42-Year-Old Kidnapping Case Solved as Kentucky Woman Reunites with Family

Joe Newton last saw his daughter, Michelle, in 1983. On Monday, the two sat together on a couch in Kentucky.

“She’s always been in our hearts. I can’t explain that woman walking in, and getting to put my arms back around my daughter,” Newton told WLKY while holding his daughter’s hand. “It’s hard to look at her as an adult. When I last seen her, she was a 3-year-old.”

Joe Newton and his wife, Debra, planned on relocating to Georgia for a new job. Debra took her 3-year-old to “prepare a new home for the family.” According to WDRB, a fateful phone call was the last Joe had ever heard from Debra or his young daughter, Michelle. When he arrived in Georgia, they were gone.

It was a case of custodial interference. At one point, Debra Newton was among the FBI’s eight most wanted parental-kidnapping fugitives. She appeared in Jefferson County court on Monday for her arraignment, charged with custodial interference. There is no statute of limitations on the crime.

The case was cracked thanks to a Crime Stoppers tip in Florida, identifying a 66-year-old woman who fit the billing for Debra Newton. She had been living under a different identity. The same went for Michelle.

Two weeks ago, Michelle Newton came home to the sight of police. They informed her, “You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person.”

This 40-year-old woman had her world rocked. Her whole life, she thought she was an only child, living with a different name. Now, she’s learning a much different family history. Instead of reacting with anger or vitriol, she is choosing a path of forgiveness.

“My intention is to support them both through this and trying to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal and hopefully, you know, there’s just apologies and start healing,” Michelle Newton told WLKY.

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