Mom of 5 Vanishes From Her Own Farm

Hi, this is Dispatcher Hubbard with the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office. An officer is requesting a ping for a phone for a missing person. I was out doing some farming. My wife Shelly called and said, ask if I had seen Dee. We can't find her. Dee Warner seemingly vanishes off the face of the earth. Her bag containing her makeup and medicines, that's missing. But her vehicles are still at the farm where she and her husband live. No one can find any trace of her. Authorities came up empty-handed after a two-day search for Dee and Warner. The longer this goes on, the more concerned we become. We can make more money. I can't make enough for my wife. So I want my wife, no matter what she's done or how much she's taken, you know, it's irrelevant. I've been through one divorce. I sure as hell don't want to go through another one, no matter what. The last time I'd spoken to Dee was on Thursday before this Sunday, so three or four days. I immediately called her and got no answer. I text her. And neither one of those attempts did I get a response. Lenawee County Undersheriff Jeff Ewald says they've been following up on tips and fear Warner could be in danger. We don't really have any leads. We don't have any evidence suggesting what may have happened with her. It's really got us mystified. 52-year-old businesswoman, mother of five, Dee Ann Warner, just disappears the weekend of April 25, 2021. And this is right as the first crops are being planted on the farmland. A rural Lenawee County, Michigan. The Warners lived in an area known as Tipton, probably 70 miles southwest of Detroit. Primarily blue collar people, farmers, a lot of farming in the area, a lot of migrant workers in that area due to the farming. Her loved ones begin the search for her, but every trail goes cold. The telling issue was the fact that her car, both cars, her Escalade was home in the Grand Rapids area. Her Escalade was home in the Grand Rapids area. Her Escalade was home in the garage. Her Hummer was outside, and she always drove one of the two of them. And it wasn't like her to, you know, just go with someone somewhere and certainly not walk anywhere. Her daughter, Raquel, texted, where are you, and didn't get a response. Also very odd. Dee, by all accounts, had her phone attached to her at all times. She calls her mom at that point, and it goes straight to voicemail. They went everywhere. Every place that she possibly could be, and she was not there. Raquel calls her adult siblings, Zach, TJ, and Amber. Zach and TJ come to the Munger property. They immediately find it suspicious based off of the circumstances, and they file a missing persons report. She has a husband. She has a young daughter. Law enforcement really didn't know what they had on their hands. Contact emergency. Are you Dale? Excellent. I hear your wife is missing. Well, I don't know if she's missing or if she just left, so. Okay. I came home last night, and she was really upset. She was talking a lot of bad things as far as employees. One employee decided to quit. Talking about killing herself and taking off and leaving. Okay. Dee and Dale Warner weren't your typical farmers. They were. They were running two successful businesses from this sprawling property in Tipton, Michigan. They have a large trucking business and a farming operation. They farmed several thousand acres. Dee owned the trucking business by herself, but the majority of everything else was owned between the two of them. They had truckers on the trucking side of things, and then they had farm employees. They had mechanics, and then, of course, they had a whole crew that was in the office running the business operation. Dee was very much involved in the operation. She was in charge of the operations of their businesses, and she worked hard at making sure everything got done very well and successfully. They were certainly, in this region, a sizable operation of crop farming. You would drive by the operation, you would be very impressed about what you saw. Things were taken care of, lots of things were new and nice and well-maintained. She just got over COVID like a week or so ago, and she ain't back to life since. Last night, she was coming down with a real bad migraine, so she took some migraine pills that she takes, and she finally basically passed out on the couch. And then this morning, around 6 o'clock, I got up, and she was snoring away. I was going to wake her up, so then I went out and got my chemicals and got the sprayer loaded up and went and sprayed a batch. I texted her, and she didn't answer. I got back here, and I went in the house, and she was gone. It was not uncommon for Dee to get mad at Dale. And leave for two or three days. But when that would happen, she always had consistent communication with her kids. She typically would take, at the time, the nine-year-old daughter with her. On this Sunday, the nine-year-old was staying at the aunt and uncle's house from Saturday into Sunday. Dee's phone was off, and she did not tell anyone she had any plans of leaving town. I walked