Michele Hundley Smith

In February 2026, Michele Hundley Smith was found in Robeson County, North Carolina, after being missing for 24 years. She left home to go Christmas shopping in December 2001, and her family did not see or hear from her again until authorities located her alive and well. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Michele Hundley Smith. She left her husband and kids behind and traveled the country with a long-haul trucker. But the reasons behind her leaving are at the heart of this mystery. Michele's daughter was fourteen when she went missign and her son was only eight. They have very different views on finding out that their mother was still alive, and Michele has legal ramifications ahead of her. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetime Visit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation information An Emash Digital production See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:05Speaker 00

  Hello everyone and welcome to episode 491 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gaby, how are you?

• 0:14Speaker 01

  Hey, I'm doing good and you?

• 0:16Speaker 00

  I'm doing great.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  We just had some Jersey Mike cheese steaks.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  You did.

• 0:21Speaker 00

  And now we're ready to get recording.

• 0:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  So we're talking about Michelle Hundley Smith. In February 2026, Michelle Hundley Smith was found in Robeson County, North Carolina, after being missing for 24 years.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  That's a long time to be missing.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  To be found.

• 0:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, to be found later on.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  She left home to go Christmas shopping in December 2001 and her family didn't hear or see from her again until the authorities finally located her.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  I mean, there's times I've been Christmas shopping that I wanted to disappear, but not like this.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  Well, right before you had to take out your wallet and pay for whatever it was that you were gonna buy.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  When I started.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  I'm getting out of here.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  I hear that ching, ching, ching, ching at the cash register. You know, even now, you know, a lot of them are quiet.

• 1:15Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, I don't think I hear that sound anymore.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  In my head, I still hear the ching, ching.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't hear that. But, you know, you and I do have an unsolved podcast.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  We do.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Totally separate, right? From True Crime All the Time. And, you know, obviously, we are talking about, in many instances, people being missing for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, and we just, last week, we did one where she was, has been missing for 30 years.

• 1:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. So this is amazing for someone to be found after 24 years.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  In 2001, 38-year-old Michelle Hundley Smith lived in Stoneville, North Carolina, with her husband Randy and their two children. Their oldest daughter was 19 and no longer living at home.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  You ever been to Stoneville?

• 2:04Speaker 00

  I have not.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  Right next door to Rockville.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  Is it?

• 2:09Speaker 00

  Which is a stone's throw from Pebbleville.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Yep, and just over the hill where Border is, yeah.

• 2:16Speaker 00

  Um, I do love North Carolina, though.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do, too.

• 2:20Speaker 00

  You and I went to North Carolina.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  We did.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  One time, it was fun.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  It was fun, it was a good time, yeah.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  A lot of great lakes and a lot of great fishing lakes in North Carolina.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Nice mountains, some views.

• 2:34Speaker 00

  And some big, big homes that we.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  And some big homes.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  Toured.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Yes, we did. Not for us.

• 2:40Speaker 00

  No, and they weren't ours, but, uh, now, I, I, I don't know what it's like to have your oldest out of the house at, at nineteen. Now, this is two thousand and one.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  I think in the last twenty-five years, um, things have changed quite a bit on that front.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:02Speaker 00

  I think kids are staying at home longer. I saw a, a graphic on the news the other day that said, like fifty-eight or sixty percent of parents are supporting their kid, their Gen Z kids. But, hey, I'm happy to do it. I, I like having my daughter home.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know, it's, it's, it makes you happy that they're, that she's here, her and her fiance's here, and, um, it helps them out, too, and.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, they're, they're saving up to buy a house, and I know they'll leave, and, but, uh, it's nice. Cause she's been off to college for four years, so it's nice getting to spend some time with her before she officially leaves for good.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  I did read a stat that there's an increase of, um, um, podcast co-hosts moving in with the co-host, with the other co-host or the host.

• 3:56Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Um.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  I, I did not read about that.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, that the host is offering the co-host, you know, free room and board.

• 4:03Speaker 00

  On top of what is already a free meal once at least once a week, if not twice a week?

• 4:09Speaker 01

  It's just more frequent.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:12Speaker 00

  That will not be happening. So Michelle was described as a loving mother. Her daughter Amanda recalled that she cooked their favorite meals and was always there to meet them when they got off the bus. Around 8:00 PM on December 9th, 2001, Michelle left home to go Christmas shopping at Kmart in Martinsville, Virginia, which was just a 30 minute drive from their home.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Kmart, the old blue light specials.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, um, kind of a staple for us, right? Growing up, you go to Kmart, maybe get a slushy. They always have like a little concession stand.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  We could get a slushy. A slushy. Michelle's daughter Amanda explained that it was normal for Michelle to go shopping in the evenings because she stayed home with the kids while her husband worked as a truck driver and she often went to Martinsville to shop.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  If you're stuck inside all day with the kiddos or just stuck at home, that's your opportunity to get out for a little bit. Why not?

• 5:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  And can't be stuck at home all the time.

• 5:15Speaker 01

  No.

• 5:16Speaker 00

  I'm also getting the sense that, um, you know, where this town where they live is, is not huge, right?

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 5:24Speaker 00

  Because they have to go to a different town for like the Kmart and different types of shopping.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Kind of like where I live. I have to go.

