ORLANDO, Florida (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) -- Dale Smith, the ex-fiancé of missing Florida mom, Michelle Parker, 33, reportedly screamed at Michelle during a brutal fight and said, “Your day is coming.”
For the past decade Dale has been dogged by arrests, restraining orders, and multiple court’s martial while in the marines, ABC’s Good Morning America reports.
Dale received a dishonorable discharge from the Marines in 2003 following a string of court’s martials including military convictions for drug possession and domestic battery.
In 2009 Michelle filed for a restraining order against Dale that was denied due to lack of evidence in her claims of hostility. In her court filing she wrote ‘he smashed the passenger side window of my SUV and took car seats out and threw them in the road.’ She also alleged Dale yelled at her, ‘your day is coming.’ (Update: CNN reports Michelle did obtain a temporary restraining order.)
During an episode of The People’s Court that aired last Thursday, just hours before she went missing, Michelle said, “He gets pretty malicious and vindictive” and “he’s a mean person especially when he’s drinking.”
Michelle’s friend, Angela Launer, told ABC News that Dale was known to abandon her in out of the way places. “I know he hurt her many times – dropped her off in areas with no shoes. Took off and left her in Georgia by herself." Angela, 34, described Michelle and Dale’s relationship as ‘rocky’ and ‘tense.’
GMA learned Wednesday that not only has Dale been visited by police daily, he also received a visit from child services.
Michelle’s family says Dale is a loving and supportive father to his and Michelle’s 3-year-old twins and police say he's is not a suspect in the case. But Michelle's sister Lauren Erickson says she’s still haunted by allegations of his rage.
“We at this point aren’t excluding anything. There’s nothing to be excluded,” Lauren said.
Michelle went missing last Thursday, Nov. 17, hours after an episode of People’s Court aired showing her and Dale battling it out over a lost engagement ring, and where she accused him of serial violence during this now infamous episode of the long-running court show.
New photos of Michelle were released, along with her final voicemail to her father that she sent a week ago Wednesday and the day before she vanished. It was released in hopes someone will recognize her or her voice. View slideshow of photos.
Michelle was treated very harshly by the judge of The People's Court show, Judge Marilyn Milian. A court reporter called the couple’s relationship a ‘fatal attraction.’ Some questioned if any of this pushed Dale over the edge the day the show aired, caution a chain-reaction that ultimately ended in Michelle’s disappearance.”
Lauren said she is still thinking positive thoughts, “I’m thankful that my sister has not been found in a bad way, because every day that doesn’t happen, I still hope she’s still out here somewhere,” she told ABC News.
When asked what he thinks happened, Michelle’s brother, Dustin Erickson, said, “I think she had a normal day, she had to work that night. She might have stopped at a store. Sometime between there and there, I think she was abducted maybe.”
Dustin was the last person to hear from Michelle in a crypted text message. Lauren said, “At 4:26 p.m. Dustin sent out a text message and he said it came back at 4:26 p.m. saying just ‘Waterford. She doesn’t talk like that.”
As the mystery intensifies, so does the search. GMA reports that an army of friends canvass neighborhoods on foot. They even searched on Thanksgiving day. Her determined mother, Yvonne Stewart, is out there searching for her daughter. She said, “I’m her mom. I’m her mom. Do you know her, have you seen her. Do you know, anybody, if you do please, please, please help me.”
Matt Gutman reports that after six days of searching there is still no sign of what might have happened to Michelle.
All too familiar story
We’ve heard this story before. A woman who is leaving, or has left an abusive relationship suddenly shows up missing, often after she was on their way to the ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, and no ex-fiance’s house. Suddenly their cell phones stop pinging, they make no more contact with friends or family and if they do it’s one last strange short text or call. Their vehicles are found on the side of the road, often with their purses inside, and there’s no sign of what happened. They just vanish.
The men in their lives are questioned but often not named suspects, even though everything points to them being involved or responsible for the woman’s disappearance. And many have not been found.
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Michelle's disappearance:
Michelle Parker, 33, went missing Thur., Nov. 17. She was last seen on surveillance video at 3:15 p.m. in an east Orange County neighborhood. She was seen driving to her ex-fiancé, Dale Smith’s home dropping off their 3-year-old twins.
Moments before she arrived, Michelle and Dale appeared in a previously taped episode of The People’s Court. The show centered on who would be responsible to pay for a $5,000 engagement ring that Michelle admittedly threw at Dale at a hotel, and that went over a balcony.
Michelle is described as a white female with short brown hair. She is 5’6” tall and was last seen wearing a silver-cross necklace, jeans, and a Florida Gator’s zip-up hoodie.
At 4:26 p.m. her brother, Dustin Erickson, received a text message from Michelle’s iPhone suggesting she was in the Waterford Lakes area, also on the county’s east side.
By 8 p.m. Michelle’s iPhone pinged in the area of Oakridge Road near Belle Isle, more than seven miles from where she was last seen. Her phone was powered down in that area and has not been recovered.
The next day police found her black H3 Hummer license plate AWG-M26 in the parking lot of Walden Palms Apartments, 4700 Walden Circle. Decals for her Glow mobile-tanning business had been removed from the windows. From there the trail has grown cold.
A $5,000 reward is being offered in the case.
Police are urging anyone with information about the case to call Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477.
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