Justice for Dee: Search, Trial, and 70-Year Sentence

The Dee Warner case ended in March 2026 when a Lenawee County, Michigan jury convicted her husband, Dale Warner, of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence for killing the 52-year-old trucking company owner in April 2021 and hiding her body inside a sealed fertilizer tank on their farm for more than three years. Judge Michael Olsaver sentenced him in May 2026 to consecutive terms totaling a maximum of 70 years in prison.¹

What Happened on April 24–25, 2021

Dee Warner was last seen on April 24, 2021, at her home on Munger Road in Franklin Township. Her last known phone or social media activity occurred at 7:14 a.m. the next morning.² When she failed to show up for a standing weekly breakfast, her daughter Rikkell Bock reported her missing.³

Dale Warner told investigators his wife had left the property after a fight with employees and that some of her personal items were missing. He also claimed $50,000 to $100,000 was missing from a safe, though officers who searched the home found cash scattered throughout the house and vehicles.⁴ An autopsy later placed her death on or about April 25, 2021, and ruled it a homicide by strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head and face.²

Why Investigators Suspected Her Husband

Dee had told people she intended to divorce Dale and sell their trucking business.² Prosecutors argued that intent gave Dale a financial motive to kill her.⁵

Dee owned DDW Investments LLC, described as a very successful trucking company. A forensic audit detailed by investigator Billy Little, hired by the family, found that Dale’s agricultural operations had incurred roughly $1 million in losses financed by Dee’s trucking company. After she vanished, Dale allegedly used a forged 2014 power of attorney to transfer assets from DDW Investments to a new entity he controlled, DDW Transportation LLC, and then sold the trucking business to Laidlaw Carriers Bulk in May 2022.⁶

Other early red flags came from the family’s private investigation. Home security footage never showed Dee leaving the property. Heavy farm equipment appeared to have been cleaned shortly after her disappearance. All of Dee’s electronic devices, including her smartwatch, went dead simultaneously at 2:30 a.m. while she was supposedly asleep.⁷

The Three-Year Search and Family Pressure

The Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office initially led the investigation, with K-9 units and drones searching the Warner farm on April 27, 2021. Dale consented to some searches but later revoked that consent.² For 16 months, nothing turned up. In August 2022, Sheriff Troy Bevier asked the Michigan State Police to take over, saying the transfer was “in the best interest of the investigation, best for the family, and the right thing to do.”⁸

Under state police leadership, investigators eventually searched more than 4,000 acres, including a large-scale sweep involving 130 officers using ground-penetrating radar and additional search warrants at multiple Lenawee County properties in May 2023.⁹

Throughout those years, Dee’s brother Gregg Hardy ran a “Justice for Dee” advocacy campaign with rallies, vigils, civilian searches, and a Facebook group that grew to more than 22,000 members. Hardy paid for a billboard visible to Warner trucking company drivers reading “Help Dale Find Dee,” which he acknowledged was sarcastic pressure aimed at his brother-in-law.¹⁰ The campaign ran for 1,212 days before Dee’s remains were identified.¹¹

Michigan State Police arrested Dale Warner on November 21, 2023, charging him with open murder and tampering with evidence. He had not yet been linked to a body.⁹

How Dee’s Body Was Found

On August 18, 2024, human remains were discovered on one of the Warner properties, sealed inside an anhydrous ammonia tank. The large fertilizer container was empty of chemicals and marked with a handwritten tag reading “bad dip tube, do not use.”¹² The body was wrapped in a blue tarp with duct tape.² Three days later, the remains were positively identified as Dee Warner.⁹

The discovery came out of what the state police called a cooperative process with the family. Hardy said information investigators shared helped him connect their work to a specific tank he had flagged early on because Dale had painted it shortly after Dee disappeared.¹² Medical examiner Dr. Patrick Cho performed the autopsy that identified strangulation and blunt force trauma as the causes of death.¹³

The Evidence Against Dale Warner at Trial

Opening statements began on February 12, 2026. Prosecutor Jackie Wyse argued that Dale killed Dee by taping her mouth and nose, then strangled her and inflicted blunt force trauma, hid the body in a safe, used farming machinery to move it, and welded it inside a fertilizer tank on family property.¹⁴¹⁵

The physical and digital evidence pointed to the tank:

Surveillance video from April 25, 2021 showed Dale gathering welding supplies the day after Dee was last seen alive.¹⁶
Police body camera footage from the day after the disappearance appeared to show welding burns on Dale’s arms.
Dale searched “how to dispose of a thousand-gallon propane tank” on his iPad after Dee had already gone missing.
Experts confirmed the fertilizer tank had been cut open and rewelded using tools and processes consistent with those seen in the surveillance footage.
A fingerprint matching Dale Warner was found on an ammonia sticker on the tank.
Cell phone records and vehicle data traced Dale’s movements and phone activity around the time of the disappearance.

