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North Carolina authorities have taken an unusual route to bring Michele Hundley Smith back to court, decades after she vanished. Smith, who disappeared 24 years ago, was recently arrested on a failure to appear warrant related to a DWI charge from the same year of her disappearance.
The decision to act on this warrant comes because, unlike the DWI charge, the warrant itself does not expire. Consequently, Smith is now required to present herself in court on March 26, as confirmed by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.
The story of Smith’s disappearance begins on December 9, 2001, when she set out from her home in Eden, North Carolina, for a trip to a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, just 18 miles away. She never made it back, prompting her husband to report her missing three weeks later on December 31, as detailed in CrimeOnline’s earlier report.
Remarkably, on February 19, fresh information led investigators to make contact with Smith, who was discovered to be alive and residing somewhere in North Carolina. Her exact location, however, remains a mystery, as requested by Smith herself.
“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” stated the sheriff’s office. “Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well.”
The sheriff’s office didn’t say why she left and never contacted her family — nor why her husband waited three weeks to report her missing. One of her children posted to a Facebook page dedicated to finding her that for now, none of that matters.
“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!” her daughter Amanda wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that bc 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.”
Family have not commented on Smith’s arrest.
The sheriff’s office said it worked with the District Attorney’s Office to find the warrant for Smith’s arrest. She was charged with the DWI on November 11, 2001 — a month before she disappeared — and failed to appear in court on December 27.
The Rockingham Sheriff’s Office had deputies in Robeson County arrest her on Wednesday, and she immediately posted her $2,000 bond.