Overview
- Marion County deputies arrested Debra Leigh Newton in The Villages on a custodial interference charge after decades under the name "Sharon Nealy."
- Investigators say a Crime Stoppers tip identified her, and body-camera footage released by the sheriff’s office shows the moment deputies made the arrest.
- Michelle Newton, now 46, learned she had been living under another identity and has reunited with her father, Joseph, in Kentucky.
- Newton was extradited and arraigned in Louisville, then released on bond posted by a relative as the case proceeds.
- The case, once dismissed in 2000 with records recalled in 2005, was revived through new leads including NCMEC’s age-progressed images and a reported DNA match to a relative.