• What Happened: Michele Hundley Smith, a North Carolina mother who disappeared on December 9, 2001 while going Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Virginia, has been found alive and well at age 62.
  • Why It Matters: Smith was reported missing by her husband on December 31, 2001, leaving behind three children including a 14-year-old and a 7-year-old who spent 24 years without answers.
  • Bottom Line: Smith has requested that her current whereabouts remain undisclosed, and her family has been notified that she has been located safe.

After 24 years of unanswered questions, a North Carolina family finally has the answer they have been waiting for. Michele Hundley Smith is alive.

The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office announced February 20 that Smith, now 62, had been located alive and well at an undisclosed location in North Carolina after detectives received new information about her disappearance. Smith was 38 years old when she vanished on December 9, 2001, after leaving her home to go Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Martinsville, Virginia, about 17 miles away. She never came home.

Her husband reported her missing on December 31, 2001, more than three weeks after she disappeared. She left behind were three children, including a 14-year-old daughter named Amanda and a son who was just shy of his eighth birthday.

In a 2020 interview with NBC News, Amanda described a mother who was always waiting when they got off the school bus, cooked their favorite meals, and kissed them goodnight the evening she left. That kiss goodnight on December 9, 2001 was the last time Amanda saw her mother for nearly a quarter century.

The circumstances of why Smith left and where she has been for 24 years have not been publicly disclosed by authorities. At her own request, her current location will remain undisclosed. Her family has been notified that she has been found safe.

Her daughter Amanda shared a heartbreaking response to the news that her mother is alive: “I’m euphoric, I’m furious, I’m heartbroken, I’m all over the place!”

There are no words for what this family has carried for 24 years. And the mystery of why she disappeared - and wants her location to remain undisclosed, is almost too much. What causes a loving mother to abandon her family, at Christmas no less, and stay under the radar for over two decades??