A bodycam captures the moment a suspected kidnapper is arrested after 40 years on the run
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
Body camera footage shows the dramatic moment Florida authorities arrested a woman suspected of involvement in a 40-year-old mystery and one of the FBI’s longest-running parental kidnapping cases.
Debra Leigh Newton’s neighbors in Florida knew her only as “Sharon,” but authorities say she is the Kentucky mother who allegedly disappeared with her three-year-old daughter in 1983, living for decades under the guise of kidnapping.
The footage, obtained by FOX 35 Orlando, shows Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies approaching Newton as he walks his dog and a neighbor can be heard joking, “Oh, they’re coming, Sharon!”
THE CASE OF CHILDREN Abandoned in a park in 1989 was resolved after the mother was first found strangled on the beach.
Debra Newton was allegedly living under a stolen identity in a Florida retirement community after she disappeared with her daughter in 1983. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
Moments later, officials revealed his real name and a decades-old warrant. Newton looks shocked, but complies as he is handcuffed.
“We’re here for you, mom – we’re definitely here for you,” the deputy can be heard saying on the footage, as Newton replies, “Why?”
The case involving Newton began in Louisville, Kentucky, when he told relatives he had moved to Georgia to find work, FOX 35 reported.
In October 1983, she left with her daughter, Michelle Marie Newton, and no one realized that it would be the last time Michelle’s father, Joseph Newton, would see his child for more than 40 years.
In 1984 and 1985, all contact with Debra was cut off, and authorities issued a restraining order, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
.MURDER OF PENNSYLVANIA GIRL SOLVED AFTER FAMILY’S CONFESSION HELPS IDENTIFY KILLER.
FBI fugitive Debra Newton was captured in The Villages, Fla., as her daughter reunited with her biological father. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
The FBI followed through on an illegal flight to avoid a warrant and put Debra on their list of top fugitives for parental kidnapping.
In 2000, prosecutors dismissed the case when they could not reach Michelle’s father, and in 2005 Michelle’s information was removed from the missing children’s database.
A renewed campaign by relatives forced detectives to reopen the file in 2015, and the tampering charge was re-indicted in 2016.
Then in March, a Crime Stoppers tip in Marion County, Florida, pointed investigators to a 66-year-old woman who lives under the name “Sharon Nealy” in The Villages.
NEW HAMPSHIRE MURDER CASE SOLVED 50 YEARS AFTER FBI FORENSIC LAB REPORT LET MURDERER ESCAPE JUSTICE.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children posted on Facebook in 2024 looking for his whereabouts. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
US Marshals and local detectives compared historical and current photos, and DNA provided by Newton’s sister returned a 99.99% match, confirming the woman’s true identity.
Investigators suspect Newton remarried and joined a retirement community while maintaining a false identity for more than 40 years.
Around the same time, investigators also found Michelle, now 46 years old, who had been unaware she was listed as a missing child, reports FOX 35. She went to Kentucky to meet her biological father.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
“This is the type of crime you only see in law enforcement,” said Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Col. Steve Healey in a statement.
“Detectives refused to let the trail die. Their work – and the courage of a Crime Stoppers tipster – brought a daughter back to her family after forty years.”
Newton pleaded not guilty and is expected to appear in court next month.
