FL MICHELLE PARKER: Missing from Orlando, FL - 17 November 2011 - Age 33 *ARREST!*

ORLANDO, Fla. – Eight years ago Sunday, Orlando mother Michelle Parker went missing after appearing on a reality TV show. She still has not been found.

Parker was last seen on Nov. 17, 2011 after an episode of “The People’s Court” featuring her and her ex-fiance, Dale Smith Jr., in a dispute over a missing engagement ring aired. Records show Smith is the only person of interest in the case but has never been charged.

Parker was 33 years old at the time.

The missing woman’s father took to Facebook on Friday to reflect on everything that’s happened in the eight years since his daughter disappeared.

“I cannot explain the awful heartache I have felt so often in thinking of her and not being able to see her ever again. It truly breaks my heart and hurts so much more when each year comes around again from when she first went missing,” Brad Parker Sr. wrote.

Michelle Parker disappeared 8 years ago

Sunday marks eight years since Michelle Parker went missing.

www.clickorlando.com

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Michelle Parker went missing not long after appearing on "The People's Court" with her ex in 2011.

Michelle was last known to be dropping off her children with their father at his residence in southeast Orlando, Florida.

www.crimewatchers.net

*CLICK THE REPORT BUTTON IF YOU'D LIKE THIS CASE MOVED TO THE GENERAL DISCUSSION AREA TO BE OPENED FOR COMMENTING.

 

[testerv]

I'm sure wondering what they just found after all this time to finally arrest him.

From what I’ve been reading, I think they were finally able to get those text messages out that were deleted. But I could be wrong.

 

[Kimster]

Interesting comment on this YouTube video. Please note that it's unverified, but could be another reason the suspect was arrested now.

Michelle would be proud of her son. He went into the police station a few weeks ago which was unexpected to the officers. He asked if his dad was still a suspect (his older half-brother told police earlier that the Dale 3rd always suspected his father did it) The son told police that Dale was going to go to Colombia soon. (Something Dale had done before but maybe something about this trip was different?) this is what made law enforcement act sooner than expected I think. Good on you Dale Smith III. You may have your dad’s name but you’re nothing like him.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

From cold case to arrest: How cellphone data helped crack Michelle Parker's disappearance

Why did 2011 cellular data, reviewed in the last year, give police the answers they needed to arrest Dale Smith in the Michelle Parker case? One digital forensics expert explains what investigators learned.

www.clickorlando.com

From cold case to arrest: How cellphone data helped crack Michelle Parker's disappearance​

Nearly 15 years after Michelle Parker disappeared, Orlando police say newly analyzed cellphone records helped lead to the arrest of Dale Smith, 55, in connection with her murder.

Smith was arrested Oct. 14. He has entered a plea of not guilty to a second-degree murder charge.

Parker, an Orlando mother, vanished in 2011 — hours after she and Smith appeared on the TV program The People’s Court. Her body has not been found.

According to an arrest affidavit, detectives this year reviewed the original cellular data records obtained in 2011 and discovered additional data that had not been analyzed.

“It is likely this data was not readable to detectives in 2011,” the report stated, “This data revealed more precise location and user data, to include messages, for the suspect’s and victims’ phones.”

Smith told investigators Parker only stayed at his home for 10 minutes after dropping off the children, court records said. However, those records state, cellphone records show Parker’s phone was at Smith’s home for more than an hour.

Those cellphone records, analyzed by the FBI, show both Parker and Smith’s cellphones left the area and traveled to Belle Isle, which police said contradicts Smith’s statements. Smith’s phone then appeared headed toward his parents’ home, but Parker’s stayed near Lake Conway, where detectives said they found it submerged underwater.

FBI analysis, “confirms the suspect and victim’s phone together at the suspect’s home and then traveling toward the suspect’s parents’ home,” according to the affidavit.

So how can investigators pinpoint a phone’s exact location? One expert says it’s not about the cell tower itself — it’s about the antennas on top of it.

“The network doesn’t work like we all think,” said Andrew Garrett, CEO of Garrett Discovery, an Orlando-based digital forensics company.

Garrett told News 6 he and his team use the same equipment as the FBI to analyze cellphone data and testify in court cases.

“We can tell you exactly where that cell tower broadcast to, and based on that, we could possibly build a pattern of life. The defendant went from one area to the next because those two cell antennas don’t have overlapping coverage. We know they had to travel from this area to this area,” Garrett said.

According to Garrett, the only way to map a carrier’s real coverage is drive-testing with specialized equipment, and unlike GPS, network data shows only a broad coverage area rather than a precise point.

Garrett Discovery uses what they call a scanner to look at cell coverage to see if a phone can even connect to a given antenna.

“The system you’re looking at is collecting 10,000 measurements a second,” Garrett said.

 

[Kimster]

From cold case to arrest: How cellphone data helped crack Michelle Parker's disappearance

Why did 2011 cellular data, reviewed in the last year, give police the answers they needed to arrest Dale Smith in the Michelle Parker case? One digital forensics expert explains what investigators learned.

www.clickorlando.com

From cold case to arrest: How cellphone data helped crack Michelle Parker's disappearance​

Nearly 15 years after Michelle Parker disappeared, Orlando police say newly analyzed cellphone records helped lead to the arrest of Dale Smith, 55, in connection with her murder.

Smith was arrested Oct. 14. He has entered a plea of not guilty to a second-degree murder charge.

Parker, an Orlando mother, vanished in 2011 — hours after she and Smith appeared on the TV program The People’s Court. Her body has not been found.

According to an arrest affidavit, detectives this year reviewed the original cellular data records obtained in 2011 and discovered additional data that had not been analyzed.

“It is likely this data was not readable to detectives in 2011,” the report stated, “This data revealed more precise location and user data, to include messages, for the suspect’s and victims’ phones.”

Smith told investigators Parker only stayed at his home for 10 minutes after dropping off the children, court records said. However, those records state, cellphone records show Parker’s phone was at Smith’s home for more than an hour.

Those cellphone records, analyzed by the FBI, show both Parker and Smith’s cellphones left the area and traveled to Belle Isle, which police said contradicts Smith’s statements. Smith’s phone then appeared headed toward his parents’ home, but Parker’s stayed near Lake Conway, where detectives said they found it submerged underwater.

FBI analysis, “confirms the suspect and victim’s phone together at the suspect’s home and then traveling toward the suspect’s parents’ home,” according to the affidavit.

So how can investigators pinpoint a phone’s exact location? One expert says it’s not about the cell tower itself — it’s about the antennas on top of it.

“The network doesn’t work like we all think,” said Andrew Garrett, CEO of Garrett Discovery, an Orlando-based digital forensics company.

Garrett told News 6 he and his team use the same equipment as the FBI to analyze cellphone data and testify in court cases.

“We can tell you exactly where that cell tower broadcast to, and based on that, we could possibly build a pattern of life. The defendant went from one area to the next because those two cell antennas don’t have overlapping coverage. We know they had to travel from this area to this area,” Garrett said.

According to Garrett, the only way to map a carrier’s real coverage is drive-testing with specialized equipment, and unlike GPS, network data shows only a broad coverage area rather than a precise point.

Garrett Discovery uses what they call a scanner to look at cell coverage to see if a phone can even connect to a given antenna.

“The system you’re looking at is collecting 10,000 measurements a second,” Garrett said.

When I went to Citizens Academy at the Sheriff’s Department, they said that they are learning more and more ways to track cell phones. That was a while ago! I’m glad that they have been bright enough to keep all this kind of evidence. I wonder if they’ll be able to track it enough where they can find her remains. I sure hope so!