Woman, 46, Had No Idea She'd Been Abducted at Age 3

For more than 40 years, Michelle Newton lived an ordinary life under a different name, unaware police still considered her a missing child. The woman, now 46, was reported missing in April 1983, when she was 3. Authorities say her mother, Debra Newton, moved Michelle from Louisville, Kentucky, to Georgia under the pretense of starting a new job and setting up a new residence for the family—then cut off Michelle's father, Joseph, and disappeared, per the New York Post. Debra later adopted the name "Sharon" and, according to investigators, raised Michelle under a different identity.

Joseph Newton spent years trying to find his daughter and estranged wife, but the trail went cold. The criminal case was dismissed in 2000, and Michelle was removed from national missing-child databases in 2005. A relative pushed to reopen the case in 2016, but nothing moved until a Crime Stoppers tip this year pointed deputies to the Villages, a vast Florida retirement community, where Debra was living as "Sharon Nealy." She was arrested there (video here) on Nov. 24 on a felony custodial interference charge; at one point, she'd been on an FBI list of most-wanted parental kidnapping suspects.

Police then went to Michelle's home and, as she told WLKY, broke the news: "You're not who you think you are. You're a missing person. You're Michelle Marie Newton." She contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and soon met Joseph for the first time since she was a toddler. "I can't explain that moment of walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter," he said, likening it to the day she was born. Both father and daughter attended Debra's arraignment, and Michelle said she isn't choosing sides: "My intention is to support them both through this and try to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal."