Missing Mom Found After 24 Years Reveals Why She Walked Away

On the night of December 9, 2001, Michele Hundley Smith left home to go Christmas shopping, but the 38-year-old didn't return to her husband, son and two daughters in Eden, N.C.

On December 31, her family reported her missing. They didn't act sooner because Smith disappearing wasn't "unusual," Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told the Daily Mail.

For more than two decades, multiple law enforcement agencies—including the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and FBI—tried to find Smith. Her family wondered if she'd left willingly or if someone had prevented her return. Then in February 2026, Smith was found elsewhere in North Carolina.

Captain Jonathan Cheek, commander of the criminal investigations division and public information officer for the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, tells A&E Crime + Investigation that the National Crime Information Center database had an alert about Smith on February 19, 2026, after an agency entered her information. "The information received was looked into that day, and she was located later that same day," Cheek says.

On February 20, two officers from the sheriff's office contacted Smith, who was living in Robeson County, about 170 miles from Eden. After leaving her family, Smith had formed a relationship with a long-haul driver. She lived in his truck for years before the two returned to North Carolina in 2013.

Cheek says Smith didn't use an alias: "When somebody goes missing for this period of time, we always assume that they may have changed their names. She just went back to her maiden name."

Asked by The Charlotte Observer why she'd disappeared, Smith said, "I had my own demons at the time, and I was in my own head, and I had my reasons."

Dr. Christian L. Hart, a psychology professor at Texas Woman’s University, tells A&E Crime + Investigation that Smith doesn't seem to have been trying to deceive anyone with her disappearance: "Silence, withdrawal and non-contact are not exactly the same thing as deception. It seems more like she was intentionally avoiding everyone."

People who walk away from their families are often "leaving situations where there are chronic conflicts and relationship problems," says Dr. Lindsey Davis, a psychology professor at William James College, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

On a 2018 episode of The Vanished podcast, Smith's daughter, Amanda, who was 14 when her mother disappeared, revealed that her parents often fought, and her mother had been hiding her drinking from her father. Amanda also claimed that her mother's drinking had cost her her job. On November 11, 2001, the local police department issued a DWI charge against Smith.

"I would suspect that there is some significant amount of shame that is related to the alcohol use, related to losing her job, related to the DWI, such that it reached a point where it was all a bit too much to take," Davis speculates. "Some people might think that a DWI is not that big of a deal, but it can really be incredibly disruptive." In addition to the legal ramifications, she notes these charges can worsen relationship issues and disrupt family life when a parent can't drive.

Davis adds that the holiday season may have contributed to Smith's departure. "As a psychologist, I warn my trainees every year that people's mental health often becomes a little less stable as we near the traditional big family holidays," she says. "Christmas in particular seems to have a lot of pressure on it."

After locating Smith, the sheriff's department conducted an investigation into whether she should face charges for leaving. "The question came up about possible abandonment," Cheek says. "However, there was not any evidence or probable cause to substantiate that charge."

Smith told the Daily Mail, "My children were not abandoned, they were left with their father to care for them."

Two of Smith's children were under 18 when she left, but it's unlikely she has any remaining child support obligations. "A child support lawsuit must be filed prior to the minor child turning 18 years of age," Campbell University School of Law Dean Richard A. Waugaman III tells A&E Crime + Investigation. Even if a case had been filed, he adds, "Keeping the case pending would have required a lot of action and monitoring over the last two decades."

Court records show that when Smith missed a court date for her DWI charge on December 27, 2001, a warrant was issued for her arrest. On February 25, 2026, she was taken into custody, then released after posting a bond.

On March 26, Smith went to court and had an attorney assigned to her case. Her next appearance is scheduled for April 23.

At first, Smith asked that her contact information not be shared with her family.

"I imagine she probably had a lot of anxiety about what kind of reaction she would get from them," Davis says.

Smith later admitted to the Daily Mail she'd been aware that her disappearance had made the news, but insisted she "never knew that I was loved or wanted." Davis notes it's possible Smith thought only police were searching for her.

On February 20, Smith's daughter, Melissa, who was 18 when Smith left, wrote on Facebook that it was "great to know she's alive after 24 years" and hoped her mother would reach out. Smith's son Randal, who was 8 at the time of her disappearance, he didn't want to talk to her, saying, "She's nothing more than a stranger to me now."

Amanda maintained a Facebook page dedicated to finding her mother. She initially posted, "Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that."

In a situation like this, "relief that a loved one is alive may coexist with grief, anger and a sense of abandonment," Hart says.

After her arrest, Smith told the New York Post that Amanda had forgiven her. On March 23, Amanda came to the courthouse and hugged her mother. "We only get one life," she said, "and I want my mom in it."