Shocking Video Captures the Moment a Mom Was Arrested for Kidnapping Her Daughter 42 Years Ago — Neighbor Thought It Was a Joke
A viral video shows the unbelievable moment a seemingly unsuspecting mom was taken into custody for a kidnapping that happened over four decades ago. The footage captures a neighbor laughing and joking with police, convinced they couldn’t really be arresting her friend.
Debra Newton, 66, was out walking her dog and chatting with her neighbor on November 24 near her home in The Villages, Florida, when Marion County Sheriff’s deputies arrived.
The neighbor, unaware of Newton’s true identity — Sharon Nearly, the alias the fugitive mom had been using — immediately started joking with officers, clearly never expecting the shocking arrest to unfold right in front of her.
The woman known to neighbors as Sharon Nearly is, in fact, Debra Newton, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
In the startling video, her neighbor jokingly warns her, “Uh, oh — they’re coming for you, Sharon!”
“They don’t want me!” Newton replies nervously, before asking, “What’s up?”
A deputy steps forward: “We’re here for you, ma’am. Definitely here for you.”
Still thinking it’s a prank, the neighbor approaches Newton, insisting, “They’re teasing you, they have to be teasing.”
“Ma’am, we’re not,” the deputy clarifies — and only then does the neighbor seem to realize her friend is truly in serious trouble.
Newton had been wanted for allegedly kidnapping her daughter, Michelle Marie Newton, in 1983. Michelle had no knowledge of her mother’s past until she was found living in Kentucky under a different name.
Michelle Marie Newton and her father, Joseph Newton, were finally reunited after 42 years, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say Debra Newton allegedly moved Michelle from Louisville, Kentucky, to Georgia under the pretense of starting a new job and setting up a home. By the time her husband, Joseph, arrived, she had vanished.
It’s unclear exactly when Newton abandoned her daughter, but Michelle, now 46, was raised under a different name and remained unaware of her mother’s true identity for her entire life.
Debra Newton, now 66, assumed the name “Sharon” and began a new life in Florida, authorities confirmed.
Michelle Marie Newton vanished with her mother in 1983.
Her father spent decades trying to track them down. In 2005, when Michelle would have been around 25, she was removed from the nationwide missing child databases.
The case was reopened in 2016 at the request of a family member, and in 2025, investigators finally located the long-lost daughter.
Debra Newton, who had once appeared on the FBI’s “Top 8 Most Wanted Parental-Kidnapping Fugitives” list, was arrested before police went to Michelle’s doorstep to deliver the life-altering news.
“You’re not who you think you are. You’re a missing person. You’re Michelle Marie Newton,” officers told her.
Michelle reunited with her father for Thanksgiving and told ABC News she holds no ill will toward her mother. “I think there’s a lot of healing that’s got to happen between my mom and me, and she has an opportunity to connect with family that’s missed her more than she realizes,” she said.
