but miraculously alive, Hannah was suddenly able to recall her name and Barbara's phone number, the New Yorker reports.
But while she could remember her identity, she couldn't understand how she'd ended up in the river, weeping to her mum: "I'm scared, I don't know what happened."
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She also struggled to comprehend that three weeks had passed - during which she'd wandered around Manhattan in a zombie-like state, without her purse, phone or ID.
Doctors eventually diagnosed Hannah with dissociative fugue - which is typically triggered by trauma, although the teacher couldn't recall any traumatic past events.
And five years later, the condition terrifyingly struck again.
Confused in a creek with a shopping cart
Hannah, then living and working at a school in Maryland, disappeared once more - only to find herself sitting in a creek, with a shopping trolley beside her, two days later.
Again, it was the beginning of the school year and she had spent days wandering around, only regaining her memory of who she was when she 'awoke' in the water.
"Water was involved again... she came to on her own, knew who she was," says Barbara.
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A year after that shocking ordeal, Hannah moved to St Thomas - one of the US Virgin Islands, where Americans often go to live "off the grid" - to restart her life.
But in September 2017 - the same time of year - she vanished for a third time, shortly after Hurricane Irma battered the island and other areas, killing more than 130 people.
Back then, thousands of islanders including Hannah's ex-boyfriend Joey Spallino were scrambling to leave St Thomas as another category 5 hurricane, called Maria, barrelled towards it.
But in the documentary, Joey explains that Hannah's "heart was in St Thomas" so she decided to stay behind, despite her house having been wrecked by Irma.
The teacher was later seen prepping her classroom for the impact of Maria, although her colleague noticed she was acting oddly with a "singsong" voice.
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Then, on September 15 - a day after she was last seen leaving her home - Hannah failed to show up for a staff meeting.
Friend Maggie Guzman - who had no idea about Hannah's condition or past disappearances - called up the teacher's old pals. They told her to "look by water."
She asked a co-worker to check "strong swimmer" Hannah's favourite spot, Sapphire Beach.
A sarong and sundress neatly folded on the beach
There, Hannah's car was found in a parking area - with her purse, passport and hundreds of dollars inside it - while her sarong, sundress and sandals were discovered nearby.
The clothes were located, neatly folded, on a bar stool on the beach itself.
A desperate search, involving the coastguard, was launched for Hannah, but just two days later, it had to be called off as Maria ploughed into the area.
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Maggie recalls: "The night of Hurricane Maria was awful.
"That was like the worst night of my life. This hurricane is passing over this island and I have no idea what's happening to Hannah or where she is."
In the wake of the two hurricanes, detectives say it would have been easy to travel around the Caribbean without identification.
Today, they continue to search for Hannah - while her loved ones have set up a dedicated Facebook page in the hope they can find her and bring her home.
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As long as Hannah remains missing, they refuse to give up.
""My heart kind of told me that she was gonna pop back up. And that never happened," says ex Joey. "[But] I think she's still out there."
Hannah's mum adds: "We really don't have any limit. We don't have a sense of it couldn't go on for this long - because it could."
Vanished In Paradise: The Untold Story airs tonight (Tuesday, July 16) at 9pm on Crime + Investigation
Trailer for The Bourne Identity starring Matt Damon