THIS is the emotional moment a long-lost mother-of-three is reunited with her daughter after being found alive and well 24 years later.

Michelle Hundley Smith was just 38-years-old when she vanished after going to K-Mart in Martinsville, Virginia to go Christmas shopping in 2001.

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The pair were reunited after more than 24 yearsCredit: NBC News
 

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Hundley-Smith and Amanda embraced in an emotional hug outside the courthouseCredit: NBC News
 

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Both women were very emotional during their reunionCredit: NBC News
Now 62, Hundley Smith and her 39-year-old daughter Amanda reunited for the first time.

The pair’s first meeting was caught on camera.

Locking eyes across a street outside a courthouse, Hundley Smith and Amanda walked quickly towards each other.

Both women stretched out their arms before locking each other in a long embrace.

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Hundley Smith was seen stroking her daughter’s head for the first time in almost 25 years.

The pair separated for a second time, speaking softly and looking at each other, before Hundley-Smith kissed her daughter on the cheek multiple times.

They embraced a second time, clutching tightly and rubbing each other’s backs.

Amanda spoke to the media after their meeting, saying she, “didn’t have much time to talk [with her mother] in between proceedings, but she was very nervous”.

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She revealed the family had agreed to make individual decisions about what type of relationship they were going to have with Hundley Smith going forward.

“Everything is not black and white, there’s a whole grey area,” Amanda said.

“Life is too short for me to hold a grudge against her because she’s my mum.”

Amanda also said she had forgiven her mother for disappearing all those years ago.

“It was weird. It was wild. It was emotional,” Amanda told WFMY.

“I ran up to her, hugged her and we cried a little.“

“We only get one life and I want my mom in it,”she added.

At the end of the court proceeding for the more than 20-year-old DWI charge, Hundley Smith and Amanda left in the same car.

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Hundley-Smith went missing in 2001Credit: Facebook / Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home
 

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Cops located the missing mother last month after following up on a tipCredit: Robeson County Sheriff’s Office
 

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Amanda said she never lost hope in finding Hundley-SmithCredit: NBC News
It has since been revealed that just one month before Hundley Smith’s disappearance, in November of 2001, she received a citation for driving while intoxicated.

She failed to appear before a court at the end of that year, and so a warrant was issued for her arrest.

She now faces the consequences for the more than two decades old charge.

Hundley Smith will return to court on April 23.

Meanwhile, Amanda never gave up hope in finding her mom.

She ran a Facebook page searching for information about what happened to Hundley-Smith and sharing her own thoughts on missing her mother.

The break in the case finally came in February when sheriffs followed up on a tip that tracked down the missing mom to a trailer park in St Pauls, North Carolina.

She had been living just a two-and-a-half-hour drive from where she went missing in Stoneville.

Police arrested her on the outstanding warrant days later.

Amanda has vowed to support Hundley Smith through the court proceedings.

Following the shocking discovery that her mother had been found, Amanda posted a lengthy statement on the Facebook page dedicated to finding her.

“As far as my opinions and feelings on my mom…I am ecstatic, I am p***ed, I am heartbroken, I am all over the map!” she wrote.

“Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that because I don’t even know,” Amanda added.

“My initial reaction would be “Yes absolutely,” but then I think of all the hurt…But even then, my mom is only human just as we all are.

“When my mom was a part of my daily life, she showed me a love and bond that will never ever be forgotten.”

Amanda was the only family member to who attend the hearing.

Her brother, Randal, revealed he did not want to reconnect with his mother, whom he considers to be a “stranger”.

“She’s been gone this long, and for someone to meet my children is a privilege in my eyes,” Randal told the Daily Mail, now a happily-married father-of-two.

“That’s not one she deserves.”

Hundley Smith has revealed she did not know how long her family had searched for her.

Now living in St. Pauls, 80 miles south of the state capital Raleigh, she said she had walked out because she believed her husband and three kids were better off without her.

Insisting that she had not abandoned her children, Hundley Smith said she had not been in the “mental state” to care for them.

After leaving, she met Randy Johnson – a truck driver – on the Texas/Arkansas border.

She lived with him in his 18-wheeler on the road before returning to North Carolina in 2013.

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She said he had never pressured her for details about her past, but eventually, she said: “I just told him what I went through.”

Johnson sadly died in November 2024.

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Hundley-Smith didn’t realise how long her family had searched for her when she first vanishedCredit: Facebook / Bring Michele Hundley Smith Home