Rhiannon Ingle
A girl who went missing at three years old has been found over four decades later with a brand-new identity, and she had absolutely no recollection of what happened.
Michelle Marie Newton, who is now 46, was allegedly abducted by her mother from Kentucky, US, in April of 1983. She went on to spend the rest of her life with a totally different name and hadn't a clue she had been in the national missing-child database, or that her mother, Debra Newton, had been on the FBI’s 'Top eight Most Wanted parental-kidnapping fugitives' list.
Michelle was also informed of all this last month, in November, and she's since reunited with her father after 42 years apart.
Debra left their home with Michelle, claiming she was moving early as part of the family’s plans to relocate to Georgia, but when the girl's father, Joseph Newton, arrived there, Debra and the pair's toddler were nowhere to be found.
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As per a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office press release, there was a 'final phone call' at some point between 1984 and 1985 before 'both mother and daughter vanished' which prompted a massive search for Michelle.
Debra was later named in a custodial-interference indictment, but the case was dropped by Kentucky 25 years ago in 2000 when the FBI could no longer reach Joseph.
Five years later, Michelle’s name was taken off the national child missing database. Then, about a decade later, in 2016, the investigation was reopened at the request of a family member, and a grand jury re-indicted Debra the following year.
The press release added that investigators received a Crime Stoppers tip that Debra had been spotted in Florida, using a different name.
Offers then compared a recent photo of her to an 1983 image and 'confirmed the resemblance'.
The tip took police to a home in The Villages, Florida, on 24 November. Debra had been living in a retirement community under the name Sharon Nealy, according to WFTV9.
Officers arrested her, then went to Michelle's door to tell her the news.
"You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton," Michelle later told WLKY about what she was told.
The bombshell revelation, understandably, left her stunned as she had spent her entire life under a false identity.
Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey said that she 'didn’t realise she was a victim until she saw everything she had missed'.
Finally, after all those years, she was able to reunite with her elated father, Joseph.
"She’s always been in our hearts," he told WLKY. "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 and Joseph were in court as Debra was arraigned on a felony charge of custodial interference. She was released on bond, posted by a family member.