Former Orlando Police Chief discusses arrest in Michelle Parker case

Welcome back. Right now, after nearly 15 years and hundreds of searches, an arrest has been made in the Michelle Parker case. Parker disappeared from Orlando in November of 2011. And this morning, her ex-fiancé is now charged with second-degree murder. Dale Smith Jr. has been a person of interest in this case since Parker disappeared. He's expected to appear in court at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Joining us right now is former Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rallon with more on how police finally cracked the case. And Chief, it was great to have you yesterday. afternoon when this story was breaking. So thank you again for joining us this morning to talk about it. We talked yesterday about what is going on behind the scenes, right? A lot of times families feel like, oh, we're not getting anywhere. Things aren't happening. But in this particular case, this case was always being looked at very closely. Absolutely. And this is the case for any law enforcement agency, especially when it comes to cold cases where you feel you have enough, but not quite enough to get to the finish line. And in this case, it proved that not only the past and present detectives continue to work on it, the technology of today contributed to advances that yielded more evidence. So it was a great day yesterday. Chief, help us understand that, though, because you're talking about the new technology. We heard the investigators say new technology. What exactly are you talking about when it comes to how technology can take the same evidence and make it make sense today. How does that work? Well, the police department and obviously the state attorney's office also have to be very mindful that they must protect the integrity of the investigation. Therefore, they're not able at this point to disclose what exactly that evidence is. But the court proceedings moving forward will yield more information, will allow for the process to dictate when and how that evidence will be shared but the fact that enough evidence was presented to the state attorney's office and the state attorney's office agreed that there was enough probable cause to make an arrest it is a significant finding something that obviously was not present before that would allow for in this case to make an arrest but what was mentioned yesterday is something that will obviously be presented during the discovery process was that not only old evidence but new evidence was found through this process and credit was given to forensic evidence so it'll be interesting to see what exactly took place was it the old evidence that was evaluated that yielded additional evidence to again support the probable cause or was it new evidence that was located through the new means to be able to support a finding of probable cause one of the fascinating things that the detective said yesterday in that news conference was that answers to questions that they had asked repeatedly of Dale Smith Jr over the years those answers had changed i thought that was really interesting and it also sort of gives us a bird's eye view of what's going on in that that they continued to interview him through the years it wasn't like well we we interviewed him 15 years ago and we've moved on obviously through the years they were still calling him in for interviews and asking these same questions and that and those inconsistencies obviously is what they mentioned that resulted in an opinion or the basis for the recommendation for a probable cause to be supported in this case. But there's so much that we don't know, right? Were there new witnesses? Was there new findings that are significant that are part of that evidence packet that we ultimately will hear about? So again, I think it is to a certain extent, All of us, our community, the family wants to hear or know more specifics, but the state attorney, the police department are doing their due diligence to ensure that the integrity of the investigation is not compromised in the process, regardless of how much we want to know exactly what unfolded up to this point. You know, Chief, I'm curious about behind the scenes, because we have several of these cases still here in Orlando. This one was throughout your entire tenure. How difficult is it on people in the force, the investigators who think they know who might have done it? We don't know in this case, but who think they might know, but they just can't get the closure. That's got to be rough on all you guys. So, well, not unfortunately. Obviously, law enforcement has a responsibility to not act on emotions, not act on gut feelings, but allow for the evidence to basically dictate what the outcome is so at times you may be 99.9 certain that the the person of interest in a case like this is the person responsible but you have to ensure and for for also for the families affected by these cases you have to ensure that when you present a case and when the state attorney's office agrees and moves forward forward that having probable cause is one thing. Proving beyond a reasonable doubt, that is the key that also must be tested during the process. So presenting cases is easy. Ensuring that those cases support beyond a probable cause outcome is the key for many of these situations. Chief, Michelle's body has still not been found. How important is that for this case moving forward? is it necessary for her to be found in the state of Florida we have case history that obviously that's not the case but uh you know personally i believe that for the family it is very important to bring full closure to this uh unfortunate and very tragic situation so hopefully as the proceedings move forward if in fact the individual in custody now knows something else or if someone comes forward. Now that the case has received a significant, obviously a significant amount of attention, hopefully it will yield locating where her body is. Once again, former Orlando Police Chief Orlando Malone, always good to see you, Chief. Appreciate you joining us here this morning. Thank you for having me.