00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It's Wednesday, October 28th, and a woman that disappeared in 2011, just hours after an episode of People's Court aired featuring her and her ex-fiancé. Well, he was finally arrested recently, and now we are seeing new court documents that make us all think, how in the hell was he not arrested before now? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, the people's court element of this story certainly was interesting. And Robes, the episode aired and she disappeared. Obviously, that dude would be suspect number one, would he not?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yes, and she disappeared within hours of it airing. Like, it wasn't even days ago. Like, the day the episode aired about their disagreement over who was responsible for an engagement ring for a wedding that never happened, she goes to drop off their twins and she's never seen again. Duh.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: That's tighter than I even thought. The episode aired at 2. She went to his house around 3.20. She ain't never been seen again. She's never been seen again. Her body's still not been found. But this man now, 55-year-old Dale Smith Jr., has been charged with Michelle Parker's death. Missing since November of 2011. Again, he was always considered Robes. He was the only. Like, days after this, they came out publicly and said, this is our suspect. We don't have another one.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: I'm going to say this again.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: Duh.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: But so why? We were asking when the arrest happened, how did it take 15 years? They're saying there's new digital forensic capabilities now where we're able to. But when you look and see. Actually read, because yes, one of the local TV stations pushed a court to have police release the full document, court document. And when you look at it in its totality, you see what the police knew 15 years ago. I can't understand why a district attorney would not have pursued charges.
00:02:08
Speaker 1: This is circumstantial as hell, but I guess they had their reasons or didn't think they had enough. They seem to have tons of reasons. as we speak. Now, again, so what changed? This is how they put it. We were able to better interpret the evidence today than what we were able to do back in 2011. So yes, they did have a renewed effort. They did say, well, it was a bit of a cold case. But in the last couple of years, they took a better look at it. So this new stuff makes clear, Robes, you've read through this. This is a 48, 46 page, I should say, affidavit on his arrest. Robes, it's overwhelming.
00:02:45
Speaker 2: It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. That's the point that I think a lot of people are making when they read this affidavit. I understand that they don't have a body. And when you don't have a body, you don't have physical evidence. Okay. It doesn't mean they didn't have an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: I mean, circumstance one, they were just on TV fighting over money and an engagement ring. She is missing an hour later. And the last person to see her, the last place she was known to be, is at his house.
00:03:19
Speaker 2: Dropping off their shared children.
00:03:21
Speaker 1: Where should this investigation start?
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:03:23
Speaker 1: Nowhere else. And they did have in this affidavit, Robes, I didn't know about this, she was in a relationship with someone else at the time. And she had another child with another guy she had dated. Both of them checked out. They made sure. We know exactly where those guys were. They have full alibi. There ain't nobody else to look at but this guy. So as his story goes, last saw her. Around 4 o'clock. This was his original story. 4 o'clock, November 17, 2011. She dropped the kids off. Now, Rose, he says this only took 10 minutes. 10 minutes, like normal, dropped the kids off, actually told police, quote, we don't talk anymore. Well, Rose, that's what he told them then. The data now tells a much different story.
00:04:06
Speaker 2: They didn't have this information before that her cell phone pinged at 315 near his home. That's a full 45 minutes earlier than what he said. And he basically, he was answering these questions within hours of her disappearance. So his memory would have been, you would think, up to speed, basically. So he claims 4 p.m. The phone shows she was there at 3.15. He claims she stayed for 10 minutes. The phone shows that she stayed, or at least the phone stayed there for a full hour. That's a big difference.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: And now they say, and they say they can say this definitively, that the video evidence and testimony establishes that the victim's car, a Hummer, was at the suspect's residence for at least an hour and 10 minutes after the suspect told detectives that the victim left his apartment. He said she was gone by 4 whatever hours. it shows a much different story. Even right there, you lied to police, period. Point blank, that makes you a suspect.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: He also had a hard time talking about how he was driving, whether he took a toll road or not. I mean, he was all over the place with his information. Like, within a few minutes, didn't even give consistent information to police about how he got to and from places that day.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: Robes, that part, just the story started to fall apart, completely fall apart. So he says, yes, she dropped the kids off, and after she dropped them off, I took off and went to my parents' house with the kids. Okay, this is going to get pieced together as well. But, Robes, as we move forward here in his timeline with this man, the affidavit not just talks about Robes' this particular case and what his relationship was with his ex-fiancee, it talks about what his relationship was with his first wife and his ex-fiancee. his other ex-fiance, Robes, there's a pattern here.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: There is. And it's documentable. Yeah, it is. And even his military history is documentable and applicable to the current circumstance. So, yes, he was found guilty of domestic violence, and he was court-martialed while he was serving in the military for distributing ecstasy. He served three years behind bars, and he received a dishonorable discharge from the military.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: And they tracked down his military records, Robes. This is a pretty damning... indictment about a member of the U.S. military.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: Yes. The military records read as follows. His performance was unsatisfactory and severe mood swings when subjected to minimal stress. The suspect was prescribed antidepressants due to his inability to effectively handle any level of stress necessitating removal from his primary duties.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: Robes, that's scary to hear about somebody that the military determined that Subjected to minimal stress. He had severe mood swings. Like he couldn't handle a damn thing, is what the military says. And we gave him a weapon, apparently. Now, the previous fiancé, before.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: The domestic violence charges. No, after the domestic violence charges, but before the murdered fiancé.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: There was an in-between. Married, domestic violence. Then next relationship, fiancé. Also domestic violence. And then next relationship, missing presumed dead fiancé. So yes, there was another relationship in here. And this is the one where she actually described he manually put his hands around her neck and strangled her on several occasions.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: And she also says that he threatened to kill her and to kill her father. And according to the affidavit, this is how they put it. To summarize... The suspect has a history of violence, cannot handle stress, had threatened to kill his previous wife and her father, and told them he would make them disappear. And the reason why, obviously, that's so stunning now is that, yes, Michelle Parker's body has never been found. She disappeared.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: And Rose, with all this new information coming out, I don't know if you've seen anything in any article or any... quote or soundbite from a member of the law enforcement? Do they have any idea where her body might be? Even all this is happening. I haven't seen anything that says we might be getting close, so we might, we have an idea. No searches are going on that we know of, right?
00:08:47
Speaker 2: In fact, I don't know if you're getting to this later, but police said when they first asked him about the disappearance of his ex-fiance, they asked if he could look through his house, and they did. There was no signs of violence. Nope.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: They found nothing at her home when they searched through it, other than if somebody was taking off, they would have taken their toothbrush. It didn't look like she planned on being gone for an extended period.
00:09:11
Speaker 2: No, and where they found her vehicle, she had her purse, her credit cards. There was nothing to suggest that she had gone anywhere or taken anything with her where she would have planned to leave. He was suggesting she was humiliated by the people's court. episode that aired. And so she was laying low. That's what he was trying to tell them, that that's what he thought she was doing.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: You know what? I'm not sure I want to get into this, but you bring it up. It's a good time to say it. Thought she was laying low. Ropes from the moment her vehicle arrived at his home, he never reached out to her again. They have a count of how many, 1,013 text messages between these two, between October and November. After November 17th, At 3.18 p.m. when she showed up, he never texts her again to say, hey, where are you? You really need to show up. The kids need you. You should come home. Enough of this. It wasn't that embarrassing.
00:10:06
Speaker 2: Anything. If he really thought that she was laying low.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: That's pretty damning.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: He would have been like, when are you coming to get the kids?
00:10:12
Speaker 1: That's pretty damning. Especially a dad. Like, come get these kids. No offense to the dads. You get what I'm saying, though.
00:10:18
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:10:18
Speaker 1: Because there was a lot of back and forth between these two as well about him backing out of times he was responsible for the kids.
00:10:25
Speaker 2: And by the way, anyone who is divorced or has shared custody with an ex understands that Yeah, and we don't want to be talking to each other, but logistics are important and you have to. You have to communicate, you know, whether it's a whatever. Yes, when you're sharing custody with another person, texts take place. You don't just stop talking to your ex because you have to talk to your ex. You have to work out logistics.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: Require ropes. Never text her again. This is damning from the affidavit as well. This kind of breaks it. I mean, this is a good summary here, Robes. Quote, victim's phone and suspect's phones were at the same home together at 318 p.m. After approximately one hour, both phones travel west together until they arrive in the Belle Isle area, which directly contradicts suspect's statements. From there, only the suspect's phone continues. The phones left his house together and only one continued after a little while.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: Right. So did he put it in her car basically and make it look like she left her phone in her car and then he left with his phone? I mean, I guess that is the new technology that wasn't available. That wasn't available 15 years ago. They weren't able to track phones 15 years ago.
00:11:31
Speaker 1: To know the two phones were together.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm shocked by that. I don't know what advancements have been made, but I always thought at least for the last decade or so, they were able to ping locations online. where your phone, what cell tower it hit. And clearly there was also, I'm sure you saw this too, that she had, um, her brother had asked her, you know, where, where she was. And there was a one word response like near this mall and, and it Waterford.
00:12:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: Waterford. That was the response. And the point being is she was nowhere near and the phone was actually pinged from closer to his house. So the suggestion is that he responded to the brother.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: They even said, Robes, that's not how she talks.
00:12:16
Speaker 2: One word response.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Isn't that weird? They knew even that was crazy. And her son that day had gotten off the school bus and called her and it rang first and then it went right to voicemail and he didn't get a message back. They said, absolutely not. This mom responded instantly anytime the kids text her. That was another part of it. The other part was the drop-off. This one took an hour and 10 minutes. That's out of the norm.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to spend an hour and 10 minutes with their ex just shooting. The day your contentious People's Court episode airs, let's have a lovely talk about it. And he, by the way, said she was only there for 10 minutes. I guess he was... At that point, speaking to the technology, I guess he felt like there was no way for them to know otherwise. Now people would know the cell phone would say or show something very different.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: You can't outsmart these things. I am sure of it now. But yes, the previous ones, they have a record of it. The other drop-offs, the longest one was 25 minutes. The others, 11 minutes and three minutes. That one sounds about right.