• 5:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:35Speaker 00

  Michelle kissed her husband and kids goodnight and drove away in her vehicle. They expected Michelle to return in a couple of hours, but she didn't. And, you know, we've all, we go through this all the time. You know, we're at home. A family member says, I'm gonna run down to the grocery store. I'm gonna go to Walmart nowadays because there's no Kmarts around anymore.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  They're gonna go to Best Buy or wherever it is. Is there really a thought in your mind that, okay, that person's not going to come back? I don't think most of us think that way, or if we did, we wouldn't be able to function.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  No, we wouldn't.

• 6:18Speaker 00

  We'd be scared to death that we wouldn't want people to leave the house. Amanda's father, Randy, woke her up around 12:30 a.m. He seemed worried about Michelle. And I get that, right? That's four and a half hours.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:34Speaker 00

  It's probably a mom who has to get up early with the kids. Probably normally doesn't stay out to, you know, past midnight or anything like that. But it was reported that there was some trouble in Michelle's marriage. In a 2018 interview, Amanda shared that her parents fought often. And her mother was hiding the, the full extent of her drinking from her husband. She also claimed that Michelle lost a job due to her drinking. And sometimes their fights turned physical and Michelle slept separately on a living room chair. Amanda also said that both of her parents were unfaithful.

• 7:18Speaker 00

  So, I mean, you know, probably hard to talk about your mom.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  In that way, but, you know, giving us some insight into what each of them were kind of going through. But then also the, the marriage dynamics.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:37Speaker 00

  And you just wonder, you know, how bad was the, the drinking? And what role did it ultimately play?

• 7:46Speaker 01

  You know, did the bad marriage feed the drinking or the drinking caused the bad marriage? Right?

• 7:51Speaker 00

  And the unfaithfulness on both sides, yeah. On November 11, 2011, the Eden, North Carolina Police Department issued Michelle a citation for driving while impaired and a civil revocation of her driver's license. And, you know, I watch a lot of the YouTube videos. I talk about them all the time.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:12Speaker 00

  But I always like the ones where there's, you know, a police officer pulls someone over and everything just kind of goes sideways. A lot of those involve people who are impaired.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:24Speaker 00

  Because their judgment is not what it would normally be. And they don't want to comply. They don't want to get out of the car and things go south in a hurry.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  They think they did nothing wrong.

• 8:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, sometimes. Michelle failed to appear in court that December and an arrest warrant was issued on December 27th, 2001. Michelle's family didn't report her missing immediately because she had left home before. After arguing with her husband, she typically went to her mother's house and would return either the next day or just a few days later. But this time, Michelle was nowhere to be found.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  But I get it, you know, if that's kind of typical for her to go to her mom's for a few days, then you probably wouldn't want to jump right away to calling the police because you're thinking, well, we had an argument and she got, you know, upset with me. So now she's going to be over at her mom's and she'll be back in a day or two and then we can patch it up.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's something you and I analyze a lot in unsolved cases. And on TCAT as well, but you know, at what point do people start to get worried? And at what point do they make the decision that they're going to alert the police? And you know, there are times when I think, oh my gosh, I would have never waited that long in certain instances. This one, I feel like it's a little different. First of all, we're talking about a grown adult, right? We're not talking about somebody under the age of 18 who can't make their own decisions. But like you said, we're also talking about a person with a history of kind of leaving

• 10:14Speaker 00

  the house for periods of time. Cooling off, staying away for a little bit. So I think that would give you some pause. Because my thoughts always that, you know, people don't want to be wrong when they're, they're calling the police.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 10:32Speaker 00

  You don't want to call the police and have all these people show up and then the person come back while they're there. Or, you know, you find out that, oh, they're, nothing's wrong. They're just, they're cooling off at their mom's house.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Could you make the case though, that maybe you called the in-laws just to say, hey, we had a little fight. Did she go over there? Is she there?

• 10:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think you, you could definitely make that, that argument.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:58Speaker 00

  She didn't come home for Christmas with her children. And to me, that's a big difference, right? Going to your mom's and cooling off for a day or two versus not coming home by Christmas and, and spending that with your children.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  Knowing how important that family time is.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and she was very close to her kids, right? She stayed home. She watched the kids. Amanda told Dateline, I'll never forget that first Christmas without her. We didn't even care about presents or anything. Our mom was gone. Nothing was ever the same after that.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  It would be tough, you know, be tough to lose your mom, meaning missing at any time of the year. But like around a holiday.

• 11:46Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Or around a birthday, right? It's going to really stick with you. I think a little, a little bit more.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  It is because, you know, as is in this case, she doesn't come home for years. So every Christmas is going to be a reminder, right? Of, of what happened. On December 31st, 2001, the family reported Michelle missing to the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office. Local searches were conducted, but neither Michelle nor her vehicle were found. Amanda was only 14 years old when her mother went missing. Her younger brother was not even eight years old.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 12:26Speaker 00

  Amanda told Dateline, it affected all of our lives, but I think I took it the hardest. My mom, we were best friends. She was a really good mother, you know, but then became more of a friend when I got older. And I have two daughters. You have a daughter. I'm very close with my daughters. But I don't think there's any doubt that they have a very close relationship with my wife.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  Oh, for sure.

• 12:54Speaker 00

  You know, there's just something about a daughter and a mother bond. Now, it can be very rocky during those teenage years.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:04Speaker 00

  And it was for both of my girls. But then can you get over that? And then they, you know, they become very tight.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  And that's where we're at now. And maybe they were a little closer with me during the teenage years because they were butting heads so much with mom. But now it's definitely switched.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, they have their little tight network.

