Michele Hundley Smith found: 24-year-old mystery finally unfolds

The agonized and desperate quest is over after almost 25 years, Michele Hundley Smith has been discovered alive and well.

The family shattered as they shared the major sighting of the mother of three.

According to the Rockingham County Sheriff Office, detectives found the now 62-year-old at an unspecified spot in North Carolina on the 20th of February. 

Since she requested her location remains confidential. Smith was only 38 when she disappeared on Dec. 9, 2001.

She went out of her home in Eden, N.C., to do Christmas shopping in a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, and never came back. 

This was followed by an in-depth investigation followed by the agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. 

Her daughter, Amanda, revealed the uncooked feelings on the internet, “I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken… I am all over the map!”

She said that she does not know whether it is possible to build a relationship again but added that, “My mom is only human just as we all are.”

The shock was reflected in cousin Barbara Byrd who said to WFMY-TV, “She’s alive, she’s alive… What happened all those years ago? What made you leave?”

At least, the most substantial response is that she is alive. The rest remains a mystery.