Missing Teacher Fished Out of Harbor

Sept. 16, 2008 — -- A 23-year-old teacher who had been missing since last month was fished out of New York Harbor today, alive, after she jumped off a pier, police told ABCNews.com.

Hannah Upp, a New York teacher who disappeared just days before school started, was rescued by a Staten Island Ferry captain who saw her in the water, police said.

"The captain was docking the ferry at Staten Island and he noticed something floating," a New York Police Department spokeswoman said.

The woman told the captain that she was the missing teacher, the spokeswoman said.

Upp was taken to Richmond Hospital in Staten Island, N.Y., where she was in good condition. Police said they did not know whether this was a suicide attempt.

"We don't know. We're still trying to figure it out," the NYPD spokeswoman said.

Upp, a second-year Spanish teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem, went missing Friday afternoon, Aug. 29, after she was last seen by a friend in her apartment.

"It has been a long two weeks for all of us since she was declared missing, and we are overjoyed that she has been found," the woman's brother, Dan "Wally" Upp, wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com from Japan where he is stationed with the Navy.

A teachers' union and the New York Police Department were offering cash rewards for help in finding her.

Until last week, when Upp was spotted in midtown New York, her fate was a mystery to a frantic army of her family and friends.

At the time, the woman's brother said the sighting was a huge encouragement to friends and family.

"We just want her back safe, and we are waiting to welcome her home with open arms and open hearts with no judgment, no matter what," her brother said.

The Portland, Ore., native's friends launched a massive search following her disappearance.

During her disappearance, Upp's distraught mother, Barbara Bellus, was keeping a vigil in her daughter's apartment.

"She is a bright, beautiful young woman and a dedicated teacher, who has so much to offer the world and an overwhelming desire to contribute to its betterment in any possible way," Bellus said in an e-mailed statement. "We cannot imagine what has taken her away, but we want her back, whatever the circumstances."

Upp's two roommates, a man and a woman, became worried about her Sunday night, Aug. 31, 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. 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 College, in Pennsylvania, sprang into action. Several flew in from out of town and plastered the city with fliers.

"It's really heartening to see this many people supporting us," Gallardo said.

Hannah Wood, 22, who describes herself as one of Upp's closest friends in New York, started a Facebook page devoted to finding Upp. Over the course of Upp's disappearance, the group amassed more than 3,000 members.

"I decided I would make a Facebook group, and I took out an ad on Facebook asking if anyone had seen her," Wood said. "That has proven a phenomenal way of getting the word out."

Sarah Caldwell, a 22-year-old publicist for a book publisher, used her contacts to get additional help in the search. Within a few days after her disappearance, New York magazine had posted information about the missing woman, and the New York Daily News and New York Post have both written stories about the "Teacher Vanish Mystery."

"Her very close friend called me in a panic and let me know what was happening. We were waiting to hear that the police were officially launching an investigation, so I sent the e-mail yesterday," said Caldwell, who attended college with Upp. "She was always supersweet and superwelcoming. She was pretty much the nicest person you'd ever want to know."

Upp's outgoing nature makes her disappearance even more confusing to her friends and family.

"I refuse to believe that she would run away without taking [her purse or clothes] with her. There's not clothing missing that would suggest she had packed for a trip," Wood said. "None of it makes any sense, which is so weird."