Transcript of Help Dale Find Dee New

Last October's brazen daytime heist at the Louver was shocking. Now, nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered.

Where did they go?

And second, where did they come from?

In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them.

On the pavements, I saw something shiny.

You did see the crown?

Yes, exactly.

Heist at the Louver, a new series from ABC Audio, available now ad-free on Amazon Music.

Michigan State Police are searching a number of—

They're acting on tips.

Authorities are still looking for any signs.

Divers have gone in looking, an official on scene tells me. And the search continues for a missing Lenawee County woman.

A successful businesswoman goes missing without a trace.

No signs of Dee Warner were found. Friends and family tell me they aren't giving up.

Time is of the essence. The longer this goes on, the more concerned we become.

She had disappeared from the family home.

You go through so many scenarios.

Where in the hell is she?

My family and I need to know something.

We searched every tip, every lead.

More than 4,000 acres of land have been searched for 52-year-old Dee Warner.

They've used sonar, drones, cadaver dogs.

They started putting up billboards around town.

Somebody has to know something.

Help Dale find Dee.

Help Dale try to find his wife.

It's a literal needle in a haystack. When you're not certain where to look, you have to look everywhere.

Dee's 4 adult children and her brother have spent every waking moment trying to find the 52-year-old mother.

It was a total mystery of what happened to Dee Warner.

It was like somebody just hit the stop button on life.

So it was a Sunday. Me and Dustin and our 2 girls went over to my mom's house.

Was that a routine?

We'd eat breakfast at her house and then we would go grocery shopping.

A regular Sunday breakfast, so regular that they don't even text about it anymore. They just show up to the home.

We walked in. And nobody was in there. And so I texted Mom and I asked her, where are you? And I didn't get a response. So we just made some breakfast. We cooked some eggs and toast and cleaned up, and we just left. I called her and the phone went straight to voicemail. She always answered her phone, always answered text messages, anytime, any day. It was just odd to me. So I called her friends and my other sister, my brother. Nobody knew where she was. Nobody had heard from her. And so I went down to my uncle's, which is just down the road, to see if maybe she went down there.

Approximately 10:00 in the morning, I was out in the field farming. I said, well, no, I've not seen her. I've not heard from her. But if I call her, she would always answer her phone. And she did not answer, and her phone went right to voicemail.

And then we came back to the house and checked around again. You know, we were just looking all over the house, the rooms, the bathrooms. The Escalade was parked in the garage. Her second vehicle, which was a Hummer, was parked down at the office.

Was it unusual that the Hummer and Escalade were both there on the property Sunday morning and she wasn't? Yes.

My mom, I mean, if she was leaving, she was driving.

Dee never, never, never walked anywhere. She would drive to her office, which was only a few feet away.

The house and office sat on a 1,500-acre farm that Dee shared with her husband Dale.

Dale called me. in the mix of that time period. And he said, she was sleeping on the couch this morning when I left at 6:00 AM.

Dale Warner was very big into the farming business. All hours of the day, he would be working on equipment or in the field.

Dale went out to spray the fields, which was common of him to do early in the morning Sunday.

Dee and I were very close. I was her only blood nephew. Around noon, 1 o'clock, my father called me and he said, well, they can't find my sister. Do you know where she's at? I said, I have no idea. The only thing I know to do— I'm the one that installed all of her security cameras. And I said, let's review the cameras.

We've got cameras all over his property that point in all different directions. The kids start going to the office. And they're looking at the cameras, trying to find any clue. Did a vehicle come? Did a person come? Did she leave on her own? Is there a camera that shows her walking to the road?

There was never anything on camera that showed her into a vehicle.

There are areas of the farm where the surveillance cameras don't pick up. So Ms. Warner could have left voluntarily from that location, or Ms. Warner could have been taken out from that location, and that would not be caught on camera.

No sign of anything out of the ordinary.

Tell me about the kind of person your mom was.

Vibrant, loving, nurturing. Always somebody that was wanting to take care of people.

Everywhere we went, she knew somebody.

Outgoing, bubbly.

They haven't got anything that I want.

Very fiery personality.

4 adult children of her own, 4 adult stepchildren that were from Dale's first marriage. Dee and Dale had 1 child together who was 9 years old at the time of her disappearance.

She was obsessed with her kids. I mean, she loved them.

If I needed help with anything, whether it was my kids, my house, my work, she was there.

What was your mom like as a grandmother?

She was very involved. bragged about them all the time. She loved to be a grandma.

Dee was a successful businesswoman that showed it off. She did not hide her wealth.

We were always going shopping for things, and we always liked a lot of bling.

Dressed to the nines, full jewelry, designer clothing, got her nails done, massage, facials.

Always put together from, like, sunup to sundown.

She would never leave the house without the lashes, the makeup, hair done?

No.

No.

So you're a hairstylist, and you would do Mom's hair?

Even when I styled it, she, she always styled it herself. She was very particular about how she liked her stuff done.

Aside from Dee not being there that morning, everything else seemed to be a typical Sunday morning.

Were you worried?

I was worried, yes.

She was always in contact with people. Something isn't right. They should have some sort of text message call to say, I'm here, I'm there.

So then a search— family members began around the home. They're looking in the bedroom. They're looking in the office. Dale is now home, and he's convinced that she had taken off. They had an argument the night before. It wasn't uncommon for her to leave after a heated argument.

The night before, Dale said that they got into a little fight. She got a migraine, and he gave her a massage, and she fell asleep on the ground. And he picked her up and put her on the couch. And then she was there at 6:00 AM when he left.

By evening, I was very alarmed. In fact, Shelly called me and said, listen, do you think they should call the police? And my response was instantaneous, absolutely.

About 5:00 or 6:00 that night, we left the house, and everybody kind of went home. And my siblings, we decided that we needed to call 911.

An officer is requesting a ping for a phone for a missing person.

Was there ever a thought that maybe this woman had a hidden lifestyle?

This isn't the first time she's done this, guys.

We're in Tipton, Michigan, a very small town in southeastern Michigan. It's not even a one-horse town. It's a half-horse town.

You drive through Tipton and you blink and you miss it. We have a post office and a church, and that's all we got.

Typical farming community. You have your soybeans, corn, cattle.

Basically just all farmland.

My family settled here in 1831. The main foundation of what our family's been involved in has been agriculture. It has been for our family for 6 generations, and of course Dee was part of that.

This is a small town. Was there an active buzz in the community about, where's Dee Warner?

Yes.

You all call 911. At what point do you really think this is not okay?

Really from the very beginning.

I quite literally took this exact route to get up to the kids. When I first was dispatched to this incident— My name is Austin Hall, and I'm a former deputy with the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office. Started my shift like normal at 4 PM. Shortly after there, I was called to meet with a family that was saying that their, their mom was missing. So in talking to the kids, I contact dispatch and at least have a phone ping An officer is requesting a ping for a phone for a missing person. Which came back relatively quickly, within about 10 minutes.

