SANFORD, N.C. — Despite great efforts to find or identify hundreds of people who vanished shortly after Helene, a North Carolina family continues the search for their missing mom.

Shortly after the storm, a daughter said volunteers were searching for her mom. Five months later she still holds out hope her mother will be found.

“She had a crazy imagination, and she had a love of life that when we would do silly things, she'd be silly with us,” Jessica Meidinger said.

Meidinger recalled warm memories of her mom, Kimberly Ashby.

Ashby was not only a mom, but a grandmother and teacher for SanLee Middle School. 

Meidinger said now that she is a mother of two, these are the times she needs her mom the most.

“It's wild because there will be days where I’ll be like, my mom would know this. Let me call her real quick. I mean, this happened like two days ago where I’m still thinking, let me just give her a call and then the realization hits,” Meidinger said.

Jessica Meidinger, left, said her mom, Kim Ashby, used to give her parenting advice. Ashby is still missing after being swept away by flood waters during Helene. (Courtesy: Jessica Meidinger)

Ashby is one of the people still not accounted for after Helene ripped through western North Carolina in late September.

At the time Ashby and her husband were at their vacation home in Elk Park bracing for the storm.

“They were just kind of floating on a bunch of debris in the water when they hit a tree, and they went separate ways,” Meidinger said.

Ashby vanished after she was swept away in floodwaters.

Meidinger said the clothes her mom wore that day were found but not her mom’s body.

“Mourning a person without a body is very, very difficult. I mean, it's very difficult,” Meidinger said.

Five months later, Ashby’s case is still open, but the search is no longer active, meaning if someone were to discover a body, they can report it, and officials will look to see if the person matches Ashby’s description.

Meidinger said she has not received the phone call she’s been praying for and has come to terms with the reality that her mom may not be alive.

Meidinger said she still hopes someone will find her mom’s body so their family can properly lay her to rest.

“No matter how logical you are about a situation, your emotional hope is always going to be there,” Meidinger said.

Meidinger said she also hopes the search will resume as early as March.

The family held a celebration of life ceremony to get some closure and Ashby’s husband, who was also in the storm, is working to get a death certificate.