Police, family search for missing Florida woman

[November 23, 2011]  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- More than a dozen detectives and hundreds of volunteers continued their search Tuesday for an Orlando woman who went missing after her episode of "The People's Court" aired on television.

Orlando police said Michelle Parker, 33, was last seen Thursday, the day the episode aired. Her Hummer SUV was found the next day, causing family members to believe she was carjacked.

At a command center in the parking lot of a closed nightclub where Parker used to work, concerned residents stopped by for stacks of fliers on Tuesday afternoon, in the hopes of handing them out at shopping centers. People in white T-shirts with Parker's photo on the back scrutinized maps.

Family members last heard from her on Thursday, when she sent a text message that indicated she was in an Orlando shopping area. They said it's unlike Parker to disappear because she has three children and a job as a bartender.

"If anyone knows anything, please do the right thing," said Dustin Erickson, who choked up as he talked about his sister. "If anyone has any information, please come forward. If anyone has her, please let her go, please turn yourselves in, please do something so we can find her any way possible."

Erickson said the TV show was probably "irrelevant" to her disappearance as it was taped three months ago. Parker and her ex-boyfriend appeared on the show to resolve a dispute about a $5,000 engagement ring.

Her mother, Yvonne Stewart, told ABC News that her daughter said the show was "the most humiliating experience" of her life.

[Associated Press; By TAMARA LUSH]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.