When deputies in Rockingham County, North Carolina, located 62-year-old Michele Hundley Smith on February 20th, 2026, they closed a missing person file that had been open for nearly a quarter century, but they did not open a criminal case. Her explanation for leaving, and her family’s competing accounts of what was happening at home, now sit in a space between private decision and public suspicion.
TLDR
Michele Hundley Smith, who disappeared from Rockingham County, North Carolina, on December 9th, 2001, was found alive in the state on February 20th, 2026. She told investigators she left voluntarily over domestic issues, and according to the sheriff, no criminal charges will be filed.
From Holiday Errand to 24-Year Mystery
According to Fox News reporting, Smith was 38 years old when she left her Rockingham County home on December 9th, 2001, telling family she was going Christmas shopping in nearby Martinsville, Virginia. She did not return, and her disappearance was treated as an unsolved missing person case for more than two decades.
Investigators kept the file open as a long-term missing person case until new information reached detectives in February 2026. Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told Fox News that deputies located Smith in North Carolina on February 20th, 2026, and confirmed that she was alive and safe. The sheriff has not publicly detailed how investigators learned her location or where she had been living during the missing years.
A woman who disappeared more than two decades ago while on a Christmas shopping trip has been found alive, bringing closure to a long-standing missing persons case while raising new questions for her family.
Michele Lyn Hundley Smith, then 38 years old and a mother of three from… pic.twitter.com/zRMGgdDqbd
— BANK OF TRUEST (@BANKOFTRUE5T) February 23, 2026
Domestic Issues Without Police Records
Well before Smith resurfaced, her daughter, Amanda Hundley, described severe strain inside the household. In a 2018 episode of “The Vanished Podcast,” she said her mother lost a job at a veterinary practice for drinking at work, and that she was aware of hidden alcohol use at home. She also recounted frequent marital arguments, alleging that they “got physical a few times,” and said both parents had affairs during the marriage.
Those allegations exist alongside an official record that shows no prior complaints. Sheriff Page told Fox News there were no domestic abuse reports involving the couple in his office’s files. After deputies found Smith in February 2026, Page said she offered her own explanation, stating that she left because of problems at home. “She relayed that she had left on her own accord,” Page said. “She did reference some domestic issues. When we made contact, she was safe.” He later consulted the district attorney’s office, and, according to his statement, prosecutors do not intend to pursue criminal charges.
Family’s Public Pleas and Community Suspicion
Smith’s disappearance left her daughter with years of uncertainty. In the 2018 podcast interview, Amanda said that if her mother had wanted to end the marriage, leaving the children behind was harder for her to understand. She recalled being 14 years old at the time, believing for years that her mother had simply walked away.
After Smith was found in February 2026, Amanda, now using the name Amanda Smith in public posts, addressed the case in a detailed Facebook statement described by Fox News. She wrote that the previous 48 hours had been a “whirlwind of emotions” and urged people not to publicly speculate about her family. Community suspicion, she said, had long focused on her father, despite the lack of charges. “My father has been through so much, and I want it made clear that while their marriage had issues (just as many marriages go through), that my mom did not leave simply bc of a bad marriage,” she wrote, adding that she believes he has been “proven innocent.”
Her comments highlight a disconnect between informal suspicion and formal process. For years, in the absence of an identified crime scene, there was no homicide case, only a missing person file and community theories. Now, with Smith alive and describing domestic issues but no reported violence to law enforcement, authorities say there is still no basis for a criminal charge.
The reappearance of a long-missing mother gives investigators a rare opportunity to close a file without a body, yet it leaves fundamental questions outside the reach of courts. How Smith survived, why she chose not to contact her family for so long, and how her account of domestic problems aligns with her daughter’s shifting public statements are questions that may remain within the family rather than the justice system.
