Husband's theory as wife is found alive living completely new life after disappearing 24 years ago

The husband of a woman who was found after being missing for over 20 years had a theory about why she disappeared.

On 9 December, 2001, North Carolina woman Michele Hundley Smith, 38, went out to the shops and never returned to her family, with her being reported missing and no trace of her found until recently.

Earlier this month investigators 'received new information' and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office announced they had found the woman, now 62, in an 'undisclosed location within North Carolina' where she was alive and well, though the location would not be revealed 'at her own request'.

It is understandably a very emotional time for her family, as her daughter Amanda said she was 'ecstatic', 'p**sed' and 'heartbroken' all at once as she wondered whether she would have a relationship with her mother again.

In 2020 when her mother was still thought of as missing Amanda had told Dateline how her family had been dealing with her loss, and said her father had a theory explaining: "He believes she just took off and left him, and us, that night."

Michele Hundley Smith disappeared in 2001, she was found alive and well in an 'undisclosed location' recently (Facebook/Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home)

Amanda had said she thought it was 'possible' and found it 'hard to rule out that she just left all of us and started a new life', though at the time she said 'there’s also something that nags at me that something happened to her on her way back home'.

This was several years before her mother was found and the family has had to deal with all sorts of rumours and speculation over what happened to Hundley Smith, with some thinking that Amanda's dad was involved.

She said she had to 'not listen to the rumours'.

"My mom disappearing like that devastated our entire family. I lived with my grandma for a few years and I would hear her crying at night about my mom. All of our hearts are broken," she had said of her mother's disappearance.

Writing a Facebook post about her mother being found, Amanda explained there were lots of conflicting emotions.

Her husband had a theory that she 'took off and left him' (The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office)

"I am ecstatic, I am p**sed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map! Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can't answer that because I don't even know..." she wrote.

"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."

Hundley Smith's cousin Barbara Byrd told WFMYNews 2: "I kind of want to go outside and scream, 'She’s alive, she’s alive!' My biggest question is to her...What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?'

"I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment."