A North Carolina mom, who went missing 24 years ago, has been found “alive and well” — but the woman’s family, as well as law enforcement, are still left with unanswered questions about her disappearance.
On Friday, Feb. 20, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office shared that Michelle Hundley Smith, now 62, who was first reported missing on Dec. 31, 2001, had been located after detectives “received new information” about her disappearance.
“On [Feb. 20], Sgt. A. Disher and Detective C. Worley made contact with Michele Hundley Smith at an undisclosed location within North Carolina, alive and well,” the sheriff’s office announced. “At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed.”
Officials said that Smith’s family was notified that she had been located, and they were informed about her request to keep her whereabouts undisclosed.
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Michele Hundley Smith.namus.gov
Smith, from Eden, N.C., was 38 years old at the time of her initial disappearance.
Smith’s husband was the first person to report her missing back in 2001, investigators said. She had left her home to go Christmas shopping at a K-Mart in Martinsville, Va., on Dec. 9 — about 17 miles away from her home in Eden — and never returned.
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“An extensive investigation was immediately launched,” the sheriff’s office wrote, adding that the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office remained on the case for two decades. “Over the years, the case drew the attention and collaboration of multiple agencies across North Carolina and Virginia, including the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).”
Smith’s family members also continued to search for the missing woman. Her daughter created a Facebook page in 2018 to collect tips in the case, and other family members, including Smith’s cousin, Barbara Byrd, have been outspoken in the media about keeping the investigation going.
In a lengthy statement shared on social media, Smith’s daughter Amanda expressed her complicated feelings upon learning that her mother is alive.
“I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map!” she wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that because I don’t even know… My initial reaction would be yes absolutely but then I think of all the hurt… But even then … My mom is only human just as we all are.”
Speaking to WFMY after the news broke that her cousin had been located, Byrd expressed her confusion about the missing person case.
“I kind of want to go outside and scream, ‘She’s alive, she’s alive,’ ” Byrd said. “My biggest question is to her … What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?”
“I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry,” she continued. “The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
