A Crime Stoppers tip in 2025 led to the arrest of Debra Leigh Newton, accused of abducting her three-year-old daughter, Michelle, in 1983. Michelle, who was raised under another name and did not know she had been reported missing, was located and reunited with her father after more than four decades. Debra, 66, was arrested in The Villages, Florida, charged with custodial interference and released on bond after arraignment; the investigation and legal process are ongoing.
Woman Abducted at Age 3 in 1983 Found Alive After More Than Four Decades; Mother Arrested After Tip
NCMEC; Jefferson County Sheriff's OfficeMichelle Newton, Debra Leigh Newton
A Crime Stoppers tip in 2025 has reopened a decades-old mystery: authorities say a woman who vanished as a toddler in 1983 has been located, and her mother has been arrested in connection with the disappearance.
Who was involved: Police say Debra Leigh Newton left Louisville, Kentucky, with her three-year-old daughter, Michelle Newton, on April 2, 1983. Debra reportedly told her then-husband, Joseph (Joe) Newton, that she was moving the family to Georgia for a new job. Neither Debra nor Michelle were seen again for decades.
Arrest and reunion
On Nov. 24, 2025, 66-year-old Debra Newton was arrested in The Villages, Florida, after a tip to Crime Stoppers allegedly identified her. Local authorities say she had been living under the name Sharon Nealy and had remarried. Marion County deputies served a warrant related to a missing-child investigation out of Kentucky; Debra was charged with custodial interference and later arraigned in Louisville. She was released after a relative posted bond.
Following the arrest, Michelle — now 46 and reported to have been raised under a different name — was reunited with her father, Joseph Newton. In coverage of the reunion, Joseph described the emotional moment of embracing his daughter after more than four decades apart.
NCMECAge-progressed image of Michelle Newton from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2024
“I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything,” Joseph told reporters. “It was just like seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel.”
Case history and investigation
The search for Debra and Michelle stretched through the 1990s. Officials say the original case was dismissed in 2000 after prosecutors were unable to reach the father, and Michelle’s missing-person record was removed from national databases in 2005. A family member asked authorities to reopen the investigation in 2016, but no breakthrough occurred until the Crime Stoppers tip in 2025.
Body-camera footage released by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies approaching the driveway where Debra was living; friends reportedly called out the alias she had been using. According to reports from local and national outlets, Debra protested her innocence when taken into custody. It is unclear whether she has retained counsel who can speak publicly on her behalf.
What comes next
Debra faces a custodial-interference charge tied to the 1983 disappearance; further legal proceedings are expected in Louisville. Michelle has said she intends to support both family members as they work through the legal process and begin to heal. Investigations by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies remain ongoing, and several news organizations — including PEOPLE, WLKY, WFTV9, Fox 35 Orlando and CNN — provided coverage of the developments.
Sources: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, WLKY, WFTV9, Fox 35 Orlando, CNN, PEOPLE.
