The couple had argued on television about an engagement ring.

On Wednesday, Orlando, Florida, police arrested a man whose ex-fiancée vanished soon after the broadcast of a People’s Court episode in which they both had appeared.

Dale Smith, Jr., faces a charge of alleged second-degree murder allegedly in connection with the November 2011 disappearance of Michele Parker.

The couple shared two children.

“’While Michelle has not yet been located, all evidence leads to Dale Smith Jr. as the person responsible for Michelle’s murder,’ Orlando police said,” ABC News reported.

Advanced forensic techniques as well as certain purported conflicting statements apparently led to the arrest all these years later.

The Associated Press provides background on the 15-year-old case according to law enforcement authorities:

“…Smith was the last known person to see or hear from Parker before she went missing on Nov. 17, 2011, when she dropped their children off at his home…Her vehicle was found abandoned a day after her disappearance, and her cellphone was later recovered from an Orlando-area lake. Investigators have not publicly stated a motive for Parker’s murder.

“On the day of Parker’s disappearance, an episode of The People’s Court featuring her and Smith was broadcast. Smith had sued Parker, claiming that a $5,000 engagement ring that he bought for her was lost when she threw it at him during an argument. Judge Marilyn Milian ultimately ruled that both parties were responsible for the ring’s loss and ordered Parker to pay $2,500 to Smith for half of it.”

Smith, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is currently being held without bond subject to review at a future court hearing.

His attorney has emphasized that Smith has been cooperative with police investigators all along, and that his client maintains his innocence.

Note: All suspects are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in a court of law.

Watch an Inside Edition report on the cold-case arrest which includes reaction from Judge Milian:

After 26 seasons, Warner Bros. and it partners in 2023 cancelled The People’s Court, a daytime television staple, in which litigants had their real small-claims cases decided by a retired judge in a simulated courtroom for television rather than in their local judicial jurisdictions.

The production company, not the loser in the case, typically paid the money judgment, if any, which generally incentivized the parties to agree to go on the show.

Judge Joseph Wapner presided over the original People’s Court series.

If you’ve seen the 1988 Oscar-winning film Rain Man, you probably recall how Dustin Hoffman’s character Raymond Babbitt obsessed over watching Judge Wapner’s program.

After several predecessors, Judge Milian took over The People’s Court bench in 2001. She now hosts a syndicated show with the same premise called Justice for the People with Judge Milian.

Watch the contentious 2011 pre-taped People’s Court episode that featured the couple’s hearing and included Judge Milian’s decision (as well as “Hallway Guy” Curt Chaplin perhaps prophetically alluding to a “fatal attraction relationship”):

Original article
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