Device is currently off. Last time the device was on was this morning at 0714 hours Eastern Time.

And it was pinging off of the closest Verizon tower that was just half a mile from the farm. So after I talked with the kids, I felt like I needed to go check it out myself. And talk to the husband who was home there with her that morning. Anytime we have interactions with the public, we always wear body-worn cameras. And I go and knock on the door, and as I turned to my right, I saw somebody coming around. Oh, that's Dale Warner.

Hello?

Are you Dale?

Excellent.

I am Deputy Hall from the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office.

How are you, sir?

Good.

So I hear your wife is missing.

Well, I don't know if she's missing or if she just left.

And he tells me that the day before, the two of them kind of got into an argument. They had an employee altercation, that Dee kind of had it out with one of their, their truck drivers.

She had an altercation with one of our employees. I came home last night and she was really upset. One employee decided to quit.

And he says, she's an in-your-face kind of girl.

I had altercations with quite a few people. I mean, she's pretty wiry if you know my wife.

I, I don't know, but—

She's in your face and tell you how it is.

And that was a very common story that even the kids, you know, said that she was a very opinionated woman.

How would you describe her as a businesswoman?

Strong and dedicated.

Tough?

Yes. She could get angry and she could yell and she could scream.

Outspoken. If she liked you, she liked you. If she didn't, she didn't like you.

I worked with Dee for 5 years. I did accounts payable. I did accounts receivable. We became really good friends. I think she bumped heads a lot of times with, like, other men because it's a woman in a big position. She probably did have enemies just because of her personality.

So this is all their land?

That's correct. What you have here by the first blue silo, that is the— what's referred to as the office.

What do you learn then about the businesses that Dee and Dale owned together?

There's 3 primary ones. They have the farming operation. They have the trucking company, large semi tractor-trailer type business, and also some commercial spraying and farming services. His priority was clearly the farming operation, and her baby was the trucking company.

This was no ragtag farm business. This was an empire of farming businesses. There's thousands of acres involved. There are millions of dollars involved.

So he goes on to say that that night they argue, she gets a headache.

She finally basically passed out on the couch. Went to sleep and got her calmed down. And I thought, you know, that was close to midnight when she finally went to sleep. And then this morning around 6 o'clock, I got up and, you know, she was snoring away. So then I went out and got my chemicals and got the sprayer loaded up and went and sprayed a batch. Got back here and I went in the house and she was gone.

He reported several items to be missing.

Her hair curler's gone. Her hair dryer's gone. Her makeup bag's gone, and she has a go bag packed all the time.

Because of the frequency in which she left, she kind of always had a bag packed, it seemed.

He mentions that she takes off all the time, and, uh, it was very much a run-of-the-mill situation.

She's with someone somewhere. I don't know what else to do other than wait a day or so and see what—

Sure, I know.

She shows up. Yeah, I mean, if you say— I mean, I don't want to get everybody all fired up. The kids are all fired up. I'm gonna call the police and get her. This isn't the first time she's done this, guys.

The kids had told me that it's far from the first time that she has left having an upset argument with Dale. And so I said, is there anything unusual about this time? And he said, well, the only thing unusual about it is that their daughter didn't go with her.

They went everywhere together. You didn't see one without the other ever.

I'm concerned because my daughter's wondering what the hell's going on.

It's one thing to be— wife to be pissed off and take off.

Well, you know, that's— we've got 3 different businesses here, so the tension's Very common marital dispute like that.

Oftentimes it's, you know, mom got mad at dad and took off and— or was walking down the road to cool off some steam. Is she a person who normally keeps her phone on her hip, or is she pretty—

She's never without it. Never without it. But I told the other kids she's got a second phone. It's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know she has it.

But—

Why would she have a—

I have no idea. I haven't confronted her about it because I didn't want to.

Okay, well, that, that might be an important chunk of information there.

If someone disappeared on their own and there's no activity on their known cell phone, the secret phone could be something that she used to communicate with someone else.

And then on top of that, and he reaches his hand in his pocket.

The only thing that's really strange too is this time she put her wedding ring on my desk.

Pulls out the biggest wedding ring I've ever seen in my life, and I said, Interesting.

That ring was approximately $35,000 to $40,000.

She never took it off.

Leaving a wedding ring, to me, would say that the marriage might be over.

So that reinforced to Mr. Warner that she had left voluntarily.

She leaves behind a $40,000 wedding ring.

Doesn't quite make sense. Was she having an extramarital affair?

She's talked flirtatious about somebody.

There's nothing more peaceful to me than being in the middle of a quiet field and hearing just nature. It's my way of being closest to God. My job during the spring season is a lot of tractor riding. It's a lot of time in a cab of a tractor with really nothing but a radio to listen to. And so you're just stuck with your thoughts, and I spent countless hours thinking about where Dee could be, what happened to Dee.

It's now been 24 hours since Dee Warner has been reported missing, and the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office heads back to the Warner house. This time, it's Detective Kevin Greca who talks to her husband Dale.

Hi.

How you doing? All right. I'm Detective Greca from the Sheriff's Department.

Can we step inside, talk?

Yeah, we can. Yeah, see if we can figure out what's going on.

He says, oh, come on in, come on in.

We're checking the roast they're cooking out here.

And as he comes in, he goes right into his kitchen. He's like, I forgot I have a roast in the oven.

Good thing you showed up.

I put it on high.

Dale was not panicked. You didn't hear worry in his voice.

You don't expect foul play? No, I mean, I don't want to get— her kids are going around, you know, getting excited, which that's fine. That's her mom.

Right.

But she's done this before. I mean, I don't want to get everybody all worked up and excited for when she shows up tomorrow. I just wanted to go home.

Right.

This is her here? That's my wife. How long you guys been married, roughly? About 20 years.

Your mom and Dale get married in 2006. Do you remember the wedding day?

I do remember the wedding day being happy. We all went and got her hair done. She was excited and happy to have the wedding and get married and kind of move on with their life together.

So they were both previously married, and they began their relationship as an extramarital affair. At some point, they both leave their spouses and end up getting married.

The Warners and the Hardys, I always refer to the families being as the Hatfields and McCoys because it seemed like they were always trying to outdo each other.

Dale and your mom, in their marriage, were they opposites? Were they similar?

Dale and my mom were very much opposites. My mom was outgoing. She loved to do things. She loved talking to people.

Dale was very quiet.

He didn't like to socialize. He didn't really have friends.

He was a boring person. He didn't want to do anything. All he wanted to do was farm, and farming was his life.

This was a lifelong interest for Dale. Even in his high school yearbook, he's pictured as a member of the Future Farmers of America.

I personally believe that Dee's attraction to Dale was they both had ambitions to do more than they were doing. They wanted to build a little empire.

Look, when I came in here, and she's always got her original nail. They're curling on you? Her hair dryer, and then her big-ass makeup bag. And those are gone? They're gone.

