Mom-of-three who vanished just before Christmas 2001 is seen for first time in 24 years after abandoning her children to start new life

A woman who had been missing for 24 years and was found to be living a new life was arrested Wednesday on a decades-old drunken driving charge.

Michele Hundley Smith was 38 years old when she crossed the border in Martinsville, Virginia, on December 9, 2001, and left her home in Eden, North Carolina, to go Christmas shopping.

He never returned, but was found alive and well last week in North Carolina at an address he asked police not to reveal to anyone, not even his grieving family.

But according to Rockingham County court records first disclosed by the Daily Mail, he was arrested Wednesday night for impaired driving on Nov. 11, 2001; It had been an extraordinary situation since his disappearance four weeks later.

She was unable to attend her trial on December 27, 2001, and had gone missing, leaving her children, then aged 19, 14 and 7, motherless.

An arrest warrant was later issued after he failed to appear, which remained until officers finally apprehended him.

Robeson County officers arrested Smith, now 62, for Rockingham County, at an address in Saint Pauls, North Carolina, almost three hours from the Stoneville home where he disappeared.

He appeared before Robeson County Magistrate Judge Macan Singh and was granted bail on the condition that he attend a hearing in Rockingham County on March 26, police said.

A photo of Smith before he disappeared. The discovery of the mother of three shocked America

The mother of three was released from the Robeson County jail Thursday morning on a $2,000 bond, according to court records obtained by the Daily Mail.

In the mugshot obtained by the Daily Mail, Smith looks far away from the last photos of him that appeared on missing posters that were circulating when he disappeared.

Her previously dark locks were now gray and tied back.

Caswell and Rockingham County District Attorney Katy Gregg told the Daily Mail that Smith will not face any charges in her disappearance.

He said he met with detectives on Tuesday and they determined no charges would be filed based on their investigation.

‘I support their decision,’ Gregg said.

After Smith was found alive last week, his cousin Barbara Byrd described her great shock.

“I want to go out and scream ‘he’s alive, he’s alive,’” Byrd told WFMYNews 2.

A photograph of Smith taken shortly before his disappearance in 2001. He was supposed to appear in court on drunken driving charges when he disappeared.

‘We didn’t know if we were sad or waiting for years… My biggest question to him is: ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?’

“I understand and respect that he does not want any of us to have contact with him,” Byrd said.

‘I’m not angry… The biggest answer I got today was that he was alive. Nothing else matters right now.’

Smith’s daughter, Amanda, wrote a lengthy statement on Facebook responding to the news that her mother had been found.

‘As for my views and feelings about my mother… I’m so excited, I’m angry, I’m heartbroken, I’m all over the map! Will I have a relationship with my mother again? Frankly, I can’t answer that because I don’t know. “My first reaction would have been a definite yes, but then I thought about the pain… But even then, my mother is only human, like the rest of us,” she wrote.

‘When my mother became a part of my daily life, she showed me a love and bond that will never be forgotten. Of course there were mother-daughter arguments, but all I can remember right now is the smiles we shared, the happy times we spent together and the love I felt!’

‘My father has been in my daily life throughout my life and shows me love and we have a life that will never be forgotten! There were also father and daughter arguments, but all I remember is the smiles between us, the love I felt and the bond we shared!

‘Both my father and my mother deserve to have their choices and feelings respected.’

Missing poster of Smith seeking information after his disappearance. Smith has yet to comment on why he ran or what he did in the following years.

Smith’s disappearance haunted his family for years and left them with many unanswered questions.

‘I don’t know exactly what happened. “To this day, I’m not even sure if you’re still here on Earth or if you’ve passed on,” his daughter wrote on Facebook in 2024.

‘All I know is that you made a hole in people’s hearts! ‘I cry and mourn for a relationship that will never happen again, I cry and mourn for a relationship that never was…and we’ll never know, right?’

‘I love you and I miss you and it’s like that every day. I’m angry that I got hurt, but mostly I’m angry that my brother and sister felt/had to feel hurt and pain. “If I had found you alive, if I had found out you were running away from everything… I’m sure I would still love you the same,” he said, adding that he believes his siblings would still be angry about the pain he had to endure.

The Facebook page Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home said Smith was driving a forest green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan and was never found when he went missing.

‘Michele would never leave her children willingly. “We need answers and are asking for support and help from the community as we try to find the truth about what happened to Michele and why she mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again,” the page said.

‘To this day, almost 20 years later, there has been no real investigation into her disappearance… Let’s try to end this nightmare for Michele’s loved ones and bring her home.’

The page is set to be reused for other missing persons cases.