North Carolina Woman Missing Since 2001 Found Alive

A North Carolina woman who vanished more than two decades ago while heading out for Christmas shopping has been located alive and well in an undisclosed part of the state, authorities announced this week.

Michelle Hundley Smith, who was 38 at the time of her disappearance on December 9, 2001, was found on February 20, 2026, following a fresh lead received by the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office the previous day. Smith, a mother of three from Eden in Rockingham County, had told her husband she was driving to a Kmart in Martinsville, Virginia, but never returned home. Her forest green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan was never recovered. At Smith's request, officials have withheld details about her current location, and her family has been notified of both the discovery and her wish for privacy.

The case had puzzled investigators and family members for years. Smith's husband reported her missing on December 31, 2001, prompting a wide-ranging search involving the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and other agencies across North Carolina and Virginia. Detectives followed numerous tips over the years, but none yielded...