A MOM-of-three who went missing more than 20 years ago has been found alive and living a shocking double life.
Michele Hundley Smith vanished without a trace 24 years ago after telling her family she had gone Christmas shopping.
Michele Hundley Smith disappeared 24 years agoCredit: Facebook / Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home
Her family never gave up the search for herCredit: Facebook / Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home
On Friday, police from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office revealed they had found the mother “alive and well”.
Smith had been living a secret, double life in North Carolina for two-and-a-half decades, after leaving behind her three children, who were 19, 14 and seven years old at the time.
Her cousin Barbara Byrd spoke to the media following the announcement.
“I kind of want to go outside and scream, “she’s alive, she’s alive”,” she told WFMYNews2.
“For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting… My biggest question is to her, “What happened all those years ago in December?
“What made you leave? What happened?”
Smith’s disappearance was investigated by multiple agencies – including the FBI, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators said they received new information relating to her case on February 19.
Officers contacted her the following day.
In a statement to the public, the Sheriff’s Office said Smith had requested her location not be shared.
“I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her,” Byrd later said.
“I’m not angry…The biggest answer I had today was she was alive.
“Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
Smith’s daughter Amanda took to Facebook, writing an extensive statement after the news broke that her mother had been found.
“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom…I am ecstatic, I am p***ed, 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 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.”
Amanda said the bond she had with her mother “will never be forgotten”.
“There were mother daughter arguments of course, but right now all I can remember are the smiles we shared, the times together that were happy and the love I felt!” she said.
She said both her parents “deserve to have their choices and their feelings respected”.
Amanda said Smith’s disappearance haunted her family for decades and has left them with so many unanswered questions.
Two years ago, her daughter said she was unaware “if [Smith was] still here on earth or if [she] had passed”.
“All I do know is that you left a hole in people’s hearts! I cry and mourn for a relationship that will never again be, I cry and mourn for a relationship that was never had …and we will never know, will we?” she wrote.
‘I love you and I miss you and that’s every single day. I’m angry because of the hurt but I’m mostly angry that my brother and sister had/have to feel hurt and pain.
“If I were to find you in life, if I was to find out that you did simply run away from everything… I am sure that I would still love you just the same,” she added.
The Facebook page dedicated to her disappearance – “Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home” – said she had been driving a forest-green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van.
The vehicle was never found.
The page said: “Michele would have never left her children by choice”.
“We are desperate for answers and we are asking for community support and assistance in trying to find the truth on what happened to Michele and why she mysteriously vanished never to be seen again,” it read.
“There has been no real investigation into her disappearance to this day almost 20 years later.
“Lets try and end this nightmare for Michele’s loved ones and bring her home.”
The page will now be repurposed for other missing persons cases.
Police announced they had found her last weekCredit: Facebook / Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home
