MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Body camera footage shows the moment police in Florida arrested a woman accused of kidnapping her daughter over 40 years ago.
Officials said the woman lived under an alias.
Neighbor: “They’re coming for you, Sharon!”
Debra Newton: “They don’t want me."
Officer 1: “We’re here for you ma’am. We are waiting on the detective to get here, but we have, with all the information that we do have, you have a warrant for your arrest.”
Neighbor: “They have to be kidding!”
Officer 2: “Ma’am, we’re not.”
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The woman known to her neighbors as Sharon Nearly is actually Debra Newton, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said she was wanted for kidnapping her daughter, Michelle, back in 1983.
“I have known for a long time that something was not right, but I’ve never really had answers to that story,” Michelle told ABC News.
WFTV reports that Debra Newton told her then-husband, Joe Newton, that she would head to Georgia with their daughter, Michelle, to start a new job and prepare the new family home.
But when Joe got there, Debra and Michelle had vanished.
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Over 40 years later, investigators tracked down the mother to the Villages in Marion County, where she had been living under the name Sharon Nealy.
Deputies arrested her last month for a charge of Custodial Interference, a felony offense in Kentucky.
Neighbors told WFTV that Sharon and her new husband were always pleasant and that they believed there was more to the story.
“Unless you’re in her shoes, you never know,” said one neighbor.
WFTV stopped by the Marion County home where Debra had been living under the name Sharon for years.
Her husband came to the door and said their attorneys had advised them not to comment on the case, but that they would “fight this in court.”
Michelle meanwhile reunited with her father for Thanksgiving, but said she doesn’t hold any resentment toward her mother.
“I think there’s a lot of healing that’s got to happen between my mom and I, and she has an opportunity to connect with family that’s missed her more than she realizes,” she told ABC News.
ABC News contributed to this report.
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