Search for Michelle Parker: Police inspect backyard of house belonging to father of missing woman's ex-fiancé
Michelle Parker search continues years later
The Orlando Police Department continues to search for a woman, nearly 12 years after she went missing. Michelle Parker, 33, was last seen dropping off the two children she shared with her ex-fiancee, Dale Smith Jr., and his house on November 17, 2011. Detectives later found her car ditched in a parking lot and her iPhone in a lake. Orlando police detectives on Wednesday searched the property of Dale Smith Sr., off Rose Blvd., looking for her remains under a concrete slab.
ORLANDO, Fla. - The Orlando Police Department continues to search for a woman, nearly 12 years after she went missing.
Michelle Parker, 33, was last seen dropping off the two children she shared with her ex-fiancé, Dale Smith Jr., at his house on November 17, 2011. Detectives later found her car ditched in a parking lot and her iPhone in a lake.
Orlando police detectives on Wednesday searched the property of Dale Smith Sr., off Rose Blvd., looking for her remains under a concrete slab, but said they didn’t find anything. Parker's mother, Yvonne Stewart, refuses to give up her search for answers.
"Today they had a search warrant to look for my daughter under that slab. He [Smith Sr.] poured it without a permit in 2012," Stewart explained.
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Parker and Smith Jr. appeared on The People’s Court, on which she and the father of her twins faced a judge over a dispute involving a $5,000 ring. The show was recorded months earlier, but on the same evening the program aired, Parker vanished.
Detectives said the only suspect in Michelle’s disappearance is her ex-fiance, Smith. But, the family said he refused to cooperate with the investigation, and he was never charged.
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A FOX 35 News crew went to Smith Sr.'s home during Wednesday's search and asked him what detectives were searching for, to which he replied, "A dinosaur." He then implied he, himself, was searching for Parker as well.
"I’ve been looking for her," he told us, and when asked why, he answered, "Because I want to."
"That’s the first time I’ve ever that in 12 years. First time," Stewart said. "They’ve never ever reached out to any of us. That’s total you know what."
Law enforcement expert Jamie Copenhaver wonders how authorities were able to get a search warrant for Smith Sr.'s property.
"Elven years later, they suddenly show up in this man’s yard with a search warrant, which is a court order from the judge. One would have to speculate what that affidavit," he said.
Copenhaver described some of the tools that law enforcement officers might have used to search the property, such as ground-penetrating radar.
"What that ground-penetrating radar does is show any there are any voids in the dirt or the soil underneath there, where an object could have been buried at one time," he said.
It means the world to Stewart that police continue to search after all these years.
"The fact they’re still trying to help find her and get us closure. Michelle just was totally the coolest person, so fun and bubbly. She was doing so well." She added she hasn’t given up hope in finding her daughter, "Patiently waiting because I don’t have any other choice. It’s in God’s time."
A $200,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in this case or if Michelle Parker is found. Call the Orlando Police Department or Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477).