LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky family has been reunited with their daughter 40 years after her abduction.
Michelle Newton disappeared from Louisville in 1983 at the age of three, allegedly taken by her noncustodial mother, Debra Newton.
Michelle, who turned 45 in 2024, was featured in an age-progressed image released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help locate her. “Michelle’s whereabouts remain unknown to this day, and we have not given up hope,” the organization wrote in October 2024.
The decades-old case was finally solved after a tip to Crime Stoppers in Marion County, Florida, identified a 66-year-old woman using a different name. Jefferson County investigators compared a recent photo with a 1983 photo of Debra Newton and confirmed the resemblance. DNA testing of Newton’s sister returned a 99.99% match to the suspect.
Debra Newton was arrested in late November 2025 and charged with custodial interference. Michelle was found alive in another state, living under a different name, and told investigators she had no idea she had been a victim until learning what she had missed.
“This is the kind of case you see once in a law enforcement career,” said Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey. “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.”
Debra Newton is back in Louisville facing felony charges and is currently out on bond. She was arraigned on Dec. 9 in Jefferson County, with Michelle and her biological father, Joseph Newton, in attendance. Court records show Debra entered a not guilty plea and is scheduled to return to court in January.
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