Orlando police arrested Dale Smith Jr. on a second-degree murder charge Wednesday, nearly 15 years after his ex-fiancée vanished — a case that sat cold while the prime suspect walked free, exposing a two-tiered justice system that somehow can't find resources for a mother's murder but mobilizes overnight for political prosecutions.

Michelle Parker, 33, disappeared on Nov. 17, 2011, after dropping her 3-year-old twins at Smith's home — the same day a prerecorded episode of "The People's Court" aired showing the couple fighting over a $5,000 engagement ring. "He gets pretty malicious and vindictive," Parker said on the show. "He's a mean person, especially when he's drinking." Smith was the last person to see her alive. Her SUV was recovered the next day, the decal for her tanning business scraped off the window. Her cellphone was pulled from a lake south of Orlando. Her body has never been found.

Smith was a prime suspect from the start. He gave conflicting answers to the same questions across multiple interviews and depositions over the years, Detective Phillip McMican said Wednesday. He had a lengthy rap sheet dating back to the 1990s, including arrests for battery and marijuana possession, the New York Post reported. During his time in the U.S. Marine Corps, he was court-martialed and convicted of drug and domestic battery charges. Back in August 2009, Parker filed for a domestic violence injunction against Smith, alleging he smashed her truck window during a heated argument while holding their then-15-month-old daughter. That order was tossed out a month later for reasons no outlet reported.

So why did it take 15 years? Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith offered a telling explanation: "With the less number of homicides that we're working right now, in a little bit of a drop in violent crime, that freed them up to do what they need to do, to really take the time to look at this case." In other words, detectives finally had bandwidth. Advances in digital forensics also helped — investigators reexamined old devices and extracted more detailed location data and communications than 2011 technology allowed. New evidence was also found in the past year, McMican said, though police declined to provide specifics to protect the case's integrity.

Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell, whose office is now prosecuting the case, said charges could escalate as evidence allows. WKMG reported that Worrell's office collaborated with police before the arrest. Worrell is a progressive prosecutor whose campaigns have benefited from Soros-backed funding — the same network that has installed DAs across the country who redirect resources away from violent crime toward pursuing political targets. Parker's family waited nearly 15 years for an arrest. Her eldest child is now 26; her twins are 18.

"It's like the happiest day because she deserves this," Parker's mother, Yvonne Stewart, told WESH. "I just knew that one day everything dark would come into the light."

The question nobody in authority wants to answer: How many other Michelle Parkers are still waiting?