Michelle Parker Timeline: Key Dates To Missing Mom Investigation
Police in Florida are trying to locate Michelle Parker, a 33-year-old missing mother of three from Orlando who has been missing since last month. Dale Smith, the father of Parker's twin 3 year olds, has been named the prime suspect in the case over her disappearance.
The following timeline begins on Nov. 17, the day Parker disappeared without a trace.
NOTE: This timeline will continue to be updated and amended as more information becomes available. Please send tips.
November 17
Morning -- Michelle Parker and her boyfriend, Nathan Mitchell, had coffee together.
2 p.m. -- An episode of "The People's Court" with Parker and her ex-fiance, Dale Smith, aired on television. The couple was in dispute over a $5,000 engagement ring that was lost after Parker threw it at Smith in anger. During the program, which had been taped in August, Parker alleged that Smith has a drug and alcohol problem and had been violent with her in the past.
"He gets pretty malicious and vindictive," Parker said. After hearing both sides Judge Marilyn Milian ruled the couple should split the cost of the ring and ordered Parker to pay $2,500 for her half.
According to Parker's mother, Yvonne Stewart, her daughter regretted taping the show.
"It was the most humiliating experience of my life," Stewart told ABC News her daughter said of the experience. "I don't even ever want to see it. I wish I had never gone."
2:30 p.m. -- Parker visited with family members at her mother's salon in in Oviedo, Florida.
3:15 p.m. --Mitchell and Parker exchanged flirty text messages.
3:18 p.m. -- A security camera records Parker dropping her twin 3 year olds off at Smith's condo on Goldenrod Road. Due to the angle of the camera, her departure time was not recorded.
3:30 p.m. -- Parker's 11-year-old son arrived home from school. Shortly thereafter he called his grandmother, Stewart, and notified her that his mom was not there.
4:26 p.m. -- Parker's brother, Dustin Erickson, sent her a text message and asked her where she was. Moments later, Erickson received a reply with the single word "Waterford," a possible reference to a nearby area.
4:30 p.m. -- According to Smith's attorney, Mark NeJame, his client went to visit his parents with his children.
6:53 p.m. --Parker's sister was unsuccessful in her attempts to reach her by phone.
7:20 p.m. -- Parker's sister reported her missing to police.
8 p.m. -- Parker failed to show up for her job at The Barn restaurant in Sanford. At about the same time her cellphone stopped transmitting a signal to a tower near Belle Isle.
November 18 -- Parker's 2008 black Hummer H3 was found in a parking lot on the west side of Orlando. Decals for Parker's mobile tanning business had been removed from the windows.
Police conducted a search of Smith's condominium. What -- if anything -- of interest was found is not yet known.
Parker's mother told WFTV she believed her daughter was the victim of a random crime, possibly a carjacking.
"If anybody has her and you're holding her hostage, please let her go," Yvonne Stewart told the news station. "Let her come home so she can raise her babies."
November 19 -- The Florida Department of Children and Families opened an investigation into the children's welfare "after allegations of past domestic violence were reported," the agency said in a statement. "This report was generated after the mother was reported missing to authorities."
- Woman Who Appeared On 'The People's Court' Missing
- Mom Says Daughter Was 'Humiliated' By 'People's Court' Appearance
- Michelle Parker's Ex-fiance Reportedly Has Domestic Battery Conviction
- Police Name Ex-Fiance As Primary Suspect
- Missing Mom's Kids Returned To Ex-Fiance, Prime Suspect In Case
- Ex-Fiance Dale Smith Not Involved In His Second Wife's Death
November 22 -- The Orlando Police Department announced they had no new leads.
November 23 -- Police release a new photograph of Parker (see slideshow) in which she is wearing a cross necklace. Police say the photo may be a key piece of evidence in her disappearance since she was wearing it when she went missing.
Dozens of police officers and hundreds of volunteers conduct a search in the area where Parker's vehicle was found.
November 24 -- Volunteers spent Thanksgiving searching for Parker and distributing flyers with her photo and vital information.
November 25 -- Parker's mother announced that a private donor offered a reward of $50,000 for her daughter's safe return. The family set a deadline of midnight November 27.
November 26 -- Orlando police served a search warrant on Smith's parents' home on Rose Boulevard in Orlando. Witnesses told ABC News a SWAT team served the search warrant.
"Roughly 12 guys piled out, banged on the door, yelled 'search warrant, search warrant,' and basically took everybody out of the house," said neighbor Don Partin, according to ABC News. "They took everybody out, sat them in the yard and then the cops went in, and the crime lab went in and pretty much everybody from all departments showed up."
According to WESH.com, police said they found nothing of significance.
MICHELLE PARKER CASE PHOTOS: (TIMELINE CONTINUES BELOW)
November 28 -- Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney announced Smith as the primary suspect in Parker's disappearance.
"We had to look at every aspect in the case before we could come out publicly and state that Mr. Smith is our primary focus," Rooney said.
Rooney did not elaborate on why he was considered a suspect, but did say Smith had refused to take a polygraph test.
Smith's checkered past, however, may play a role in why police suspect he could be involved in Parker's disappearance. He was convicted of battery in the 1990s, serving 10 days in jail. His second wife, Shannon, died of an accidental drug overdose. In 1996 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and he was court martialed in 2001. Smith was subsequently dishonorably discharged in 2003. More recently, in 2009, Parker attempted to obtain a restraining order against Smith, but the request was denied due to lack of evidence.
Parker's mother pleaded with Smith to cooperate with police. "Dale, if you had cooperated with the police and took a polygraph test when they asked you, you could have avoided a lot of stress," Stewart told reporters. "Our family needs to have Michelle home. We need to heal."
November 29 -- The Florida Department of Children and Families claimed Smith was a "significant future risk" to his children and placed the twins in protective custody.
Smith's lawyer, Mark NeJame, told reporters his client declined to take a lie detector test because the devices are unreliable. NeJame also said Smith was asking Texas EquuSearch, a well-known missing person search and recovery group, to look for Parker.
"If this doesn't ring as a testament to a man who is not guilty, I don't know what does," NeJame told reporters. "Mr. Smith wants Michelle found. Now what guilty person is asking for a search to be conducted? If she is found alive or not, he knows that will exonerate him."
Texas EquuSearch confirmed to The Huffington Post that they plan to conduct a search for Parker.
READ KEY COURT DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE: (TIMELINE CONTINUES BELOW)
NeJame said the timeline in the case and the suggestion that his client may have been involved does not add up.
"Get in your cars, and run that track, and see if you can do it ... and in between, you've killed and gotten rid of -- disposed of a body ... where nobody can find it," NeJame said. "There's no marks, no defensive wounds, no scrapes, no blood, no nothing suggesting a struggle or a death."
He added, "You then, in an hour and 12 minutes, go from one side of town to the other, you then drop off your vehicle, you get in your vehicle and you drive to your father's house. In an hour and 12 minutes. It's not physically possible."
November 30 -- Smith allegedly knocked down a TV news photographer on his way into juvenile court for an emergency custody hearing. The photographer, who suffered scrapes, cuts and elbow pain, told WESH News he planned to go to a doctor to assess his injuries before deciding whether to press charges.
An Orlando juvenile court judge dismissed a petition filed by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The judge said the agency failed to present sufficient probable cause for him to sign a petition on custody. The judge ruled in favor of Smith, pending any future developments in his ex-fiance's disappearance.
Authorities searched an area near Lake Ellenor in south Orange County for Parker. The location is five miles from Smith's parents' house and close to the cell tower that logged Parker's last transmission. Dive teams and search crews from the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office participated.
The Orlando Police Department announced a body found near a south Georgia Interstate 95 on-ramp was not Parker.
December 1 -- Texas EquuSearch's founder Tim Miller arrived in Orlando to meet with law enforcement.
The Barn night club held a fundraising event to help Parker's family in their efforts to find her.
"We miss her so much, the last couple weeks every night that we're here that she's supposed to be here it's just not the same, it feels like you're always waiting for her to come to work and she's not," manager Erica Thims told Central Florida News 13.
December 2 -- Authorities searched a fenced retention pond near Smith's home. Nothing of interest was found.
December 6 -- Smith's mother, Tamara Smith, was questioned under oath at the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office.
December 7 -- Smith's father, Dale Smith Sr., was questioned under oath at the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office.
Parker's family announced her missing iPhone 4 has been found, along with the pink, black and white case that she kept it in. According to the missing woman's mother, family members were asked to identify the cell phone at the Orlando Police Department. Police did not say where the cell phone was located.
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First Posted: 12/05/11 07:53 PM ET Updated: 12/07/11 10:34 PM ET