around in the house. I mean, this isn't the first time she's been here. She's lost. Left, usually she takes off and goes to her son's house and stays for a day or so. This time, the difference is she didn't answer anyone. But she didn't take her vehicle. So somebody picked her up. So she's with someone somewhere. I'm going to get everybody all fired up, and then she shows up a day or two later. We tried pinging her cell phone. Nothing. For whatever reason, she shows up. When she comes back, she's fine. No harm, no fault. Right. Just call into central dispatch. They'll let me know. Dee was a very energetic person. She had a great drive to be successful at what she did. She worked very hard at that to achieve it and had a dynamic personality. She liked people, and she liked people to like her. This was obviously a second marriage. Dee and Dale were both working at the company called CPS, which was a supply company that supplied fertilizer and seed and did custom application. And that's where Dee was in the sales side of it. And Dale was in the sales side of it. That's where Dee was in the sales side of it. And Dale ran the equipment and did the application for the company. They were together for quite a number of years. They had a child together. There were some disputes, but overall, they had a loving relationship. I obviously knew Dee's husband very well, Tim, her first husband, and the father of her four adult children. I was very surprised when they got together, so to speak, when this affair began. And Dee was very straightforward. She was a very straightforward, hard-hitter. Dale was more unwilling to actually confront something, where Dee was totally the person that would confront something. So their methodology of being in business was quite contrary. By Monday morning, concern over Dee's disappearance is just mounting. And investigators return to the family farm to talk more with her husband, Dale, and also to search the property. When was the last time you saw her? Who's that? Your wife. When I was walking out of here, I'm guessing it was around 6 o'clock Sunday morning. Okay. What's your take on it? What do you think? Affair? What do you got? I mean, what's your take on it? I think she'll be back another day or two. There's no doubt in my mind she's not having an affair. He's pretty consistent with the sheriff's department that she was not having an affair, even though he had made statements to numerous other people in the past about the fact that he may have known about the potential for her to be having an extramarital affair at the time. Look, given that Dale's own marriage. to Dee began with an affair, he's got to wonder, the same way he got her, is that now the way he lost her? My stepdaughter, Raquel, called Stephanie and said, I can't find my mom. What's going on? Well, then Stephanie called me when I was spraying still, and I says, I don't know. She was sleeping on the couch when I left. She's got a curling iron, a hair dryer, and then her big-ass makeup bag. And those are gone? They're gone. She has another bag here. Got her bags with her clothes in it. She's got another bag with her pills and her medication in it. And every time we get a match, she takes that and she goes to Zach's. Does she have handguns, long guns, handguns? Yeah, one handgun. It's in the safe. Have you confirmed it? No, I haven't. Yep, it's down there. I checked finances already. It sounds like she's old school and does this cash instead of using a credit card, but there's been nothing since, there's been nothing for her several days, or a couple days. Yeah. Her stuff. She has a lot of cash, I'm guesstimating between $100,000 to $50,000 to $100,000 cash is what she's got with her. And you know that because it's missing from the safe? Yeah, it's not there. And it doesn't piss you off? Not really. Okay. She's been taking money out of the accounts in the office for the last couple of years from the business. It's only money we make from her stuff. They had a tumultuous relationship, especially because their business had its ups and downs. and downs, and they didn't always agree. In fact, they regularly did not agree how to conduct business and also how to spend their money. There was constant disagreements over Dee's shopping and her spending money that way. And that spilled over, you know, into their personal life. What's weird is that her phone was off. She left it in the window and she put a ring on my desk. And that's three flags of just like something that's definitely wrong for somebody that's a coaxer. Dee was always described as a very active mom, grandma, interacted a lot with the kids, spent time with them, babysat for them, was in their lives. I think the number one thing that has always stuck out in this case, the family always has said it would have never made sense for her to disappear and leave the young daughter behind. Who in the heck is she going to leave with because her vehicles are still here and they're still here. That's what we're puzzled about. The search for Dee stretches into its second day. Law enforcement spend hours looking around