After nearly 15 agonizing years, police have finally made an arrest in the much-publicized disappearance of Orlando mother Michelle Parker, charging her ex-fiancée, the longtime prime suspect, with her murder.
Read more Car registered to man accused of planning mass shooting was at Hindu temple he targeted, police say
Dale Smith Jr., who fathered twins with Parker and kept custody of them after her disappearance, now faces a second-degree murder charge. He was arrested in Orlando Wednesday and booked into the Orange County Jail.
“This is the happiest day,” Parker’s mother, Yvonne Stewart, told reporters after Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith announced the arrest. Stewart said Smith had called her about an hour before the news became public.
“I was hopeful this day would come,” Stewart continued, “but never really knowing if it will and the fact that he could get away with it and not ever be arrested — that’s just a hard pill to swallow.”
Smith said during a press conference that the arrest came after digital forensic tools that were not available at the start of the investigation uncovered location and communications data investigators believe definitively point to Smith Jr. as Parker’s killer. He did not offer additional details of the evidence.
Parker’s body still has not been found.
“Our responsibility now is to protect the integrity of this case and allow the judicial process to move forward,” said Smith. “We owe Michelle and her family to make sure justice is served in this case.”
Parker, then 33, went missing in November 2011, hours after the airing of an episode of the TV show “The People’s Court,” where she confronted her ex on the air about past abuse as they battled over a missing $5,000 engagement ring. Parker, a graduate of Winter Park High School, was last seen on a security camera at the east Orange apartment complex where Smith Jr. lived, as she dropped off their children.
Her sports-utility vehicle was found abandoned the next day on the west side of Orlando, and she never showed up for work at The Barn in Sanford, where she worked as a bartender. Weeks later, her phone was found abandoned, too.
Parker’s disappearance set off a massive search, with friends and relatives putting up “missing” posters and police divers searching a lake for her body.
On Nov. 29 of that year, police named Smith Jr. as their sole suspect. A day later, the boy-girl twins were removed from his home by the Florida Department of Children and Families and placed in temporary protective custody with Parker’s family.
Read more What to know about Starshield and why its disruption rattled Ukraine’s forces
The subsequent investigation revealed the twins and Parker’s older child, who has a different father, witnessed violence committed by Smith. But investigators concluded there was not enough evidence to keep them out of his home. An Orange County judge at the time also heard testimony from DCF about Smith’s prison record for drug and domestic violence convictions, his dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Marines and allegations from Parker’s eldest child that Smith attacked Parker in front of the three children.
Still, the twins were ordered back to Smith Jr.’s custody, with the judge citing insufficient evidence to support the removal. At one point, Smith Jr. moved to Tennessee with the children, the Orlando Sentinel reported in 2019.
Stewart, Parker’s mother, said her family has since had no contact with the twins, who are now adults, but hopes that will change with the arrest.
“I’m just going to take it minute by minute,” Stewart said.
The family’s search for answers took many twists and turns. In 2013, Stewart filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Orange County against Smith Jr. in a longshot bid to extract any information related to her daughter’s death and disappearance. Smith Jr. fought back, arguing that the criminal investigation into his involvement precluded him from being sued for Parker’s death.
The lawsuit was eventually voluntarily dismissed in 2020 after a judge warned that Smith Jr. was not facing criminal charges.
While Smith Jr. is now accused of second-degree murder, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, who stood alongside the chief and his detectives during Wednesday’s press conference, did not rule out an upgraded charge of first-degree murder, which would require a grand jury. She did not offer any specifics on what will take place in court.
As for Stewart, she welcomes the coming prosecution and hopes this latest chapter can help bring closure.
“There’s not one day that’s gone by that I don’t think of her or look at her pictures or talk to her,” Stewart said, hands over her heart, “so I carry her here.”
Read more Costa Mesa woman who registered her dog to vote pays for anti-voter fraud billboards