A North Carolina woman who disappeared without a trace more than two decades ago has been located alive, stunning a family that spent years not knowing whether to grieve or hold out hope.
Michele Hundley Smith was 38 years old in December 2001 when she left her Eden, North Carolina home to go Christmas shopping and never came back.
She left behind three children, who were 19, 14, and seven years old at the time of her disappearance.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday that investigators had located Smith “alive and well.”
The announcement came after more than 24 years of uncertainty for Smith’s relatives, who had been searching for answers since she vanished along with her forest green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van.
Smith’s case drew the attention of multiple law enforcement agencies over the years, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
New information surfaced on Feb. 19, prompting investigators to act quickly.
Authorities made direct contact with Smith the following day, on Feb. 20.
Despite the breakthrough, Smith has requested that her exact location remain private.
The sheriff’s office honored that request and did not disclose where she was found.
Her cousin, Barbara Byrd, spoke to WFMYNews 2 following the news, expressing a whirlwind of emotions shared by the family.
“I kind of want to go outside and scream, ‘she’s alive, she’s alive,’” Byrd said.
Byrd described the years of painful ambiguity that defined the family’s experience.
“For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting,” she said.
“My biggest question is to her, ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?’”
Despite the lingering questions, Byrd said she accepts Smith’s wish for distance.
“I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her,” Byrd said.
“I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
Smith’s daughter Amanda took to Facebook after the news broke, sharing a detailed and emotional statement that captured the complicated feelings the discovery brought to the surface.
“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom…I am ecstatic, I am p***ed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map,” Amanda wrote.
“Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that because I don’t even know.”
Amanda reflected on her memories of her mother before the disappearance.
“When my mom was a part of my daily life, she showed me a love and bond that will never ever be forgotten,” she wrote.
“There were mother daughter arguments of course, but right now all I can remember are the smiles we shared, the times together that were happy and the love I felt!”
Amanda also credited her father for remaining a steady presence throughout her life.
“My dad has been in my daily life all of my life, and he shows me love and we have a life that will never be forgotten,” she wrote.
She concluded her statement by calling for respect toward both parents.
“Both my dad and my mom deserve to have their choices and their feelings respected as well,” Amanda wrote.
As recently as 2024, Amanda had posted publicly about her mother, still uncertain whether Smith was even alive. “I don’t know what exactly happened. I’m not even sure til this very day if you are still here on Earth or if you have passed,” she wrote at the time.
In that same post, Amanda addressed her mother directly, writing that even if Smith had chosen to walk away, her love would remain. “I am sure that I would still love you just the same,” she said, though she acknowledged her anger over the pain her siblings also endured.
A Facebook page titled “Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home” had been dedicated to finding her.
The page had previously stated that Smith “would have never left her children by choice” and called on the community for help in uncovering the truth.
That page will now be repurposed to support other missing persons cases following the resolution of Smith’s case.
The discovery leaves many questions unanswered, as Smith has not publicly explained her two-decade absence or the circumstances that led to it.