Prosecutors also introduced testimony about the couple’s troubled marriage, Dee’s intent to divorce, and the financial stakes. A judge permitted evidence of alleged domestic violence history between the couple.¹⁷

The defense argued there was no concrete evidence linking Dale to the killing and called the prosecution’s case built on “speculation and theory.”¹⁵ The defense also elicited testimony from Dee’s former nanny and personal assistant that Dee had had an extramarital affair.¹⁸

Verdict and 70-Year Sentence

On March 10, 2026, the jury found Dale Warner, then 58, guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.¹⁹ He had rejected a last-minute plea offer that would have let him plead to the same two charges.²⁰

At sentencing on May 7, 2026, Judge Michael Olsaver imposed consecutive terms of 375 months to 60 years for second-degree murder and 17 months to 10 years for tampering with evidence, for a maximum of 70 years.⁵ Warner reserved the right to appeal on the record, though no formal appeal had been filed as of the sentencing date.²¹

Other Legal Matters Tied to the Case

Dale Warner is the only person convicted in Dee’s death. His son and Dee’s stepson, Jaron Warner, was arrested in March 2025 and charged with two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of accessory to murder. The Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office dropped the charges in May 2025, saying it was unable to locate a witness, and noted the charges could be refiled. Jaron’s attorneys said he committed no crime and should never have been charged.²²

Dee’s children have also pursued Dale in civil court. On May 21, 2025, they filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit in Lenawee County seeking compensation under Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act for loss of society, pain and suffering, and exemplary damages, and asked that funds Dale was spending be redirected to them.²³

1
KKTV. Man Convicted of Killing Wife, Burying Body in Fertilizer Tank, Sentenced to 70 Years in Prison
2
Court TV. MI v. Dale Warner: Hidden Murder of Dee Warner
3
CBS News. Dee Warner Missing Michigan: Billboard Trolls Husband Suspected of Murder
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Lenawee County Daily Telegram. Kevin Greca Testifies as Former Lead Investigator for Dee Warner
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13abc. Dale Warner Sentencing Scheduled Thursday Morning
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Lenawee County Daily Telegram. Private Investigator in Dee Warner Case: Money Motive
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MLive. 5 Things to Know About the Disappearance and Death of Dee Warner as Murder Trial Begins
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WXYZ. Michigan State Police Taking Over Investigation in Dee Warner’s Disappearance
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WXYZ. A Timeline of the Major Events in the Dee Warner Disappearance Murder Case
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CBS News. Dee Warner Missing: Would Michigan Investigators Be Able to Prove Murder Without a Body
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13abc. Dee Warner’s Loved Ones Holding News Conference After Police Find Her Remains
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13abc. Human Remains Found on Warner Property; Police Work to ID Victim
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People. Michigan Man Convicted of Murdering Wife Found in Fertilizer Tank
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NBC News. Michigan Man Found Guilty of Killing Wife Whose Body Was Stuffed in Fertilizer Tank
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13abc. Jurors Reach Verdict in Dale Warner Murder Trial
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13abc. Prosecutors Detail How Husband Allegedly Hid Dee Warner’s Body in Tank
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13abc. Judge Permits Alleged Domestic Violence History in Dale Warner Murder Trial
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13abc. Dale Warner Murder Trial Continues Day 5
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CBS News Detroit. Dale Warner Found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder in Dee Warner Case
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WTVB. Dale Warner Rejects Plea Deal
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CBS News Detroit. Sentencing Slated for Dale Warner in Charges Over the Death of His Wife
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CBS News Detroit. Charges Dropped Against Stepson in Dee Warner Murder Case
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Court TV. Dee Warner’s Children File $100M Lawsuit Against Husband for Her Death