FAMILY MATTERS

Mother Missing for 24 Years Reveals Why She Left Her 3 Kids

Michele Smith’s daughter unmasked her mother’s troubling behavior before she left.

A mother of three who disappeared 24 years ago has finally revealed why she left without a trace. “She said she left… due to ongoing domestic issues at the time,” Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told People. Michele Hundley Smith, then 38, disappeared from Eden, North Carolina, in December 2001 while she was out Christmas shopping. She was found alive by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month. According to her daughter, Amanda Hundley, 38, who spoke on The Vanished Podcast, her mother had serious drinking problems. A month prior to the disappearance, Smith was arrested for drinking and driving and had also been fired from a veterinary practice for drinking. The drinking also caused domestic disturbances between Smith and her husband, Randy, and their fights got physical at times, according to Hundley, who said, “My dad didn’t like the fact that my mom hid her drinking.” Her family waited three weeks to report her disappearance due to her tendency to occasionally bolt. According to police, Smith still asks that her location not be shared. “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!” Hundley posted on Facebook.