Missing US mother found living new life after two-decades disappearance

Michele Lyn Hundley Smith went missing in 2001. Photo / Facebook

A United States mother of three who vanished more than two decades ago has been found alive and living a new life.

North Carolina police confirmed they discovered Michele Lyn Hundley Smith, who disappeared in December 2001, last week after receiving a tipoff about her whereabouts.

However, the Rockingham Sheriff’s County office said there would be no joyful reunion with her family.

“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” the office said.

Smith, who was 38 at the time of her disappearance, told her family she was going to do Christmas shopping at a Kmart store 30 minutes from their home in Eden, North Carolina.

She was never seen again.

Her disappearance prompted a years-long search by her husband and children, who were aged 7, 14 and 19 at the time.

Michele Hundley Smith was found 24 years after she went missing. Photo / Facebook

“I kind of want to go outside and scream ‘she’s alive, she’s alive‘,” her cousin Barbara Byrd told local reporters.

“For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting.

“My biggest question to her is: ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?’”

Smith’s family never gave up looking for her, working with multiple agencies including the FBI, and running social media campaigns appealing for new information.

A missing poster for Michele Hundley Smith, who was recently found alive. Photo / Facebook

Smith’s daughter Amanda shared her reaction on a Facebook page she had created about her mother’s case, describing a “whirlwind of emotions”.

“I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken,” she wrote.

“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 also asked followers to “leave your accusations and assumptions in your head”, saying her father, whom she called her superhero, had faced rumours and judgment from townspeople who assumed Smith had left because of marital issues.

Michele Hundley Smith disappeared in December 2001 after telling her family she was going Christmas shopping. Photo / Facebook

Byrd said she understood and respected her cousin’s request that her family not contact her.

“I’m not angry,” she said.

“The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”

Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.