00:13:19
Speaker 2: Yes, that reads.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Now back to this People's Court episode. Rose, I didn't get this. She said it was his idea to go on the show. He wanted to go on the show. She didn't necessarily. Did you know the people's court worked this way? She claims, according to this affidavit, that the show paid the cost. of the ring. She knew she was probably going to be in trouble for this. And I didn't realize how she, I didn't realize the dispute over the ring was this. Yeah.
00:13:47
Speaker 2: Apparently she threw the ring off a balcony. And so, yes, obviously I think most people know if you are proposed to with the ring and you don't actually go through with the marriage, it's, It's a promise for something else. So it's not just a typical gift where that would be yours. It actually implies that you're going to do something to keep said ring. So almost always the woman is responsible if the breakup happens to return the ring. So if the ring's missing or gone, especially because she threw it, yeah, she would figure she would be on the hook for the money.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: It sounded like she knew that. But the show ended up paying off, according to her and according to this, that debt. Robes, I didn't know. Now, if there's one part in here that could raise some questions about the investigation, maybe several parts, but one part has to do with his injuries, and they had a lot of pictures of it. Robes, he looked like he'd been in a fight.
00:14:42
Speaker 2: How was that not enough? Circumstantial as hell, I don't know. He had scratches and abrasions. I saw the pictures. They're in the affidavit on his face, on his mouth, on his arms, on his back. They were everywhere. It looks like she put up a fight. But I was thinking, like, you can understand if the strangulation is what his other exes said that was his means of torture, there is no blood. There wouldn't be a messy crime scene. He would be the crime scene, his body, if she was fighting back. But you could see how he could keep that clean and neat there's no knife there's no gun there's no it's just you in like yeah this is a.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: Little morbid but you you just said it and made it make sense to me he is described in certain points of like physically like lifting her up off the ground by her neck and putting her up against the wall on occasion another friend saw robes if you are being held like that all you have is what Your hands. To scratch and claw as best you can. He was scratched up his back, his elbows even. They said that's scratches and abrasions. And that still was not enough. But stay here, folks. There is even more that they had. We will let you hear the text messages in the weeks and the months prior to her disappearance. It is clear these two people maybe hated each other. Stay here.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are learning a lot about an alleged murder. And we say that because, yes, right now, we know that a 55-year-old ex-fiancee of Michelle Parker has been arrested. His name is Dale Smith Jr. But when you start to look at the evidence police had even 15 years ago when she first went missing, and again, her body has never been found, it is jaw-dropping to think that that he wasn't arrested immediately. Yes, of course, they don't have physical evidence, but they had a lot of circumstantial. I know the cell phone evidence now is more readily available or they're able to interpret it better, I guess. Fine. But take a listen to some of these text messages that they had.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: The context is important here. You could tell, babe, there was these two, like some of this stuff is just, the level of hatred between these two, at least expressed in these text messages, is... It gives you context, Robes, with just how contentious this was. Woo!
00:17:19
Speaker 2: All right. So, yes, we have some of these text messages that go back and forth, and they started... This is from her phone to his phone, correct? So she's writing this. Michelle Parker wrote this. Stop being a selfish piece of shit.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: Forgive our language on some of these, but this is her language, is how she wrote it. So forgive us, but just letting you know what she said.
00:17:42
Speaker 2: You're a piece of shit liar and dad. Hope the plane crashes. I fucking hate you.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: That's a lot to say to somebody. Damn, baby.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Your family just got a lot smaller because your visitation rights will be taken away. By the way, we're moving, so enjoy life, bastard, along with your fucked up family. My kids are better off without you in their life. They have a new dad now and he's better with them than you are. I will be at the courthouse holding you in contempt first thing in the morning. At this point, you no longer have weekends. I hate you.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: In all caps with exclamation points in the all hate you. Now, Rose, move forward to November 10th. This is a week before her disappearance and an odd back and forth. According to police, Dale Smith Jr. tried to bribe his wife in some way to having.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: His ex-fiancee, right?
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Yes, sorry, ex-fiancee, Michelle Parker, to have sex with him for payment. And this is the text exchange they had here.
00:18:43
Speaker 2: I don't really know what to make of this. Okay, Michelle Parker texts... Thought about your offer, and I have to decline. I'd rather have a personal legal loan than feel like a whore. I can't do it. I won't. I guess she must have told him she needed money.
00:18:58
Speaker 1: Yes, and it kind of gets into it. It sounds like it had to do with the car that she was driving was still in his name and trying to get his name off of the car in some way.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: She was driving a Hummer, right? An expensive car.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: So his response to her, Dale's, is, OK, wasn't trying to make you feel like a whore. Sorry, I was just going to help you out. All I wanted was one last time to be with you. Sorry you feel that way. That wasn't my intention. I don't think you're a whore and I don't think you would be one either by doing that. But it's OK. No big deal.
