Starting at the base of her throat, Millie Park has a 14-inch scar that runs down the center of her chest to her abdomen.
“I have almost two feet of scaring. It’s like a miracle I’m right here right now,” said Parke.
The scars are a constant reminder to Parke of the brutal stabbing she suffered last May at the hands of her former live-in boyfriend, Ronnie McClure. The attack took place just two weeks after McClure was served with an order of protection prohibiting him from being anywhere near Parke, her home, or her daughter’s home.
The court order ultimately provided her with no protection and has left Parke angry at the Indianapolis Metro Police Department.
“I was shown, literally, that there is no reason for a woman to file a protection order,” said Park.
The invitation
The history of Parke and McClure starts in the 1990s when they dated briefly and remained friendly afterward. Six years ago, they reconnected.
She explained, “We started dating and about a week later he told me that he was homeless. I told him, ‘You don’t have to worry about that anymore. You can stay with me.’”
But turmoil was a regular visitor at the apartment the two shared on Indianapolis’ North Gladstone Avenue.
“He wouldn’t drink or anything during the week but as soon as Friday hit, he was hellbent on getting as messed up as he possibly could,” said Parke, “And If I didn’t want to go, he would be mad.”
When they were out, Parke says if she stayed too long in the restroom sometimes McClure would kick the bathroom door open to check on her.
“I loved him,” said Parke, but the final straw for Parke was catching McClure smoking crack in her home.
“The agreement to be in my home, to be in my life was to not hit me, not call me names, not do drugs and to work,” said Parke.
Protection order and eviction
In April 2021, began a two-part plan to finally separate her life from McClure’s.
Parke filed for an order of protection and Judge David Shaheen granted it, explicitly warning McClure he risked “confinement in jail” and any “further acts of abuse or threats of abuse.”
The other part of the extraction plan was Parke evicting McClure from her home.
On April 24th, McClure and his belongings were removed from the apartment and served with the protection order.
Parke says McClure ripped up the papers, threw them at her, and said, “I don’t see either one of us coming out of this alive.”
Series of violations
What appears to be clear-cut violations of Parke’s protective order began right away. On the day of his eviction, McClure took one of Parke’s vehicles without permission. However, this wasn’t reported to IMPD until May 2nd.
On that day, Parke also told police she believed McClure had smashed the windshield of her daughter’s car and that her ex-boyfriend had sent a series of texts and phone calls. IMPD records indicate Officer Vanessa Freeman confirmed Parke had an active protection order and it was noted in a police report, “(Parke) is in fear for her safety.”
The next day, May 3rd, Detective Janice Aikman was assigned to investigate.
Parke says in a phone conversation with Aikman, the detective asked what Parke wanted from the police. Parke says she wanted McClure to spend a night in jail.
In response, Parke says Aikman told her, “Ha, you’ll be lucky to get three hours. I don’t even know why I do this job.”
FOX59 emailed Detective Aikman in an attempt to confirm the conversation. Aikman referred us to IMPD Public Affairs, who cast doubt on Parke’s recollection.
On May 6th, Parke called the police again. She claimed McClure was behind her car being keyed while parked at a Mexican restaurant on the west side of the city. Parke also alleged McClure had shown up at the CityWay building when Parke was working there.
Two days later, Parke made her last protective order complaint. Parke says McClure was texting her daughter, describing items in the trash containers outside her home. McClure added that he was no longer going to “play nice.”
Desperate, Parke runs away
Afraid and desperate, Parke weighed her options, “I was literally looking if I could hire a guard-dog, a bodyguard, what else could I do? I knew he was coming after me.”
Parke decided to run. She packed up her two dogs and some clothes and started driving east out of Indianapolis. Her hope was to find a hotel and hide for a few days. Parke figured the best way to do that was to go somewhere neither she nor McClure knew well. So, she headed to Hancock County.
When Parke reached Greenfield, she stopped at a Speedway gas station to take care of a couple of quick errands. Store surveillance cameras show Parke exiting her vehicle with her dogs.
“I let my dogs out to go potty and I got on Priceline, found a hotel that allowed dogs, and booked it,” said Parke.
She finished sitting in her vehicle, unaware the ex-boyfriend was barreling toward her.
Bleeding out in the parking lot
The Speedway surveillance cameras pick up McClure driving at high speed through the gas station parking lot, making a turn around the corner of the convenience store building, and slamming his vehicle into Parke’s.
