A woman who went missing for 24 years and was found leading a new life was arrested Wednesday over a decades-old DUI charge.
Michele Hundley Smith was 38 when she left her home in Eden, North Carolina, to go Christmas shopping across the border in Martinsville, Virginia, on December 9, 2001.
She never came back but last week she was found in North Carolina, at an address she asked police not to disclose to anyone – even her anguished family.
Smith told how she and her middle daughter Amanda, have already been in touch after the 62-year-old was arrested last night, later bailing out and returning to her home in Saint Pauls, North Carolina.
'She has forgiven me and she has said I'm human like anybody else is,' she told the Daily Mail exclusively.
Amanda, 39, campaigned tirelessly to keep the spotlight on her mother's missing person case over 24 long years, creating a Facebook page and giving several interviews. She described her mother as her 'best friend' before she disappeared on December 9, 2001.
But in a heartbreaking admission, Smith tells the Daily Mail: 'I know that I made the news, but I honestly 100% never knew that I was loved or wanted.
'When I left, the mental state I was in, I thought it was my only choice.
Michele Hundley Smith is seen in a mugshot after she was arrested for DUI earlier this week. She abandoned her children to start a new life in 2001 and was recently rediscovered
Smith pictured before her disappearance. The discovery of the mom-of-three has shocked America
'I was just not in the mental state to stay. My children were not abandoned, they were left with their father to care for them.
'My main thing is I want everybody to know, I'm in contact with my daughter Amanda. I'm starting with Amanda because she is the one reaching out to me and she wants to start with her.
'She's the only one right now I'm in contact with.'
Smith said it 'broke my heart' when she learned how long her daughter and other loved ones had been searching for her.
'I honestly believed I didn't matter,' she told the Daily Mail. 'When I found out, it broke me. That's why I'm trying to rebuild something with her, because what she did, shows how much I really was loved.'
She confessed it was 'hard' knowing how much of her children's lives she had missed out on while she was away.
Smith told of her life on the road away from North Carolina and how she lived in a truck with Good Samaritan Randy Johnson 'somebody who found me when I needed help.'
'I travelled for years. We got together, and he kind of built me back up — made me feel like I was worth something,' she said.
A photo of Smith taken shortly before her disappearance in 2001. She had been due to attend court on a DUI charge when she vanished
Smith said Johnson never pressed her for details about her past, but eventually, she says, 'I just told him what I went through.'
The couple settled back in North Carolina about 12 years ago. Johnson died last year.
'I'm dealing with that, and then finding out I was wanted by my family and never knew it,' she added.
Smith insisted she was none the wiser of her missing person appeal, saying she never saw 'pictures, billboards, flyers' news, or other TV shows beaming out her case.
She described her 'shock' when detectives arrived to her mobile home, adding: 'If I'd had any idea, I would have already called them and let them know I was ok.
'I didn't have to go back if I didn't want to. I could have just let my kids know I was ok.
'I would have never put them through that, I thought leaving them was better for them.'
She said it was 'hard to watch' all the news and other shows about her disappearance.
A missing poster for Smith that sought information after her disappearance. Smith has yet to comment on why she fled or what she has been doing in the ensuing years
'It took me a day just to process all of that,' she said.
Asked about initial reports she didn't want her family to contact her, she replied: 'It wasn't that I didn't want to be contacted, I just didn't want anyone to know where I was until I had been able to talk with everyone.
Visibly drained, she added: 'I'm wore down. I can't talk about it right now. I've been talking about it for days.'
Smith failed to appear for her December 27, 2001 court date, having gone missing, leaving her children then aged 19, 14, and seven without their mom.
An arrest warrant was then issued when she failed to appear, which has remained outstanding until officers finally caught up with her.
Robeson County officers arrested Smith, now 62, on behalf of Rockingham County at an address in Saint Pauls, North Carolina, almost three hours from the Stoneville home she vanished from.
She appeared before Robeson county Magistrate Macan Singh and was granted bond on the condition she appear at a March 26 court hearing in Rockingham County, police said.
The mother-of-three was released from Robeson County jail Thursday morning on a $2,000 bond, court records obtained by the Daily Mail show.
In her mugshot obtained by the Daily Mail, Smith looks worlds away from the last seen photos of her included on the missing posters circulated when she disappeared.
Her previous dark locks are now grey and were tied back.
Smith will face no charges over her disappearance, Katy Gregg, District Attorney for Caswell and Rockingham County, told the Daily Mail.
She said she met with detectives on Tuesday and based on their investigation, they have decided there will be no charges.
'I support their decision,' said Gregg.
After Smith was discovered alive last week, her cousin Barbara Byrd spoke of her utter shock.
'I kind of want to go outside and scream, 'she's alive, she's alive',' Byrd told WFMYNews 2.
'For years, we didn't know if we were grieving or waiting... My biggest question is to her, 'What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?''
'I understand and respect that she doesn't want any of us to contact her,' Byrd told the outlet.
'I'm not angry...The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.'
On Facebook, Smith's daughter Amanda wrote a lengthy statement responding to the news that her mother had been found.
'As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom...I am ecstatic, I am p***ed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map! Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can't answer that because I don't even know. 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,' she wrote.
'When my mom was a part of my daily life, she showed me a love and bond that will never ever be forgotten. There were mother daughter arguments of course, but right now all I can remember are the smiles we shared, the times together that were happy and the love I felt!'
'My dad has been in my daily life all of my life, and he shows me love and we have a life that will never be forgotten! There were father daughter arguments as well but all I remember are the smiles we have, the love I feel and the bond we share!
'Both my dad and my mom deserve to have their choices and their feelings respected as well.'
Smith's disappearance haunted her family for years, leaving them with many unanswered questions.
'I don't know what exactly happened. I'm not even sure til this very day if you are still here on Earth or if you have passed,' her daughter wrote on Facebook in 2024.
'All I do know is that you left a hole in people's hearts! I cry and mourn for a relationship that will never again be, I cry and mourn for a relationship that was never had ...and we will never know, will we?'
'I love you and I miss you and that's every single day. I'm angry because of the hurt but I'm mostly angry that my brother and sister had/have to feel hurt and pain.
'If I were to find you in life, if I was to find out that you did simply run away from everything... I am sure that I would still love you just the same,' she said, adding that she believed she would still be angry for the pain her siblings also had to endure.
A Facebook page, Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home, said that Smith had been driving her forest green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van which was never found when she disappeared.
'Michele would have never left her children by choice. We are desperate for answers and we are asking for community support and assistance in trying to find the truth on what happened to Michele and why she mysteriously vanished never to be seen again,' the page said.
'There has been no real investigation into her disappearance to this day almost 20 years later...Lets try and end this nightmare for Michele's loved ones and bring her home.'
The page is set to be repurposed for other missing persons cases.
