Michelle Parker

True Crime All The Time Unsolved

The episode investigates the 2011 disappearance of Michelle Parker in Orlando, Florida, following her visit to her ex-fiancé's home. Hosts M

Key takeaways

• Michelle Parker disappeared on November 17, 2011, after dropping her twins at Dale Smith's home.
• Police identified Dale Smith as the primary suspect, noting his refusal to participate in a polygraph test.

Main topics

• Michelle Parker disappearance
• Dale Smith investigation

Notable quotes

Mr. Smith is our primary focus. He is our primary suspect.

Conclusion

The case highlights the agonizing reality of unsolved disappearances w

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours before the trail goes cold. From A &E and Crime House, this is the official podcast from the famous true crime series, The First 48. I'm Carter Roy. Every Thursday, I revisit a landmark homicide investigation in depth with long-form storytelling built for your ears. Listen to and follow The First 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 2 (1:12) Hello everyone and welcome to episode 483 of the True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you? I'm Speaker 3 (1:23) doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing great, man. Yeah. I'm Speaker 2 (1:26) living the dream. Speaker 3 (1:27) You are the dream. Speaker 2 (1:28) I Speaker 4 (1:28) like Speaker 2 (1:29) that. Speaker 3 (1:29) Yeah. I Speaker 2 (1:30) like that. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Elizabeth Neal. What's up, Speaker 3 (1:35) Neal? Speaker 2 (1:35) Leah Stebbins. Speaker 3 (1:36) Ah, the Stebbins. Speaker 2 (1:37) Goose DeWitt. What's going on, DeWitt? Alexandra. Speaker 3 (1:41) Just Alexandra. Speaker 2 (1:44) Just because you say it with a little accent, that's the twist on it? Absolutely. Joe Revens. What's happening, Revens? Wendy. Oh, Wendy. Speaker 3 (1:53) She's kind of blowing around, you know? Speaker 2 (1:55) Oh, yeah, I get it. I thought you were going to make a Wendy. Peter Pan? No. Wendy's, the burger chain. Oh, the burger? That's where I thought she was going to go. Speaker 3 (2:03) Oh, yeah. Speaker 2 (2:05) Nicole Williamson. What's going on, Williamson? And last but not least, Whitney Goff jumped out at our highest level. Goff. So we appreciate the new support. And then if we go back into the vault. Speaker 2 (2:17) This week we selected Brandon Leon. Speaker 3 (2:20) Leon. Remember Leon from that one movie? Speaker 2 (2:22) Oh, Leon from that one movie? Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:24) The Speaker 2 (2:24) Professional? Yes. Speaker 3 (2:26) That was actually a good Speaker 2 (2:27) show back then. Yeah. Yeah. A movie, you mean? A movie, yeah. You're all over the place. Speaker 3 (2:32) You know what? Show, movie. You know what I meant, Speaker 2 (2:35) damn it. I do. I do. And that's the strange part because how I can decipher it from the very little that you give me is beyond Speaker 3 (2:45) me. I don't even know how. I'm guessing there's a lot of people that listen and knew exactly what I was talking about, too. Maybe. Speaker 2 (2:49) Maybe. We have a brand new true crime all the time out right now, and it's on Paula Chin. Paula was a wealthy Tribeca woman who was reported missing in 2019 and then was later found dead in a trash can at her second home in New Jersey. Authorities quickly found a surprising killer with a personal motive. It's a fascinating case. Speaker 3 (3:13) It is. I don't understand how somebody could ever just throw a body in the trash, but we've Speaker 2 (3:19) seen them throw them other terrible places too. Yeah, people do. All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? Unsolved. I'm ready. We're talking about Michelle Parker, 33 year old Michelle Parker went missing on November 17th, 2011 after dropping off her twins at her ex fiance's home over 10 years later. There's no sign of Michelle and no charges have ever been filed in connection with her disappearance. Michelle Parker was a devoted mother of three children from the Orlando, Florida area. She had an 11-year-old son from her previous relationship and boy-girl twins with her ex-fiance, Dale Smith. It's been said that Dale and Michelle had a tumultuous relationship. They fell in love in 2006. They met at a bar where Michelle worked as a bartender. Dale is once divorced, once widowed. His friend, Christine Evans Arriaga, told the Orlando Sentinel that Dale often talked to her about his relationship issues with Michelle, but their arguments were normal. Well, Speaker 3 (4:29) most relationships have. Certain types of arguments. Speaker 2 (4:34) Yeah. I'm assuming when she uses the word normal, she's referring to the types of arguments that we all have, right? You're spending too much money. Why didn't you take the trash out? Maybe I'm hitting just on my life, but you know, other people I'm sure have those same arguments. Why did you eat my ice cream? Exactly. Christine also said he likes women and he enjoys people looking at him. He's very gentlemanly. I saw him woo Michelle, bought her expensive things or shoes she wanted. Okay. He enjoys people looking at him part. That's something I don't understand. That's kind of strange for me. I do not want people looking at me. No. Now, I don't spend two hours in the bathroom getting ready either. Nor do I. And. Maybe he was that type of guy. We all kind of know a guy like that. Yeah. Moose guy. Yeah. Hair gel guy. Yeah, that guy. The Speaker 3 (5:38) guy that has to iron his jeans before he goes out. Speaker 2 (5:41) Two years after Michelle and Dale met, their twins were born. Michelle moved the children out less than a month after the twins' first birthday. That didn't take long. It wasn't a long relationship. Court documents indicate Michelle and Dale. went through a custody battle in 2009 over the twins. Michelle filed a request for a domestic violence injunction against Dale that year and accused him of a violent tirade in the presence of their children. She wrote that he cursed and threatened her. On August 16, 2009, while holding one of the twins, he also broke the passenger window of her vehicle and threw a pair of child car seats. Michelle told the court that Dale had previously been violent with her and even threatened to kidnap the children. If true, that's a problem. Yeah, it's a big