We pored through the house trying to find something, searching through bedrooms, combed through that rug, look at the couch cushions. We even looked through garbage.

There is nothing in the house that would point to a kidnapping, a murder. There's no bloodstains anywhere. Nothing seems out of place.

Nothing stolen, nothing broken. They don't find anything in the house that leads them to think that there was a crime that occurred.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The detectives started doing some follow-up and some interviews.

That Tuesday after she went missing, Detective Greca came to my house and questioned me. Sorry, my dog is freaking out.

I am gonna start this up just so—

I was really nervous because I'm like, wow, like the police are involved.

You reached out to her and nothing, and that's just—

I've tried Snap, I have tried Messenger.

One thing that Dale reported to the sheriff's department immediately was that she had a secret phone. So when it came to this investigation, one of the Bridges we had to cross was, was she having an extramarital affair?

And then who are you aware of right now her having an affair with right now?

I don't know if I'm aware of her having an affair with anyone. She has never told me. She kind of keeps that—

Okay.

Side burner. But she's talked flirtatious about somebody.

I just know they've talked. Thanks again.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yep.

Dale initially is very consistent about the fact that he does not believe his wife to be having an affair.

You don't think she's having an affair? No, I don't think— I mean, I, I could be wrong. I've been wrong on several things, but right now I don't think she is.

Okay.

So any previous relationship she had, we were chasing them down in this time.

What did you hear, or ultimately She was involved in an affair, at least one at one point. That did end prior to her disappearance.

When did you learn that your mom was having an affair?

I was a senior in high school. My mom would have me watch my little sister, and she would ask, you know, to go to town to go tanning. I ended up going through her phone one time, and I saw some messages messages that confirmed that it was happening, and then I didn't need to know anymore.

You got a seat here for us?

Police tracked down a man who seems to have had an acrimonious relationship with Dee.

Most of the time, I fucking hated Dee.

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The thought of there being witches in Wilbur, Nebraska was mind-blowing.

He had 12 women.

He needed a 13th to complete his coven.

And he said, we met a girl on Tinder and now she's I can say that I've never had a case like this.

The truth is much stranger than any fiction I can make up.

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Every minute that passed was more unusual than somebody who was just mad and took off.

They're casting a wide net on trying to talk to as many people as possible. The sheriff's office is talking to Dee's kids, friends, acquaintances, her brother. They're talking to Dale.

Everyone had their own theory.

She had COVID 3, 4 weeks ago.

This was in '21. COVID was still a very big deal going around. He said that she was having real bad brain fog and just not quite acting right.

It wasn't my wife anymore. It's like her whole personality, everything about her changed, and I don't, I don't get it.

I work in the medical industry, so as far as like COVID, how it's affected people, maybe psychologically it really did mess with her more than others.

I did not see any evidence of her personality changing with COVID no.

What about meds? Do you know what she's doing on that?

I don't know the meds either.

You know she takes them?

I know she takes medication, but I don't know what she takes.

She had had neck pain very bad along with migraines. She had excruciating migraines.

The interview on April 26th, they were kind of walking through through the home, and, you know, he's asked about prescription medications. He mentioned she had taken something for her migraine.

Uh, the medication— did you think she took them?

And Dale walks him over and pulls open the medicine cabinet, and it's just full of bottles.

No, I mean, I don't mean took them. I mean took them physically. So there's a crapload here. Um, any clue if, if she took some? She's got this many and everything.

Okay.

All right. And it's— what about, uh, well, what about on the suicidal end? Well, she was talking about killing herself. You know, when she gets— when you get pissed off, she's saying stuff.

What's that?

Yeah, that's funny. But I mean, it's just— when was the last time she had said something like that? It was that night. Okay, so she's talking about killing herself and— okay. I mean, I might as well be dead. You take that as more of a tension or something like that? It was just normal.

Okay.

But I just took it with a grain of salt.

All of my siblings and everybody's like, you know, I guess I get that she ran off before, but she's never gone like this. This is all new.

Police believe Dee may have had more than one affair. So they speak to a man rumored to have been involved with her to see if she did have a second phone.

She's a fair-weather person. She might be missed by some, but not by me, you know. Oh, if it was something she wanted or something in her favor, she was as good as it gets.

She's—

she was a perfect friend. But if it wasn't going her way, you're—

Have you ever had an affair with her?

Absolutely not. Never once did I ever sleep with her.

So any, any physical anything? You guys ever kissed?

Yeah, I kissed her a couple times, but that was absolutely the, the end of it.

He explains that years later, he and Dee fell out over a dispute over a potential business deal.

I got no love for Dee Warner. I mean, I wouldn't kill her, but I mean, I don't care that she's gone either.

You have absolute confidence that you were not involved in her disappearance? He was helpful. He provided me what I asked him, and he did it diligently to prove that, hey, I had nothing to do with this.

How'd you communicate outside of her normal phone and all that kind of stuff?

Nothing.

That's why—

Her normal phone's the only way I ever talked to her. If she had a second phone, I have no idea.

Okay. Um, I'm not blowing smoke up here. I really appreciate you coming in. This is really important today. It's a lot of good information.

I appreciate the respect you guys gave me. Anything I can do to help, I will. You know, I don't care much for Dee, but I do really like all of her kids. And—

Yeah.

I'm sorry they lost their mom, you know, or if they didn't, if she's gone somewhere.

He was, in fact, in Florida at the time, and all of his time was accounted for. He was excluded as a suspect.

We never found any kind of evidence that she had a true second phone.

Mr. Warner was trying to come up with places he thought where Ms. Warner might be. He was trying to come up with aliases he thought she might use or people she might contact.

Like, one day he came in and sat next to me and, you know, where do you think she is? Who do you think could have picked her up and not said anything? And I'm just like, I have no idea, Dale. I don't know anybody that she knows that would pick her up and not tell any of her family.

Dale would tell Parker that when he was having trouble sleeping, he would go out and work on these tanks, painting them.

Well, I said, what the hell are you doing with this hydrant tank? Puts his head down. He said, uh, I just can't sleep at night. He said, I don't know what the hell's happened to Dee Dee. And he said, she left me in this terrible mess. And he said, so I just can't sleep at night. So I told the guys to bring some anhydrous tanks in that needed painted, and I would paint them at night when I couldn't sleep. So he said, that's what I've been doing.

She appeared to be at a breaking point. They were starting to see some signs, starting to see some issues. Bleeding into the marriage and the businesses.

She just seemed defeated on Saturday when I saw her, which she's not. She's usually fiery. And when she's mad, she just, you know, she'll pack her bag and she'll leave. And this was very different. This was a calm, defeated mom.

She wasn't—

and in my opinion, and Dee and I have always been very close. She, like, wasn't in her right mind.

She kept going, like, talking, and she was talking about a fight that she had had with—

oh, God, what is his name?

