Post by Joanna on Mar 5, 2015 1:32:37 GMT -5
Disappearance of The People's Court Defendant
Michelle Parker (above left) has been missing since November 2011, but police and her family have not given up on their search for the Orlando woman. Parker disappeared on the day that her episode of The People’s Court (filmed during the summer of 2011) aired on television. On the episode, Parker faced off with her ex-fiancé, Dale Smith II (right), who had sued her over a lost engagement ring, which Smith claimed she threw from a hotel balcony during a heated, alcohol-fueled argument. "He gets pretty malicious and vindictive. He's a mean person, especially when he's drinking," Parker told Judge Marilyn Milian during the proceedings. Nevertheless, Parker lost the case and was ordered to pay Smith $2,500 – half the value of the ring. Smith is a person of interest in Parker’s disappearance, but has not been charged. Smith claims he is innocent and is currently raising the twins Parker gave birth to out of wedlock.
Two months after Parker’s disappearance, police released video footage showing her as she sits at a drive-through window at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Fern Park just three hours before she dropped off her 3-year-old twins at Smith’s home.
Michelle Parker was born January 20, 1978, and was 33 when she went missing. She is described as 5'6"-tall, approximately 140 pounds, and has brown hair and eyes. In addition to the twins fathered by Smith, Parker is also the mother of a 14-year-old son from a prior relationship; the boy lives in another state with his father.
Last week, police decided to revisit Michelle Parker’s disappearance as part of a training exercise. One hundred officers searched an area that had been searched not long after the woman’s disappearance. Her cell phone last pinged in the area about two weeks after she went missing. The location is also near the former home of her ex-fiancé, according to Fox Orlando. Police searched an area of Belle Isle near Orlando International Airport. Michelle’s mother, Yvonne Stewart, did not initially reveal what police were looking as they searched the area for three hours Friday, but a report from the Mail Online revealed law enforcement officers were looking for a missing decal that might have been taken from Parker’s Hummer on the day she disappeared. The black SUV was found at an apartment complex near the Mall at Millenia.
The search did not turn up any new evidence, and this was difficult for the missing woman’s family. Mrs. Stewart, and Michelle’s father, Brad Parker, were both present during the search. Michelle’s mother said: “I don’t like it. It makes me angry that we have to go through this all the time because it’s really painful and hard ... It’s agony not knowing what happened to your child. They thought they should go back and take a look at these woods.”
Brad Parker also spoke out concerning his daughter’s disappearance and he has not given up hope that she will be found alive. He asked anyone having information about her disappearance to come forward when he spoke to the media. “They’re trying to find [out] what happened to Michelle and the FBI is on it, too. So, it’s just a matter of time when we’re going to find out what happened to Michelle. If you know something say something. Somebody knows something. Just like they said, it was just not one person. There were three or four people involved in Michelle’s disappearance.” Parker also revealed that police plan to search the wetland area again when it goes dry.
Sources: The Inquisitr, March 3, 2015; WKMG, and ABC News.