"Missing Child" Michelle Newton Found Over 40 Years Later Thanks to Anonymous Tip
"I wouldn't change that moment for anything."
Published Dec. 17 2025, 1:27 p.m. ET
Michelle Newton went missing over 40 years ago. Her mother, Debra Newton, and father, Joseph Newton, were planning to move from Kentucky to Georgia in the early 1980s, according to CNN. Debra was supposed to go to Georgia early for work and to prepare a house for the family. However, when Joseph arrived, both Debra and Michelle were nowhere to be found.
Michelle's missing child case was dismissed in 2000 when authorities couldn't contact her father, and she was taken off the missing child database in 2005, according to Fox 35 Orlando. However, the case was reopened in 2016 at the request of a family member.
In December 2025, Debra Newton was finally identified, and Michelle Newton learned that her mother had been lying to her for years. Michelle had been living in another state under a different identity. Here's what happened.
Debra Newton was identified in the missing child case after an anonymous tip.
A Crime Stoppers tip pointed to Debra Newton (going by Sharon) as a possible match for the missing persons case. A US Marshals Task Force detective compared Debra to a 1983 image of her, and a Jefferson County detective "confirmed the resemblance."
Authorities confirmed the identity match by obtaining DNA from Debra's sister. Debra had been living in a Florida housing community, The Villages, under the name Sharon. She was retired and had remarried.
When police arrested Debra, she was walking a dog and talking to a neighbor in the housing community. She told her neighbor, her new husband, and the police repeatedly that she "didn't do anything," according to Fox 35 Orlando. She was extradited to Kentucky and faces a "custodial interference felony offense," which has no statute of limitations.
Michelle didn't know she had been abducted.
When Debra was identified, authorities went to Michelle's home in Florida. Michelle came home from work to find police waiting for her. They said, "You're not who you think you are. You're a missing person. You're Michelle Marie Newton," per The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
She learned that her mother, whom she knew as Sharon, was on an FBI Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution list and was once one of the FBI's Eight Most Wanted Parental-Kidnapping fugitives.
After learning her true identity, Michelle reached out to authorities and reconnected with her father and her extended family. Her dad, Joseph Newton, told CNN, "She’s always been in our heart."
He said, "I can’t explain that moment of walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter. I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything. It was just like seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel."
Michelle is understandably in a strange position, but doesn't seem to have taken sides. She said, "My intention is to support them both through this and try to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal."