Michele Hundley Smith was 38 when she disappeared while shopping in Dec. 2001

Mom, Who Vanished Without a Trace 24 Years Ago, Found 'Alive,' Leaving Family with Unanswered Questions

Michelle Hundley Smith, who was found alive 24 years after she disappeared in 2001.Credit : namus.gov

The daughter of a North Carolina woman who was found alive after being missing for 24 years is speaking out.

The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) said authorities made contact with Michele Hundley Smith, now 62, on Friday, Feb. 20, more than 24 years after she was reported missing in December 2001.

Smith, a mother of three who was 38 when she disappeared, was located after detectives “received new information” about her disappearance, according to the RCSO.

“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.”

In a statement shared on social media, Smith’s daughter Amanda —who was 14 when her mom disappeared, according to NCB News — expressed mixed emotions about the shocking discovery.

“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!” she wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that bc I don’t even know.”

She added, “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.”

“I may completely forgive my mother at some point or it may be too much to forgive and I only try moving forward best I can, and I may choose to forget everything completely or I may never be able to forget,” she continued.

Although she went on to say that her “heart, soul and spirit says that I will forgive…right now my head says that would be insane.”

“But as I mentioned above, life is too short and we each are only human, we each make mistakes and have caused other souls pain in our time on this earth,” she wrote, later asking people to show her family compassion — and not make accusations or assumptions as to what happened.

“Thank you again to all of you for your concern, your support, your love, your comforting words,” she wrote.

Meanwhile Smith’s cousin, Barbara Byrd, expressed her confusion about the missing person case to CBS affiliate WFMY.

“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?”

She continued, “I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”

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Smith disappeared after leaving her home to go Christmas shopping at a K-Mart in Martinsville, Va., on Dec. 9, 2001 and never returned. She was reported missing on Dec. 31.

When reached for comment by PEOPLE on Monday Feb. 23, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page confirmed that they’ve been told she’s “in good health.”

As for her disappearance, Page said that “there were no allegations of any foul play” but that “according to Ms. Smith, she said she left due to ongoing domestic issues at the time, but did not elaborate on that.”

Page went on to confirm that there are no known records of domestic issues filed before her disappearance.

Although the missing persons element of the case has been resolved, Page said detectives have been in contact with the district attorney’s office, to see “if there are any consideration for any charges along the lines of abandonment.”

“But right now we haven’t had anything confirmed with the district attorney,” he continued. “We’re waiting on them to review the case and then respond back to us.”