Affidavit: They Exchanged 1,013 Texts, Then Silence

The day a daytime TV dispute hit the airwaves is the same day police say things turned deadly. A newly unsealed arrest affidavit alleges Dale Smith Jr. strangled ex-fiancée Michelle Parker at his Orlando home on Nov. 17, 2011, hours after their tense appearance on the People's Court over a missing engagement ring aired. Parker, a 33-year-old mother of three, vanished that day and is presumed dead; her body has never been found. ABC News reports the affidavit states that an Orlando Police Department homicide analyst took a fresh look at phone data records from 2011 and "recognized there was additional data in the records that had not been analyzed."

Per the affidavit, that data showed Parker sent "several offensive messages to the suspect" in the lead-up to her disappearance, including messages about custody of their 3-year-old twins. The affidavit states that cellular data shows "the victim" arrived at Smith's home to drop off the twins and "stayed there for over an hour, and ... does not respond to anyone ever again"; Parker told investigators she had only been at his house for 10 minutes. And while the two sent each other 1,013 texts in the seven weeks prior, Smith "never called or messaged her ever again after November 17, 2011," per the affidavit. Smith, now 55, was charged earlier this month with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.