A Kentucky missing-child case dating back to 1983 has closed after authorities received a Crime Stoppers tip.
According to WHAS, Michelle Marie Newton, who was three years old when her mother, Debra Leigh Curry Newton, allegedly fled with her to another state, reunited with her family four decades after she disappeared from Kentucky.
WDRB obtained a photo of the victim from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
The 66-year-old suspect, who was the non-custodial parent at the time, allegedly took the little girl to Georgia to start a new job in 1983 but vanished after a final phone call with Michelle’s father, Joseph Newton, according to the report. Michelle was last seen in Louisville and was in her father’s custody when she disappeared.
Authorities told WHAS that an FBI Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant and a custodial-interference indictment were filed against the suspect, but the case was dismissed in 2000 when the Commonwealth couldn’t reach Michelle’s father. Michelle was removed from the national missing-child databases in 2005.
Detectives re-indicted the case in 2016 after a family member urged the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to re-examine it in 2015, WHAS reported.
The Villages News reported that at the time of her arrest, Debra Leigh Newton was living in the Village of Piedmont in The Villages, a retirement community in Florida.
A report from WDRB says she was arrested after law enforcement received a Crime Stoppers tip identifying a possible match for a 66-year-old woman using a different name. A U.S. Marshals Task Force agent compared a recent photo with one taken in 1983 and confirmed their resemblance.
Authorities tested DNA from Debra Newton’s sister, who lives in Louisville, and the results reportedly came back as a 99.99% match to the suspect, WDRB reported.
The suspect was taken into custody by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on November 24 as a fugitive from justice in Kentucky.
When speaking to deputies, Michelle Marie Newton said she didn’t realize she was a victim until she recognized everything she had missed throughout her life.
“This is the kind of case you see once in a law-enforcement career. 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,” Col. Steve Healey told WHAS.
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