A judge in North Carolina dismissed a DWI charge against a woman who was found alive in February, some 25 years after she disappeared.
Michele Hundley Smith, 62, who vanished in December 2001, appeared on Monday at a Rockingham County courthouse where a prosecutor cited the lack of an original police file and the retirement of the Eden police officer who arrested her for driving while intoxicated in November 2001, before a judge dropped the decades-old charge.
Rockingham County District Attorney Katy Gregg said the case had “significant age.” District Judge Scott Skidmore then agreed to dismiss the case, The Charlotte Observer reported.
“I am extremely happy, and I’m going to see my daughter,” she told the Observer.
Smith told the Observer, following a hearing in March, that she had disappeared for years for “personal” reasons.
“I had my own demons at the time and I was in my own head, and I had my reasons,” she said. “People who’ve been in that situation will understand.”
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office announced in February that Smith had been taken into custody for her failure to appear in court 25 years earlier. Smith didn’t appear in court on December 27, 2001, in connection with the DWI charge issued by Eden police on November 11, 2001.
Smith’s disappearance had perplexed investigators for decades. She was reported missing when she was 38 and left her home in Rockingham County to go holiday shopping in Martinsville, Virginia, and never returned. Authorities then received a tip and located Smith “alive and well” at an undisclosed location in North Carolina in late February.
“At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed,” sheriff officials said. “Her family has been notified that she has been located and informed of this request as well.”
No charges were filed against Smith connected to her disappearance, authorities have said. Investigators don’t believe she had any contact with her family over the decades, NBC News reported.
Smith, a mother of three, cited “domestic issues” when she was located in February as the reason for leaving on her own accord following her November 2001 arrest, Rockingham County Sheriff’s Captain Jonathan Cheek told NBC News.
Smith was charged with DWI after registering a blood alcohol level of .28 and swerving off a road in Eden, where an officer said she had “red glassy eyes” and reeked of alcohol, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Observer.
One of Smith’s daughters, meanwhile, had reunited with her missing mother following a March court hearing, the Observer reported.
“It wasn’t that she didn’t want contact with us,” Amanda Hundley told reporters. “It was never that, because she reached out to me. I’m not going to hold any grudge, because she’s my mom. Stuff’s always going to happen.”
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