Todd Narick shows up on the farm at approximately 3:00 in the morning on the 25th of April.

Now, this is interesting. You have another person that Dee was arguing with into that weekend showing up at the property at an odd hour.

Central 632, I'm going to have one copy.

Dale talked to the police a number of times.

You're going to be contacted.

And he did allow them to search his property a number of times.

It's still an active working farm property while this is going on. It is not roped off with tape. People are coming and going onto the property. property, but he is allowing them to walk around.

In the early afternoon on April 27th, Detective Greca went back on scene. And Greca's saying, you got a canine here that's going to start looking, as well as some drones. I'm really sorry, guys, but I got work to do. I've got fields that, you know, this is the one sunny day I'm going to have this week. I got to get to work.

If you guys would have told me this this morning, you know, we could have come out here at 6.

Yeah.

Okay.

No, I want my wife back, but darn it. Yeah, I appreciate it. She left here. Right.

And Greca did the proper thing and said, okay, guys, I'm sorry, consent's withdrawn. We've got to go. And so they all load back up and they leave.

All right, we just got shut down, so, um, we'll debrief somewhere. He's like, nope, you guys are done.

So he got the search warrant, goes back shortly after 8 o'clock.

I did call Dale. We do have a search warrant for the property at this point. We're just looking for her.

They arrive with the drones, the dogs, uh, cadaver dogs, as well as just search dogs. Nothing evidentiary was found. Nothing substantial was found. Nothing at all. Ends that day. So then we go back.

What's the pleasure in the world if it wasn't important?

When we got there, Dale was actually in the spray barn.

The first moment he calls—

And as we're talking to him, he actually agrees for another consent search to happen. We call more canines. We call more drones, we call more officers and detectives to come help. He says, hey, I just want you to know you shouldn't bring your dogs into the, the spray barn.

Been loading insecticide and fungicides.

Sure.

I just didn't want you to take the dogs in there because the floor is still covered with it and they'll soak up through their feet. We lost one of our shepherds from that one time. Yeah, I mean, just kind of do what you want, but I got my dogs and I don't Let them in there, either one. Like I said, I lost one of them. I kind of departed from that.

We were running around. We were calling friends. And so what was our next step? We decided to have a search on that Saturday.

Greg, who's Dee's older brother, took it upon himself to organize a community search. Friends, family that may have known Dee.

We were the first ones to do a broad on-foot search, and we walked at least 600 to 1,000 acres of land on foot.

They were walking miles through fields and roads and cow pastures, just looking for any— anything for my mom.

We kind of had all designated Greg as our main leader, and he finally said, Shelly, Dee's not coming home. And at that point, I realized— I thought, I'm sure she's not going to now.

So while Dee's family is starting to come to terms with the idea that that Dee may be gone. Investigators are looking into a new lead. Shortly before her disappearance, Dee got into an argument with one of her trucking company employees.

A big part of what made her trucking business successful was their primary dispatcher and kind of manager of the business, Todd— Todd Nerig.

She was very protective of Todd. She did anything she could. for him. And then there was a lot of times where they bumped heads. It was a love-hate relationship. I seen her that afternoon, the Friday before she went missing. That was the day that her and Todd got into it.

Todd told Detective Greca that he and Dee had a confrontation about the rates they were charging trucking customers, and it escalated.

And she was making a big deal about it. And just like I was stealing from her. It just— she was making it more than it was.

I had not seen her that upset before. I have seen her upset. I feel like she was done.

And so that led into a fight with my mom and Dale because my mom felt like Dale didn't have her back. Was there ever a time you suspected Todd When I found out that Todd left at 3:00 AM on the 25th, it felt very strange to me.

Todd Nerik shows up on the farm at approximately 3:00 in the morning on the 25th of April, and he does that to pick up a load to drive to Burns Harbor, Indiana, and he's on the property for approximately 10, 15 minutes. And then he leaves the property and does his— takes the load.

Where he was going scared me. He was going to the Burns Harbor. It's like a metal melting place, essentially. So she could have been in the back.

So the only 2 people that were on that property right around the time that Dee went missing was Dale and Todd.

Was Todd involved? How do I eliminate that? How do I either include or exclude him?

A plan was hatched to secretly record Todd.

All I know is that I confronted her shit that she's been doing.

Which is a horrible thing for you right now.

Well, did you kill her?

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Multiple law enforcement agencies were in Lenawee County today resuming the ongoing search for Dee Warner.

Warner was last seen at her home on Munger Road in Franklin Township outside Tecumseh, Michigan.

At this point, uh, we haven't ruled anything out. We're still investigating it as a missing person.

6 months now and we have nothing. Nothing added up. Time is your enemy, right? And what was frustrating to me is I saw no urgency from the authorities.

We were sure there's probably no more physical evidence we're going to find, so they started checking airlines. That's a lot of administrative nonsense that took a lot of time. But as far as the community was concerned, they weren't seeing any action. The family hired Billy Little as a private investigator.

I'm Billy Little. I'm an investigator and an attorney. Families that are missing loved ones and they don't feel like they're getting the kind of results they want, that's generally when they reach out. So I went up to Michigan and started digging in.

Billy was the person to come in and stir the imaginary shit pot. Excuse my language, but that was what got the ball rolling again. He rallied people.

He gave us a hope that we could still push forward.

This is Billy Little. I'm looking into the Dee Warner disappearance. Wanted to know if you had a minute to talk. Wanted to ask you some questions about the, the Deanne Warner case.

And that very morning of her disappearance, a truck driver had picked up a truck and left the premises to go to the Chicago area. So one of my first calls was to this guy named Todd Nerik.

There were some reasons to look at him. Todd was on the property in the early morning hours of that Sunday.

It was very suspicious to me, but I, I didn't want to believe that he had anything to do with it because him and my mom were very close.

I was trying to get him to talk about the case and the things that were going on while he was in what he felt was a safe environment. So this young lady was willing to record their Interactions?

Somebody called me and asked if I knew what was going on. I don't know, you know. But who, who called you?

Her brother did.

All I know is that I confronted her on the shit she's been doing.

It's just a horrible thing for you right now.

Well...

Did you kill her?

No.

I took a polygraph and passed. Every move I made that day is on camera. My phone has been tracked and taken and Run through the police thing.

Todd, if you were involved in this in any way—

I would go along with anything happening to her. As pissed off as I was at her, I still have feelings because 90% of the time she was a joy to be around, and for 95% of the the time that I worked there. It was always this great relationship.

He was probably one of the first employees that worked for Dee when she began the trucking company. And she became very close with this guy. And he was very close to her.

Todd willingly took a lie detector test, which he passed. In my opinion, he was not directly involved in this. Either before or even an accessory after the fact.

There was a camp of people, absolutely, that thought perhaps Dee was killed and he was there to help. And ultimately, this theory was disproven.

I eventually was able to rule Tad out.

There was definitely something in the community where they wanted answers. So there was this grassroots movement to try to find her.