Parke panicked, “I’m freaking out. I’m trying to reverse (my car) by then he was already there. He was already punching me, full-on punching me and I moved over to get away from the punches.”
As Parke scrambled into the front passenger seat, McClure climbed in behind the wheel. Visible in the surveillance video is McClure continuing to swing at Parke. What the video does not show is the knife in his hands.
Parke said, “I’ve never been more frightened in my entire life. The only noises he made is when he was stabbing me, he made (grunts) like he put that much energy into it.”
McClure then drove off with Parke’s car with Parke still inside. As he turned around a corner of the store, Parke fell out of the car and onto the parking lot pavement.
Parke had multiple stab wounds, the most serious one was a deep laceration to her chest which caused a seven-millimeter cut to the right ventricle of her heart. As she lay there, Parke was bleeding heavily, and the nearest hospital was about twenty miles away.
‘I told you‘
On the other side of the store, standing at the gas pumps was Sargent Nick Ernstes of the Hancock County Sheriff Department. As Ernstes was about to refuel his patrol car, a man came running up yelling to Ernstes that he found a woman lying in the parking lot with stab wounds.
As Ernstes approached, he could see Parke’s shirt almost entirely soaked with blood with a pool of blood forming on the pavement beneath her torso.
Parke said to the sergeant, “I told you guys he was going to do this to me.”
With emergency medical help on the way, Ernstes began first-aid, applying pressure on the bleeding chest wound. But Parke was becoming more lethargic and less responsive.
So, Ernstes asked who did this to her.
Parke told him it was her ex-boyfriend, Ronnie McClure.
An ambulance rushed Parke to Methodist Hospital where she underwent emergency, open-heart surgery. The stab wound to her heart was successfully repaired, as were other lacerations to Parke’s chest and arm.
“I have almost two feet of scaring between the stab on my arm and my heart. It’s like a miracle I’m right here right now,” said Parke.
‘Figure it out’
McClure was arrested the next day. The police report said his jeans and sweatshirt had blood on them.
Millie Parke’s ex-boyfriend was eventually convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping. His prison sentence is 80-years.
The courtroom victory did nothing to cool Prosecutor Brent Eaton’s anger about how Parke wound up stabbed and bleeding out in Hancock County. In Eaton’s view, law enforcement in Marion County horribly failed Parke.
In an interview, Eaton punctuated his displeasure, pounding his fist on his desk as he said, “They gotta figure it out in a hurry. It cannot be that people who are supposed to be protected by protective orders decide that the protection means so little they have to take things into their own hands and flee. That cannot continue to happen. It can’t. It’s unacceptable.”
Kelly McBride, executive director of the Domestic Violence Network, agrees with Eaton. FOX59 showed McBride the timeline of events beginning with Parke getting that order of protection.
“My heart just breaks for (Parke) because she did everything she was supposed to. The system failed her. They could have protected her. They could have absolutely picked him up. He could have been in jail at that time and the stabbing wouldn’t have happened,” said McBride.
FOX59 asked Parke how much she believes IMPD is responsible for what happened to her.
Parke’s reply, “All of it.”
FOX59 did not find the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office was aware of the escalating behavior my McClure prior to him stabbing Parke.
Eventually, IMPD filed charges against McClure. It was a month and a half after the stabbing. Six of the seven criminal charges involve information reported by Parke to the police department before the attack in Greenfield.
Response
There were multiple requests made by FOX59 for on-camera interviews with Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and officials at IMPD. All of the interview requests were declined.
Both the Mayor’s Office and IMPD issued statements. Neither mentioned Millie Parke by name.
From IMPD:
“There is no doubt that this was a horrible and senseless act that no person should ever experience. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the victim and her family. IMPD has been and will continue to be both transparent and hold ourselves accountable when wrongdoing has occurred. Conducting thorough investigations helps ensure justice for the victim when a case goes to trial and makes certain the rights of the alleged suspect are upheld. After reviewing this case, it appears the investigation was handled with speed and rigor following the initial report, including regular contact with the victim.”
From Mayor Hogsett’s spokesperson Mark Bode:
“Anytime something like this happens, our entire criminal justice system has to examine what led to these outcomes. This serious and appalling case underscores the fact that domestic violence continues to be a critical issue that must be addressed. Our thoughts are with the victim, and with all those affected by intimate partner violence in our community.”
Millie Parke has left Indianapolis. At her request, FOX59 is not disclosing where she now lives.
Parke explained, “I just feel like criminals feel like they can do whatever in Marion County. I won’t move back there.”
