NCMEC / Facebook
Michelle was reported missing in 1983, when she was 3 years old. On the right, an image generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows what Michelle would look like today
Michelle Newton discovered at the age of 46 that she lived decades with another identity. Father searched for her for years.
A 46-year-old woman, raised under a different name, discovered in late November that her name is, after all, Michelle Marie Newton.
Michelle disappeared in 1983 and was searched for decades by her family and authorities across the country, including the FBI. She never knew she had been kidnapped as a child until the day police officers knocked on her door and told her very directly: “You are not who you think you are.”
The revelation was made by herself to station WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky. According to what the authorities told him, Michelle was taken by motherDebra Newton, when she was just three years old, and was never seen again by her father, Joe Newton, who searched for her for decades.
The reunion between father and daughter only happened because Debra, the mother, now 66 years old, was detainedon November 24th in The Villages, Florida. According to an arrest warrant from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, seen by the magazine, Debra was accused of interference with custody. She will have remade her life, remarried and started using another name: Sharon Nealy.
The arrest was only possible due to a tip generated by a Crime Stoppers notification about the case, when a person recognized Debra. The investigation goes back to April 2, 1983: on that day, Debra and her daughter left Louisville. She told her then-husband, Joe Newton, that they were moving to Georgia for a new job. But the pair never returned nor were they located again. A national search began.
At one point, Debra was among the FBI most wanted fugitives in cases of parental abduction. Despite prolonged efforts, the case suffered setbacks and in 2000, the case was dropped after prosecutors were unable to contact the father.
In 2005, Michelle was removed from national missing children databases, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. In 2016, a family member asked for the case to be reopened, but authorities were still unable to locate Michelle.
Visibility increased again in 2024, when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) released a age progression image — an estimate of what Michelle might look like at age 45 — to bolster public appeals. The breakthrough would come the following year, with Debra’s identification in Florida, which led to her arrest and, consequently, the confirmation of her daughter’s true identity.
“I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything,” Joe told WLKY, as quoted by People. “It was like seeing her when she was born.”
Debra was brought to court in Louisville and released after a family member paid bail, according to CNN.
