Michigan man Dale Warner found guilty of second-degree murder in death of wife Dee Warner | Forensic Files

Where's Mom? >> I called her phone and it went straight to voicemail. >> I've never seen my mom not answer her
phone. >> Where are you? What are you doing? No response. >> Something's not right.
>> Something wasn't right. >> My name is Zach Fack. >> I am Raquel. >> My mom was Dee Warner.
>> Dee was my mom. >> Raquel called me. She was at Mom's house and she couldn't find her.
Her cars were there. She wasn't there. >> There's no chance that she would not drive the Escalade to wherever the hell
she was going. Not my sister. >> My mom was a very bubbly, outgoing person. >> She made you laugh. There wasn't a day
that I was in the office where we weren't laughing. >> She's a very, very good businesswoman.
She's very smart. She could be very tough. You didn't want to be on her bad side.
>> She was good sister-in-law. >> She spoke the truth. >> You knew where you stood with her.
>> She was always done up. Her nails were done. Her hair was done. Her eyelashes
were done. Always ready to go and beautiful. >> We report her missing at night, Sunday
night. >> Well, are you Dale? That's what I hear your wife is missing. >> Well, I don't know if she's missing or
if she just left. >> That was not unusual for your mom to pack her bags and disappear for a day,
right? >> Right. >> This isn't the first time she's done this, guys. >> Why is this so different?
>> Because nobody knew where she was at. >> I don't know. I think I'm >> And so another day goes by. As far as
I'm concerned, I'm not you know, alarmed yet. >> I began searching and searching.
>> We were running around. >> Looking at all the credit cards to see if there was a charge on it.
>> Dee Warner hasn't been seen since late April. >> She's just a mess that day, a complete
mess. Hyperventilating and throwing up and crying. >> The FBI searched Warner's Franklin
Township property. >> They've looked everywhere. >> 5 6 700 acres. We all went on foot.
>> The first year was a struggle. >> Authorities say they are constantly following up on tips.
>> It's been more than 2 years since Dee Warner's disappearance. >> There's not a day since she left that I
don't wonder what happened to her. >> When you're driving through here, are you still wondering where Dee is?
>> Yeah, you know, it sort of haunts you. >> She was reported missing more than 3
years ago. >> She never would have left like this, never. >> Never. >> Never. >> When do you miss your mother the most?
>> When life gets hard. >> Do you think Dee Warner was murdered? >> Yes. Wholeheartedly.
>> Absolutely. >> We have been struggling because everybody said you don't have a body,
you don't have a body. >> I know a no body homicide is very hard. >> Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you
won't. But don't sit around waiting for Santa Claus to come. You got to solve this case.
>> I remember riding my bike around there, riding the four-wheelers around there,
just being a kid. That was where I I grew up, so it's home. It'll always be home to me, but
it's home in a different way now. >> It was Sunday, April 25th, 2021, a spring morning in the farmland of
Lenawee County, Michigan. Rachael Bach drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly
breakfast with her mother, Dee Warner. >> Sundays, we would go up to my mom's first thing.
>> Rachael says that when her mom was not there and not answering calls or texts,
it just didn't feel right. >> If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to
a text message in 5 minutes, I was getting another one. Hello. >> One of Dee's cars, a Hummer, was parked
at the farm office just down the road. What about your mother's car that she drove all the time, the Cadillac?
>> It was parked in the garage. >> So, all your mother's cars are there? >> Yes.
>> And she's not responding to any kind of calls or texts? >> No. >> The fertilizer sprayer, usually parked
in a barn, was gone, and Rachael's stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it working. Was that normal?
>> Yeah, it was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day. >> Raquel went down the road to Dee's
brother Greg and his wife Shelley's house. >> She said, "We can't find her." And I'm like, "What do you mean you
can't find her?" They said, "Her car is here. We have called everybody. We don't
know where she's at." >> First thing I did was call her number. If she was somewhere, she would answer
my phone call. And then I texted her. >> And did you >> And nothing. >> Raquel and her aunt Shelley went driving
to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions. >> There were blankets laying on the couch
and tissues. Tissues everywhere. Everywhere there was these tissues. >> They looked upstairs in the bedroom and
bathroom for clues. >> Her makeup bag was gone, her curling iron and all of that stuff was gone.