this property led around by Dale. But nothing, not one breadcrumb. And something to point out, there's no obvious crime scene here either. So the thought is she had to have left on her own, right? You're way too calm for me, man. I'd be scared. She's always left, but she's always here. Yeah. Anything else? No, other than I got to get to work. I got you. I got you. I do appreciate it. I want my wife back. Yep. No, no, that's where I'm at. He tells them he has to get to work. So he asks them to leave. Fine, no problem. They pack up and they leave. They end up getting a search warrant, though, for the property. And they come back later on the evening of the 27th. My partner did type up a search warrant. We do have. I'm standing here with both of your daughters. It is for the dogs, the drone thing. If you want to come home, you absolutely can. If you don't want to come home, you don't need to, you know, as far as what we're going to do. They wanted to use tracking dogs and they wanted to fly a drone over the property. Dale was obviously concerned about the tracking dogs. Just make text to him not to take the dogs in the chemical barn. Because that stuff will soak into their feet. So let's just get a game plan before. The bill. I'm just going to show you two if you wanted to. But it's the far, the far east building is a chemical one. And it's just whatever. We've been loading insecticide and fungicides. Sure. Why don't you take the dogs in there because the floor is still covered with it. And they'll soak up through the feet. Their paws suck that s**t up. The other thing I don't know about in the fertilizer barn. You guys do what you want. But I got my dogs and I don't let them in there either one. When the cadaver dogs came, they didn't find anything. There was no DNA that was found. There were no scent of Miss Warner. There were no. Missing articles of clothing or any of her items. Law enforcement sits down with Dale once again to go through his timeline the day that he disappeared four days earlier. And just to find out what was going on in their lives. So let's go back to Saturday morning. Roughly what time you get up? I usually get up about six or seven. What roughly would have been her time? I thought she had to have my daughter to a soccer game at nine. But it turned out it was eleven. So I imagine she probably got up around 8:30, 9:00. But after 6:00, what do you do? I'd have to go out and look at the timecard to see when Jared and my son got here. We were at the field tiling when Dee took Angelina to the soccer game, and that's when she called me. And that's when I was aware of there was an argument with Terry. He's one of the drivers. And that's when she said, why are you telling the help that I'm taking Xanax or something like that? I was like floored. I'm like, what are you talking about? And that's when she says, well, I'm all done with selling everything. We're done. And she hang up the phone and I had no more contact with her the rest of the day. She wouldn't, I tried calling her several times and she wouldn't answer her phones. After hindsight, I look back, I think she was trying to get him mad so she could have a fight so that she would have a reason. And then I came home, I think it was roughly about eight o'clock. You had to know my sister. She was very outgoing and she didn't hide anything if she wanted to be angry with something. She. It was out there. You didn't have to worry about trying to guess whether she was irritated about something. It was very obvious. Over here, sitting in the chair, I can tell she's all upset. Angelina was gone because Amy came and picked her up in the meantime. I asked Edie if she wanted something to eat. No, I don't want anything. She says, you know Terry quit today. I said, no, I did not. She says, you don't care about me. Nobody cares about me. What does it matter if I'm even here? And I said, Dee, you can't talk to me. You can't talk like that. So she started calming down. I'd rubbed her back and shoulders. She started calming down and she kind of dozed off, went to sleep. So then I picked her up, put her on the couch, tucked her in, went to bed. When I got up, I come out and she was still, I mean, snoring hard throughout the six AM time. I got chemical out of the bar, went back loaded and in the middle of spraying that field, Stephanie called me. Our assistant works in the office. When I got here, they were out in the office, I think they were looking at security cameras. Let's see if they can see anything. I'm not really that worried because she's in Zach's house. Well, then Zach shows up and he's telling me we can't find my mom. The second, third day, I'm like, oh, well, yeah, maybe we don't know where she's at. Zach also worked in the trucking office with Dee and Stephanie. And so the three of them would have had known more about each other's whereabouts on a particular day. And so they were communicating and, and I was waiting for information to come back. Dale became inserted into this conversation and started telling about what happened and what he suspected was that she had taken off and