This is a very rare case for Abigail Hanna. She is just the young babysitter who presumably kidnapped one of the children that she used to care for.
The child was found with a shaved head and several burns from a cigarette. How did it come to this? The person who was once in charge of taking care of the child became the abductor and the torturer.
Hanna was a 21-year-old college student. She's pretty, smart, and blond. There is a need to ask this question. How come she is now called the babysitter from hell?
It is now perceived that Hanna, who is now facing multiple charges for kidnapping and child battery, may have a severe mental illness. When she appeared on the court, she needed to have assistance and appeared have a vacant stare. She was examined by a court clinician and the findings state, "was unable to present a factual understanding of the charges or even understanding of where she was that was completely logical," as stated in Huffingtonpost.
The findings also stated that Hanna experienced, "multiple psychotic symptoms including auditory hallucinations."
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, an alarming 61.5 million individuals in the U.S. experience mental illnesses. Last year, only over a third of people with severe depression had sought treatment, CDC confirms.
More and more people are suffering from mental illness but choose to ignore it. It is very common but highly undertreated.
What could have prompted Hanna? A normal college girl with so much potential would not have chosen such path. But then again, if we look at this in a different angle, the thing about mental illness is that we will never see it coming.
The unpredictability of the person suffering from the condition cannot be gauged. It will be challenging to even figure out the motive. This will remain unexplained as there are still too many things that we cannot even comprehend about mental illness.