We had the Justice for Dee Facebook page.

The Justice for Dee Facebook group, it's got 25,000 people in it. The community definitely helped big time. We went through thousands of signs that said Justice for Dee.

Anything we could do to shout from the rooftops of like, we need help from our community, we did.

And Dale was not part of that?

No. There was actually a sign put in his yard and he He took it immediately.

Took it down?

Yes.

If your wife is missing, why are you not out there looking for her?

Was he doing anything to try to find your mom?

No. I really don't think he has— he did anything at all to find her. He did not show up to the searches on foot. Even when the law enforcement showed up to talk to him about her being reported missing. It was never urgent to find her at all.

I don't know. Until another day goes by, I'm concerned, but I'm not, you know, alarmed yet.

The vigils were held at our event center at the dairy. It was amazing to see how many people rallied together.

Tonight, Warner's brother Greg It is my opinion that Dee did not leave her home voluntarily, but rather she was planning on confronting Dale when he returned home around 8:00 PM that night. So now the gloves are coming off. And I said, well, Dale, listen, I know you did it, and I am gonna get you.

So this is my mom's farm. My mom and dad divorced, and then Dale moved in. And I live right here, right behind her. When everything unfolded, we could pretty much monitor everything. I just was afraid. I didn't want things to get worse.

Was your mom a fan of true crime shows?

Yeah, she loved true crime.

Did she ever suggest Did she ever mention to you anything about what she saw actually playing out in her own life?

Yeah, she did. She made a comment about it, you know, mentioning something that Dale could do something like that to her.

And by that?

I would assume she means he could kill her.

Their marriage was very volatile. They were constantly fighting with each other. They were in marriage counseling.

Dale didn't like Dee's personal spending. Dee didn't like the fact that Dale always needed the latest farm equipment.

Were the businesses doing well?

The trucking company was doing well, and that's about it.

Who owned the trucking company?

The trucking company was 100% in my mom's name.

They were certainly having a tumultuous time at the end. The businesses and the issues with those certainly appear to be leading over into the marriage. They'd had times where they lost millions on different pieces.

I did see Dale get angry a few times. I remember her telling me they were in an argument in her bedroom, and he got upset and pushed her, and she fell and hit her head on the dresser. It was the next morning she came in and showed me the goosebump on her head. I just remember distinctly asking her, like, Dee, why is this okay?

No incidents of domestic violence or abuse were ever reported to authorities.

You know, my mom would say, I feel like Dale's following me. I think he's tracking me.

In July of 2020, she had the car in for service, and it was brought to her attention that this tracking device was in the car.

She was put back by that. She was really upset.

Dale denied that it was a tracker. He claimed that he was using it to diagnose a problem with the Hummer.

Did your mom discuss with you that she was going to leave Dale?

Yes. Her biggest thing was to She never wanted to divorce Dale because she didn't want to leave my little sister with him.

I did have the hope that she would just one day get sick of it and just be done. She told me Saturday she wanted to sell everything. She said, I told Dale I want to sell everything. And I thought, wow, she's really serious.

Dee was going to have a final conversation with Dale about leaving, splitting up the businesses on that night. And she knew it was going to be an argument, and she didn't want the daughter to see that. So she had a friend that she contacted and said, hey, can you watch the daughter for tonight? Because I'm going to have a conversation with Dale.

He was afraid if my mom divorced him, he would lose everything— the trucking company, the farm, everything.

There's 80 acres right here. In my view, all the pointers were pointing at Dale Warner. Granted, we didn't have a body, nothing. There were a couple of places that I was suspicious about If Dale had wanted to get rid of her body, it only seemed logical that it had to be somewhere close. So Billy said, can you show us where that location is? You want me to show you where that is? Yeah, let's do it while we're here. So we walked back there, and I specifically pointed out this location and said that no one had really looked there. So we turned around to come back, and I said, okay, we got a problem. I said, here comes Dale Warner.

Howdy.

What's going on, my guy?

How are you, sir?

You know you're trespassing, you know that, right? Yeah, you know, I just realized that when—

No, you didn't just realize that.

You fucking know that. Well, I got Mr. Hardy here with you.

Okay.

And he's fucking trespassing too. What would you do, Greg, if I was down at your place and you didn't have permission? You could still fucking call me and ask.

Sorry.

No, you're not sorry. Oh, fucking asshole.

Well, it was truly showing your true colors. I think he became more and more suspicious that I was on to him.

The family had really started to latch onto Dale because of his behavior and because of his blasé demeanor, not participating in the searches.

That's your guy.

Tell me about the billboard. Help Dale find Dee.

Yeah, so Greg We bought the billboard to get Dale's attention of, like, are you going to help us find your wife or no?

We would like this billboard to trigger Dale, to get some emotion out of him, because somebody knows something.

My reaction is, I laughed. I thought it was very hysterical because obviously he hasn't lifted one finger to help find her.

It was a psychological play. We were hoping that by having this kind of impact on Dale Warner, that at some point perhaps the authorities would literally give him a hard interview and maybe he would actually talk.

You couldn't make a turn without seeing some kind of yard sign.

At every turn in Tipton, Michigan, you'll spot signs like these demanding justice for Dee.

Remember, this has been going on months, right? And we were getting nothing. I mean, absolutely nothing.

Sheriff Troy Bouvier says detectives have kept an open mind but have told Dee's husband that he is a prime suspect. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you. person of interest in the case.

I won't say he's been extremely active in, in the search, um, but he's been cooperative.

I was very frustrated along with everyone else because I did not feel like he was a suspect at all.

Justice for Eve!

So the family caused this uproar of saying we need the state to take over this investigation.

I'm not afraid to tell the sheriff I'm not afraid to call out people who are not being accountable. And so that's what I did.

Jail for Bill! Jail for Bill! Jail for Bill!

Aw.

This is my favorite picture of us. Oh my gosh, she was always the life of the party. We were at a Jason Aldean concert in that picture. We went to a lot of concerts. This was the Keith Urban concert in the suites. That really shows her personality. We had a special moment where Blue Ain't Your Color came And there's a portion in that song, something about, that guy isn't right for you.

I'm telling you, you don't need that guy. It's so black and white, he's stealing your thunder.

I screamed it at her, and I'm like sobbing because You know, he's not right for you. He's not treating you good. And she kind of looked at me and smiled. And I don't know, I just always remember that moment. And I just wish that, you know—

What happened to Dee Warner?

The mother of 5 from Tecumseh has been missing more than a year now.

Tim for Kim! Tim for Kim!

It was tense, to say the least. For the sheriff's office, they were under immense pressure.

Justice for Kim! Justice for Kim!

In a statement to ABC News, the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office said, this investigation presented many challenges for an office of our size, and we recognize our resources were limited.

After months of the demands of wanting the case to be taken to the state police became louder and louder.