someone had quote unquote, picked her up. How many cameras are here? Functioning and non-functioning. They're all functioning, but the problem is the cameras were put into watch to help and watch, make sure fuel wasn't being stolen and office stuff wasn't being stolen. There's nothing in here. Initially in watching the video, everything appears to be kind of a normal day. There were two things. That were abnormal, that were sticking points and indicators for us that Dale was being less than truthful. You know, for starters, this isn't exactly captured on camera, but you do see him in the front end loader at a specific time heading toward the house. Separate than that being on camera, there's video of an interior of a barn and he's looking for something near welding equipment and he appears to be searching and he appears he can't find what he's looking for. And in the corner of the camera, you can see headlights pan through the barn. And as if somebody is driving by, and when that happens, he seemingly ducks behind this truck and looks to see who it is. And as the truck leaves the area, he then goes back to what he's doing. So I'm looking at the video. It seemed like he didn't want to be seen doing whatever he was doing. There were hours and hours and hours of surveillance videos. Mr. Warner is on. The surveillance video hundreds of times, you can see everything that he's doing when he's on those cameras. He's not trying to hide anything, and Mr. Warner's actions were all typical actions of him working and doing the various chores that he did on the farm. They looked at his GPS on the sprayer. He was exactly where he said he was going to be. Three thousand acres of land they had access to, plus his father's property of three or four thousand acres of land. And then my property is right next door with another couple thousand acres of land. So on that Saturday, I organized a search party with neighbors and friends, and we thought, listen, we got to start checking off some boxes here because we have nothing. Neighbors and friends showed up, 30 or 40 of them. The interesting part was that Dale didn't even show up. I can't make enough to wipe him. No matter what she's done or how much she's taken, you know, it's irrelevant. I've been through one divorce, and I sure as hell don't want to go through another one, no matter what. Starting right away on Monday, I really started my own investigation. One of the people that worked with Dee in the trucking business was a guy named Todd Narek. So I called Todd on Monday morning. I said, Todd, do you have any idea who might have picked Dee up and given her a ride? And he named a former truck driver of Dee's and said that they were having kind of a chummy relationship. Ultimately, they realized that Ms. Warner had been having a relationship outside of her marriage. They interviewed that gentleman. They confirmed his whereabouts. They did interview other people. They got a lot of unusual tips. A lot of people seemed to point the finger at, for example, an ex-boyfriend or a husband, or they had psychic tips. So they did follow up on a number of those. But none of those leads go anywhere. And more suspicious behavior by Dale raises even more red flags. And that becomes the focus of this investigation. Dale had worked with his ex-son-in-law over the course of several months on different occasions to install a secret camera in the house, or several secret cameras to keep tabs on Dee, to install a secret tracking device on her Hummer so he could know where she was. where she was, he would access a tracking the OnStar application or my Cadillac app on his phone to track her other vehicle. And there was text message between the two of them where she would discover that he's doing these things and she would, you know, let him know that she didn't like it and felt controlled. So he was very suspicious of her not being faithful in the marriage. And that was almost certainly why he was trying to figure out where she was at all times. Sheriff Troy Bevere says detectives are working every day to find Deanne Warner. At this point, we have not heard anything from her. Nothing on Facebook and no phone calls. We're hoping that she contacts the family and lets them know where she is and that there's a good ending to this. Look, it has to be considered at this point. Did this other man in her life pull her away or is something else going on? They had been in marriage counseling. And I think Dee reached a point where she knew it wasn't going to work and she was done. We know that there was an incident in December before she went missing in April when she tried to leave. And she did text friends saying that, you know, he turned into the devil and he threw me into a dresser. He wouldn't let me leave. There were several people that had witnessed some of the arguments firsthand. But also there were a lot of text message exchanges between Dee and Dale. Which were very beneficial for our investigation. Your messages from Dee to Dale about how she's not happy and things need to change and physical abuse between the two of them. So to be able to