The North Carolina mother found last week after missing for more than 24 years ago had a reason for leaving her family behind and she won’t be facing criminal charges, according to authorities.
Speaking about the location of missing mom Michele Hundley Smith, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page told Luxury Handbag Shopping “there were some domestic issues” happening in the home “prior to her leaving.”
Page said Michele, who vanished back in 2001, did not discuss those domestic issues in any specific terms.
“When our investigators talked to her, they let her know that they would be notifying next of kin, but I think right now will just be a time for healing, because I don’t think there’s much communication going on right now.”
Page confirmed they have not provided Michele’s contact information to her children, honoring her wishes.
Page did tell Us Katy Gregg, District Attorney for the Twenty-Second Prosecuting District, had decided on whether to charge Michele for leaving.
“My detectives did review the case with the district attorney, and our investigators felt there was not enough probable cause to substantiate any charges, and the district attorney agreed,” Page said.
Authorities previously said Michele was last seen on December 9, 2001, as she left her home in Eden, North Carolina, to do some Christmas shopping a few miles away in Virginia. But Michele, then 38, never returned, leaving behind her husband and their three kids.
Michele’s loved ones filed a formal missing person’s report for her, and “an extensive investigation was immediately launched,” police said in a statement released over the weekend.
Michele, now 62, was found safe and sound on February 20, after the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division “received new information regarding Michele Hundley Smith and her disappearance.”
A statement from police said that “detectives immediately followed up on the lead and began further investigative efforts.” In time, two detectives approached the missing mom and confirmed it was her.
Michele asked investigators to keep her location a secret — even from her relatives.
“I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map,” Amanda Smith, Michele’s daughter, wrote in a Facebook post about how she’s feeling now to know her mom is alive. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly, I can’t answer that [because] I don’t even know. 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 previously explained on Facebook that her parents’ marriage was far from perfect.
“I want it [make] clear that while their marriage had issues (just as many marriages go through) that my mom did not leave simply [because] of a bad marriage,” Amanda insisted in her post. “Everyone is entitled to their opinions but please remember that my father has been proven innocent. My dad is a great man.”
“Both my dad and my mom deserve to have their choices and their feelings respected as well,” she added.
