A Michigan man has been convicted of murdering his wife, whose body was found in a rural farm tank in 2024, three years after she disappeared.
The trial presented evidence of a troubled marriage between Dee and Dale Warner, though defense attorneys highlighted the absence of physical evidence connecting him to her death.
The high-profile disappearance had previously been featured on true-crime podcasts and television. Public interest was high, with "Justice For Dee" signs appearing across Lenawee County, 70 miles southwest of Detroit.
Dale Warner was found guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Dee Warner, a mother of five, who ran a trucking company and a farming business, was 52 years old when she was last seen on the morning of April 25, 2021, on a road in Franklin Township, south of Detroit.
Dale Warner was charged with murder more than two years later, although investigators still had not found a body. In 2024, her remains were discovered inside a fertilizer tank. A handwritten tag on the side of the tank said, “out of service” and “do not fill.”
An autopsy showed Dee Warner was strangled and had suffered blunt force trauma.
Prosecutor Jackie Wyse told jurors that Dale Warner could have called 911 and said, “I screwed up," when he realized what had happened, but instead taped Dee Warner's mouth and nose so she could not breathe.
“Those were all conscious decisions,” Wyse said.
Defense attorney Mary Chartier said there was plenty of reasonable doubt, noting that Dale Warner had regularly talked to investigators during the search and denied hurting his wife. He worked in agriculture and trucking.
“You are not here to judge Mr. Warner as a husband,” Chartier told the jury. ”You may think he was a bad husband, a not-very-attentive husband, whatever you may think of him."
