Florida Ex-Fiancé Arrested on Murder Charge 15 Years After Woman Vanished
Dale Smith Jr. faces a second-degree murder charge in the 2011 disappearance of Michelle Parker, whose case gained national attention after airing on 'The People's Court'.
Police in Orlando, Florida, have arrested Dale Smith Jr., 55, the ex-fiancé of Michelle Parker, on a charge of second-degree murder, nearly 15 years after she disappeared. Parker was last seen on Nov. 17, 2011, after dropping off her twins with Smith.
The arrest comes decades after Parker vanished the same afternoon a prerecorded episode of "The People's Court" aired, featuring a dispute between Parker and Smith over a $5,000 engagement ring. In the televised segment, Parker stated Smith "gets pretty malicious and vindictive" and recounted throwing the ring at him. Friends had previously described their relationship as tumultuous.
Parker was reported missing when she failed to report for work. Her brother became alarmed when a text message from her phone, which typically would not have been a one-word response, simply read "Waterford." Her abandoned Hummer was found days later, with the decal for her airbrush-tanning business removed. Investigators later found her iPhone in a lake miles from her home.
Smith had been considered a person of interest in the case for years, but authorities lacked sufficient evidence for an arrest until recently. Police attributed the breakthrough to "years of investigative work and a renewed, focused effort over the past year," involving an expanded investigative team that re-examined evidence and utilized advances in digital forensics.
During a news conference Wednesday, Detective Phil McMickin stated that Smith had been interviewed multiple times over the years and participated in depositions where he provided varying answers to the same questions. "He was interviewed more than once, and since then has taken part in depositions related to this case, and very specific questions were asked of him numerous times over the years where he gave different answers to those same questions," McMickin said.
While Parker's body has not been located, police indicated that "all evidence leads to Dale Smith Jr. as the person responsible for Michelle's murder."