Lenawee County is no longer safe under the current leadership and threat to its citizens. I wouldn't wish what my family has gone through upon anyone, and we're going to do whatever it takes to bring justice to my aunt and prevent this from happening again.

We do care, and because we care—

Last week on the 26th, I made an official request to Michigan State Police to become the lead agency.

So you join this case, missing woman Dee Warner. What are your first steps when you start?

Uh, the first thing I do is essentially a basic review just to get an understanding of what's already been done.

At what point did you really turn your investigation more toward Dale?

Well, it's interesting because you don't investigate people as a detective. You investigate an incident. And what we found concerned us. is the only pieces of evidence that were pointing towards a person were all indicating that Dale was involved in somehow. If we're gonna be charging Dale with her murder, it was gonna be strongly based off of circumstantial evidence, and I absolutely knew I needed him to come in and talk to me one more time. Uh, Dale Warner was seated in this corner where the blue chair is. His attorney at the time, Larry Lieb, was here in this red chair, and myself and my partner were situated in chairs roughly in this area. Why wouldn't you do something to Dee?

My wife.

I mean, that's—

I married her.

She's my soulmate. I love her. Okay.

The state police Really wanted to dig in on all of his stories. What made sense? What didn't make sense?

Going into the interview, there are things he did on his phone at the time of her disappearance that he had never been directly confronted on these things. But depending on his answer would lend credibility to the fact that he was involved in Dee's disappearance. By his own statement, prior to 10:30, as far as he knows, it's a normal Sunday and Dee's sleeping on the couch.

Dale says once he was told that Dee was nowhere to be found, he used his phone to access the farm's surveillance system.

Okay, so when you tried to access the cameras, what were you doing?

I was looking to see who was in the office, if Dee was on the cameras.

Okay.

So you're just looking for Dee? That's all you're trying to get to?

Yeah.

Okay. And, um, what about when you tried to locate your iPhone? For what purpose was that?

To see where she's at.

Same thing.

I think everybody was trying to find her iPhone.

Essentially, those items on his phone, he states that he was looking for his wife, that he's checking the cameras to see if he can find her, and he's trying to find her iPhone to see where she is. But unfortunately for him, he did all of those things before she's missing.

You did all of those things before she was missing? Before you even learned that she was missing?

Before she's missing?

Yes.

If I look at the camera system to see if anybody's in the office and if it works that time. So?

Was there anything unusual about where the cars were parked that morning on Sunday?

I mean, the, the Hummer was parked in front of the office, so that was, you know, unusual, especially if she wasn't In there.

Dee's Hummer was typically parked behind the house. But the morning she went missing, Dee's nephew said in its usual spot, he saw tracks from a JCB front-end loader.

The reason that was suspicious was that Dee had been sleeping right inside that back door.

So the working theory was Dale moved the Hummer so he could park the front-end loader there. And he had to park the front-end loader there because that was the easiest way to get the body out of the house. The JCB tracks were out where the Hummer was parked. Was that news to you?

News to me.

State Police did an experiment where they got a search warrant. They used the JCB. They drove it up to the porch just like Dale had done on Sunday morning. And sure enough, they were able to lay the bucket right down in between the 2 columns behind that back door.

There's actually no doubt that you did something with her that morning. Actually, no doubt.

She's not dead.

She's not dead.

She's sitting back somewhere watching us and laughing at me.

That's not the truth, Dale. You're being dishonest.

I'm not being dishonest.

Dale, this is your opportunity to tell us what happened on Sunday. This is your time to set the record straight.

I've told you. I guess Larry's We're done, I guess. I don't know what else to say.

It must be.

I mean, there's nothing else to say, guys. She's not dead. You're looking at the wrong place and you're looking at the wrong guy.

Okay. If he's done, he's done.

There was no body. There was no physical evidence that connected that he did it.

I said good Christmas.

Thank you.

You too.

Oh gosh. We're having trouble finding her body, and you know, you wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning and you think, oh, did she go here? Did he, did he put her here?

The search for a missing Lenawee County woman intensified today. Michigan State investigators actively digging at a site as we speak.

We had to find her, find Dee.

Tell us how difficult it is to have this vast of an area as a crime scene.

We had no physical evidence, so you're left pondering what's possible, and you go with what's the most likely, which are areas of control. And those are the areas that they, they own and the areas that they lease for farming, which is still thousands of acres. So it's a, it's a literal needle in a haystack. Within a couple weeks of Dee's disappearance, Dale conducted an internet query on his iPad And the video that he clicked on was how to bury a large 1,000-gallon propane tank, which became in part why we were working off of the theory that she was buried based off all the land that they had.

And then when the state police took over, it got a whole new life. You saw the state police doing more searches. I mean, we would literally some days watch them dig and bring in big pieces of equipment. We've been up here for most of the morning, and I want to give you a live look at what's happening. Dee Warner Disappearing in 2021. This is the property of Dee and Dale Warner.

So we conducted a multi-day search with between 100 and 150 personnel, depending on the day, to make sure that we searched in different levels. If she was there, we wanted to find her.

They've been pretty tight-lipped today about exactly why they are digging and what brought them here, even to Dee's family.

I think that there's something that they've really been tipped off of here. I don't know what it is.

We've been searching and searching and searching. I mean, I'd hired drones. We've been on foot, the state police. I mean, it goes on and on and on. And it became very apparent we weren't finding her buried.

Nothing. We found absolutely nothing.

In 2023, I did meet with detectives, and they walked me through this case. And at that point in time, I was convinced that Dale murdered his wife.

How did you react when they said, yeah, we have enough here?

We would have just felt like, you know, here's another— the next step. You know, we were a long way from the end, but this is such a good Step forward.

Hey, Dale, you're under arrest for the murder of Dee Warner for standing behind his back.

Are you kidding me?

Interlace your fingers. Are you going to pray?

Yeah.

I got the call from my news director, and it was almost like, you're not going to believe it, they arrested him. We just received the news from MSP today that an arrest has finally been made.

Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it. I, I wanted to be there when I— when they put the handcuffs on him because I knew they were down the road, but they wouldn't let us.

It was like that 900-pound elephant was off of your shoulders for a second.

But Michigan State Police believe they've cracked this case, but it is Far from over. Dale Warner officially charged with his wife's murder and tampering with evidence, pleading not guilty today.

In any kind of an arrest, a murder arrest in Michigan, there's a preliminary hearing.

A preliminary examination in Michigan is essentially a mini trial just to see if there is enough probable cause to see that A, a crime was committed, and B, that the defendant is the one that may have committed it. So we do hear evidence. The hearing will determine if Dale Warner will stand trial for the death of Dee Warner.

Marie Chartier, defense lawyer. She's one of the best.

At the preliminary examination, the detective admitted they had no evidence at the point that she had even been murdered, let alone that Mr. Warner was purportedly the person who did it.

A nobody homicide arrest and trial is Very uncommon.