see things from her own words was really important to us to paint a clear picture on what that marriage was like. So you guys were arguing. She was trying to get you to argue. She was upset. So how would you rate that night as far as you guys have been married 20 some years. You've gotten in plenty of fights. I'm sure on a scale of the 10 being the worst fight you've ever had. It was one being five. Okay. I mean, we've had a lot worse fights. That's what's weird. It wasn't like the worst fight we've ever had. It's like a just a mediocre. It was over a freaking employee. That Saturday evening, Amy offered to pick Angelina up to have a sleepover with her daughter. Amy came to Dee's home, picked up Angelina, and Dee told Amy that she was going to have a discussion, a confrontation with Dale over their marriage that evening. This comes back around to when Dee accused Dale of telling other people her personal business. This is right before she disappeared. One of the things that was really important to her was her public image. For Dee's personal business like that to be fronted out to her employees is really devastating to her. And that sets in motion her to have a series of conversations with people on that Saturday about how this can't go on. She can't live like this. She can't be with Dale about how she's being mistreated. And she tells several people that, you know, today's the day I'm going home and I'm telling them we're getting a divorce. Has Dee ever for any reason stayed in any hotels that would be somewhat local? I mean, the hotels around here, she wouldn't be caught. I didn't know. Has anybody found her passport? Does she have a passport? She's got a passport. Okay. I'm assuming she's got it with her, but I don't, I don't know. Was the story simply that she walked away and just poof, wanted to have a new life? Some people in law enforcement, it appears from some of the videos, were believing that. If someone wasn't going to harm your wife, there's no logic for that person to put the ring there. And so it's obvious the wife, she took it off. Nobody's going to kill your wife and care too about the ring. Or I mean, if they do, they're going to steal it. You started to see from some of the law enforcement that they started asking questions of, well, this story really doesn't make a lot of sense. We were looking at everything. I mean, just, you are a huge potential suspect in this for what it's for. I'm sure. And quite often it is, you know, the husband or something like that. It's been a few days now, but if I can just a picture of your arms, you know, it says, look, I don't have any scratches. No, I'll take my shirt off. No, no, no. Dee and I have never fought back in the day. Oh, background zero loss. Yes, we are. The police found no evidence that Mr. Warner was connected with us in any way. I think most of the family on Dee's side had become pretty confident there was foul play involved and that Dale was somehow involved. There wasn't an ounce of contact. She never showed up anywhere. None of her bank accounts were accessed. She had no communication with anybody whatsoever. It would become obvious to me that he was hiding things. I finally decided that I was rather ready to become public with what my personal opinions were. When I became more suspicious of him, I did confront him and say that I was going to make, make sure that he was found to be responsible for my sister's demise. But believing Dale had something to do with Dee's disappearance and being able to prove it, those are two completely different things. It's probably pretty trying for the family. You know, you're hoping your mom comes back home, but you're slowly coming to this realization that's probably not going to happen. And throughout that time, Dale would consistently state that she'll be back in two weeks. And then when two weeks come and go, she'll be back in a month. And then when a month goes, she'll be back in six months. He just, his story kept slightly changing about when she would be back. Next month will make it one year since Dee Warner disappeared. Her family is still devastated. She didn't evaporate out of her house. Somebody has to know something. Attorneys for Dale Warner continue to maintain he's innocent. In the year and a half since she's been gone, family members have offered a $50,000 reward, moved the case to Michigan State Police and are now petitioning the court to have Dee Warner legally declared dead. Greg is convinced that Dale is behind his sister's disappearance. He even goes so far as to put up a billboard at an intersection near the farm that reads, "Help Dale find Dee," essentially trolling Dale, and his suspicions don't end there. I'd already had a conservator appointed to protect my sister's estate. I'd already accused him of falsifying a DPA, Durable Power of Attorney. I had already caught him changing the name of my sister's company illegally, and then selling it to the Laidlaw Group from Canada, trying to do that undercover. And he was caught at that. And he was becoming, obviously, very concerned about me because I'm hot on his tail. Over