Bodycam footage shows Marion County deputies arresting Debra Leigh Newton, who investigators allege took her three-year-old daughter from Louisville in October 1983 and lived for decades under an assumed name in The Villages, Florida. A March Crime Stoppers tip led to a 99.99% DNA match confirming her identity. Michelle, now 46, was found unaware she had been listed as missing and reunited with her father. Newton has pleaded not guilty and will appear in court next month.
Dramatic Bodycam Footage Shows Arrest Of Woman Accused In 40-Year Parental Kidnapping; Daughter Reunited
Body-worn camera footage released by authorities captures the moment Florida deputies detained a woman accused of taking her three-year-old daughter from Kentucky in 1983 and living under an assumed identity for more than four decades.
Arrest Caught On Bodycam
The Marion County Sheriff's Office bodycam video, obtained by Fox 35 Orlando, shows deputies approaching a woman walking her dog in The Villages. Neighbors who knew her as "Sharon" can be heard reacting as officers tell her she is Debra Leigh Newton and that a decades-old warrant is being served. Newton appears surprised but complies as she is handcuffed.
How The Case Unfolded
Investigators say the case began in Louisville, Kentucky, in October 1983, when Debra Leigh Newton left with her three-year-old daughter, Michelle Marie Newton, telling relatives she was moving to Georgia for work. By 1985, all contact had stopped and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office issued a custodial-interference warrant. The FBI later added an unlawful-flight-to-avoid-prosecution warrant and listed her among its top parental kidnapping fugitives.
Prosecutors dismissed the case in 2000 when they could not locate Michelle’s father, and federal missing-child records were cleared by 2005. A family-led effort prompted detectives to reopen the investigation in 2015; Jefferson County reissued the custodial-interference charge in 2016.
Breakthrough And Identification
A Crime Stoppers tip in Marion County, Florida, in March led investigators to a 66-year-old woman living under the name "Sharon Nealy" in The Villages. U.S. Marshals and local detectives compared historical and current photos, and DNA provided by Newton’s sister produced a 99.99% match, authorities said, confirming the woman’s true identity.
Officials allege Newton remarried and quietly assimilated into the retirement community while using a false identity for more than 40 years.
Reunion And Legal Status
Investigators also located Michelle, now 46, who had not known she had once been listed as a missing child. She traveled to Kentucky and was reunited with her biological father, Joseph Newton. Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey praised detectives and the Crime Stoppers tipster, saying their persistence "brought a daughter home to her family after four decades."
Debra Leigh Newton has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court next month.
Key Evidence: The case hinges on historical records, photographic comparisons and a near-certain DNA match (99.99%) from a relative.
