WABC story about the disappearance of Hannah Emily Upp.

Please be sure to read the update at the bottom of this post.

Earlier tonight, Arielle Schechter sent an interesting e-mail out to members of the Facebook group devoted to finding missing NYC middle school teacher Hannah Emily Upp. Someone claims they've seen Hannah since she vanished on August 29, 2008. Arielle's e-mail:

I just received a call from a man who says he was with Hannah on Monday. He said that he met her in Green Point at about 5:00am on Monday, and they went to Coney Island together, and he left her there at about 9:00pm. He said that her hair is shorter than in her picture. The police are investigating his claim.

- Arielle

The New York Daily News reported Friday that Hannah may have been having more trouble adjusting to her life as a grad student and teacher than anyone knew. From the paper: "One source said Upp - an NYC Teaching Fellow who was about to get her own classroom - skipped work the day before she disappeared."

The same source stated that while other teachers were prepping their classrooms on August 28 in anticipation of the first day of school, Hannah withdrew forty bucks from an ATM and took herself to a movie at a theater in Times Square.

However, the Daily News went on to say that "education sources" told them Hannah did go to school that day. The same article quoted Hannah Wood, one of the admins of the Facebook group, saying that Hannah Upp was "more frustrated than unhappy."

That statement is similar to some things Arielle Schechter said in our conversation yesterday. Hannah's first year of school wasn't all that different from the first year of teaching for many educators; it's frequently a trial by fire.

I hope the lead alluded to in Arielle's e-mail is real, but you cover enough of these cases, it's hard to scoot your cynicism aside. High-profile stories frequently invite the delusional or attention-starved. Still -- it's better to hope than not.

UPDATE

I'm afraid my cynicism was founded. Hannah Wood sent out another message to the Hannah Upp Facebook group shortly after this entry was first published. It read, in part:

We are so sad to report that, unfortunately, the tip we received has turned out to be of no use. We sincerely apologize that the message went out before we, and the police, were all fully aware of what was happening.

In the coming days, we should brace ourselves for more messages like this, from people who are more concerned with creating problems than with solving the mystery of Hannah’s disappearance.

Though this is undoubtedly painful and brutally disappointing for all of us, we are committed to maintaining this Facebook group and to a sustained publicity campaign. If, for every ten false messages, we receive even one valid and useful piece of information, we feel it would be worth it...

Wood went on to recommend that anyone contacted by someone claiming to have seen Hannah not engage the tipster, but direct them to call the 30th Precinct. She noted -- correctly, I think -- that a tipster with "Hannah's best interests at heart [...] will do so."

I alluded to this in a post I wrote Saturday evening about the disappearance of Orlando toddler Caylee Anthony -- the more high profile cases like this become, the more it is likely that some raging assholes will come out of the woodwork.