Ever wanted to disappear? There are people who can help, but its not as easy as you may think

In December 2001, Michele Lyn Hundley Smith left her North Carolina home to buy Christmas presents and never came back, leaving behind a husband, two baffled teenage daughters and an eight-year-old son.It took twenty-four years, multiple missing person reports and searches including by the FBI, before she was found living alone in a trailer, 173 miles away but in the same state, by a sheriff.Smith claimed she left for “domestic issues,” according to an officer who interviewed her.She was hauled back to face an old drunk driving charge and many questions from those she left behind.It was a disappearing act worthy of magician David Copperfield, and exactly how she did it hasn’t yet been explained.Although it may have practically been a little easier to do back in 2001 before the internet and social media became widespread, it’s always been emotionally very hard for people to leave a life behind and start again, according to professionals.“The biggest psychological problem is getting to your new location and realizing your old life is dead and that you need to make a new life,” said Frank Ahearn, privacy expert and blackmail fixer who helps people to start over.“You left everyone behind and there is always the temptation to reach out to people from the past.

But you can’t.You need to realize that the life you left behind is over.

If you break the discipline, you will put yourself in harm’s way,” he added to The Post. “Some people become complacent.

Let’s say you used to like rodeos and you start showing up at rodeos and run into people from your past.That is not good.“You can’t do the things from your past if you want to stay disappeared.

You have to stop being the person you used to be.That is a psychological challenge for a lot of people.”Ahearn — who makes it clear he refuses to work with crooks or anyone under criminal investigation — says people disappear for reasons such as abuse, family strife, or sometimes either coming i...