A North Carolina woman who vanished in 2001 has been found alive and living a new life more than 24 years after she disappeared.
Michele Hundley Smith, now 62, disappeared from her Eden, North Carolina, home on Dec. 9, 2001, at age 38 after telling her family she was going Christmas shopping. Law enforcement and her loved ones never saw or heard from her again, launching a long-running missing persons investigation.
On Feb. 19, 2026, deputies with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office received new information that led them to locate Smith “alive and well” in an undisclosed location within North Carolina. At her request, authorities have kept her exact whereabouts private, including from her own family…