• 13:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:27Speaker 00

  Absolutely. And they, you know, they can tell things to mom that they probably don't want to tell me. And let's face it, I probably don't want to hear, you know?

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I get that. I really do.

• 13:40Speaker 00

  There's just certain things I would just, I'll be okay if I never find out about.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, leave it with your wife to deal with.

• 13:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. But I was thinking about this, you know, she's 14, the brother's eight. So I feel like there'd be a lot of pressure on her. So it's kind of be like the mom to her brother.

• 14:02Speaker 00

  That's a great point. I mean, she's going to have to step up and, and probably grow up a lot faster than she would have.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 00

  If, if her mom was still around. Local, state and federal agencies spent years looking for Michelle. And there was a lot of speculation about what happened to her. Some believed Michelle's husband was involved. Others allege that Michelle's family helped her start a new life. And, okay, I could see both of those. Right? The husband is always going to be in the crosshairs.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  When someone goes missing and/or is hurt. We talked about the relationship, maybe being rocky, not being great. Could you see a scenario where, you know, Michelle confides in her family that, you know, she's got to get away? Or something bad is going to happen and they help her start a new life? Yeah, I think you can see that, but. You still have the factor of the kids.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Right. I guess it has to be so bad at home that you, as much as you love your kids, you have no.

• 15:18Speaker 00

  Choice.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  Choice but to leave.

• 15:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  But then as a parent, you know, then you have to hope that whatever is happening to you doesn't shift to them.

• 15:29Speaker 00

  And again, I kind of, we kind of go through a lot of this on unsolved, right? I understand where there could be a scenario where that would happen, but you're telling me that you wouldn't want to try to get in touch with your kids at some point? Let them know they're okay. Do it in a way that, you know, maybe your, your husband, if he was abusive or whatever the situation was, he didn't find out? I, it's, it's hard for me to think that a loving mother could just say one day, you know what? I'm leaving.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:06Speaker 00

  And I can't do it anymore and I'm okay not seeing my kids anymore.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  And good luck to them.

• 16:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's tough for me. Not saying it doesn't happen. It's just tough for me.

• 16:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:18Speaker 00

  Amanda recalled, years were a blur after that. Detectives would be in and out of our lives, asking questions, working off whatever tips they got, but nothing ever led to my mom. And, you know, this is something that we bring up quite a bit. It's like this, the roller coaster of emotions in an investigation that drags on for years in a lot of cases. Okay, a tip comes in, you're feeling high, right? You're, you're feeling like something's about ready to break and then that tip gets kind of busted or debunked or whatever. And then you're, you're low again.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:58Speaker 00

  And it's these highs and lows that I just think has to be really tough on some of these families.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  Tear you up.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think it would. As an adult, Amanda became more active in the search for her mother. She created the Bring Michelle Hundley Smith Home Facebook page to share photos and updates. She told Dateline in 2020 that her father had since remarried and was still in their family home in Stoneville. He has health problems and struggles to talk about Michelle. According to Amanda, he believes she just took off and left him that night. And I guess that's possible, according to her. She said, "It's hard to rule out that she just left us all and started a new life." But there's also something that nags at me that something happened to her on the way

• 17:50Speaker 00

  back home. And I think if I was a kid, I'd be having those same thoughts.

• 17:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course you would.

• 17:57Speaker 00

  It just kind of goes back to, I just can't imagine my mom would just, just leave us like that.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, it'd be strange, right? I mean, like, I think about, can my mom do that? And I, no, I don't think she could have ever done that.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. The other thing I did want to talk about briefly is just the, kind of the, the age of social media and what it's done for allowing people to very quickly and inexpensively, you know, get the word out.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  That's very true.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  About the case of a missing loved one. And you think about pre-internet. Okay, maybe you're putting up flyers, maybe you're lucky enough to get, you know, the local news channel to do a story.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:46Speaker 00

  Outside of that, there just wasn't a lot that you could do on your own. The social media, it just has opened up so many different avenues. And let's not forget about, you know, true crime podcasts, documentaries, things like that.

• 19:04Speaker 01

  I know on my Instagram, I get, I follow several, like, true crime notification type of sites, and I know that I get. This missing person one that they must put out 20, 30 new missing person cases a day.

• 19:23Speaker 00

  That's scary thought.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  It is, you know, and as you scroll through them, it just, I just always end up shaking my head thinking, man, you know, why so many? Why so many? Scary.

• 19:36Speaker 00

  Amanda told Dateline that she just wanted answers. If she, she said, if she contacted me right now, I would, well, I'd have a lot of questions, but she's still my mother. I would accept her back. I want her to know that and I would just be happy that she's alive. My hope is that she's out there somewhere. She'll see this and reach out. I just wanted to know that I would accept her and welcome her back with open arms. And I, you know, you kind of get the sense from that statement that, yeah, they do believe that she just kind of on her own or of her own free will just took off and left them.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  It's just sad to think that, uh, that your kids would feel that way.

