Expert: How AI is helping find new leads in unsolved cold cases

All right, right now, Michelle Parker's ex-fiance is in jail without bond. Last week, Dale Smith Jr. was arrested on second-degree murder charges in connection with his ex-fiance's disappearance. Michelle Parker last seen just about 15 years ago. It was November of 2011. She had just dropped off their three-year-old twins at Smith's Orlando home. Well, last Wednesday, Orlando police said advances in technology helped them to reexamine evidence they collected in this case. Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer is joining us live this morning to talk more about this. First of all, good to see you. How are you? Nice to see you, Amy and Danielle. Thanks for having me. So 15 years, Jennifer, is a very long time for a family to wait for some kind of arrest or justice in this particular case. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes in a case like this for 15 years. You know, behind the scenes, this is considered a cold case, right? initially where they just ran out of leads. But the interesting thing is they had at their fingertips everything they needed because of the great investigation they did initially, meaning they had the raw data. They just didn't have the technology to grab that data, extract it at that time to make to put together this case. But now they do. So let's talk about those advances in technology specifically. What did they do and what did they use to help investigators officially crack this case? Well, first of all, now they have advanced AI tools that can actually go in and assist law enforcement in deleting some of these files. So as an example, anything that he would have thought was permanently deleted, now with the new technology, they can get in and get those files. Also, if he encrypted anything, there's tools to actually break through that encryption. So those are two major ways and tools that I believe they use to get some of this evidence. Jennifer, the other thing that they mentioned in the news conference, which was interesting to me, is that they had continually interviewed the suspect in this case, Dale Smith Jr., through the years, and that his answers to some of the questions that they routinely asked him had changed over time. What does that mean exactly? What are they looking for when they question a suspect? Well, that's a really big piece. The first time you interview a suspect is the most important time. That's typically when their memory is the best, and that's when they're going to make mistakes, spontaneous utterances, and say things that later don't comport. The more times you interview people who are not being truthful, they end up making up lies, they end up exaggerating, and they can use those to offset each other and prove the person isn't telling the truth. And do you think, too, that sometimes, listen, it's been 15 years, right? And so he's been interviewed several times and he may have thought i've gotten away with this and so you may not be as much on your game in terms of remembering what you said 10 years ago or 15 years ago than you were two months ago danielle i couldn't agree more with that that's absolutely true i think he thought he got away with it and remember they always knew he had this big motive they both appeared on the people's court which is like a judge judy back in the day he was so angry with her, wanting to get money paid back for an engagement ring she threw at him, and it ended up being lost. The People's Court actually ruled in favor of her, and he was only given half of the wedding ring price. That is the day she disappeared. So they knew that there was a lot of context and anger that was motivating him. Jennifer, they're being very tight-lipped about whatever this evidence was that they've gleaned from the devices. What is the reason for them not wanting to reveal that information? And how long or when would the public be privy to whatever that was? Well, I found that piece very interesting after all of this time. So I think a couple of things they probably used with the court, the fact that a lot of this technology that they're able to use now is not publicly known. So they're able to sort of conceal it under not wanting to let these new investigative techniques out in public to everybody. The second reason might be in my opinion is they might still be looking at other items and things um that that information could lead them to and so that's another reason they want to keep uh that withheld very good information and thank you so much for joining us Jennifer we appreciate you thank you thank you both so much