00:19:27
Speaker 2: She responds, having sex for the exchange of money makes me a high dollar prostitute. I can't do it for the money against my morals.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: He says, who said having sex for exchange of money? You said you'd rather have sex because you wanted to. So it wasn't anything like that.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: You said one more night of sex and you'd give me $ 2, 000. That's sex for money.
00:19:47
Speaker 1: Yes, I wanted to spend some time with you. You don't want to hang out. That's fine. No big deal. It's all good, Michelle. Have a good night. It's a bizarre back and forth.
00:19:57
Speaker 2: It sounds like a very toxic relationship that just kept going up and down, and unfortunately it looks like ended in the most horrific of ways.
00:20:06
Speaker 1: And then finally here, the last set of exchanges, this was on the date of her disappearance, the last information on her phone. Now, a couple of things she went back and forth. She texted her brother that day and was kind of suspicious. That was the one you mentioned earlier already. But then she was answering a friend's. who saw the episode, who had reached out and said they'd seen it, and she said, quote, hate my ex, had to do it. They paid him, not me. So that goes to the money. And why, it was weird. Who would want to put themselves, we've all seen People's Court, who wants to put yourself through that? But if she had a financial motivation... then that kind of makes sense.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: Well, that totally makes sense because I've never understood when you see how ugly and contentious no one comes out looking good. Why would you go on the show? Well, you don't have the money to pay what you may owe someone. And that person who's owed money knows there's no other way they're going to get the money. So yes, you end up selling your reputation or maybe even your, I don't know. It's a lot to To give up, but if you need the money, you need the money.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: I never knew this about people's court. Now, I don't know if this is an isolated incident or this is how they roll and maybe everybody knew this and we didn't.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: It's probably how they roll.
00:21:13
Speaker 1: But it makes sense. I was like, how do they get people to come on here and- Make a fool of themselves like this. Maybe that's it. But this was their last exchange here between these two, which kind of continues to some degree this back and forth about sex between the two.
00:21:29
Speaker 2: He said, I'm sexually frustrated, LOL. She writes, that's your fault. You were never frustrated before, even while with me, and half the time it wasn't me you were fucking. I'm sure you're fine.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: And that's the last thing she texted him, and that was it. She showed up to the house a little while later. She's never been seen or heard from since.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: My God.
00:21:48
Speaker 1: This story will, I mean, it's unbelievable. It was pretty unbelievable just to add the people's court part of it. I'm not sure how much of the conversation Romans will go around. What took you so long to arrest this guy? You said in days he was your guy. He was your only suspect. And here we are 15 years later.
00:22:06
Speaker 2: And the crazy thing is, the sad thing is, I just think about Michelle Parker's family who obviously have said that they're so pleased that karma has finally captured Dale. They obviously knew or believed he was responsible the entire time. But to think that her children, your beloved sisters, your beloved daughter's children were raised by this man who like, even if like for it, I just, even if he wasn't charged with her murder, look at his past. Do you want somebody who spent three years for domestic violence? who was dishonorably discharged by the military for having massive mental health issues. Should he be raising kids? Those twins who he had with her are now 18. And look, the hope is that if he wants to cut a deal, if there's any, I can't imagine he's going to think he's going to get away with it. But that would be their only hope in finding her body is if he told them where it was.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: What did he do?
00:23:04
Speaker 2: What he did with it?
00:23:05
Speaker 1: What did he do to her? What in God's name did he do to her? But he didn't have a lot of time to do it. Police were at his house and looking through his house.
00:23:13
Speaker 2: He drove to his parents' house afterwards and dropped the kids off.
00:23:16
Speaker 1: There was also a storage facility. There was also a warehouse stop that they said they made.
00:23:22
Speaker 2: And his father vouched for him.
00:23:23
Speaker 1: And that is going to have to be a part of this conversation as well. Because the timeline with daddy is not making sense. Now, I haven't seen, if you have, please let me know. I haven't seen yet that they are focusing in and said, hey, we Other arrests might happen. I haven't seen that yet. But the dad story doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: No, but how old is dad now? I mean.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: You know, 55. He's 55 now. You know what? I haven't seen. Has he passed?
00:23:47
Speaker 2: I don't know. But that would be a huge part of this because dad, it would seem if what police are laying out is true, dad would have known what was going on.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: They didn't have anything in the affidavit, this new stuff that's being released, any updated interviews or information from dad. So maybe he has.