• 20:21Speaker 00

  Well, what else are they to, there's really only a couple of choices, right? Either someone leaves voluntarily or something bad happened to them. And maybe that first one is easier to think because in that scenario, she's most likely still alive. She's okay. Now it hurts because she left us.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:44Speaker 00

  Maybe that's, uh, that's better than the, the alternative. On December 9th, 2020, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office issued a press release asking the public for information about Michelle's disappearance. But five more years passed without any updates. And, you know, again, going back to our experience with unsolved cases.

• 21:10Speaker 00

  You know, cases go cold. A lot of times, they don't really get worked unless a new tip comes in.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:20Speaker 00

  Because they they've exhausted everything they have.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, they have nothing else to go on.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  Yeah. So unless something new comes in, there's really no direction to go, nothing to look at. And it's not unusual for every, you know, every so often for them to put out some type of plea to the public for information. But, I mean, how often does it happen? Right? How much or how often does it come in? On February 19, 2026, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office received new information that Michelle, now 62 years old, was alive. I mean, this is a bombshell.

• 21:58Speaker 01

  It would be. Yeah, absolutely.

• 22:00Speaker 00

  I think for for everyone involved, right? The police, obviously, the family, when they learn of it, because it's just not the norm. It does happen. And we've seen some recent examples of it, including this one. But it's just not the norm. Most of the time, when people are gone for 20, 30 years, when they do finally figure out what happened to them, it's not a good scenario, unfortunately.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  I'm just thinking, you know, when that call came in on February 19, they had to be like freaking out like,

• 22:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Hey, we got, we got this case. It's going to probably be solved now.

• 22:40Speaker 00

  So detectives made contact with her on February 20 in Robeson County, North Carolina, which is about 175 miles southeast of Rockingham County.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Not that far, right?

• 22:53Speaker 00

  Not that far.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  Two and a half hour drive?

• 22:55Speaker 00

  No, this is a person who didn't go clear across the country, right? Didn't go to California. Michelle asked the detectives to keep her location private. But the police did inform her family that she was alive and well.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, because they should know. I mean, it's a weird thing, right? Because she wants her location private. The family deserves to know she's alive. But then now, as the kids would sit there and think, wait a minute, she's alive, but she doesn't want, doesn't know where she's at?

• 23:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine what that feeling would be like because it can't be good.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:39Speaker 00

  It can't be good at all. The sheriff's office said in a statement released via Facebook, what began as a troubling missing person report in late 2001 has now reached a conclusion. For more than two decades, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office remained steadfast in its commitment to seeking answers. On February 19th, 2026, the County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division received new information regarding Michelle Hundley Smith and her disappearance. Detectives immediately followed up on the lead and began further investigative efforts.

• 24:17Speaker 00

  On February 20th, 2026, Sergeant Dishar and Detective Worley made contact with Smith at an undisclosed location within North Carolina, and she was alive and well. At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed. Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well. So, I mean, also, they're putting this out on Facebook.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  And I just talked about the age of social media. Well, the authorities use it too.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 24:55Speaker 00

  Because it can reach such a wide audience so quickly.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, within not even minutes, within seconds, it can be in front of so many people on their Facebook feed or whatever social media they have.

• 25:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  And they can see that announcement.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  It used to be if you weren't sitting around the TV to watch Walter Cronkite, you didn't know what was going on.

• 25:17Speaker 01

  Well, that's true.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  But now, everybody has a phone.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:21Speaker 00

  And the news is, you know, up to the minute.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  It cycles.

• 25:26Speaker 00

  And it's so fast.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  Now, the problem with that is now you have to filter what is real, what is not real.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, and now you got AI.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  AI on top of it.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  Which makes it even harder.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, we're kind of, I think, in some cases, on overload.

• 25:45Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 25:46Speaker 00

  It's like almost too much information is coming at you.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:50Speaker 00

  And now you gotta worry about what's real and what's not real. Michelle's daughter posted on Facebook the following day per NBC. I will say that my mother chose her new life and we know she's alive. And for now, that's enough.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  You know, that's a, that's really big of the daughter to say.

• 26:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  You know, it really is.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  Cause we just talked about it, right? It's gotta be such a tough situation. I could see on the one hand, you're very happy to find out that your mother's alive. But then immediately you're thinking, well, why would she do this to us? I don't know how a person couldn't, you know, have those thoughts.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Just for me, it'd be rough. I think it would stew on me. I mean, all night, the next day I would just, it would just stew. And I'd be like.

• 26:38Speaker 00

  So what are you saying? It would stew?

• 26:40Speaker 01

  It was still, I'd say, I have, I have got things that I need to get off my chest.

• 26:45Speaker 00

  Well, and I think you, you have questions you want answered.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  But Michelle doesn't want contact at this point, which means you can't ask those questions. You can't get those answers.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:58Speaker 00

  So that's gotta be tough as well. Amanda made a longer post on February 22nd, defending both of her parents. She wrote, my dad has been through so many accusations since all the way back then. My father's been through so much and I want it made clear that while their marriage has issues, just as many marriages go through, that my mom did not leave simply because of a bad marriage. As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom, I'm ecstatic. I'm pissed. I'm heartbroken. I'm all over the map.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  I can see that.

• 27:36Speaker 00

  Will have a relationship once more with my mom question. Honestly, I can't answer that because I don't even know. Yeah. I mean, I, I think you're right on the money. Understandably to be going through this very wide range of emotion.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, roller coaster.