a year and a half has passed since Dee's disappearance, and the circumstantial evidence against Dale is just piling up. So this leads investigators to bring Dale in for a more formal conversation, this time in an interrogation room. Have you ever been, um, wrongfully accused of something? Not that I can think of. Okay. I mean, other than, you know, doing something to my wife. And how do you feel about being accused now? It's unbelievable, wonderful things that people will say. The state police getting involved, that really changed it, because you saw more emphasis, you saw more priority, you saw more searches. You certainly saw a change in tone. Why, uh, why wouldn't you do something to Dee? She's my wife. I mean, that's, I married her. She's my soulmate. I love her. Okay. And, uh, what do you think should happen to someone that did do something there? I'm not so sure that someone did anything to her. I'm still, I think she just left. She obviously had to, had to come with a plan. She left with someone that they did something to. Can you describe Dee to me as a person? She could be hot and cold, the nicest person in the world, and she would be safe all for two seconds. How would you describe your marriage overall? I would describe our marriage as a normal marriage. We started the investigation into kind of several different categories. There's, if Dee is alive, where is she? And so that's more of a, what we call a searches of life. So basically if she's alive, can we show that somehow? And then conversely, if she's not alive, what evidence is there to indicate if someone, uh, was involved? Um, several people have reported instances where, um, you would show up to where Dee was unannounced without having knowledge of, direct knowledge from whoever she was. Can you just explain that to us a little bit? That's news to me. In some previous interviews and other people, you had stated that you were not going to get a divorce. I know that's a topic of discussion. Can you explain that a little bit to us? Mm-hmm. Divorce was a word. A big part of that was the digital evidence and other people corroborating a lot of that stalking and manipulation behavior from Dale and showing that there is definitely a reason for divorce and whether or not that conversation happened on Saturday is a big part of what started this case. Uh, so we have, uh, reports from different people regarding there being violence in your household historically between you and Dee. Uh, can you describe that to us? There's no violence. Not at all. Through those, you know, having a high-leveled conversation back and forth between each other. What about there being rumors of her being involved with, with other men? What would you say to that? And at the time when she left, I would say no. But now, I really don't know. How do you answer that question? - She, at some point, did have an affair, to the best of our knowledge, but that had been two years prior. - You had made a statement about she's in Jamaica. And what made you think that? - She loved it there. She was fascinated with it down there. She's in Jamaica, or she's in Mexico. Can you describe how she would have gotten there without a passport or without crossing a border? - You don't need a passport to get to Mexico. She's gonna get driven down to Florida. She's gonna get on a boat. She's gonna go over. You don't need a passport to get to Jamaica. You can give 'em 50 bucks. Mexico, you get 10 bucks. - Detectives with the Michigan State Police cut to the chase. They're convinced that Dee is no longer alive, and Dale, is the one who's responsible. And they confront him with that. - Dale, there's actually no doubt that he's dead. Absolutely no doubt, okay? And for me personally, I think it's challenging because the Justice for Dee crew, they all want everybody to be able to kill her. I don't want people to think that you're this big monster. You're the only person that can film this story. And we're at a point where, when we find a body, there's gonna be no forensics there. We're not gonna be able to tell what's in her system. We're not gonna be able to take her home structure. We're not gonna be able to determine the cause of death. You know what I mean? You're the only person that can fill that in. There's actually no doubt she died here at the farm. There's no doubt. - On November 21st, 2023, Dale Warner is officially arrested and charged with the open murder of Dee Warner, and tampering with evidence. The following day, he's arraigned at the Lenawee County Courthouse. - An emotional day for Dee Ann Warner's family. - This isn't a matter of the people versus Dee Ann Warner. Mr. Warner does enter a plea of not guilty to both counts. Dee Ann's husband, Dale Warner, facing Lenawee County District Judge, Laura Shadler, for the first time since being arrested in connection with her disappearance and murder. - It's now been more than three years since Dee Ann Warner was last seen alive, and about nine months after Dale's arrest, when the Michigan State Police execute a search warrant on the Warner properties once again. And this time, they