00:24:05
Speaker 2: Robes.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: This story is a fascinating one, not just because of the people's court part of it, but because of the history and the years that have gone by and why this man was not possibly off the street sooner. We're on it. We appreciate you as always. Wanted to update you on this one. Any updates come, you know, we're on it. Appreciate you spending time with us. I'm TJ. That's Robes. Talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It's Wednesday, October 28th, and a woman that disappeared in 2011, just hours after an episode of People's Court aired featuring her and her ex-fiancé. Well, he was finally arrested recently, and now we are seeing new court documents that make us all think, how in the hell was he not arrested before now? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, the people's court element of this story certainly was interesting. And Robes, the episode aired and she disappeared. Obviously, that dude would be suspect number one, would he not?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yes, and she disappeared within hours of it airing. Like, it wasn't even days ago. Like, the day the episode aired about their disagreement over who was responsible for an engagement ring for a wedding that never happened, she goes to drop off their twins and she's never seen again. Duh.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: That's tighter than I even thought. The episode aired at 2. She went to his house around 3.20. She ain't never been seen again. She's never been seen again. Her body's still not been found. But this man now, 55-year-old Dale Smith Jr., has been charged with Michelle Parker's death. Missing since November of 2011. Again, he was always considered Robes. He was the only. Like, days after this, they came out publicly and said, this is our suspect. We don't have another one.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: I'm going to say this again.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: Duh.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: But so why? We were asking when the arrest happened, how did it take 15 years? They're saying there's new digital forensic capabilities now where we're able to. But when you look and see. Actually read, because yes, one of the local TV stations pushed a court to have police release the full document, court document. And when you look at it in its totality, you see what the police knew 15 years ago. I can't understand why a district attorney would not have pursued charges.
00:02:08
Speaker 1: This is circumstantial as hell, but I guess they had their reasons or didn't think they had enough. They seem to have tons of reasons. as we speak. Now, again, so what changed? This is how they put it. We were able to better interpret the evidence today than what we were able to do back in 2011. So yes, they did have a renewed effort. They did say, well, it was a bit of a cold case. But in the last couple of years, they took a better look at it. So this new stuff makes clear, Robes, you've read through this. This is a 48, 46 page, I should say, affidavit on his arrest. Robes, it's overwhelming.
00:02:45
Speaker 2: It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. That's the point that I think a lot of people are making when they read this affidavit. I understand that they don't have a body. And when you don't have a body, you don't have physical evidence. Okay. It doesn't mean they didn't have an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: I mean, circumstance one, they were just on TV fighting over money and an engagement ring. She is missing an hour later. And the last person to see her, the last place she was known to be, is at his house.
00:03:19
Speaker 2: Dropping off their shared children.
00:03:21
Speaker 1: Where should this investigation start?
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Exactly.
00:03:23
Speaker 1: Nowhere else. And they did have in this affidavit, Robes, I didn't know about this, she was in a relationship with someone else at the time. And she had another child with another guy she had dated. Both of them checked out. They made sure. We know exactly where those guys were. They have full alibi. There ain't nobody else to look at but this guy. So as his story goes, last saw her. Around 4 o'clock. This was his original story. 4 o'clock, November 17, 2011. She dropped the kids off. Now, Rose, he says this only took 10 minutes. 10 minutes, like normal, dropped the kids off, actually told police, quote, we don't talk anymore. Well, Rose, that's what he told them then. The data now tells a much different story.
00:04:06
Speaker 2: They didn't have this information before that her cell phone pinged at 315 near his home. That's a full 45 minutes earlier than what he said. And he basically, he was answering these questions within hours of her disappearance. So his memory would have been, you would think, up to speed, basically. So he claims 4 p.m. The phone shows she was there at 3.15. He claims she stayed for 10 minutes. The phone shows that she stayed, or at least the phone stayed there for a full hour. That's a big difference.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: And now they say, and they say they can say this definitively, that the video evidence and testimony establishes that the victim's car, a Hummer, was at the suspect's residence for at least an hour and 10 minutes after the suspect told detectives that the victim left his apartment. He said she was gone by 4 whatever hours. it shows a much different story. Even right there, you lied to police, period. Point blank, that makes you a suspect.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: He also had a hard time talking about how he was driving, whether he took a toll road or not. I mean, he was all over the place with his information. Like, within a few minutes, didn't even give consistent information to police about how he got to and from places that day.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: Robes, that part, just the story started to fall apart, completely fall apart. So he says, yes, she dropped the kids off, and after she dropped them off, I took off and went to my parents' house with the kids. Okay, this is going to get pieced together as well. But, Robes, as we move forward here in his timeline with this man, the affidavit not just talks about Robes' this particular case and what his relationship was with his ex-fiancee, it talks about what his relationship was with his first wife and his ex-fiancee. his other ex-fiance, Robes, there's a pattern here.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: There is. And it's documentable. Yeah, it is. And even his military history is documentable and applicable to the current circumstance. So, yes, he was found guilty of domestic violence, and he was court-martialed while he was serving in the military for distributing ecstasy. He served three years behind bars, and he received a dishonorable discharge from the military.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: And they tracked down his military records, Robes. This is a pretty damning... indictment about a member of the U.S. military.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: Yes. The military records read as follows. His performance was unsatisfactory and severe mood swings when subjected to minimal stress. The suspect was prescribed antidepressants due to his inability to effectively handle any level of stress necessitating removal from his primary duties.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: Robes, that's scary to hear about somebody that the military determined that Subjected to minimal stress. He had severe mood swings. Like he couldn't handle a damn thing, is what the military says. And we gave him a weapon, apparently. Now, the previous fiancé, before.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: The domestic violence charges. No, after the domestic violence charges, but before the murdered fiancé.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: There was an in-between. Married, domestic violence. Then next relationship, fiancé. Also domestic violence. And then next relationship, missing presumed dead fiancé. So yes, there was another relationship in here. And this is the one where she actually described he manually put his hands around her neck and strangled her on several occasions.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: And she also says that he threatened to kill her and to kill her father. And according to the affidavit, this is how they put it. To summarize... The suspect has a history of violence, cannot handle stress, had threatened to kill his previous wife and her father, and told them he would make them disappear. And the reason why, obviously, that's so stunning now is that, yes, Michelle Parker's body has never been found. She disappeared.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: And Rose, with all this new information coming out, I don't know if you've seen anything in any article or any... quote or soundbite from a member of the law enforcement? Do they have any idea where her body might be? Even all this is happening. I haven't seen anything that says we might be getting close, so we might, we have an idea. No searches are going on that we know of, right?