• 27:55Speaker 00

  I'm happy, I'm pissed, I'm heartbroken, I'm mad. I mean, it's just, you name it. She went on to say, I can absolutely understand taking off and leaving. I'm not saying that she gets off scot-free without accountability or responsibility. So I think that's, you know, kind of part of the gamut of emotions.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:19Speaker 00

  You know, I can understand it. I'm not happy about it. Can I have a relationship with her? I don't know. Because she's not going to get off scot-free.

• 28:30Speaker 01

  Right. There's some conversations that are going to have to occur.

• 28:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, and there's going to be repercussions. Now, what those are, you know, I, it comes down to the individual people involved.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:44Speaker 00

  Can you forgive? Because that's a tough thing.

• 28:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, it would be tough.

• 28:49Speaker 00

  There are a lot of things that I would not be able to forgive. Also, I'm probably not the most forgiving person in the world anyway.

• 28:58Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 28:58Speaker 00

  And I think you would agree with that.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 29:01Speaker 00

  But there are some things that, and I do tend to hold grudges way longer than most people.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Just a tad, just a tad.

• 29:11Speaker 00

  So, you know, there, there, when people say, you know, they've forgiven their son or daughter's killer. Okay, you are a much bigger person than I am.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:24Speaker 00

  Because I know in my heart, that's just not something I'd be able to do.

• 29:30Speaker 01

  I agree with you. I don't, I don't know if you could. Do you, like I said, do you?

• 29:34Speaker 00

  I hold grudges for pretty petty things.

• 29:36Speaker 01

  You do.

• 29:37Speaker 00

  So if you're talking about something like that, no, it's not going to happen.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  I remember you had one last year. I was like, well, is everything okay now? Nope. I'm like, oh, still holding that grudge on that person? Yep. Okay.

• 29:50Speaker 00

  They go 10, 15 years.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  It went longer than I ever thought.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  We don't know.

• 29:57Speaker 00

  On February 25th, 2026, Michelle was taken into custody in Robeson County for the 2001 failure to appear charge and was granted bond. The DA requested a formal review of Michelle's case to determine if additional charges should be filed. So, you know, after this news came out that she'd been found, law enforcement and Michelle's family spoke to the media. Sheriff Sam Page told WRAO that persistence, technology, and collaboration with other law enforcement agencies was paramount in finding Michelle. And again, we, we mentioned it, right? She's like, just a few hours away.

• 30:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, not very far.

• 30:41Speaker 00

  It's, it's kind of amazing that you can just go a couple of hours away and not be found out or noticed or whatever in, in 20 some years.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  That just blows me away.

• 30:53Speaker 00

  It does. Page has been sheriff since 1998 and said, his office has made many efforts to find Michelle. He said, it's not stopped. We continue to advertise, put information out, advertise for crime stoppers and let people know that we're trying to solve this case. We need help. We need that piece to the puzzle. Again, that's what you hear people talk about in unsolved cases all the time. Page said Michelle asked them originally not to contact her family and they honored that. After locating Michelle, the sheriff's department conducted an investigation into whether she could face additional charges. Investigators considered possible abandonment charges, but Page said that at this point,

• 31:38Speaker 00

  they don't have evidence or reason to support charging Michelle with anything else.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. She's an adult. She voluntarily left, I guess.

• 31:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's not a crime to up and leave. Now, if she was supposed to appear in court and didn't do that, that, that's something. Sheriff's Captain Jonathan Cheek told A and E that the National Crime Information Center database got an alert about Michelle on February 19th, 2026, after an agency entered her information.

• 32:14Speaker 00

  And you know, that's kind of what I was saying, right? Not only are you just a couple of hours away, but look at the technology that's evolved since she disappeared.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  You know, all these databases, all the things that we do in our life that leave a digital footprint or could put us in a database somewhere. She had to have been really careful.

• 32:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:44Speaker 00

  For all those years, I would think.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  Just to be cautious that she doesn't pop up somewhere.

• 32:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, if she didn't want to be found, which obviously she didn't. In an interview with NBC, Captain Cheek said that Michelle indicated there were domestic issues before she lapped of her own accord. The sheriff's office had no records related to such issues before she disappeared. A and E reported that Michelle was in a relationship with a long haul trucker for many years. They lived in his truck before they returned to North Carolina in 2013.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  That's one way to stay off the radar.

• 33:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think if, number one, you don't have to get a job. You know, because a lot of jobs, you got to fill out paperwork. You got to provide, you know, documents, things like that. Now, there are some jobs where maybe you can get paid under the table and that. But those are less and less every year, I think. But to your point, if you're kind of just traveling around the country with a long haul trucker, maybe you can stay off the grid pretty easily.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think expenses are low, you know, uh, besides the cost of the, of the rig.

• 34:00Speaker 00

  Which I'm, I'm assuming he already had or was paying for. Captain Cheek also told A and E that Michelle didn't use an alias. When somebody goes missing for this period of time, we always assume that they may have changed their names. She just went back to her maiden name.

• 34:17Speaker 01

  She was like, I'm just going to go back to my maiden name. I'm going to live, uh, two, two and a half hours away from here.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:24Speaker 01

  Good luck finding me.

• 34:25Speaker 00

  Even, even more shocking that, that she wasn't found out earlier. When asked by the Charlotte Observer why she disappeared, Michelle said, I had my own demons at the time and I was in my own head and I had my reasons. Okay, pretty cryptic. You're not really answering the, the question.

