On a chilly winter evening a few weeks before Christmas, a North Carolina woman told her husband and children that she was on her way to do some Christmas shopping and kissed them goodnight. She got into her 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van, drove into the night and was never seen again.
This holiday season will mark the 19th Christmas that Amanda Smith will spend without her mother, Michele Lyn Hundley Smith.
“I’ll never forget that first Christmas without her,” Amanda said to Dateline. “We didn’t even care about presents or anything — our mom was gone. After that, nothing was the same. “
Amanda was 14 years old when her 38-year-old mother disappeared on December 9, 2001. Her younger brother was nearly eight. Their older sister was 19 and already left home.
“It has affected our entire lives,” said Amanda. ‘But I think I did the hardest. My mom … we were best friends. She was a really good mom, you know, but then became more of a friend as I got older. “
Amanda described Michele as a mother who was always there when they got off the bus from school, cooked their favorite meals, and although she wasn’t very strict, she never let them get away with everything.
“We just became such good friends later,” said Amanda. “I just felt like we had a special bond.”
Amanda told Dateline that on the evening of December 9, 2001, she remembers her mother kissing them goodnight and leaving their home in Stoneville, North Carolina around 8:30 PM to go shopping in Martinsville, Virginia, which is about a 30-minute drive away. .
“It was not uncommon for her to go shopping in the evening,” said Amanda, explaining that her mother stayed at their house while their father worked as a truck driver. And she often went to Martinsville to shop. We expected her back in a few hours. But she never came home. “
Amanda told Dateline that her father woke her up around 12:30 pm and seemed concerned that Michele hadn’t returned home yet.
“He was really worried,” Amanda said. “She’d left before, like they were in a fight or something, but would just go to my grandmother’s house and come back the next day. But this was different. She wasn’t with my grandmother. She was nowhere. “
Michele’s family contacted the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and reported her missing. Local searches were conducted but neither Michele nor her vehicle were found.
“The years were blurry after that,” said Amanda. Detectives were in and out of our lives, asking questions, going through all the tips they got. But nothing ever led to my mother. “
Captain Marcus Marshall of the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office told Dateline that Michele’s case is “an active investigation,” but he did not want to disclose specific details about the case. He encouraged more with information to call authorities.
The sheriff’s office issued a press release on December 9, 2020, the anniversary of Michele’s disappearance, with a new request for information to the public. Her folder, which lists her as an endangered missing person, has a spot on their Missing Persons page in the hope that someone will come forward with information that will lead them to Michele.
As many more Christmas days passed with any trace of Michele, her daughter Amanda grew more desperate to find her.
“I was just a teenager at the time and I didn’t really know what to do,” Amanda told Dateline. “It’s been the past seven or eight years that I’ve really put more time and effort into this. However, it is overwhelming. Sometimes I have to take a step back. “
With the help of the online investigative community, Amanda has created the Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home Facebook page, where she shares photos and updates on her mother’s case, hoping someone with information will come forward.
In 2018, The Vanished’s podcast was about Michele’s case, but Amanda told Dateline that it didn’t result in any substantial clues as to her mother’s whereabouts.
Amanda’s older sister and younger brother, who both still live in North Carolina, ask for updates from time to time, but Amanda says they are not very involved in the search.
Her father, who has since remarried, still lives in their family home in Stoneville. Amanda told Dateline that he has health issues and struggles to talk about Michele.
“He believes she just left and left him and us that night,” Amanda said. ‘And I think that is possible. It is difficult to rule out that she has left us all and started a new life. But there is also something that annoys me that something happened to her on the way home. “
Over the years, there have been numerous stories, rumors, and speculation about what happened to the North Carolina mother that night. Some believed her father was involved, others believed her grandmother was instrumental in helping Michele start a new life.
“I have to step back and not listen to the rumors,” Amanda said. “My mother who disappeared like this destroyed our whole family. I lived with my grandmother for a few years and I heard her cry for my mother at night. Our whole heart is broken. “
Captain Marshall will not comment on whether investigators believe there was foul play or that there was a person of interest in Michele’s disappearance, only that she is considered a threatened missing person.
Almost two decades have passed, but while many are celebrating the holidays with their families this year, Amanda tells Dateline that she would like some answers about what happened to her mother.
“If she contacted me now, I would, well, I would have a lot of questions,” Amanda said. ‘But she’s still my mother. I would accept her back. I want her to know that. And I’d just be glad she’s alive. “
Amanda now has two daughters of her own, and her siblings also have children. She told Dateline that she has a little hope in her heart that her mother would find out she has grandchildren and come back.
“I hope if she’s out there, she’ll see this and contact her,” Amanda said. “I just want her to know that I would accept her – and welcome her with open arms.”
At the time of her disappearance, Michele was 38 years old with brown hair and hazel eyes. She has a scar on her upper arm and a brown mole in the shape of a baseball bat on her ankle. Her vehicle is described as a 1995 green Pontiac Trans Sport van from North Carolina with ROK-N-ON license plate.
If you have information on Michele’s whereabouts, call the Rockingham County Crime Stoppers at (336) 349-9683 or the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office at (336) 634-3232.