I had the same thing with Aurora! She was my favourite villager when I played Wild World. I remember I had a little phone charm on my brick of a handset (2008 phones). Then when I got New Leaf last year, I spent months trying to find her on the various Animal Crossing forums. Finally she moved back in to my town... then a few months later I ended up restarting my town anyway, so I lost her again.
Right now though, I'm hoping to reunite with Lolly. I actually restarted because she moved out