For 24 years, Michele Hundley Smith’s family lived in limbo, not knowing whether they were “grieving or waiting” for the North Carolina mother, who was quietly living another life since she vanished in 2001.
On Dec. 9, 2001, Michele Hundley Smith Eden kissed her two young kids goodbye and left her North Carolina residence to go Christmas shopping at a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, about 17 miles away.
It was the last time she was seen by her husband and three children – Amanda, 14, her 8-year-old son, and a 19-year-old daughter who had already moved out of the home.
“I’ll never forget that first Christmas without her,” Hundley Smith’s daughter Amanda, a young teenager at the time of her mother’s disappearance, told Dateline in 2020. “We didn’t even care about presents or anything – our mom was gone. Nothing was ever the same after that.”
After she failed to return home that December evening, a massive search involving agencies across North Carolina and Virginia was launched – an investigation that would continue for decades, People reports.
Despite years of searching, tips and public appeals, answers never came.
“Years were a blur after that,” Amanda said on Dateline. “Detectives would be in and out of our lives, asking questions, working off whatever tips they got. But nothing ever led to my mom.”
‘Just want to know that you are safe, Mama’
In July 2018, the family created a Facebook page called “Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home,” posting photos and messages in the hope that someone, somewhere, might know something – or that the woman, 38 when she vanished, might see them.
Some of the most emotional messages came from, Amanda, who now has two daughters of her own.
“I’m going to write this out in hopes that maybe if my mom is out there, she will see this. Mama, this is Amanda, if you see this please know that I am not mad at you and I just want to know that you are safe, Mama,” she wrote in the July 28, 2018, post alongside an old photo of her mother.
‘Grieving or waiting’
As the years passed, the uncertainty shaped the family’s life.
“For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting,” Hundley Smith’s cousin, Barbara Byrd, told WFMY.
Birthdays and Mother’s Days were celebrated on social media, with Amanda expressing her inconsolable sadness over the unexpected loss of her mom, who she called her best friend.
“Happy birthday to my mom!” she started in a post on her mother’s 60th birthday. “There really isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. I wish I could speak to her one more time. I hate not knowing what happened, not knowing if she is dead or alive to this day and wondering if she is dead, what happened and did she die hurting and scared or did she leave…so many questions for so many years.”
Then came the development no one expected.
‘Alive and well’
On Feb. 20, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office announced that Michele Hundley Smith, now 62, had been located after detectives “received new information” about her disappearance.
“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 said. “At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed.”
Authorities confirmed that her family had been notified and informed of her request for privacy.
‘What happened?’
The news sparked a wave of emotion.
“I kind of want to go outside and scream, ‘she’s alive, she’s alive,’” Byrd told WFMY.
But relief quickly mixed with questions.
“My biggest question is to her…what happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?” Byrd said.
“I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry,” Byrd shared, adding, “I would love to hear you say I’m OK, but when I’m ready, I’ll talk to you.”
Even with so many questions, she said she is choosing to hold onto gratitude.
“The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment,” she said.
‘Chose her new life’
In a statement shared with WFMY, Amanda thanked everyone for the “love and support,” adding that Hundley Smith “chose her new life, and we know she is alive, and for now that is enough.”
Later, in a Facebook post, Amanda also shared the range of emotions she was experiencing after learning her missing mother had been found.
“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom…I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map! 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,” she wrote on Feb. 22.
How would you respond if you learned a missing loved one was living a separate life for more than two decades? Please let us know your thoughts and then share this story so we can hear from others!
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