Judge Sets Dec. 7 Bond Hearing for Dale Smith Jr., Charged With Murder in Michelle Parker's 2011 Disappearance

A judge has scheduled a Dec. 7 hearing to decide whether Dale Smith Jr., the ex-fiancé charged with second-degree murder in the 2011 disappearance of Orlando mother Michelle Parker, will stay in jail without bond until trial, News 6 and WESH 2 reported Wednesday, Nov. 11.

At the hearing, prosecutors will have to present evidence to justify continuing to hold Smith, 55, without bond at the Orange County Jail. Smith has pleaded not guilty and denies any involvement in Parker's disappearance. Parker's body has never been found.

What the defense is asking for

Smith's defense attorney has filed a 20-page motion arguing that prosecutors have not made a sufficient case for the murder charge and that Smith should be released while the case is pending, according to News 6.

The motion argues that the arrest warrant "does not establish that Ms. Parker was killed at all," WESH reported. It also contends there is no DNA, fingerprint or video evidence showing Smith used Parker's Hummer, and characterizes inconsistencies in his account as minor.

Shortly after the arrest, defense attorney Rajan Joshi told WFTV Channel 9 he intended to seek what Florida courts call an Arthur hearing. In that type of hearing, a defendant charged with a serious offense can be held without bond only if the state shows that the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption is great. The hearing also gives the defense a chance to examine the state's evidence and question witnesses. Joshi said he had reviewed the sealed affidavit and saw new evidence, but described the case as largely circumstantial and said he did not see what he considered a "smoking gun."

The arrest, nearly 15 years later

Orlando police said the department's Fugitive Unit and SWAT Team arrested Smith on Wednesday, Oct. 14, on a charge of second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty in Orange County circuit court the next day through a written plea filed by Joshi, and he has remained in custody without bond since his first appearance.

Police said investigators expanded the team assigned to the case over the past year and used advances in digital forensics to take a fresh look at evidence collected in 2011 from phones, computers and vehicles. That review uncovered new location information and communications between devices that played a key role in building the case, according to Orlando police. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell said at the time of the arrest that the charge could be upgraded if the evidence supports it, according to news reports.

What the arrest affidavit alleges

A judge unsealed the 46-page arrest affidavit in late October. It presents investigators' account supporting the arrest, not a finding of guilt, and none of its allegations have been tested in court. According to reporting by WFTV, the affidavit alleges:

• An Orlando police homicide analyst reviewing the original cellular records in 2026 found location and messaging data that had not previously been analyzed and likely could not be read by detectives in 2011.
• Parker arrived at Smith's home around 3:18 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2011, and stayed more than an hour. In his first interview, Smith told police she arrived around 4 p.m. and left around 4:10 p.m. In a 2016 deposition in a civil lawsuit brought by Parker's family, he placed her arrival at 3:18 p.m.
• At 4:26 p.m., Parker's phone answered her brother's question about where she was with the word "Waterford," but the phone was using a tower near Hoffner Boulevard, about 11 miles west of Waterford Lakes. Investigators allege Smith likely sent that reply, though the affidavit does not cite an admission.
• Cell data placed both phones traveling together from Smith's home toward Nela Avenue at Lake Conway, where Parker's phone was later recovered from the water.
• Photos taken after Smith's Nov. 18, 2011, interview show scratches near his mouth and on his left wrist and forearm and abrasions on both elbows, which detectives now allege are consistent with Parker fighting back.
• Two witnesses re-interviewed in September 2026 recalled seeing Parker's Hummer, with large stickers on the rear window, in Smith's neighborhood after the time Smith said he had left to take the children to his parents' home.

The affidavit alleges that Smith choked Parker to death and disposed of her body. It also acknowledges that a search of Smith's home on Nov. 18, 2011, found no evidence directly connecting him to her disappearance, and it describes text messages between the two and accounts from relatives and friends alleging prior threats and domestic violence, WFTV reported.

A disappearance that gripped Central Florida

Parker, 33, was last seen on Nov. 17, 2011, after dropping off the couple's 3-year-old twins at Smith's Orlando home. The same day, an episode of "The People's Court" aired in which Parker and Smith argued over a $5,000 engagement ring, with Parker describing their relationship as over.

Eleven days after she vanished, then-Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney publicly identified Smith as the primary suspect. About three weeks after the disappearance, an Orlando police dive team recovered Parker's cellphone beneath a bridge at Lake Conway in Belle Isle. Surveillance video released by police showed her Hummer at a red light around 9 p.m. the night she disappeared, about a mile from where the vehicle was later found abandoned.

Over the years, the Orange County Sheriff's Office searched a lake about 1.5 miles from Smith's home, an anonymous donor offered a $200,000 reward, and investigators used ground-penetrating radar on a concrete slab at the home of Smith's father that had been poured in 2012. That search found nothing, according to WFTV. Parker's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit that was later dropped. Smith was not charged until this year and has maintained his innocence throughout.

What's next

The Dec. 7 hearing will be the first time prosecutors must lay out their evidence in open court and the first chance for Smith's lawyers to challenge it. If the judge finds the state has met its burden, Smith will remain jailed without bond while the case moves toward trial; if not, the judge could set bond and release conditions. No trial date has been reported. Orlando police have said they are still working to locate Parker's remains.