Michelle Parker disappearance: Police make arrest | Full press conference

Good afternoon. Today we are announcing a significant development in the disappearance of Michelle Parker. This morning, OPD's Fugitive Task Force and SWAT team arrested Dale Smith Jr., Michelle's ex-fiancee, on a charge of second-degree murder. Smith was the last known person to see or hear from Michelle on November 17, 2011, after she dropped their children off at his home. Over the past year, we expanded our investigative team looking into this case and took a fresh, focused look at all of the evidence. We reexamined testimony and conflicting statements made by the suspect and used advanced digital forensics to uncover and analyze additional evidence. This case never stopped being a priority. Our detectives kept working. They kept asking questions. They kept examining the evidence. I want to recognize the detectives, Phil McMillan, John Stollmeyer, Brandon Kerr, and analyst Andrew Boyd, who are on stage with me, who have carried this investigation forward. I also want to recognize our partnership with the 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office, including State Attorney Monique Worrell and Assistant State Attorney William Jay. These cases require close coordination and a thorough evidence-based approach. To Michelle's family, thank you for continuing to work with our investigators. We won't discuss specific investigative details today or evidence that could compromise the prosecution. Our responsibility now is to protect the integrity of this case and allow the judicial process to move forward. We owe it to Michelle and her family to make sure justice is served in this case. We will now open it up for questions. I'm going to let Detective McMillan cover that. Hello. New evidence was found using advancements in technology, especially in our digital forensics-related evidence, so vehicles, electronic devices, phones, computers. We were able to better interpret that evidence today than what we were able to do back in 2011. Yes, we had some of the evidence. New evidence has been found in the last year. No, artificial intelligence was not used in finding new evidence. Sure. The suspect was interviewed more than once, and then since then has taken part in depositions related to this case, and very specific questions were asked of him numerous times over the years where he gave different answers to those same questions. That was the honor of Chief Smith. So it wasn't a call. We had detectives go out and bring her here, bring Yvonne here with us, and then I was able to tell her that we made the arrest in this case. For me, it felt good for our department and our community to get some sort of closure on this. You know, nothing we can do will ever bring Michelle back. But, you know, in cases of homicide and things of that nature, to get some sort of closure for family is what we want to do and what we strive to do, And that was very important for me, and it made me feel good to be able to tell her myself. Yes, that's going to be a part of the investigation. The evidence that he's talking about? Sure, we had evidence from back then, and again, advancements in technology, specifically related to digital forensics, was allowing us to better interpret some of the data we had back then. Some of that information revealed more detailed location data and communications between devices that were used back then. Yes. That would be a question for our state attorney's office. That information can change. I want to commend the office of the state attorney and the prosecutors who worked collaboratively with law enforcement in order to bring this case to this point. Of course, we're not going to discuss any of the facts of what happens next as the case is pursued by our office. But yes, as you know, with all of the cases that we've talked about in the past, they start off as second degree. And if the evidence supports the charge escalating, then we'll do so. So, I'm not going to talk about the details of the collaboration, but I can confirm for you that the Office of the State Attorney did, in fact, collaborate with Orlando Police Department before the arrest was made. So, again, these are all matters with regards to the order of what happens next, and I'm not at liberty to discuss that at this time. But I'm sure you'll be present for the pretrial detention hearings that take place, and you'll see what happens there. We're not sure of that right now. We're looking at all aspects of the case. The one thing I want to really stress is the amazing work by these detectives up here and the analyst. So, and one thing I will say, with the lower number of homicides, these are all full-time homicide detectives. They're working a full homicide load. With the less number of homicides that we're working right now and a little bit of a drop in violent crime, that freed them up to do what they need to do to really take the time to look at this case and bring closure to the family. So that's very important for me, and I just want to just highlight the great work these guys did back here. So a lot of the people who were on this case originally have retired, and so it does continue over. It's passed on to other officers. That's why we do a lot of work to pass everything along. And we stress a lot to keep the continuity of the case, to keep it going. And that's one thing I will stress is no matter how long it takes, we're going to try our best to solve all these kind of cases, any kind of cold case, especially homicide. You know, this one took about 15 years, but we never stopped working. we never stopped looking and that just shows the great work of these detectives back here who always find new ways of looking at things and the one big thing is there are always advances in technology the things we couldn't do 15 years ago that we can do now allowed us to close this case not at this time he was arrested at his uh business i'm not aware of that at this time right this time right now uh we'll look at his history and we'll send it out to you like we usually do for all the people that we arrest no his arrest was local of course yes i'm not sure what happened you guys were down there yes personally my team uh just one nope that was today that we've spoken to the the suspect correct absolutely over the years yes no sure it was a large case and a case that would be very difficult for one or even two people to work through and go through all that information all the data all the interviews tracking down all the people which is why the team here we have was very efficient and as Chief said with our lower homicide rates over the past time it's allowed us to focus more time on that which got us the result here today. Thank you.