A North Carolina mom who fell off the map in 2001 and resurfaced this month is now facing some more from her past: an old DWI case. Authorities say 62-year-old Michele Hundley Smith was arrested on Wednesday by the Robeson County Sheriff's Office on a nearly 25-year-old order for failing to appear in court in connection with a November 2001 drunk-driving charge in Eden, NBC News reports. Smith posted bond and is next due in Rockingham County District Court on March 26.
Smith was 38 when she was reported missing after leaving her residence to go Christmas shopping at a Kmart in Virginia and never coming home, a disappearance that puzzled the Eden community for more than two decades. A Feb. 19 tip led deputies to her at an undisclosed location in North Carolina, where they said she was "alive and well." Officials say she left on her own and faces no charges related to her disappearance. (Us Weekly has a photo of what she looks like now, calling her "unrecognizable.")
Her daughter Amanda wrote on Facebook that Smith "chose her new life" and asked for privacy, saying her family is "hurting and going through a lot." Smith herself told the New York Post: "My daughter is forgiving me. We are in contact, so leave me alone." A neighbor in the town about three hours from the community that Smith fled more than two decades ago tells the paper that Smith has "been here for years and years ... She's a nice person," adding that Smith had lived alone since a man she claimed was her husband recently died. Prosecutors are reviewing the case overall, according to the sheriff's office. More from Smith's daughter here.
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