Family celebrates Michelle Parker's birthday

Orlando police release new video of Michelle Parker

ORLANDO, Fla. – Friends and family of Michelle Parker celebrated the missing woman's 34th birthday at the Hunters Creek Ale House Friday night, hopeful a new video of Parker will lead to more tips.

"This is a party.  This is a birthday party for Michelle," said Parker's mother, Yvonne Stewart, just before several dozen people released pink balloons into the sky.  "This is what she'd want us to do."

Earlier in the day, Orlando Police released new video showing Parker, a mother of three who's been missing for more than two months.

VIDEO: Local 6 news report

The 2.5-minute surveillance video shows Parker at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on State Road 436 and U.S. 17-92 in Fern Park, pulling up to the drive-thru window at 12:22 p.m. in her Hummer H3. 

In the video, she can be seen wearing a blue top, which could possibly be a Florida Gators hooded sweatshirt-- the same one she was last seen wearing. She interacts with the employee before driving away.

The Glow tanning sticker is also in tact on Parker's Hummer in the video as she drives away.

The video from Nov. 17 was about three hours before she dropped off her 3-year-old twins with her ex-fiance, Dale Smith, who has been named as a suspect in her disappearance.  Smith has not been charged in the case.

Orlando police said the video is important because it shows what Parker was wearing when she disappeared and the condition of her Hummer, which was found shortly after she was reported missing.

Orlando police said it has received more than 750 tips about Parker, but the Police Department will not comment on the status of the investigation.

Smith and Parker appeared on an episode of "The People's Court," which aired hours before Parker disappeared, to resolve a dispute over an engagement ring.  Police have said that Smith and Parker had a violent history.

Parker also has an 11-year-old boy from another relationship.  He lives out of state with his father.

Brad Parker, Michelle Parker's father, said he woke up on her birthday Friday hopeful in the search.

"I hope we find Michelle, it'd be a good birthday present," Brad Parker said. "Every time the phone rings, I think she's coming home or they found her."

Instead they got the video released on her birthday, which is the newest piece of evidence in the case.

Celebrating Parker's birthday, even without her, is the family's only consolation, her father said.

"We went through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and now this," Brad Parker said. "It's horrifying."


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