• 34:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:46Speaker 00

  One of Michelle's neighbors in her rural community in Robeson County said, Michelle had lived there for years and lived a quiet life with a man whom she said was her husband. And there is something to be said for, you know, living a, a quiet life, kind of keeping your head down. If you're on the run.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, you kind of have to do that if you're on the run, if you don't want to be found.

• 35:12Speaker 00

  Yeah. Which again, I do not think she did. This was not something she wanted. This person said she only spoke to her neighbor a few times. And when asked why she didn't get out of the house much, she said she kept to herself. Because her husband recently died and she was alone. A man was seen living with Michelle until he passed away in 2024. According to public records, one neighbor told the New York Post that their community wasn't a good place to hide because everyone knows everyone. But they didn't know Michelle's past. So again, a couple hours away, you pick kind of a small town where everybody knows everyone.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:56Speaker 00

  It just didn't seem like the smartest way to go about it if you're trying to stay under the radar, not be found, but yet it worked for like 25 years.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  Seems a little questionable, but like you said, it worked for.

• 36:12Speaker 00

  She didn't steal someone's identity.

• 36:14Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 36:15Speaker 00

  She just went back to using her maiden name. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Michelle provided further explanation regarding her mindset at the time of her disappearance. She said, I know that I made the news, but I honestly 100% never knew that I was loved or wanted. When I left, the mental state I was in, I thought it was my only choice. I was just not in the mental state to stay. My children were not abandoned. They were left with their father to care for them. My main thing is I want everybody to know, I'm in contact with my daughter Amanda. I'm starting with Amanda because she's the one reaching out to me and she wants to start with her. She's the only one right now I'm in contact with.

• 37:01Speaker 00

  So I do want to break that down a little bit. I get it. She's saying, you know, her mental state was not good at all.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:10Speaker 00

  But, and, and she is making the argument that her kids weren't abandoned because the father was there.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Right. They still had another parent.

• 37:20Speaker 00

  But you could make the argument that she abandoned them.

• 37:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, you could. Yeah.

• 37:24Speaker 00

  And now she might not want to admit that, but you know, I'm, I'm sure the kids felt that way.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  I'm sure that's probably maybe why the son hasn't reached out yet.

• 37:35Speaker 00

  Probably. Michelle also said it broke her heart when she learned how long her daughter and others searched for her. When I found out, it broke me. That's why I'm trying to rebuild something with her because what she did shows how much I really was loved.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 37:52Speaker 00

  And, okay, maybe she really didn't think that the family, anyone in the family loved her. I, I don't know. It's just hard to imagine that you'd be shocked to learn that these people were looking for you.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  You know, Michelle was saying, look, I was not in a good spot mentally. I was, I needed to leave. That's how bad I was. And so you have to kind of think as her, if, if she was in such a bad spot mentally, that the only option she had was I either have to leave here or something really bad's going to happen. That would be worse than her leaving. That's, that's the way I think you kind of have to look at it because outside of that.

• 38:36Speaker 00

  It doesn't make a lot of sense.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  It doesn't make a lot of sense.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  But here's the thing, for me, what doesn't make sense is, okay, you felt like you had to leave. At a certain point though, do you not have to reach out to your loved ones just to let them know that you're alive?

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think.

• 38:54Speaker 00

  You don't have to tell them where you are.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  No.

• 38:56Speaker 00

  You don't have to come back. You don't even have to have a relationship, but to not even drop a letter in the mail.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  You're exactly right.

• 39:06Speaker 00

  That really blows my mind.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Put their mind at ease, you know, as best as you can.

• 39:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:13Speaker 01

  I left. It wasn't because of you, you know, or your brother, but I had to leave.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  I mean, she was with the long haul trucker. She could have dropped it in the mail.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  Anywhere.

• 39:23Speaker 00

  10 states away.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 39:25Speaker 00

  They would have never known.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:26Speaker 00

  Or had any idea where she was. So that part for me is a little tough to understand.

• 39:31Speaker 01

  I get that.

• 39:33Speaker 00

  Michelle insisted that she hadn't seen the pictures, billboards, news, or other media about her over the years. She was shocked when detectives came to her home saying, if I had any idea, I would have already called them and let them know I was okay. I didn't have to go back if I didn't want to. I could have just let my kids know I was okay. I would have never put them through that. I thought leaving them was better for them.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  I think a lot of people are gonna have a hard time with that statement, that, that she didn't know. Um, and, you know.

• 40:13Speaker 00

  Being only, especially being only a couple hours away.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:17Speaker 00

  And then later on is, like I said, the proliferation of social media and, and stuff like that. It's just, it's hard to believe.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  I mean, did you never look up your name to see what was going on? Did you never look up your daughter or your son's name and see some associated articles or something? That's the kind of things, you know, people at home are gonna be asking, right?

• 40:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:40Speaker 01

  You, you say you never knew, really?

• 40:43Speaker 00

  She explained that when she did learn about it, it was hard to watch all the media coverage and it took her a day just to process everything. When asked about initial reports that she didn't want family to contact her, she said, it wasn't that I didn't want to be contacted. I just didn't want anyone to know where I was until I had been able to talk with everyone.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  That's fair. You know, if, if you need to, you wanna reach out to your daughter, your son, your, uh...

