The former fiancé of a Florida mother who disappeared just hours after they appeared on “The People’s Court” back in 2011 has been arrested for her murder.
While Michelle Parker’s body still has not yet been found, “all evidence leads to Dale Smith Jr. as the person responsible for” her killing, the Orlando Police Department said. He was taken into custody on Wednesday on a count of second-degree murder and booked into the Orange County Jail.
“Over the past year, we expanded our investigative team looking into this case and took a fresh, focused look at all of the evidence,” Orlando police chief Eric Smith said during a new briefing this week.” We reexamined testimony and conflicting statements made by the suspect, and used advanced and digital forensics to uncover and analyze additional evidence.”
He added that he would not provide specific details to “protect the integrity” of the investigation.
Parker was last seen alive on Nov. 17, 2011 at the Carter Glen Condominiums in the Lee Vista area, according to Click Orlando. She’d been dropping off the twins she shared with Smith at his house at the time.
From there, she planned to run a few errands, and then head to her job as a bartender — but she never showed up for her shift. Her Hummer was found abandoned on the west side of Orlando the following day, and her cell phone was pulled from a lake south of Orlando some three weeks later. While Smith has long been a suspect, authorities were not able to build a strong enough case against him for nearly 15 years.
Det. Phillip McMican noted that advancements in technology helped offer additional insight into past clues. He said investigators also uncovered new evidence, but he did not provide specific details.
On the same afternoon she went missing, Park and Smith appeared in a prerecorded episode of “The People’s Court,” during which they settled a dispute over a $5,000 engagement ring.
Smith “gets pretty malicious and vindictive,” Parker said in court, per NBC News. “He said that he wanted his ring, so I took it off, and I threw it at him.”