00:08:47
Speaker 2: In fact, I don't know if you're getting to this later, but police said when they first asked him about the disappearance of his ex-fiance, they asked if he could look through his house, and they did. There was no signs of violence. Nope.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: They found nothing at her home when they searched through it, other than if somebody was taking off, they would have taken their toothbrush. It didn't look like she planned on being gone for an extended period.
00:09:11
Speaker 2: No, and where they found her vehicle, she had her purse, her credit cards. There was nothing to suggest that she had gone anywhere or taken anything with her where she would have planned to leave. He was suggesting she was humiliated by the people's court. episode that aired. And so she was laying low. That's what he was trying to tell them, that that's what he thought she was doing.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: You know what? I'm not sure I want to get into this, but you bring it up. It's a good time to say it. Thought she was laying low. Ropes from the moment her vehicle arrived at his home, he never reached out to her again. They have a count of how many, 1,013 text messages between these two, between October and November. After November 17th, At 3.18 p.m. when she showed up, he never texts her again to say, hey, where are you? You really need to show up. The kids need you. You should come home. Enough of this. It wasn't that embarrassing.
00:10:06
Speaker 2: Anything. If he really thought that she was laying low.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: That's pretty damning.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: He would have been like, when are you coming to get the kids?
00:10:12
Speaker 1: That's pretty damning. Especially a dad. Like, come get these kids. No offense to the dads. You get what I'm saying, though.
00:10:18
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:10:18
Speaker 1: Because there was a lot of back and forth between these two as well about him backing out of times he was responsible for the kids.
00:10:25
Speaker 2: And by the way, anyone who is divorced or has shared custody with an ex understands that Yeah, and we don't want to be talking to each other, but logistics are important and you have to. You have to communicate, you know, whether it's a whatever. Yes, when you're sharing custody with another person, texts take place. You don't just stop talking to your ex because you have to talk to your ex. You have to work out logistics.
00:10:48
Speaker 1: Require ropes. Never text her again. This is damning from the affidavit as well. This kind of breaks it. I mean, this is a good summary here, Robes. Quote, victim's phone and suspect's phones were at the same home together at 318 p.m. After approximately one hour, both phones travel west together until they arrive in the Belle Isle area, which directly contradicts suspect's statements. From there, only the suspect's phone continues. The phones left his house together and only one continued after a little while.
00:11:17
Speaker 2: Right. So did he put it in her car basically and make it look like she left her phone in her car and then he left with his phone? I mean, I guess that is the new technology that wasn't available. That wasn't available 15 years ago. They weren't able to track phones 15 years ago.
00:11:31
Speaker 1: To know the two phones were together.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm shocked by that. I don't know what advancements have been made, but I always thought at least for the last decade or so, they were able to ping locations online. where your phone, what cell tower it hit. And clearly there was also, I'm sure you saw this too, that she had, um, her brother had asked her, you know, where, where she was. And there was a one word response like near this mall and, and it Waterford.
00:12:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: Waterford. That was the response. And the point being is she was nowhere near and the phone was actually pinged from closer to his house. So the suggestion is that he responded to the brother.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: They even said, Robes, that's not how she talks.
00:12:16
Speaker 2: One word response.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Isn't that weird? They knew even that was crazy. And her son that day had gotten off the school bus and called her and it rang first and then it went right to voicemail and he didn't get a message back. They said, absolutely not. This mom responded instantly anytime the kids text her. That was another part of it. The other part was the drop-off. This one took an hour and 10 minutes. That's out of the norm.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to spend an hour and 10 minutes with their ex just shooting. The day your contentious People's Court episode airs, let's have a lovely talk about it. And he, by the way, said she was only there for 10 minutes. I guess he was... At that point, speaking to the technology, I guess he felt like there was no way for them to know otherwise. Now people would know the cell phone would say or show something very different.