• 41:14Speaker 01

  Husband, whoever, right? If you need to do that before they find out, you know, where you're at, you know, you just wanted to get that out of the way and be that person that delivers that news.

• 41:26Speaker 00

  Yeah. Michelle's brothers told the Daily Mail in a joint statement that they had forgiven her and looked forward to possibly reconnecting, saying, "We want Michelle to know that we are so glad she's alive. We love her. We're not mad at her. All is forgiven. We would love to be in contact with her, but we understand that she has decided she doesn't want contact as of now, and we respect her wishes." So we talked about, you know, you don't let your kids know that you're alive. We now know she had a couple of brothers or has a couple of brothers, didn't drop them a line, didn't call them. Now, again, it could go back to

• 42:08Speaker 00

  the overall mental state, because I think that's what she said. It definitely can't be just all around the relationship with her husband.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:18Speaker 00

  Because her brothers didn't have anything to do with that. The kids, they probably didn't really have anything to do with that. So now, did that relationship put her in such a bad mental state that she just didn't want to talk to me? Maybe. I don't know. It's hard for me, but I can't say it didn't happen, because I don't know.

• 42:41Speaker 01

  And, you know, 2001 versus today, I mean, 25 years later, mental illness has made a lot of changes.

• 42:50Speaker 00

  Well, yeah, we know a lot more about mental health than we did 25 years ago. Michelle's son, Randall Smith, who was only eight when she disappeared, told the Daily Mail, "She's nothing more than a stranger to me now. I'm not angry with her because that's a wasted emotion, but I really don't have any emotions, but I don't wish her any ill." So he's basically saying, "I'm not mad at her. I just don't feel anything towards her."

• 43:20Speaker 01

  Basically, I don't care about it.

• 43:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:22Speaker 00

  But I'm not mad at her.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Well, that's his right, you know? I mean, he's, he had to deal with what happened for all that time, and he chose whatever path he wanted to to move forward. And that's where he's gonna stay, you know, that's some reason one day he wakes up and says, you know what? Ah, maybe I want to talk to her.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, and he might, he might, but you can't blame him.

• 43:46Speaker 01

  No.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  I, I, I don't blame any of the people in the, in the family for whatever emotions they have.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, you, Michelle causes those emotions.

• 43:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  On this, on her, on her kids.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Randall, a happily married father of two, also said that his life turned out good and he learned to be self-sufficient. Perhaps their lives would have been more normal if Michelle stayed, but he was overall happy with how his life turned out. So he's got a lot of positivity.

• 44:19Speaker 01

  Sure does.

• 44:21Speaker 00

  At least around that. When asked if he wanted to contact Michelle, he said, no, not really. She's been gone this long and for someone to meet my children is a privilege in my eyes. That's not one she deserves.

• 44:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think she's gonna have to, uh, warm herself back into his life first before she can get into the, her grandkids' life.

• 44:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I, I think it's, it could be a long road.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:51Speaker 00

  Because let's face it, 25 years is a long time.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  It is. And that road might never, might not ever open.

• 44:58Speaker 00

  No, that pain may never go away. Randall responded to the allegations of domestic abuse in the home and insisted his father did not abuse Michelle. He was a good father and other than Michelle's drinking, they had a normal childhood. While they did argue about Michelle's drinking, it was because her husband wanted her to get help. Randall said she would just blow up, get angry. The threat of not being able to drink was too scary for her. And I could understand that, you know, for many people who have a, an issue with alcohol.

• 45:38Speaker 00

  No, I, I've never had. I used to drink. I don't even drink anymore, but even when I drank, I didn't need to drink. And I don't know what that would be like. If you just couldn't go a day, an hour, however long without needing to have a drink. I mean, that's a, that's an addiction that can really take hold of some people.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  It really can. No, I mean, it's one of those ones that it's very hard from what, from what I understand, very hard to let go of, very hard to shake. I mean, that's why they have, you know, meeting places everywhere, right? Support groups and you hear people about, you know, they get, they get their chip after so many months, years. But then you also hear about how they lost that chip because it just took some stressful event and into their life to, to change that again.

• 46:33Speaker 00

  And then had to work to start kind of all over.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:36Speaker 00

  Randall believes Michelle's drinking and the fear of losing her license played a large part in her leaving. He said that months after she left, they found gallon bottles of alcohol hidden under an old building on the property.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a, that's a severe problem.

• 46:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, somebody who has a serious problem with alcohol. He said her departure was planned because she packed jewelry, jewelry. I have a hard time saying jewelry.

• 47:03Speaker 01

  Jewelry.

• 47:03Speaker 00

  And clothes, uh, weeks before she left. He said, I can't say it was a shock at first because she had done it before. It was just something in her nature to run. He also said that after Michelle left for the last time, the family discovered that she had allegedly not paid the bills, including the payments for her husband's 18 wheeler truck.

• 47:25Speaker 01

  Oh, so not paying that, kind of leaving him maybe stranded, you know? That's his, uh, way he makes his money. That's not good. And if he's gonna have to take care of these kids.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  Well, and, and I just wonder if maybe she was setting aside a nest egg because she knew she was, you know, getting ready to leave.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:42Speaker 00

  When they found the late notices, he could only afford to pay the household bills and had to send his truck back.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  That's rough.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  Very rough, if that's how you make your living. The Daily Mail reported additional details about Michelle's life during the year she was missing. She met her partner Randy Johnson in Texarkana and lived with him on the road. They returned to North Carolina where Randy died in November 2024. Michelle said that Randy Johnson was someone who found me when I needed help. I traveled for years, we got together and he kind of built me back up, made me feel like I was worth something. Randy never pressed her for details about her past, but eventually she said, I just told him what I went through.