find something. - The search for missing, Tipton woman, Dee Ann Warner, picks up seemingly out of nowhere. Warner's been missing for more than two years now, but just this week, Michigan State Police started searching nearby properties owned by Warner and her husband, Dale. - You even heard police discuss it a little bit, that the thought was, and it's probably a natural thought, that if you're going to hide a body, you're going to bury it. It was that turning of the thought process to think, maybe she's not down below, maybe she is in front of us. front of us based off of the welding and based off of that video and all the equipment and land that he had we were very convinced that she was buried and possibly inside of something metal i decided well it's let's think about all the objects that are big enough for her to be welded in so these anhydrous ammonia tanks i knew that they had numerous of them and so we decided to try and and tracked them all down. Ultimately, we were able to find a tank that had clearly been manipulated and altered, had been cut open and welded back shut, and then painted with new stickers on it. - They took it to the border checkpoint in Detroit at Windsor. That was the biggest X-ray machine they could find to X-ray the tank, and when they X-rayed it, they saw the outline of a body. - Human remains were found in this barn in Lenawee County, Michigan, sealed in a metal tank. Officials now trying to figure out who they belong to, but family and friends of missing Lenawee County woman, Dee Warner, believe their three and a half year search for their loved one has come to an end. - Lo and behold, there she was. - You feel surreal. You don't even know, it's hard to even believe it's factual. After that much time, you just don't know - What your emotion is, it's very hard to describe. We finally had her body and that was a big deal. And then of course that further gave us foundation for the case against Warner. - Dale Warner's trial begins on February 12th, 2026. And as the prosecution lays out their case piece by piece, investigators, family members, trial watchers, They begin to see the full picture of Dale and Dee's relationship. This is a picture the state claims had been hidden in plain sight for three and a half years. Dee and Dale's relationship was never good. Constant verbal disagreements over text face to face a pattern of stalking by dale towards d extreme secrecy and distrust between the two of them one of the first people to take the stand is one of d's adult daughters amber when was the next time you saw your mom after friday night right saturday morning and you remember approximately what time It was in the morning, maybe between 9 and 10. She was hysterically crying when she came into the house. She went directly into my bathroom, connected to my bedroom, and she threw up and was crying and just saying she was done. We're selling everything. I'm done. She's done with her marriage. there's been talk of divorce over the years and he's never gone through with it no this is the time this is the last straw the saturday night he said to the police that he sure as hell wasn't getting divorced again he'd already done that once you already saw a little bit of the the fuel for a combustible situation the prosecution continued to say it made no sense that she disappears without her daughter so clearly something happened on the property and that's when they started to point to dale this behavior doesn't make sense why is he using that equipment why is he out not looking for her dale wasn't yelling and screaming that his wife was gone so they were trying to lay that foundation was yeah he wasn't doing a lot of searching because he already knew what happened and didn't want to tell anybody about it also looking back at the surveillance video from the Sunday, April 25th, you can see Dale on camera getting welding supplies together. So they put those two things together and they got a search warrant for tanks that had been re-welded shut, cut open and re-welded shut. She was strangled. She had blunt forced trauma to the face and head enough to have killed it. She had duct tape over her face and neck. She was in her pajamas, wrapped in a tarp, welded in a tank. So then Dee Warner's personal assistant, Madison Wolfe, is called to the stand by the prosecution, not only to testify about the business relationship between Dee and Dale, but also the personal one. Did you have a chance to observe the state of Dale and Dee's marriage? Yes. How would you describe them? In the beginning, you know, I didn't know them that well, so it seemed like it was okay. And then over time, you could see that it was more like a business-oriented relationship. They were always arguing about money. The state did a pretty thorough job of laying the timeline out and kind of guiding the jury through some of it was circumstantial, some of it is physical, but how it all connected. And then the defense gets their turn. The government's evidence and case is built on speculation, assumption, and innuendo. Do you know what you won't see? Proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The strength of the defense case was really focusing on the timeline and pointing out the holes in the government's theory that all of the different things could have happened on April 25th, 2021 by 6 p.m. At first, I was on the witness list for the prosecution. For whatever reason, the prosecutor dropped me from her witness list. And lo and behold, the defense adds me to their witness list. The defense was called Gregory Hardy. The reason Mr. Hardy was called as a witness is there was context for the investigation and, quite frankly, the lack of investigation that the police did in some areas. They were entirely focused on Mr. Warner, and there was a lack of investigation really about anybody else. So, Mr. Hardy, I understand that you want to give some context to your answer, but I would just like a clear answer. Did you want to be told details of the investigations? Yes. And then you have also claimed that you told the Michigan State Police that there was a particular fertilizer tank that you wanted them to search for on your sister's property. Is that correct? I mentioned tank, but it wasn't that specific tank. It was a tank. And then once the tank was found, you told the police that you know how to cut an anhydrous tank open, right? Yes. Their only hope, in my opinion, was to cause the jury TO CAUSE THE to have some doubt that, yeah, Dee was dead and that I somehow knew something about this and had some involvement in my sister's demise only because I had entrenched myself so deep in the investigation. And you indicated that you have potential liability if the prosecutor is not successful in getting a conviction against Mr. Warner, correct? That's what the text says. And you wrote that text, right? I did. What we really wanted to impart on the jury and highlight was that they could not convict Mr. Warner just based on speculation or assumption or imagination. There was no direct evidence of Mr. Warner's involvement. But it takes the jury only nine hours to sift through all of this evidence of this week's long trial before they come back with their verdict. Members of the jury, you do say upon your oath, that you find the defendant, Dale Warner, as to count one, guilty of second-degree murder, as to count two, guilty of tampering with evidence. I most certainly watched Dale when the verdict was read. He put his head down and he shook it back and forth. Otherwise, he was quiet. The defense attorneys, my sense is there wasn't a surprise to them. Obviously, he was. He was in shock because he has maintained, again, since second one that he did not harm his wife. He was truly hoping that the jury wouldn't see that. While I'm glad that he was not convicted of the top count, we certainly fought hard for a not-guilty verdict across the board. It was more relief than joy. We didn't let anybody down. We didn't fail. And it wasn't until a day or so later that I actually felt some joy, some happy. You know, and it's weird to feel joy, it's about a homicide, right? But it's more the joy of the fact that you were able to hold somebody accountable and stick up for these people, which is why you do this job. With the guilty verdict now in hand, Dale Warner's awaiting his fate. And then you have the victim impact statements. This is the opportunity for the family to plead with the court that he should be locked up for the rest of his life. Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Raquel, and I am Dee's youngest adult daughter. Our mother was the foundation of our family and a source of strength for so many others. She was our protector, our supporter, and our motivator, and our best friend. Her death created a pain and burden that none of us will ever fully recover from. We're all still trying to learn to live without her. My mom's name, Dee Hardy, will live in our hearts and our community for an eternity. But Dale Warner's name will be gone forever. In the end, the judge sentences 58-year-old Dale Warner to up to 70 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge and between 17 months to 10 years for the tampering with evidence charge with the terms to be served consecutively. He'll be eligible for parole after 33 years. No matter what happened, it's terrible. Now this little girl's without a mom. But hopefully one day when she can gain some closure, if there is any for her, it's that, you know, everyone under the sun that saw them interact is going to tell her that, you know, she was her mom's pride and joy and that her mom loved her and didn't leave her. For me, it would be awfully nice if we could get together and try to make something positive out of it with people like you guys telling the story. It should not be anything about me. It shouldn't be about the detectives. It shouldn't be about the prosecutor. It shouldn't be about the trial. It should be about how somehow we can tell this story and keep some other woman like my sister from getting killed. It shouldn't be about the detectives from going through this and being killed. If that can be a positive, then we've been successful in this story. Thank you.