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A woman who had been missing more than 40 years has finally been found alive in Florida, according to reports.
A then 3-year-old Michelle Marie Newton and her non-custodial mother, Debra Lee Newton, were last seen back in 1983, driving away from their Kentucky home. Debra, now 66, and Michelle’s father, Joe Newton, had been preparing a move to Georgia, and they left in separate vehicles. Deborah took off first with Michelle. When the father arrived at their new house, Debra and Michelle were not there and never showed up.
Ever since, Joe has wondered whatever happened to his little girl and told WLKY that he never stopped looking for his daughter.
It was discovered Michelle was alive last year, thanks to a phone tip called into a Florida Crime Stoppers line. Joe and Michelle were reunited last month.
Now, what was believed to be a hopeless cold case has now been officially solved, years after Michelle was actually accidentally removed from the national registry of missing children database.
“She’s always been in our heart. I can’t explain that moment walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter,” Joe Newton told WLKY.
“I’ve missed them so much,” commented Michelle’s aunt, Karen Spalding. “I didn’t even know if she was alive.”
Investigators told WLKY that they finally caught a break in the case last year with the anonymous tip. Just two weeks ago, Michelle returned home from work to find policemen at her door. She couldn’t even comprehend what they were telling her.
“’You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton,’” she recalled the police telling her.
The father and daughter met each other on Joe’s front porch for a hug. Police eventually found Debra, too, and placed her under arrest.
“I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything,” Joe said of the long-awaited reunion. “It was just like I was seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel.”
While she continues to adjust to her new normal, Michelle told WLKY her focus will be on healing, not blaming.
“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, and hopefully, there’s just apologies and we can start healing,” Michelle said.
Joe said that the last heard from Debra was in 1986. People who knew her suspected she had died from a drug overdose, according to reports, which didn’t turn out to be the case. She was arrested on November 24 and has since been charged with felony custodial interference. There is no statute of limitations on parental child abductions in Florida.
Debra was extradited to Kentucky, where she’s already gone before a judge. Us Weekly was unable to determine whether she was asked to plead to the charge. She will return to court on January 23, 2026, for the next hearing in her case.
If you have any information that may be pertinent to this case, you are asked to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff in Kentucky at (502) 574-5400.
