LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A 40-year-old Louisville missing persons case was solved after a girl missing since she was 3 was found alive.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said Monday that Michelle Newton was found alive in another state after being abducted in 1983.
Michelle Newton with her biological father, Joseph Newton. She was abducted by her mother in 1983 as a three-year-old. The 40-year-old was found living in another state and has been reunited with her biological family. (Images courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Louisville, Ky.) Dec. 8, 2025
Detectives in the custodial-kidnapping investigation said Newton called police after discovering her true identity and has since been reunited with her biological family. Her mother, Debra Newton, is facing felony charges in connection to the abduction after she was identified through a Crime Stoppers tip.
A family member posted her bond in Kentucky, and Debra Newton voluntarily appeared in Jefferson County for her arraignment, where Michelle and Joseph Newton, her father, were in attendance.
Debra Newton faces a felony charge of custodial interference, which carries no statute of limitations. That means the case can still be prosecuted, despite 40 years going by.
"This is the kind of case you see once in a law enforcement career," Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey said in a news release Monday. "Detectives refused to let the trail go cold. Their work — and the courage of a Crime Stoppers tipster — brought a daughter home to her family after four decades."
The case dates back to April 1983. Michelle, a 3-year-old at the time, disappeared with Debra Newton — who said she was relocating to Georgia "to begin a new job and prepare a new home for the family."
The sheriff's office said the two vanished between 1984 and 1985 after a "final phone call" with Joseph Newton. Debra Newton was once among the FBI's top eight Most Wanted parental-kidnapping fugitives and was at the center of a custodial-interference indictment and an FBI Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant, according to a news release.
In 2000, the case was dismissed when the state couldn't reach Joseph Newton, the sheriff's office said, and, in 2005, Michelle Newton was taken off the national missing child databases.
The case was reexamined in 2015 when a family member asked for help from the sheriff's office, which worked with former Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine to reindict the case in 2016.
About 10 years later, a Crime Stoppers tip from Marion County, Florida, "identified a possible match for a 66-year-old woman using a different name."
The sheriff's office said a U.S. Marshals Task Force detective compared a recent photo with a 1983 photo of Debra Newton and "confirmed their resemblance." Investigators tested DNA from Debra Newton's sister in Louisville, which came back with a 99.99% match to the suspect in Florida, according to a news release.
The sheriff's office said Michelle Newton was living under a different identity in another state when she contacted them after "discovering her true family history."
"She told us she didn't realize she was a victim until she saw everything she had missed," Healey said.
Michelle Newton was reunited with her father and extended relatives with the help of detectives from Jefferson County.
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