Without a body, this case was extremely hard. We, we've got one shot, and if her body's found at another date and time and a jury has found him not guilty, we can't come back and redo this.

There was no body, so they couldn't even say that she was dead.

Were you thinking, they're really going to be able to charge him, they'll really be able to get a conviction?

We have all this circumstantial evidence, but You know, you can argue that either way. It was— yeah, we, we had no idea. We were so scared.

Breaking news in the case of Dale Warner. Today, a judge ruling the Lenawee County man will stand trial for the murder of his wife Dee.

This is a break that the family was waiting for. It is a relief to see it happen, but she's still gone. And they still hadn't found her. Investigators, for a long portion of Dee's disappearance, believed she was somewhere underground.

Is there a possibility that this body is above ground?

They were doing a search that day. I got a text. The detective wants to have an emergency meeting tonight.

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Part of the darker side of policing from a personal point, especially when you're working on violent crime, is you're at home with your wife and your kids, or you're doing family stuff, but you're always thinking about whatever you're working on. You have an idea, you jot it down, or you remember you have to do something. And so I lived this case for years.

The investigation focused underground for the majority of the time. But I believe investigators then, they started thinking that maybe they should take a look above ground.

I had kind of up and down relationship with Greg Hardy. But at this point, we were on pretty good terms. So I could call him and get information. And when we were on good terms, he was very helpful. I asked him about the tanks.

He calls and he said, listen, Greg, he said, where does Dale Warner keep those anhydrous tanks? And I said, well, there's some at the home farm and there's some on the Paragon Farm.

So investigators got a search warrant to take a look at what fertilizer tanks on Dale's property had maybe been tampered with, something that didn't come with the original tank.

These tanks, they're approximately 30 feet long. They weigh thousands of pounds. They're very large. When I get to the Paragon Road barn on that particular day, there's, I think, right around 13 or 14 tanks stored kind of in conjunction with each other. There's an open part of the barn and some stored outside, all kind of parked near each other.

It was Greg, Dee's older brother, that had remembered Dale painting one of the fertilizer tanks on his property.

I said, all I can tell you is the tank that I saw, he was working on to, to restore it. So if you were looking for that tank, it would have fresh paint or new paint. It would have a non-factory weld on it.

And so what did you find here?

There were tanks kind of scattered throughout everywhere. And it wasn't until close to the end of my time at this property that I opened that barn door and I saw that one tank alone. This particular tank was painted fresh. It very clearly had a non-factory weld, was painted after this weld, and then had new stickers applied to it and a tag that says, do not use, which all those things together were suspicious to me.

Then he calls back. He said, how can we find out if there's something in the tank? I said, well, it's ammonia, it's a gas. You'd have to be careful because it's toxic.

Because the gas is so toxic, they're designed to not have any openings, and so you can't see what's inside of them. So we had to come up with a way of, if we find a tank that's of interest, how are we going to search it?

I said, you know, Dan, that there's an X-ray machine at the Canadian border. If you could get those guys To do that, they radiograph trucks there, so they could easily radiograph this tank.

We didn't know exactly what had led investigators to that tank, but we knew it was different than the searches we've seen before. We're all wondering, why that one? What did they learn? And what's inside?

They loaded it on A flatbed trailer by a wrecker service took it to Detroit.

When I am putting this tank on a tow truck to drive it an hour to go get it x-rayed, I am zero confident that this is going to amount to anything that's beneficial to the case. But that's the job, that you, you look, right? And when I show up, a bunch of other people come in this room, and the x-ray flashes it on the screen, and the guy sitting in the chair says, there she is. I can truly tell you that next to the birth of my children was one of the most profound moments I've had.

Hello, this is a prepaid call from Dale.

So information is really powerful in police investigations, and especially when someone's incarcerated. Listening and monitoring their jail phone calls can be really important. So after having the tank x-rayed, I called Dale's son, Jaren, and informed him of the search that we had conducted.

They had to take anhydrous tank number 34 is what their search warrant said. Tank number 34? Yep. So they took that tank and now they're getting it x-rayed or something. I'm like, what the fuck? What a waste of time.

Okay.

Yeah, you know, it's not good.

Why would you care if I'm cutting one of your old tanks open unless you knew what was inside of it?

After years of searching underground, of searching the properties, she was inside that tank the entire time.

Dee was found in pajamas in the tank. She was barefoot, wrapped inside of a tarp. The tank was essentially airtight, and no insects or animals could get in it, so all the things that would typically degrade a body were not able to get inside. It was much more well-preserved than what I would anticipate.

I got a text, the detective wants to have What did you think? Immediately, I, I knew something wasn't right. I mean, I knew, like, my, my stomach was just in knots. And we met up, we all met up, my siblings and everything, and he showed us the pictures of my mom in the tank.

You're seeing pictures of your mom deceased. How do you feel?

It was such a mix of emotions. It was the relief that we felt because we knew that our mom didn't run away. But then to think about the reality of what happened to her was really hard.

Knowing this whole time that while I was working, she's like in a tank behind me in a barn is disgusting.

Well, you're first— you're overcome with emotion and sad and grief, and then, then there's another relief, like, this is going to be so much better to prove that he did it.

Well, this morning, a case that has gripped Southeast Michigan for years.

Inside the courtroom It was high stakes. It was high tension.

And it was high tech. Surveillance cameras captured the chilling moments at Life on the Farm with Dale Warner.

This case ranks at the top. of all of the lists imaginable. The hardest case, the oddest case.

The most difficult case, the most stressful case, the most interesting case that I've had, easily.

We charged it in November of 2023. We didn't get to trial until February of 2026.

The trial begins in Adrian, Michigan, in a small courtroom packed shoulder to shoulder.

Opening statements begin today in the murder trial This is Dee Warner.

April 24th, 2021, she went home to tell her husband, the defendant, that the marriage was over. She was never seen or heard from again. We anticipated a trial with dozens of witnesses, and the witnesses might know a part of the beginning, a part of the middle, and part of the end.

The prosecution's theory is that there is an argument, there's a fight, there's a blowup between the two of them. There's a physical altercation, and Dee loses her life that night.

This marriage had no intimacy, only secrecy.

The medical examiner ruled that it was a homicide by blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation.

When they read us the autopsy information, That was brutal.

Prosecutors did a really good job of painting a timeline of what may have happened.

I think he kills her. He goes out, gets the JCB, brings it up to the house, puts her body in the bucket, takes her back into the spray barn.

Prosecutors point to a safe in the spray barn. That's where they believe Dee's body was stored after the murder.

How could he have hid her body while he's doing all these things and all these people are moving around the farm? And the obvious answer from the people's side is he put her in that safe.

I'm going to show you People's Exhibit 254. What is this?

That's me laying inside of the safe.

Deed Warner's body would have fit in the safe that was in the spray barn.

Then, according to prosecutors, Dale moved Deed's body out of the safe and into the tank.

