North Carolina mother who was missing for 24 years reunites with daughter
For more than two decades, Amanda Smith wondered what happened to her mother, who disappeared 24 years ago in North Carolina. In a Hollywood surprise, she had an emotional reunion Thursday with her mother, who for years did not want to be found.
Michele Hundley Smith was 38 years old when she was reported missing in December 2001, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina said. In February, she was found “alive and well” in the state following a tip.
On Thursday, the moment Amanda had dreamed of for years came true.
The two gathered outside the Rockingham County District Courthouse, where his mother was scheduled to appear.
Smith walked towards his daughter with open arms and pulled her into a long, tight hug. She complimented her daughter’s hair and kissed her.
“Oh, I know it’s not all black and white. There’s a whole gray area,” Amanda Smith told Winston-Salem’s NBC affiliate WXII. “Life is too short for me to blame her for being my mother.”
“We only have one life and I want my mom to be in it,” she told the station.
Days after being found, Smith was arrested on an outstanding court order related to her failure to appear in court 25 years ago. This order was related to a charge of driving while intoxicated issued on November 11, 2001 by the Eden Police Department.
Her daughter accompanied her to her arraignment Thursday. During the hearing, Smith requested a court-appointed attorney and his next court date is set for April 23, the sheriff’s office said.
It’s unclear why Smith left her life behind all those years ago.
She is last known to have left her home on Dec. 9, 2001, to go to a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, to do her Christmas shopping and never returned, the sheriff’s office said.
After she was found, she told authorities there was “domestic trouble” and she had left of her own accord, Rockingham County Sheriff’s Capt. Jonathan Cheek said. The sheriff’s office had no records related to such matters before he left.
Smith had asked that her location not be released, including to family members who were informed she had been found, the office said.
Smith has two daughters and a son, Amanda said on Facebook in 2021.
For more than 20 years, Amanda did not lose hope. She ran a Facebook page asking for information and sharing her personal thoughts on her mother’s disappearance.
Last month, after her mother was found, Amanda posted on the Facebook page: “I will say that my mother has chosen her new life and we know that she is alive, and for now that is enough.” »
She said her family was “suffering” and her father was suffering as the target of “many accusations since that time.”
“I’m thrilled, I’m upset, I’m heartbroken, I’m all over the place! Will I have a relationship with my mom again? I honestly can’t answer that question because I don’t even know,” she wrote at the time.