>> Later they learned Dee's phone and passport were missing, too. >> The feeling that I had in my stomach was
nothing but fear. >> Zack Bock, another of Dee's four children from her first marriage, soon
came over to join the search. He went down to the farm office to look for any sign of his mom.
>> There's cameras here in the office. I'll look at the cameras. >> There was a security camera inside the
office and a few more outside. >> I never saw her walk to the office. I never a vehicle.
I didn't see her. >> And there was something else out of the ordinary. Their 9-year-old sister Lena,
Dee and Dale's only child together, had stayed at her cousin's house the night before and Dee hadn't yet called or come
to get her. >> Lena went everywhere with my mom. They were very, very close. >> And would she ever leave Lena behind
with Dale? >> Never. >> I called my siblings, we met up at my house, and we called the sheriff's
department. >> By now, it was late in the day on Sunday, and the Lenawee County Sheriff's
Office sent a deputy to talk to Dale. The conversation was recorded on a body camera.
>> I am Deputy of Lenawee County Sheriff's Office. How are you, sir? >> This and other body cam footage has been
adjusted at times for clarity. >> She was sleeping on the couch. >> Dale told police he had last seen Dee
that morning before he went out to work. >> And then this morning around 6:00 I got
up and you know, she was snoring away. I text her, she didn't answer, so I figured,
well, she's still sleeping. >> Dale seemed to believe his wife was alive and well, and that she left
intentionally. >> Well, her hair curler's gone. Her hair dryer's gone. Her makeup bag's
gone. I went in to see all that stuff gone and I was real concerned. >> He said she might be using another
phone. >> I told the other kids she's got a second phone. >> Do you have her phone number?
>> No, it's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know she has it. >> Dale also told police that Dee had been
upset and suffering from a migraine the night before after an argument with two of her employees.
>> I think well, last night she was really upset. She was talking bad things as far as employees. One
employee decided to quit. We got three different businesses here, so the tensions are high all the time.
>> Dale and Dee ran three main businesses from their farm. Zach was their bookkeeper.
>> My mom ran essentially the office for all three businesses. >> There was a trucking business with about
15 employees that D managed. >> She always referred to it as her trucking business.
>> And there was the farm itself and a chemical company that sold fertilizer and seed.
>> Which was the most successful? Which did the best? >> 100% the trucking company.
>> Stephanie Vogel worked for Dale and Dee and describes Dee as a good business person, tough, generous, and
hardworking. But Raquel says that running that trucking business was not easy for Dee.
>> I know that she had a hard time getting respect from some of the farmers because
she was a woman and younger and pretty. >> Dale told police that conflict between
Dee and their employees was nothing new. >> She handled all the cases with employees. Well, she's pretty wired. You
know what I'm saying? She's pretty wired. >> I I don't know, but she's in your face and tell you how it
is. >> On Saturday, the day before she went missing, Dee had texted Stephanie asking
her how to block the driver who had quit from the company's Facebook page. >> I told her how to do it.
That was at 4:34 >> on Saturday afternoon, April 24th. >> Yep. And then at 4:44 I said, "Did you
tell Zach?" At 7:43 I said, "How are you?" And she never answered. >> That's the very last time you ever heard
from Dee Warner. >> Dee's sister-in-law, Shelly, wondered if the pressures had just become too much
for Dee. >> You're thinking at that point she might have taken her life? >> I did.
>> We were worried because of everyone's report of her emotional behavior. >> She had been upset and had an argument
on Friday and Saturday. >> The crescendo was building up. There might have been a breaking point.
>> Can you think of a day when no one knew where your mother was? A full day? >> No.
>> After hearing nothing from Dee Warner, some of those closest to her feared she
may have harmed herself. And they noticed that Dale, her husband, didn't seem very worried.
>> The sheriff will have her brought back home. >> Dale had told police that Dee, when
upset, had a history of spending the night elsewhere. >> I'm calling back. So, somebody picked
her up. >> And he said he thought she might come back eventually. >> I mean, I don't know what else to do
other than wait a day or so and see what she or Dee shows up. >> But the sheriff's office did not wait
for Dee to show up. They came out on Monday and Tuesday to conduct interviews and search the property.
