Well, in middle school my friend's mom up and left without a trace. I remember him calling me the next day saying that his mom hadn't come home from work the previous day, and that his dad was starting to get worried. Their family used to be my next door neighbor, and they had moved a few years before to a neighboring town. Being 12 or whatever, didn't know what to think. I had spent a good part of my childhood with her, and couldn't really absorb it.
Well, days turned into months, and it turned into a local media story. She worked at a local car dealership, and no one had any record of her saying anything to indicate that she would run out, and she was a really devoted parent. From what I remember from her, she was a really concerned and devoted parent. She babysat me for years and never did anything that was anything but what a typical and loving parent would do, but she was pretty strict(not allowing her kids to say things like "butt," had to say "bottom," her son, my friend was always getting grounded for minor infractions at school). But it was never hostile or over the top.
After about a year the family held a press conference to get more media attention. She began to get lumped in with cases of missing women from years before who had never turned up, their cases unsolved. I didn't really understand it at the time, but at that point they were basically looking for a body- my parents didn't seem to know what to do so they basically didn't address it at all, save bringing it as a "prayer concern" at church.
Well, those months turned into years. I lost touch with my friend, save talking every few years or so. He talked about it every now and then, and he went through some rough patches, but things pretty much carried on as normal. I think in 2006 or so, the police classified his mom as deceased, and the family held a private funeral.
Somehow, my friend ended up going to the same college. We met up a time or two, and he mentioned his mom and believing that she had passed away somehow. It was really sad to see him say that, but it seemed like he had found a way to cope with it. No evidence had ever been found, no sign of her anywhere, no tips, no nothing. His dad had remarried.
Then, on my lunch break at work in 2013, I was gliding through my Facebook newsfeed. Nothing too interesting until.... a picture of my friend's mom appeared alongside a news story. She looked just as I remembered her looking but..... awful. Her hair was limp and dyed bleach blond, her face haggard like she had been on drugs for years. She looked homeless. The news headlines all read "Woman declared dead found in FL after 12 years!" I almost spit out my food. I called my parents. They had already heard but were in disbelief.
Apparently she turned herself in in FL after all those years. Her quote in the papers was just that she was "at the end of her rope"- she had been homeless for some years, was cleaning boats for a living, and was wanted for drug charges under a fake identity. She was pretty active in the community where she was living, cleaning houses, and no one had the slightest clue as to who she was for over 10 years. She had a long term boyfriend who apparently had no idea who she truly was. Upon interviewing, she told many of the folks she met that her husband had died, and that she had no children. That was the part that really shocked me the most, that she told people she had no kids. It was a sucker punch to imagine reading that if I were my friend.
It was national news for some time. Eventually, my friend's mom did a special with Dr. Phil. I've never had the heart to watch it. My friend and his family watched it at home when it aired along with everyone else, or so they told papers.
From everything she's said to the media, it seems like she just up and left because she couldn't take the "financial pressure" of her situation(she was going through a divorce with my friend's dad, but it was never finalized). But in the end, the fact that she was "living homeless" and without a job due to having a fake identity doesn't seem to line up with that excuse.
The point is- who knows why she really left. Maybe there is a logical reason- maybe there's not. Maybe she just didn't want to have to face her children every day knowing she couldn't take care of them.
Maybe someone here will have a better reason.