00:13:06
Speaker 1: You can't outsmart these things. I am sure of it now. But yes, the previous ones, they have a record of it. The other drop-offs, the longest one was 25 minutes. The others, 11 minutes and three minutes. That one sounds about right.
00:13:19
Speaker 2: Yes, that reads.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Now back to this People's Court episode. Rose, I didn't get this. She said it was his idea to go on the show. He wanted to go on the show. She didn't necessarily. Did you know the people's court worked this way? She claims, according to this affidavit, that the show paid the cost. of the ring. She knew she was probably going to be in trouble for this. And I didn't realize how she, I didn't realize the dispute over the ring was this. Yeah.
00:13:47
Speaker 2: Apparently she threw the ring off a balcony. And so, yes, obviously I think most people know if you are proposed to with the ring and you don't actually go through with the marriage, it's, It's a promise for something else. So it's not just a typical gift where that would be yours. It actually implies that you're going to do something to keep said ring. So almost always the woman is responsible if the breakup happens to return the ring. So if the ring's missing or gone, especially because she threw it, yeah, she would figure she would be on the hook for the money.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: It sounded like she knew that. But the show ended up paying off, according to her and according to this, that debt. Robes, I didn't know. Now, if there's one part in here that could raise some questions about the investigation, maybe several parts, but one part has to do with his injuries, and they had a lot of pictures of it. Robes, he looked like he'd been in a fight.
00:14:42
Speaker 2: How was that not enough? Circumstantial as hell, I don't know. He had scratches and abrasions. I saw the pictures. They're in the affidavit on his face, on his mouth, on his arms, on his back. They were everywhere. It looks like she put up a fight. But I was thinking, like, you can understand if the strangulation is what his other exes said that was his means of torture, there is no blood. There wouldn't be a messy crime scene. He would be the crime scene, his body, if she was fighting back. But you could see how he could keep that clean and neat there's no knife there's no gun there's no it's just you in like yeah this is a.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: Little morbid but you you just said it and made it make sense to me he is described in certain points of like physically like lifting her up off the ground by her neck and putting her up against the wall on occasion another friend saw robes if you are being held like that all you have is what Your hands. To scratch and claw as best you can. He was scratched up his back, his elbows even. They said that's scratches and abrasions. And that still was not enough. But stay here, folks. There is even more that they had. We will let you hear the text messages in the weeks and the months prior to her disappearance. It is clear these two people maybe hated each other. Stay here.
00:16:16
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are learning a lot about an alleged murder. And we say that because, yes, right now, we know that a 55-year-old ex-fiancee of Michelle Parker has been arrested. His name is Dale Smith Jr. But when you start to look at the evidence police had even 15 years ago when she first went missing, and again, her body has never been found, it is jaw-dropping to think that that he wasn't arrested immediately. Yes, of course, they don't have physical evidence, but they had a lot of circumstantial. I know the cell phone evidence now is more readily available or they're able to interpret it better, I guess. Fine. But take a listen to some of these text messages that they had.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: The context is important here. You could tell, babe, there was these two, like some of this stuff is just, the level of hatred between these two, at least expressed in these text messages, is... It gives you context, Robes, with just how contentious this was. Woo!
00:17:19
Speaker 2: All right. So, yes, we have some of these text messages that go back and forth, and they started... This is from her phone to his phone, correct? So she's writing this. Michelle Parker wrote this. Stop being a selfish piece of shit.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: Forgive our language on some of these, but this is her language, is how she wrote it. So forgive us, but just letting you know what she said.
00:17:42
Speaker 2: You're a piece of shit liar and dad. Hope the plane crashes. I fucking hate you.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: That's a lot to say to somebody. Damn, baby.
00:17:49
Speaker 2: Your family just got a lot smaller because your visitation rights will be taken away. By the way, we're moving, so enjoy life, bastard, along with your fucked up family. My kids are better off without you in their life. They have a new dad now and he's better with them than you are. I will be at the courthouse holding you in contempt first thing in the morning. At this point, you no longer have weekends. I hate you.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: In all caps with exclamation points in the all hate you. Now, Rose, move forward to November 10th. This is a week before her disappearance and an odd back and forth. According to police, Dale Smith Jr. tried to bribe his wife in some way to having.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: His ex-fiancee, right?
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Yes, sorry, ex-fiancee, Michelle Parker, to have sex with him for payment. And this is the text exchange they had here.
00:18:43
Speaker 2: I don't really know what to make of this. Okay, Michelle Parker texts... Thought about your offer, and I have to decline. I'd rather have a personal legal loan than feel like a whore. I can't do it. I won't. I guess she must have told him she needed money.
00:18:58
Speaker 1: Yes, and it kind of gets into it. It sounds like it had to do with the car that she was driving was still in his name and trying to get his name off of the car in some way.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: She was driving a Hummer, right? An expensive car.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: So his response to her, Dale's, is, OK, wasn't trying to make you feel like a whore. Sorry, I was just going to help you out. All I wanted was one last time to be with you. Sorry you feel that way. That wasn't my intention. I don't think you're a whore and I don't think you would be one either by doing that. But it's OK. No big deal.
