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North Carolina mom of 3 who vanished 24 years ago found alive, living new life
New York Post ^ | Feb. 22, 2026 | Zoe Hussain

Posted on 02/26/2026 12:58:26 PM PST by nickcarraway

A North Carolina mother of three who vanished over two decades ago was found alive and living a new life — leaving her family reeling with questions over her whereabouts, according to authorities and reports.

Michele Lyn Hundley Smith, then 38, disappeared in December 2001 after leaving her home in Eden to do Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Virginia, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith’s “troubling” disappearance prompted multiple agencies across North Carolina and Virginia, including the FBI, to search for the mother of three for “countless” hours and pursue multiple investigative leads, cops said.

A missing person flyer distributed at the time of her disappearance noted she should be considered “endangered” and “would not leave her kids by choice.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Local News; Society
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1 posted on 02/26/2026 12:58:26 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Kmart takes another victim.


2 posted on 02/26/2026 1:00:28 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait.)
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To: nickcarraway
The motive for Smith’s disappearance is not immediately clear.

But it's probably somebody else's fault ...

3 posted on 02/26/2026 1:04:52 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Larry Lucido

“Kmart takes another victim.”

Why do you think she went into Kmart?


4 posted on 02/26/2026 1:05:13 PM PST by TexasGator (1.X11111.1~I11:/)
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To: nickcarraway
24 years is a long time but nowhere near the hide-and-seek record of Audrey Backeberg who was found alive 60 years after disappearing.

https://nypost.com/2025/05/05/us-news/missing-wisconsin-mother-found-alive-and-well-after-six-decades-was-living-her-life-happily-with-new-name-and-husband/

5 posted on 02/26/2026 1:05:32 PM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: nickcarraway

I had a distant cousin or uncle of some kind who disappeared and left a wife and kids when I was a toddler. His family found him decades later. He was dealing Blackjack in a casino.


6 posted on 02/26/2026 1:09:05 PM PST by Fai Mao
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To: nickcarraway

There are some interesting things from other stories. Her husband waited 22 days before she was reported missing. On the daughter’s facebook page there is a post from a few years ago saying they did not receive a great deal of help from law enforcement.


7 posted on 02/26/2026 1:14:11 PM PST by Jaded (I'll take "How Stupid Are People" for $1000, Alex. Look! It's a Daily Double.)
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To: Fai Mao

Ahhh, it’s the old well-known “ran out to get a pack of cigarettes and never came back”.


8 posted on 02/26/2026 1:15:22 PM PST by rhoda_penmark
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To: nickcarraway

Can’t be Hillary.
Try as we might, she never seems to go away.


9 posted on 02/26/2026 1:17:05 PM PST by Zathras
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To: TexasGator

There was a Blue Light Special...


10 posted on 02/26/2026 1:17:38 PM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: nickcarraway

There is a Walmart in Eden off 220. That was a lousy excuse.

I wonder if she was in Leaksville, Spray or Draper.


11 posted on 02/26/2026 1:20:27 PM PST by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: Fai Mao

Did he at least give his kids a free hand?


12 posted on 02/26/2026 1:21:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

The only surprise in this story is law enforcement didn’t charge the husband with murder, a jury convicts on non-existence evidence, he’s been rotting in prison this whole time, and the asshole prosecutor resists all efforts to free him for a non-murder.


13 posted on 02/26/2026 1:22:20 PM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
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To: Fai Mao
He was dealing Blackjack in a casino.

I would only leave my family for craps or better.

14 posted on 02/26/2026 1:22:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

A North Carolina mother of three who aborted her child the hard way.

sad


15 posted on 02/26/2026 1:24:39 PM PST by Vaduz (NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT)
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To: nickcarraway

I dated a girl in college who did something similar.

We were supposed to study together and she didn’t show. I went to her dorm room and her roommate said she thought she was with me. Campus police were no help...after a cursory search of the campus, they were done.

I was super worried. I called her parents. They hadn’t heard from her. Over the next few days I went to her classes hoping to run into her, but she didn’t show. After a couple of days her parents went into overdrive freaked out worried mode. They told the police they thought I had done something. Fortunately there was video evidence and witnesses of me waiting for her at the library, and her roommate said she left by herself.

Fast forward two years. Pamela is found! She is living with a black dude in government housing, with a baby girl and another on the way.

It seems that she took a bus and struck up a conversation with the driver. He somehow convinced her to leave college (and me) and start a new life as his live in baby mama. Pamela was from serious money, her dad was the president of a bank in Alabama, she went to private schools, dressed really well...it was almost like she had some kind of mental breakdown and chucked it all for this dude.


16 posted on 02/26/2026 1:27:02 PM PST by Crusher138 ("Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just")
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To: Crusher138

Good riddance, sounds like. You got the better of the deal.


17 posted on 02/26/2026 1:34:54 PM PST by citizen (A transgender male competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: Crusher138

You dodged a bombshell. Good for you on two counts.


18 posted on 02/26/2026 1:34:56 PM PST by Mouton (There is a new sheriff and deputy in town now!)
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To: TexasGator
Michele Lyn Hundley Smith, then 38, disappeared in December 2001 after leaving her home in Eden to do Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Virginia, according to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

From the excerpt.

19 posted on 02/26/2026 1:36:54 PM PST by MortMan (How deep do you have to plant birdseed?)
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To: nickcarraway

She belongs in prison.


20 posted on 02/26/2026 1:39:37 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (Wake up, smell the cat food in your bank account. )
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