Authorities and news outlets report that a North Carolina woman, missing for over 20 years, has been discovered alive, much to the astonishment and curiosity of her family. The revelation raises numerous questions about where she has been all this time.

Michele Lyn Hundley Smith, who was 38 at the time of her disappearance, went missing in December 2001. She left her Eden residence for a Christmas shopping trip to a Kmart in Virginia, as stated by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

Her sudden and concerning disappearance led to an extensive search by multiple law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and Virginia, including the FBI. These agencies devoted countless hours to investigating various leads in their quest to find the mother of three, according to police reports.

At the time, a missing person notice described Smith as “endangered” and emphasized that she was unlikely to abandon her children voluntarily.

After nearly 24 years, Smith has been found “alive and well” at an undisclosed location in North Carolina, following a tip received by officers, as announced by authorities on Friday.

While her current location remains confidential, police have confirmed that her family has been informed of her discovery.

“I kind of want to go outside and scream, ‘She’s alive, she’s alive” Smith’s cousin, Barbara Byrd, told WFMYNews 2. 

“My biggest question is to her … what happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?” Byrd said.

“I never thought Michele was dead. I knew she was alive. It’s just a feeling that I had my whole life,” she said.

In a lengthy statement posted to Facebook on Sunday, one of Smith’s shocked children wrote that “these last couple of days… have been a whirlwind of emotions.”

“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom…I am ecstatic, I am p***ed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map! Will I have a relationship once more with my mom?” she said in the statement posted on a Facebook account dedicated to finding her missing mother.

“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,” she wrote. 

“When my mom was a part of my daily life, she showed me a love and bond that will never ever be forgotten. There were mother-daughter arguments of course, but right now all I can remember are the smiles we shared, the times together that were happy, and the love I felt!”

The motive for Smith’s disappearance is not immediately clear.