00:19:27
Speaker 2: She responds, having sex for the exchange of money makes me a high dollar prostitute. I can't do it for the money against my morals.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: He says, who said having sex for exchange of money? You said you'd rather have sex because you wanted to. So it wasn't anything like that.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: You said one more night of sex and you'd give me $ 2, 000. That's sex for money.
00:19:47
Speaker 1: Yes, I wanted to spend some time with you. You don't want to hang out. That's fine. No big deal. It's all good, Michelle. Have a good night. It's a bizarre back and forth.
00:19:57
Speaker 2: It sounds like a very toxic relationship that just kept going up and down, and unfortunately it looks like ended in the most horrific of ways.
00:20:06
Speaker 1: And then finally here, the last set of exchanges, this was on the date of her disappearance, the last information on her phone. Now, a couple of things she went back and forth. She texted her brother that day and was kind of suspicious. That was the one you mentioned earlier already. But then she was answering a friend's. who saw the episode, who had reached out and said they'd seen it, and she said, quote, hate my ex, had to do it. They paid him, not me. So that goes to the money. And why, it was weird. Who would want to put themselves, we've all seen People's Court, who wants to put yourself through that? But if she had a financial motivation... then that kind of makes sense.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: Well, that totally makes sense because I've never understood when you see how ugly and contentious no one comes out looking good. Why would you go on the show? Well, you don't have the money to pay what you may owe someone. And that person who's owed money knows there's no other way they're going to get the money. So yes, you end up selling your reputation or maybe even your, I don't know. It's a lot to To give up, but if you need the money, you need the money.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: I never knew this about people's court. Now, I don't know if this is an isolated incident or this is how they roll and maybe everybody knew this and we didn't.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: It's probably how they roll.
00:21:13
Speaker 1: But it makes sense. I was like, how do they get people to come on here and- Make a fool of themselves like this. Maybe that's it. But this was their last exchange here between these two, which kind of continues to some degree this back and forth about sex between the two.
00:21:29
Speaker 2: He said, I'm sexually frustrated, LOL. She writes, that's your fault. You were never frustrated before, even while with me, and half the time it wasn't me you were fucking. I'm sure you're fine.
00:21:40
Speaker 1: And that's the last thing she texted him, and that was it. She showed up to the house a little while later. She's never been seen or heard from since.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: My God.
00:21:48
Speaker 1: This story will, I mean, it's unbelievable. It was pretty unbelievable just to add the people's court part of it. I'm not sure how much of the conversation Romans will go around. What took you so long to arrest this guy? You said in days he was your guy. He was your only suspect. And here we are 15 years later.
00:22:06
Speaker 2: And the crazy thing is, the sad thing is, I just think about Michelle Parker's family who obviously have said that they're so pleased that karma has finally captured Dale. They obviously knew or believed he was responsible the entire time. But to think that her children, your beloved sisters, your beloved daughter's children were raised by this man who like, even if like for it, I just, even if he wasn't charged with her murder, look at his past. Do you want somebody who spent three years for domestic violence? who was dishonorably discharged by the military for having massive mental health issues. Should he be raising kids? Those twins who he had with her are now 18. And look, the hope is that if he wants to cut a deal, if there's any, I can't imagine he's going to think he's going to get away with it. But that would be their only hope in finding her body is if he told them where it was.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: What did he do?
00:23:04
Speaker 2: What he did with it?
00:23:05
Speaker 1: What did he do to her? What in God's name did he do to her? But he didn't have a lot of time to do it. Police were at his house and looking through his house.
00:23:13
Speaker 2: He drove to his parents' house afterwards and dropped the kids off.
00:23:16
Speaker 1: There was also a storage facility. There was also a warehouse stop that they said they made.
00:23:22
Speaker 2: And his father vouched for him.
00:23:23
Speaker 1: And that is going to have to be a part of this conversation as well. Because the timeline with daddy is not making sense. Now, I haven't seen, if you have, please let me know. I haven't seen yet that they are focusing in and said, hey, we Other arrests might happen. I haven't seen that yet. But the dad story doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: No, but how old is dad now? I mean.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: You know, 55. He's 55 now. You know what? I haven't seen. Has he passed?
00:23:47
Speaker 2: I don't know. But that would be a huge part of this because dad, it would seem if what police are laying out is true, dad would have known what was going on.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: They didn't have anything in the affidavit, this new stuff that's being released, any updated interviews or information from dad. So maybe he has.
00:24:05
Speaker 2: Robes.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: This story is a fascinating one, not just because of the people's court part of it, but because of the history and the years that have gone by and why this man was not possibly off the street sooner. We're on it. We appreciate you as always. Wanted to update you on this one. Any updates come, you know, we're on it. Appreciate you spending time with us. I'm TJ. That's Robes. Talk soon.