• 48:29Speaker 00

  On March 26, 2026, Michelle reunited with her daughter Amanda outside the Rockingham County courthouse, where Michelle appeared for her arraignment. Amanda told WXII outside the courthouse, oh, I know everything is not black and white. There's a whole gray area. Life's too short for me to hold a grudge against her because she's my mom. We only get one life and I want my mom in it.

• 48:56Speaker 01

  Hey, what a great attitude.

• 48:57Speaker 00

  It is. I don't know that everybody can do it and I'm not sure that her brother can do it.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  Cause we haven't heard a lot about him other than to say, he really doesn't feel too many emotions about his mom at all.

• 49:14Speaker 01

  That's his right and maybe that's the direction he's gonna go with it and that's what will bring him peace. Meanwhile, you know, if Michelle's daughter wants to have that relationship with her and she is willing to do it, you know, and looking past it because she just really wants to have a mom in her life again. You know, I think it's gonna not be easy, but hopefully for them it works out.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. Michelle's next court date is set for April 23 of this year, which will be about a week after this episode comes out.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  Too long away.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  You know, I guess as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, it's definitely a different type of episode for us. There's no murder, nobody gets killed.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  No.

• 49:57Speaker 00

  Is it even really a crime? Now, she had some criminal stuff going on that she still has to work out. So there is crime involved, but the, the leaving.

• 50:11Speaker 00

  Unless they charge her with some things like abandonment or something like that, you know, as an adult, even as a mother, you technically, I think, can just pick up and leave.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, we could have did this case, like you said, last year and talked about how, you know, this mom of two went missing and has not yet been found 20 some years later, still missing.

• 50:40Speaker 00

  And I, I can tell you, I know what my thoughts would have been if we had done that.

• 50:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:47Speaker 00

  And it would have been that she met with foul play.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, very, very possible.

• 50:52Speaker 00

  Because in my mind, I'm thinking, what mother just up and leaves her kids and doesn't even drop them a line or some way to communicate to them that she stole a lot?

• 51:07Speaker 01

  And how many times have we said that where the mom of, you know, the mom goes missing, has young kids at home and we say, no way she would ever do that. She loved her kids. Well, here's a time where it did happen.

• 51:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  And so then you think, okay, all those cases is one of those potentially where the mom actually did just pick up and go because she had, she mentally or whatever the issue was, could no longer be there.

• 51:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, it could be. I still think that by and large, most of the time, these people are not leaving voluntarily.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I agree with you.

• 51:47Speaker 00

  I still believe that, but there's always going to be outliers.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 51:52Speaker 00

  And this is one of them. So it's still right now, a little unclear why Michelle just kind of up and left her life behind. And there's still a lot more to come, right? It remains to be seen.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:07Speaker 00

  How much she and her family want to reveal to the media in the coming months? Like I said, she's got a court date next month. I think this is one of those cases where there's still to come, some things to come out down the road. Maybe she'll give a little more clarity on why she left. You know, as of right now, she just has kind of said she just wasn't in the mental state to be there.

• 52:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:37Speaker 00

  She had to get away.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  Maybe that will only come out to her daughter and.

• 52:41Speaker 00

  It could be.

• 52:41Speaker 01

  You know, because it's so private that, hey, no matter what I say out on the media, I'm not going to be portrayed.

• 52:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  Good. So, you know, let's keep this between me and you and let's move our life forward.

• 52:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, I could see some things coming out, some truths that there's really no reason to tell everybody.

• 53:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:01Speaker 00

  I mean, she doesn't owe anything to the public.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  No, not at all.

• 53:06Speaker 00

  Now, you could make the argument, and I would, that she owes it to her kids.

• 53:11Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 53:12Speaker 00

  Because she did really put them through what, to me, is an unnecessary hell.

• 53:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:21Speaker 00

  Thinking your mom either A. abandoned you.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 53:26Speaker 00

  Which is what turned out to be true, or thinking that your mom is dead.

• 53:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:32Speaker 00

  And was abducted and/or killed by someone. Neither of those scenarios is conducive to a good childhood.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  No, you're right.

• 53:44Speaker 00

  Now, I hope that both of these kids, they're not kids anymore, they're grown.

• 53:49Speaker 01

  Right.

• 53:49Speaker 00

  I hope they're all doing great, but that it has to affect you, something like that. And now, it has to affect you in a different way, once you learn that, you know, number one, your mom's alive. And then, number two, she really did just up and leave.

• 54:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was her choice. She made that choice.

• 54:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:11Speaker 01

  Now she has to live with the outcome of it.

• 54:16Speaker 00

  And maybe they can smooth everything out and she can get to meet her grandkids and life will go on.

• 54:25Speaker 01

  I hope so for everybody.

• 54:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, I do too. But that's it for our episode on Michelle Hundley and another episode of True Crime All The Time. You got anything?

• 54:36Speaker 01

  Nope.

• 54:37Speaker 00

  All right, so for Mike.

• 54:38Speaker 01

  And Gibby.

• 54:38Speaker 00

  Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.