After vanishing without a trace 24 years ago, Michele Hundley Smith has been found, but not in the way many expected. North Carolina authorities, unable to charge Smith for leaving her family in 2001, have instead arrested her on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court for a DWI charge from the same year. This charge carries no statute of limitations, meaning Smith must now face the court on March 26, as confirmed by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith, now 62, disappeared on December 9, 2001, after leaving her Eden, North Carolina home for a trip to a K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, just 18 miles away. Her absence was reported to the authorities by her husband, but not until more than three weeks later, on December 31, a delay that has never been publicly explained.

New developments unfolded on February 19 when investigators received a tip about Smith’s whereabouts. The very next day, detectives successfully located her in North Carolina. They described her condition as “alive and well” but chose not to disclose her exact location at her request. The sheriff’s office stated, “Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well.”

While the reasons behind her sudden disappearance and prolonged silence remain unclear, the sheriff’s office has not provided any details regarding her motives or her husband’s delayed report. In response to these revelations, one of Smith’s children expressed on a Facebook page dedicated to finding her that the specifics of her disappearance are, for now, of secondary importance.

“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” the sheriff’s office said at the time. “Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well.”

The sheriff’s office didn’t say why she left and never contacted her family — nor why her husband waited three weeks to report her missing. One of her children posted to a Facebook page dedicated to finding her that for now, none of that matters.

“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!” her daughter Amanda wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that bc 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.”

Family have not commented on Smith’s arrest.

The sheriff’s office said it worked with the District Attorney’s Office to find the warrant for Smith’s arrest. She was charged with the DWI on November 11, 2001 — a month before she disappeared — and failed to appear in court on December 27.

The Rockingham Sheriff’s Office had deputies in Robeson County arrest her on Wednesday, and she immediately posted her $2,000 bond.