A North Carolina woman who was recently found “alive and well” more than two decades after she was reported missing was arrested on an outstanding warrant, police say.
Michele Hundley Smith, 62, was taken into custody Wednesday by the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office on an arrest order related to her failure to appear in court 25 years ago, according to a statement from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.
Smith was reportedly charged with driving while intoxicated on Nov. 11, 2001, by the Eden Police Department.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said that Smith failed to appear in court on Dec. 27, 2001 and was then reported missing by her husband a few days later, on Dec. 31, 2001. Smith, who was 38 at the time she went missing, left her home to go Christmas shopping on Dec. 9, 2001, at a Kmart in Martinsville, Va., and never returned. (It’s unclear why her husband didn’t report her missing for weeks.)
Smith posted bond and has been released from police custody. She is scheduled to appear in Rockingham County District Court on March 26.
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On Feb. 20, officials said that Smith had been found in an undisclosed part of North Carolina 24 years after she left her home in Eden, N.C.
“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well.”
On Tuesday, Sheriff Sam Page told NBC News that Smith didn’t explicitly say she didn’t want her family to contact her, but he said he is unaware of any contact between the parties since she was located.
Page said that Smith said there had been “domestic issues” before she left her house in 2001. He also said the sheriff’s office has no records related to those issues before she took off.
“Let me just say there were no allegations of any foul play regarding to her leaving,” Page told People. “But according to Ms. Smith, she said she left … due to ongoing domestic issues at the time.”
He also said Smith “was in good health.”
“They went and found this young lady that (has) been missing for many years, 20-plus years. And we don’t see a lot of the missing person cases like that,” Page added. “But now at least the family has closure and they know she’s OK.”
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office worked on Smith’s case for more than two decades. The office posted notices online asking for information about Smith and her whereabouts in 2020 and 2021, offering a cash reward both times.
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