I want you to understand where the cameras are and what they show. The surveillance video is absolutely key, especially in retrospect.

There's powerful testimony from a welder about everything you would need to properly open up something like a tank and then close it and weld it shut.

We're talking about MIG welding or wire welding.

He would have used this type of welder, a MIG welder. Well, here he is getting that exact welder that he had on the property.

Typically You would use an angle grinder with an abrasive wheel.

Here he is on video getting an angle grinder on Sunday afternoon.

A welding mask and then probably heavy-duty welding gloves.

There's Dale getting welding mask and gloves.

The welding expert mentioned that you would get almost a sunburn if you weld without long sleeves.

If you did this without something on your arms, what would you expect You could expect to see essentially some burn marks. This is from the body camera on Monday the 26th, and there's Dale's arm.

And that becomes pretty pivotal because the prosecution is arguing that that's a burn from the welding.

This is the spray barn here. As you can see in the back left corner here, that is Tank 34. When we get a little bit too close for his liking, he's going to start spraying us right out of the barn. That was tough to see and know that we were right there and we, we might have been able to save that family from a lot more anguish.

I'd like to walk through some of the reasonable doubts this afternoon.

The defense had to completely redo their defense strategy from, we don't know where she is, to, we don't know exactly who did it.

The government's speculative theory is that Mr. Warner killed Ms. Warner in the house while not leaving a single trace of physical evidence. There was no direct evidence that Mr. Warner harmed Ms. Warner.

They were trying to make the argument there'd be every reason for him to have a piece of farm equipment. This is a guy with an active farm, and he has a wife that has disappeared before. And he is going on with his life.

The fact that he grabbed a welder— no, I don't equate to him cutting open the tank, putting his wife inside, putting it back on again, welding it shut, painting it.

The defense kept repeating that this was all circumstantial.

There's no evidence that Ms. Warner was in the safe. No blood, no hair, no DNA, absolutely nothing.

Yes, she was murdered. Yes, she was found in a tank. And their story was that Dale did not do any of that.

Your Honor, the defense would call Gregory Hardy.

They were asking hard questions. How do you have access to the property? What do you know about tanks?

You said you wanted them to look for a specific tank, correct?

Yes.

Thank you. And then once the tank was found, you told the police that you know how to cut an anhydrous tank open, right?

Yes.

It seemed to me like it It was more in our favor than the defense, and we were able to show all the things that he did to try to find Dee.

I called anybody that I could think of.

Greg was emotional during his testimony.

Do you have an idea of how many people you called in this effort?

I'm sure over 100.

It was really powerful testimony about a brother who's just done everything he possibly could to find his sister.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. We are ready to proceed with closing arguments at this point.

The prosecutor does not need to have a motive to prove that the defendant had reason to commit the crime. But he was not getting another divorce.

I've been through one divorce. I sure as hell don't want to go through another one, no matter what. It's not worth it.

If Dee divorced Dale and the children was actually hers, he was left with a failing farming business. I think he was very much motivated by the money, what he was gonna lose.

You're not here to determine if a tragedy occurred, because it did. What you are here to determine is if the government has proven its case against Mr. Warner beyond a reasonable doubt, and it didn't.

We want you to return a verdict of guilty of murder and tampering with evidence.

You have these 12 people that are really determining his fate.

Was it convincing enough?

You may think you have the best case in the world, but you, at the end of the day, don't know what the jury's going to do.

It was almost like every emotion, you feel it all at once.

You're almost in disbelief.

The last 5 years has been the hardest years by far of my life.

In a case where a woman is murdered or goes missing, everyone thinks the husband did it. We were trying to get across to the jury the lack of any direct evidence that Mr. Warner murdered Ms. Warner.

Breaking news out of Lenawee County, Michigan, in the murder trial of Dale Warner.

The jury has reached a verdict.

Members of the jury, you do say upon your oaths that you find the defendant, Dale Warner, as to count 1, guilty of second-degree murder. As to count 2, guilty of tampering with evidence.

It's not like it's just a light switch. When you've done this for 5 years, 365 days a year, damn near 24 hours a day, it doesn't just hit you in that moment when the verdict guilty comes out.

You want to cry, you want to laugh, you want to smile, you want to yell. The kids finally have some closure. We finally have answers for them.

It didn't feel real. I mean, it was really hard to Really process that this is actually done and we can move forward.

You've since gotten engaged.

Yes.

My mom highly encouraged us to get married a long time ago. He had it made so that my mom's birthstone is, um, a part of the ring.

Good morning. Today's the day.

Yeah, it is sentencing day. I took a quick look at my impact statement. and tried to, you know, muster the, uh, the personal fortitude to deliver it today.

This is what we've been waiting for. Now is our turn to give our peace of mind.

Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Raquel, and I am the mother of 3 of Dee's beautiful grandchildren. My mom was blessed to meet 2 of them, but my youngest will only know her through the stories we share. Her death created a pain and burden that none of us will ever fully recover from.

I only hope that the only way Dale Warner is able to leave prison is in a small dark box.

May God absolutely have no mercy on him whatsoever.

Dale, you not only destroyed all of our lives but also the lives of your children and families. Dee knew we would fight to the end, and we won.

won.

And now I'm going to remove my bracelet that I've worn since Dee was missing because we got justice.

Thank you.

A Lenawee County judge handed down a sentence of up to 70 years in prison.

Right now I feel so much relief that everything's over. That was kind of the final, final day of this nightmare we've been living. And I'm so glad.

How's your little sister?

She's doing pretty well. I mean, she's now 14, and she's a strong kid. She lives with Dale's son in my mom's house, and then she also goes to my dad's house my older sister's house, and then I can see her whenever.

What do you tell her about your mom?

It's always a, oh, Mom used to do this, or, you know, Mom loved this kind of food. We just bring up anything that kind of comes to mind just to refresh her memory of my mom.

I've always grieved from the very beginning. I grieved on the first day that I knew she was gone. Your life is never the same.

She was a great supporter of love and family. I wonder if it ever goes away, like they're really gone. It doesn't seem possible. Dee's gone.

What do you miss most about her?

There's so much. Her supportiveness. And her love. What happened to her does not define who she is. She was a strong, strong woman, and the people that knew her the most knew that they could rely on her for whatever it was, and that is the truth. She was a good person.

Dee Warner's daughter Raquel David has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. She's asking for $100 million against their mother's killer, Dee's husband Dale.

He declined to speak to us here at 20/20, but his attorney tells us tonight that he plans to appeal his conviction. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching.

I'm David Muir.

And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 20/20 and ABC News, good night.

Good night.

Did you know that if your spouse goes missing and you don't tell anyone, that's not necessarily a crime? That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand new season of Bear Brook, the critically acclaimed true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm your host, Jason Miller. In this season, Bear Brook investigates another New Hampshire mystery. A Christmas tree farmer with dementia vanishes. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be found? Don't miss it. Follow Bear Brook wherever you get your podcasts.