"I am ecstatic, I am pissed, I am heartbroken."
Amanda Smith spoke for herself and her family on Facebook after her mother -- reported missing in 2001 -- was found alive and well but is unwilling to reconnect with her family.
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Michele Hundley Smith was 38 years old when her husband reported her missing after she didn't return home from a shopping trip to K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia, on Dec. 9, 2001. She left behind a husband and three children.
For decades, local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI, looked for Michele Smith, and neighbors speculated about what happened to her.
In 2020, her daughter, Amanda Smith spoke with NBC News about her father's theory on her mother's disappearance. "He believes she just took off and left him, and us, that night," Amanda Smith said. "And I guess that's possible. It's hard to rule out that she just left all of us and started a new life."
Last week, after 24 years, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office got new information regarding Michele Hundley Smith. On Friday, detectives made contact with her at an undisclosed location in North Carolina, and she asked them to keep her location a secret.
"At her request, her current whereabouts will remain undisclosed," the sheriff's office said.
They relayed to her family that she was alive and well.
The long-awaited news sent Amanda Smith to Facebook to defend both parents.
Of her father, she wrote, "My dad has been through so many accusations since all the way back then ... Even before social media was big, where we live in a small town, there were many ppl acting as if they just knew he was involved."
And of the mother who left their family more than 20 years ago, "I can absolutely understand taking off and leaving. I am not saying that she gets off scot-free without accountability or responsibility."
According to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, the district attorney requested a formal review of the case by investigators to determine if charges will be forthcoming.