How a Psychology Today Article Solved One Woman’s Disappearance
By: Fatim Hemraj
Tags: Mystery, Psychology, History, Mental Health, Journalism

It would be an understatement to say Margie Profet was a profoundly intelligent and enigmatic woman. One could assume she was eager to learn; she attended both Harvard and UC, Berkeley where she studied various subjects including philosophy, physics and math.

Her work focused on three areas; morning sickness, menstruation and allergy. Her ideologies were scrutinized by many including The New York Times journalist Natalie Angier, particularly her notion that “menstruation evolved as a mechanism for protecting a female’s uterus and Fallopian tubes against harmful microbes delivered by incoming sperm.”

“The body kills the tissue and ejects it, and it directly kills the pathogens with immune cells. It eliminates the pathogens and their home at the same time,” stated Margie.

Natalie called Margie’s theories a ‘scheme’ and criticized her for never ‘bothering’ to achieve a doctorate.

Margie also claimed that like menstruation, morning sickness and allergies also eliminate toxins from the body; she believed pregnant women should avoid eating vegetables and other rich in toxins foods, and that allergies are the body's way to protect itself from plant-borne compounds and expel them.

Others praised Margie’s theories, “She has a brilliant hypothesis and substantial evidence,” said Univesity of Michigan psychiatry professor, Dr. Randolph Nesse.

The editor of the Quarterly Review of Biology (published by the University of Chicago Press) George Williams agreed, “It’s the only serious contender for a plausible evolutionary explanation of menstruation. It is extremely unlikely that her theory is seriously wrong. Her arguments are quite convincing.”

With Margie’s ‘radical new views’ she won the 2003 MacArthur Fellowship ($250,000) and went on to become known as a widely popular American evolutionary biologist. It is important to note she did this without any formal education or training in biology. She also published two books on pregnancy.

Margie Profet. Source.

Although Margie appeared to be happy and well-adjusted on the outside, on the inside, she was struggling heavily with mental illness and sometime between 2004 and 2005, Margie disappeared.

According to the user of this Reddit post, their father dated Margie for a year when they were a child. The user recalled Margie as having ‘severe OCD tendencies’, that she didn’t particularly like kids and would change her clothes all too often. The user also remembered how upset and puzzled their father was when Margie suddenly vanished.

Although it cannot be confirmed, the user claims it is their father, Mike Martin, who wrote the article “The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Genius” published on Psychology Today, the piece that would ultimately solve the missing woman’s disappearance.

Mike spent three years researching Margie’s case prior to the release of the article.

In Mike’s article, he spoke with Margie’s ex-boyfriends; one remembered her as a ‘vibrant writer’ and the other as ‘beautiful and engaging.’ Both wished for a good ending to Margie’s story.

Mike also spoke with Margie’s mother Karen who noted the multitude of things she did to try and find her daughter including; hiring a private investigator, filing a missing person report, keeping an eye on Margie’s bank accounts and religiously checking shelters and the streets where Margie may be. After years of looking for her daughter without any success, Karen finally succumbed to the idea that perhaps her daughter, did not want to be found, and ceased her search.

Margie’s friends noted she had become quite distressed prior to her disappearance. She had stopped talking to her mother, which some noted as odd considering how incredibly close the two were. Although some of Margie’s friends and fellow academics were incredibly worried about her well-being and found her sudden disappearance odd, others did not.

Many believed Margie may have wanted to disappear, that she was either tired of the publicity (and scrutiny) she gained through her work or that her declining mental health pushed her into a situation in which she succumbed to that of her own doing.

To some, it was highly likely Margie was living on the streets all those years.

Mike’s article, which was published on May 1, 2012, delved deep into Margie’s life and ended on a slightly hopeful note that perhaps one day, the mystery of what happened to Margie would be uncovered.

And, to the surprise of many, it would be, only seventeen days later.

On May 18, 2012, Mike Martin received the following email from Karen: