Mom Missing 24 Years Reunites With Her Daughter

Daughter meets mother at courthouse after decades-long disappearance
Posted Mar 27, 2026 2:30 AM CDT
NC Mom Missing 24 Years Reunites With Her Daughter
An old photo of Michele Hundley Smith.   (Rockingham County Sheriff's Office)

The missing-person case that shadowed Amanda Smith's life for 24 years ended Thursday on the steps of a North Carolina courthouse. There, she finally embraced her mother, Michele Hundley Smith, who vanished in December 2001, NBC News reports. Smith said she was going Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Martinsville, Va., but never returned home, per the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office. She was located in February, but said she didn't want to be found.

Authorities say Michele, then 38, left on her own amid what she later described as "domestic issues," and for years did not want her whereabouts disclosed—even to family. A tip led deputies to her, alive and well in North Carolina. Days after being found, she was arrested over a decades-old failure to appear in court tied to a 2001 DWI charge, and Amanda was at her side for Thursday's arraignment. "Life's too short for me to hold a grudge," Amanda told WXII, adding, "We only get one life, and I want my mom in it." Michele, who has two daughters and a son, is due back in court April 23. The DWI charge dates to Nov. 11, 2001, about a month before Smith disappeared; the court date she missed was on Dec. 27, 2001, weeks after her disappearance, People reports.

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