problem. Michelle's older son told investigators that he saw Dale attack his mother per the Orlando Sentinel. But Michelle's injunction was dismissed in September 2009 for unspecified reasons. And that's always a tough one, right? When the reporting, the sources, they don't know the reasons behind it. You're left to wonder, was there just not enough evidence? Did they not believe her older son? Intimidation? We just don't know. The Orlando Sentinel reported on Dale's criminal record. He was arrested several times in the 90s. In 1990, he pleaded no contest. to trespassing on school grounds. On Memorial Day weekend, 1992, he was involved in a fight in downtown Orlando in which a man was killed. Dale's 16 year old friend was later convicted of fatally stabbing the 22 year old. That's a serious charge. Well, absolutely. I mean, it said Dale was involved, but obviously he didn't wield the knife. He didn't stab this, this other guy. But he pleaded no contest to attempted battery for kicking a man in the head during the fight. He spent a couple of days in jail and was given two years probation. Speaker 3 (8:03) You know, back then when I was growing up, I mean, some of those fights could be pretty bad. To be kicked in the head or to kick somebody in the Speaker 2 (8:09) head wasn't that uncommon. No, it really wasn't. And it got me to thinking that I think if we did some of that stuff that we did back then today. A lot of us would catch a slew of charges. For sure. That just didn't happen back then. I think I've mentioned it before, but I saw one of my buddies get beat with a pool stick. Speaker 3 (8:34) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:34) And it was just an afterschool thing. I think it was over a girl. The two guys knew each other. And once it was over, everybody walked away. But today, I Speaker 3 (8:46) don't think that would happen. Speaker 2 (8:47) No, somebody would be calling the police and somebody would get charged with something. I'm not saying the way that we did it was right. I'm just saying that's the way it was. Yeah, exactly. I think the era that you and I grew up in was a lot less about feelings and more about action. That's the best way I think I can describe it. Speaker 3 (9:07) Wasn't a whole lot of feelings going on back then. Speaker 2 (9:09) No, wasn't a lot of people sitting around on carpets in a circle talking through their feelings. Speaker 3 (9:15) No. Speaker 2 (9:16) There was a lot of fist fighting after school. And that's seems like how things got worked out for better or for worse. Dale entered a pretrial diversion in 1992 after being arrested on a charge of marijuana possession. Dale joined the Marines in June 1996. And maybe he might've been well-suited for the Marines. He obviously. Had a little bit of a temper. It's a good place to work your aggression Speaker 3 (9:47) out. Speaker 2 (9:47) You know, some people come out of that with the discipline they need to live the rest of their life. Speaker 3 (9:56) Yeah, sometimes they learn ways to control tempers. In Speaker 2 (10:02) 1997, Dale pleaded guilty to battery. He got married that year but was divorced by 2000. And then 11 days after the divorce was finalized, he got married again. Speaker 3 (10:14) That's a quick turnover rate right there. Speaker 2 (10:17) It's very quick. But, you know, I do want to touch on his criminal record so far. It's lengthy, a lot of battery, a lot of fighting. Speaker 2 (10:29) You know, trespassing. I think these are things that if people were being honest with themselves, they would say, well, they could have gotten in trouble for quite a bit of this stuff, too. Speaker 3 (10:39) Yeah, I agree with you. I think he probably had some type of anger problem. Speaker 2 (10:45) It sounds like he might have. In February 2001, Dale was court-martialed on drug charges and a domestic battery charge. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison. That year, his wife died of a brain injury after consuming ecstasy. Whoa. It's not something I've ever tried. I'm assuming it's something I never will try. Dale was dishonorably discharged from the military in 2003. And as we mentioned, he met Michelle a few years later. So by 2011, Michelle and Dale were separated. Michelle had a boyfriend and was working at a bar in Sanford. Michelle disappeared on November 17th, 2011, hours before she went missing, an episode of the People's Court aired featuring a dispute between Dale and Michelle. Really? That's interesting. That's fascinating. Now, I will be honest, when I was a kid, not by 2011, but when I was younger, because you know the People's Court was on for a very long time. It was. My grandparents used to watch it all the time. So when I was at their house, I watched it too. I was really into it. I liked it. What was that announcer's name? Doug Uellin, something like that? Yeah, Doug Uellin. Yeah. Lou Ellen, Uellin. Yeah, so one of those, but he had a good voice, interesting voice. This reminds me a little bit of, I don't know if you've ever seen it. We haven't covered it, I don't believe. No, I'm pretty sure we haven't. You know, there was a murder that stemmed from an airing of an episode of the Jenny Jones show. Oh, we did do that. Did we do that? Absolutely. Okay. I thought maybe we did, but then I couldn't remember, you Speaker 3 (12:31) know, Speaker 2 (12:32) 500 and some episodes. It's hard to keep track of everything. It reminds me a little bit of that. I mean, I'm, I'm not saying that, you know, Dale had anything to do with Michelle's death, but you'd have to say Gibbs that how could he not be on police radar? after everything that we've talked about. Speaker 3 (12:51) Yeah, I think he's asked to be on the radar for her disappearance. Like Speaker 2 (12:55) you said, I think he had a pretty obvious temper or aggression, problem with aggression. And then they were going through this custody battle. And now we've got an episode of the People's Court airing right before she disappeared. And the episode features a dispute between the two of them. I don't know if I could ever go on that show. I wouldn't go on any of those shows. Speaker 3 (13:25) I'm guessing you go on and maybe they pay your losses. I don't know why you would go on that show unless there's a financial benefit to go on it. Speaker 2 (13:34) Well, that's like asking the question, why did people