EDEN, N.C. — It’s been 20 years since a woman from Eden went out to do some Christmas shopping and never returned home. Since then, no one has heard from Michele Lyn Hundley Smith or seen her.
Eden residents, family and friends have a lot of unanswered questions about her disappearance. Amanda Smith is her daughter and she said on Dec. 9, 2001, her mom was going Christmas shopping up in Martinsville, Virginia when she was last seen. "Nobody knows anything. Nobody knows if she ran off the road. Her car was just never found. No one knows if there was any foul play, nobody knows. It’s hard and it’s hard not having answers," Amanda Smith explained.
She said she has two daughters and her siblings also have children that have never met their grandmother. Michele Smith, 38, at the time was driving a '95 forest green Pontiac van with the license plate that read, "Rok-n-on".
Family members like Michele Smith's daughter and her cousin Barbara Byrd remember her as being a caring, sweet person who never met a stranger. "I just hope and pray that someday someone will tell where she’s at or if she’s out there and she’s watching this come home. Come home. Come home. Come home. Just come home. No, matter the circumstances why you left," Byrd said.
Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page remembers her disappearance. He said any case that isn't cleared and involves someone's family, it's personal to him.
He, along with Michele Smith's family and friends urge the community to come forward with any information, no matter how small. You can contact Crimestoppers at (336) 349-9683. Tips can be given anonymously.