Questions remain after missing mom found 300km from home

A mother from South Carolina in the United States who vanished during a weekend trip to Atlanta, Georgia, has been found safe, ending a search that stretched across state lines.

Leigh McAlister was reported missing after she travelled to attend a church conference in Atlanta. According to the Cobb County Police Department, she was last seen on Saturday, 14 February.

“She was due back on Valentine's Day from the conference, but she did not show up."

Her husband, Rob, with whom McAlister shares a four-year-old boy, alerted authorities after he couldn't get hold of her.

Investigators traced her movements, including CCTV footage which showed her inside a Publix supermarket in Atlanta.

"Then, a long way from home, her car was found outside the Atlanta Braves' baseball stadium in Georgia, inside were her phone and wallet."

Eventually, the 37-year-old turned up at a hospital 300km from her home.

Authorities have confirmed she has been found but have not shared further details about what led to her disappearance.

"She seemingly had no knowledge of what had happened to her. Did she bang her head? Was she abducted? Was there some sort of meeting that she had set up that went wrong? At this stage, we don't know."

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Meanwhile, a mom-of-three from North Carolina who vanished in 2001 while on her way to do her Christmas shopping has been found safe this week, nearly 25 years after she disappeared.

Michele Hundley Smith, who was 38 at the time she went missing, was found after investigators received new information about her disappearance.

Smith, now 62, had been reported missing on 31 December 2001, weeks after leaving her home in North Carolina to shop at a K-mart store in neighbouring Virginia.

Authorities say they recently made contact with Smith at an undisclosed location in North Carolina and confirmed she is 'alive and well' but wants to keep her whereabouts private.

For more details, listen to international correspondent Adam Gilchrist using the audio player below: