The Teacher Who Was Seen Twice
At a girls' school in Livonia, pupils said they saw their French teacher standing at the blackboard, and her exact double standing beside her.
What was reported
In 1845, a French teacher named Émilie Sagée worked at a boarding school for girls at Neuwelcke, near Wolmar in Livonia, today's Valmiera in Latvia. According to the story, her pupils began to see her double. Once, 13 girls in a classroom watched as two Émilies stood at the blackboard, one writing and the other copying her movements.
Another time, the whole school saw her in the garden while she was also sitting in the room with them. The double seemed to drain her strength. Parents withdrew their daughters, and she lost her job. She was said to have lost many posts before for the same reason.
Explanations offered
The account comes from a single source: a former pupil who told it to the American writer Robert Dale Owen, who published it in 1860. No school records confirm it, and it may have been embellished. It remains the most famous story of a doppelgänger.
- When
- 1845–1846
- Where
- Near Valmiera, Latvia
- Witnesses
- Pupils at a girls' school, as told in an 1860 book
- Status
- Unverified
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.