A mom of three who went missing for 24 years has revealed that she is making amends with her family decades later.
Michelle Lyn Hundley Smith, 62, told the New York Post, “My daughter is forgiving me.”
The mother of three was forced to return home this week after being arrested on a decades-old charge for missing a drunk driving-related court appearance in 2001.
Fed up with the public interest in her disappearing act, she added to the Post, “We are in contact, so leave me alone.”
A friend told the Post that the pair are in communication through a third party: “Yes, they’re in contact through a friend of Michele’s and she has forgiven her mom but she doesn’t have any other comments for right now. She’s trying to handle things privately and respectfully,” said the friend, identified as Lynn.
Until now, Smith had avoided making contact with her family. “At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” the Sheriff’s Office said after they found her earlier this month.
Smith, 38 at the time, vanished in November 2001 after telling her family she would be out Christmas shopping in Eden, North Carolina. Her children were 19, 14, and 7 when she disappeared.
“She said she left… due to ongoing domestic issues at the time,” Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told People.
Smith’s daughter, Amanda Hundley, 38, gave more insight on The Vanished Podcast.
The 62-year-old had a history of abusing alcohol and an aggressive relationship with her husband, Randy, resulting from her addiction. A month before she disappeared, Smith was arrested for drinking and driving and forced out of a veterinary practice for drinking on the job, according to Hundley.
Smith and her husband, Randy, often fought, sometimes physically, because of her drinking, Hundley claimed.
“My dad didn’t like the fact that my mom hid her drinking,” Hundley explained. Randy and Michelle also both cheated on each other.
