Lucy: The Surrey police played along.

They were convinced that Agatha would be found dead on their patch.

Special attention was paid to the nearby Silent Pool, already the site of a legendary drowning and just the sort of place to find a body caught in the weeds.

You know, as I look through these photos from the search, I have a sneaking suspicion that everybody was actually rather enjoying themselves.

Look at these gentlemen who are very performatively dragging a pond.

They definitely staged that for the newspaper cameras.

It's all quite macho.

And this coachload of searchers here, they're taking a break from searching, and they are-- I think they're enjoying a packed lunch.

And these ones here who are restaging the scene of the crime-- it's 1920s "Crimewatch."

But do you know what?

I can't really blame the policemen and all of these kind searching people.

Under the circumstances, I can see exactly why they felt that they were living inside the world of a detective story.

The police, press, and public went into a detection frenzy.

There were dedicated front pages day after day.

Calls to action mustered thousands of volunteers.

Bloodhounds sniffed the countryside.

Aeroplanes joined the hunt.

Even Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got involved.

He hired a psychic to connect with Agatha via one of her gloves.

How could a woman whose face was in every newspaper simply disappear?