A North Carolina mother was recently found alive and well after she “disappeared” 24 years ago. Michele Hundley Smith vanished in December 2001, never returning home from a Christmas shopping trip to K-Mart.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office worked for 20 years to find Smith, with help from neighboring police departments and the NC State Bureau of Investigation. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also aided in the missing person investigation.
This missing persons case had a seemingly happy ending in February 2026 when local law enforcement met with Smith after receiving a tip regarding her whereabouts. But during this meeting, Smith asked officers to keep her location undisclosed.
Smith’s family, including her cousin and daughter who led the search for her, was notified that she was found safe. But, they were also informed that Smith didn’t want any contact with them. Despite the emotional toll on the family, police won’t force a once-lost-now-found adult to contact their loved ones.
This case has raised questions about the legal consequences of running away from your life. Do adults have the right to disappear, even when those who love them are left searching for answers?
What Happens When Someone Reports a Missing Adult?
Most missing persons reports — for both adults and children — start with the local police. Unlike what you see on TV and movies, there is no waiting period to report an adult missing. The longer an adult with a physical or mental illness is missing, the greater the safety risk.
Once an agency receives a missing persons report, it is responsible for investigating and tracking the case. In most cases, local law enforcement partners with federal agencies, such as the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Agencies also submit records of missing persons to the National DNA Index System (NDIS) and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
Investigators review missing persons reports to assess for foul play and determine if the disappearance seems voluntary or involuntary. They attempt to locate the missing person in several ways, including:
- Interviewing family members, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and anyone who last saw the person
- Pulling surveillance footage from homes, businesses, transit systems, or roadways.
- Reviewing cell phone records, bank and credit card usage, and social media activity
- Checking hospitals, shelters, jails, and transportation hubs
According to NCIC’s 2024 year‑end report, more than 59,000 adults remained actively listed as missing nationwide.
Do Adults Have the Right To Disappear?
Technically, yes. The act of "going missing" isn't a crime in itself. But depending on the situation, there may be legal ramifications for an adult voluntary disappearance. For example, an adult with no children, pets, debts, or pending criminal cases may be able to go incognito with no repercussions. But many adults do have responsibilities under the law, such as:
- Caring for minor children
- Paying child support or spousal support
- Complying with probation, parole, or other court‑ordered obligations
- Paying taxes
Abandoning these responsibilities can trigger very real consequences under family and criminal laws.
The Legal Consequences of Running Away From Your Life
As discussed above, voluntarily going missing from your current life isn’t illegal — adults generally have the right to go off the grid. But these situations often involve acts of deception, which can lead to criminal charges, including:
- Filing a false police report
- Fraud, if the disappearance is staged to escape debt
- Forgery or filing false documents, if the individual falsifies records or other official documents
- Obstruction of justice, if the staged disappearance causes law enforcement to waste resources or time
- Contempt of court for failure to pay court-ordered child support or alimony
- Failure to appear, if there is an outstanding criminal case or warrant
Penalties for these charges above range from misdemeanor to felonies, depending on the scale of the deception or financial loss. Adult runaways can also face legal fallout in civil court.
The Amnesia Defense
Smith’s story of disappearance is not unique. Several missing adult cases have been resolved when individuals simply resurfaced years later. Just a couple of other examples of adult runaways include Wisconsin man Ryan Borgwardt, who staged his own disappearance and drowning death in an attempt to start a new life in Europe, and Jody Roberts, who was found in 1997 in Alaska with a new name and a new family.
Borgwardt was charged with a misdemeanor (obstructing an officer) and sentenced to 89 days in jail. He was also ordered to pay $30,000 to cover the costs of his missing person investigation.
Jody Roberts (now Jane Dee) was not charged with a crime relating to her voluntary disappearance. This may be because she claimed to have no memory of her life as Jody Roberts. In the first days after her 1985 disappearance from Tacoma, Washington, Roberts was found wandering a shopping mall in Aurora, Colorado. Roberts asked mall security for help, claiming she didn’t know her name or how she got there.
Professionals in a Colorado mental health institution attempted to restore her memories, even using sodium amytal, known as “truth serum,” to help Roberts remember who she was. Her healthcare providers diagnosed her with disassociative amnesia, which can be caused by severe psychological stress or trauma.
Why Some Adults Just Walk Away
Sometimes, walking out the door and starting a new life sounds tempting. Adults who willingly disappear do so for several reasons. Crippling debt, overwhelming stress, or a romantic crisis — just to name a few — can make “disappearing” a tempting option. But while adults are free to leave their lives behind, it doesn’t always come without legal and emotional consequences.
Related Resources
- 5 Things To Know About Missing Persons Reports (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- State Laws: Can You Go to Jail for Not Paying Child Support? (FindLaw’s Learn About the Law)
- Fleeing From Justice: What Can Happen? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
