Florida officers arrest woman who went MIA 40 years ago and tell her daughter ‘You’re a missing person’

Florida deputies arrested a woman living under an assumed identity in November 2025, after determining she was wanted in a decades-old Kentucky parental kidnapping case, a development that stunned her neighbors and went viral the next month when body-cam footage of the encounter was released.

According to Florida news outlet WFTV, law enforcement took 66-year-old Debra Newton into custody on November 24, 2025, in The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Marion County, where she had been living as “Sharon Nealy.” Deputies executed a long-outstanding warrant for custodial interference linked to the disappearance of her daughter in 1983 after authorities received a Crime Stoppers tip that led them to her Florida residence.

Body-camera footage released by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office captures the moment deputies arrive at Newton’s house. In the video, two older women are chatting outdoors when patrol cars pull up. One neighbor jokes, “They’re coming for you, Sharon,” before deputies confirm they are there to arrest Newton. A deputy can be heard saying, “We’re here for you, ma’am. Definitely here for you.”

The Michelle Newton missing person case

The case dates back to April 2, 1983, when Newton allegedly disappeared from Louisville, Kentucky, with her then-3-year-old daughter, Michelle Marie Newton, a trip she told her husband was for a new job and a family move to Georgia.

Instead, both vanished without a trace, prompting a custodial interference indictment and an FBI Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant against Newton. At one point, she was on the FBI’s Top 8 Most Wanted parental-kidnapping fugitives list, though the case later went cold.

Investigators say the breakthrough came after Crime Stoppers received a tip identifying a woman who resembled age-progressed images and descriptions connected to the long-unsolved case.

A U.S. Marshals Task Force detective compared a recent photograph with one from 1983, and a DNA test using a sample from Newton’s sister confirmed a match. Once identified, deputies secured the warrant and arrested Debra at her Florida home.

What happened to Michelle Newton?

Newton’s daughter, Michelle, now 46, had been living under a completely different name in another state, unaware she had been reported missing as a child. After Newton’s arrest, deputies told Michelle, “You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton.”

Stunned by the revelation, Michelle contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky, which facilitated a long-awaited reunion with her father, Joseph Newton, whom she had not seen since early childhood. Her father described the moment of reunion as indescribable, saying it felt “like seeing her when she was first born.”

After her arrest, Debra was returned to Kentucky, where she faces a felony charge of custodial interference, a crime that carries no statute of limitations under state law. Court records indicate she was arraigned and released on bond, with future court dates scheduled as the case proceeds.