Newly Released Affidavit Reveals What Led up to Michelle Parker's Disappearance

So we want to break some of this down with retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffendaffer. Good to see you, Jennifer. How are you? Good to see you, Amy. Thank you for having me. So let's talk first about, it was a struggle just to get this affidavit out, right? There's a lot of information in here, 46 pages. As you were reading through it, what really stood out to you? I mean, a couple of things stood out. First of all, I thought it was interesting that he had defensive wounds on him. In other words, scratches and things that were noticed and photographed, yet were never really followed up on in terms of how did that get on your face and your body. And those, to me, are huge red flags that a struggle took place. Again, those were taken contemporaneous with their interview of him back 15 years ago when this happened. So that really jumped off the page for me. Okay, I wanted to ask you about that because, yes, we saw the pictures. There's photos within the affidavit that shows the scratches and bruises. but they didn't ask him how he got the scratches. Is that odd? Yes, it's really mind-boggling, actually, as an investigator. This would be one of the number one things you look for, and obviously they looked for them, but why didn't they ask him where he got that from? That could have been something that could have pushed them over the edge 15 years ago to possibly charge him. Yeah, that was an odd one for me. Okay, police say phone records are contradictory from what Dale Smith Jr.'s account of what happened that day. So he said, you know, she came over at four o'clock and it looks like the phone records showed that she was actually there 45 minutes earlier. And all of this is framed right around the time that that episode of the People's Court was airing. Yeah, exactly right. That shows sort of, we call it a proximal event. And essentially, there's typically something that pushes a person over the edge to commit a crime like this, a crime of passion. And what was that proximal event? I believe it was that airing of that People's Court where he was really humiliated and forced to, you know, pay money back to her for a ring that she threw at him and ended up being lost. Nevertheless, that was the big event that I think police are saying pushed him over the edge to do this. Jennifer, the wiretap that we were talking about, we're now learning that a judge apparently didn't authorize it until a day after they started the wiretapping. This is what's coming out. Is that problematic for the prosecution? Sure. Yeah, that's problematic. Anytime you are wiretapping somebody and you don't have judicial authority, that is a huge violation. Of course, nothing can be used from that wiretap. And that was a big problem. You know, just follow, get that emergency order, which should have been very easy to get under these circumstances. I'm seeing a lot of balls dropped and i'm very happy that at least they've been picked up and he's been charged now okay so based on what we know and looking at this affidavit you know clearly there were they believe there's enough evidence here to move forward what are your thoughts i totally agree especially when you look at that digital evidence that puts them together they paint this whole scenario of anger they show these defensive wounds and i think with his background of domestic violence with other partners. They believe she was choked to death right there in his home, transported. Remember, the phone of hers was found in a nearby body of water. I say nearby. I think it was about seven miles away. And so it shows the whole picture now with that digital trail that they've uncovered recently. All right, Jennifer, always great to talk to you. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffin-Daffer, thank you, as always, for joining us. We really appreciate you. Thank you, Amy. Take care.