Daughter of NC woman who was found alive after vanishing 24 years ago says her emotions are ‘all over the map,’ but wants reunion
The daughter of a North Carolina mom-of-three who resurfaced after vanishing more than two decades ago has said she wants a reunion — despite her conflicted emotions.
“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom… I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map!” Amanda Smith, 38, said in a Facebook post after Michele Hundley Smith was tracked down to an undisclosed location in North Carolina, 24 years after she disappeared in December 2001.
“Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that bc I don’t even know,” she continued. “My initial reaction would be yes absolutely but then I think of all the hurt… But even then … My mom is only human just as we all are.”
Amanda was just 14 when her mother, then 38, disappeared after leaving their home in Eden, North Carolina, near the Virginia border, supposedly to go Christmas shopping at a Kmart, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.
Michele told law enforcement she left her three children “due to ongoing domestic issues at the time,” Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told PEOPLE.
At the time of her disappearance, a missing person flyer described Michele as “endangered,” and said she “would not leave her kids by choice.”
The exact circumstances behind her discovery a quarter of a century on were not disclosed, but after officers received a tip, Michele was found “alive and well,” authorities said.
