The daughter of a North Carolina mom-of-three who resurfaced after vanishing more than two decades ago has said she wants a reunion — despite her conflicted emotions.
“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!” Amanda Smith, 38, said in a Facebook post after Michele Hundley Smith was tracked down to an undisclosed location in North Carolina, 24 years after she disappeared in December 2001.
“Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that bc I don’t even know,” she continued. “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.”
Amanda Smith reacts to her missing mom being found living a new life. FOX 8 WGHPAmanda was just 14 when her mother, then 38, disappeared after leaving their home in Eden, North Carolina, near the Virginia border, supposedly to go Christmas shopping at a Kmart at around 8 p.m. Dec. 9, 2001, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.
She was officially reported missing on Dec. 31, 2001, and, despite a multi-agency search across North Carolina and Virginia, no trace of her was found until last week.
Michele told law enforcement she left her three children “due to ongoing domestic issues,” Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told PEOPLE.
At the time of her disappearance, a missing person flyer described Michele as “endangered,” and said she “would not leave her kids by choice.”
The exact circumstances behind her discovery a quarter of a century on were not disclosed, but after officers received a tip, Michele was found “alive and well,” authorities said.
“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.
Michele Hundley Smith left her family in 2001. Facebook
The missing persons poster for Michelle Smith. FacebookOn Tuesday, Sheriff Page clarified his original statement, saying that Michele hadn’t explicitly said she didn’t want her family to contact her, but added that he was unaware of any contact between the parties since Friday.
Detectives have contacted the district attorney’s office and are conducting a full case review, Page said.
Amanda defended her father in the wake of the sheriff’s statement about her parents’ domestic issues.
“My father has been through so much and I want it made clear that while their marriage had issues (just as many marriages go through) that my mom did not simply leave bc of a bad marriage,” she wrote.
