Dad is reunited with his daughter abducted by her mother 42 years ago: ‘I didn’t even know if she was alive’

A Kentucky woman who was abducted by her mother more than 40 years ago has been found with her father, now saying he never gave up hope.

Joe Newton told local station WLKY he always searched for his daughter, Michelle Newton, who was taken by her mother at three years old in 1983.

Her mother, Debra Newton, said in April 1983 that they were moving to Georgia, and she was moving “to begin a new job and prepare a new home for the family.”

However, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Debra and Michelle disappeared between 1984 and 1985. Joe received a final phone call before never hearing from his former wife again, according to WDRB.

“She’s always been in our heart,” Joe told WLKY.

“I didn’t even know she was alive.”

Recently, the sheriff’s office released an image of what Debra could look like compared with a 1983 photo of the mother.

FOX56 Kentucky News reported that this prompted a Crime Stoppers tip from Marion County, Florida, that someone had “identified a possible match for a 66-year-old woman using a different name.”

This is what triggered the beginning of a reunion between father and daughter a few weeks ago.

“I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything,’ he continued. ‘It was like I was seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel,” Joe said.

Investigators had also tested Debra’s sister’s DNA, with the results showing a 99.99 per cent match to the suspect in Florida.

Michelle returned home from work two weeks ago when police were at her door, telling her, “You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton”.

Michelle, now 45, told WLKY she had no idea she was a victim.

Chief Deputy Colonel Steve Healey said in a statement that Michelle was no longer a missing person.

“This is the kind of case you see once in a law enforcement career,” he said.

“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.”

For a period of time, Debra was one of the FBI’s top eight most wanted kidnapping fugitives; however, by 2000, the case was dismissed, and Michelle was removed from the National Missing-Child database in 2005.

However, in 2016, the case was reopened, ultimately resulting in Michelle’s reunion with her father.

Debra is now in Louisville, facing felony charges, according to WDRB. She is out on bond and was arraigned on December 9 in a Jefferson County courtroom, with Michelle and her father in attendance.