Camilla Jessen
Authorities say she is safe but has chosen to keep her current life private.
Michelle Hundley Smith disappeared on December 9, 2001, after leaving her home in Eden, North Carolina, to shop at a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia.
She was 38 at the time and never returned home, prompting her husband to report her missing weeks later.
Her disappearance led to an extensive, multi-agency investigation involving authorities in both North Carolina and Virginia, as well as the FBI.
Breakthrough after decades
Earlier this month, investigators received new information about the case and made contact with Smith the following day.
She is now 62.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on February 20 that she had been found in an “undisclosed location within North Carolina” and was “alive and well.”
“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” authorities added.
Family reacts
Smith’s sudden reappearance has stirred complex emotions among relatives who had spent years searching for answers.
Her cousin, Barbara Byrd, told WFMYNews 2: “I kind of want to go outside and scream, ‘She’s alive, she’s alive!’ My biggest question is to her…What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?'”
“I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry,” Byrd said. “The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
Daughter’s mixed feelings
Smith’s daughter Amanda, who was 19 when her mother vanished, shared her reaction in a Facebook post.
“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…” she wrote.
Reflecting on the early days after her mother disappeared, Amanda told Dateline in 2020: “I’ll never forget that first Christmas without her. We didn’t even care about presents or anything – our mom was gone. Nothing was ever the same after that.”
A Facebook group created to help find Smith said it will now shift its focus to assisting other missing persons cases.
Sources: Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, WFMYNews 2, NBC’s Dateline, Facebook group Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home.