On Thursday, 4 days after Dee disappeared, they searched the farm again. And Dale agreed to talk to them
at length at the kitchen table. >> The sheriff went out Saturday morning. >> Dale now told investigators that he and
Dee had had a fight on Saturday. He said she had accused him of talking about her
behind her back to the employees she had fought with, which Dale denied. >> And she hung up the phone and I had no
more contact with her the rest of the day. I tried calling her several times and
she wouldn't answer the phone. >> He said he didn't talk to Dee again until that evening at home when their
fight continued. >> She says she don't care about anybody, cares about me. Then what is the matter
if I'm even here? >> Dale and Dee have been partners in life and business since they started their
first company together in 2005, the year before they got married. Was this a love match?
Did you feel that way? >> No. She had a desire for success. >> Yes. >> I believe that's what her attraction
was. I really do. >> They weren't an obvious pair. Dee's family and friends say she loved
to have fun, dress up, go out, and dance. Dale, they say, just seemed to work a lot.
>> I don't know what she seen in him. I really don't. He doesn't like to do things with her.
I went on a cruise with her because he didn't want to go. >> Dale was fairly quiet, kind of distant from all
of us kids. >> When he did communicate, it was usually he kind of like to poke at
people where he knew would hurt the worst. >> Raquel says Dale helped feed Dee's
insecurities. >> I don't think she ever felt good enough. Like she felt like she had to prove
constantly everything in her life, her looks, her her money, her businesses, everything.
>> Dee's family later learned she had been having an affair. It didn't surprise them, they said, given the state of her
marriage. But police say her affair partner was out of town the weekend she went missing and could not have had
anything to do with the case. A week after her disappearance, Dee's brother Greg organized a search of the
land around her home. >> We all went on foot and we walked uh probably 5, 6 700 acres.
>> Wow. >> We we came up with zero. >> By now, Dee's family was growing suspicious of Dale.
On the day Dee went missing, Dale told each of them what happened, but they say they all heard slightly different
versions. >> She had a bad migraine headache. She was laying on the floor. He gave her
a massage. She went to sleep. He picked her up and put her on the couch about 12:30. He got up about 6:00, 6:30. He
left, but she was snoring on the couch. >> Zack says Dale told him he had had a fight with Dee.
>> He said that they had a really big fight the night before. >> But Raquel says Dale told her the fight
was no big deal. >> He said that they had a little fight the night before. And she was all mad and she won't answer
him now. >> And there was another odd detail in the story Dale told Dee's family and police
that Sunday. >> The only thing that's really strange, too, is this time she put her wedding
ring in her desk. Yeah, she's never done that before. >> Raquel, Zack, and Greg all say he showed
them that ring on Sunday, too. Seeming to offer it as proof that Dee had left intentionally
and maybe for good. But Greg says that ring is worth as much as $40,000, and leaving it behind didn't sound like
Dee. >> That's not my sister. Not only would she not give him the wedding ring back, she probably would
have thrown a Molotov cocktail in the house on her way out. >> As time passed, the family's suspicions
that Dale had harmed his wife only grew. About 6 weeks after Dee went missing, Greg says he confronted Dale about how
he thought the investigation was progressing. >> I asked him point blank, "Dale, what do
you think about your wife is still missing? She just disappeared into thin air?"
And he said to me, "Well, it it could be a little faster, but I think they're doing a good job."
And that's when I I told him, I said, "You know what? You're a liar." And uh And I told him, "I'll get you."
>> You told him that? >> Yeah. >> But believing Dale had something to do with Dee's disappearance was very
different from being able to prove it. The Michigan State Police and the FBI helped the county sheriff conduct a
large-scale search of their properties again in October. But there was still no sign of Dee alive
or dead. >> We had been struggling because everybody said you don't have a body. You don't
have a body. >> In February 2022, 10 months after Dee had gone missing, Shelly was watching an episode of 48
Hours featuring an investigator named Billy Little. >> You don't have a body. So what? You
don't get to get away with murder because you're good at disposing of bodies. >> So I thought, "Oh my gosh.
I I got to have Greg see this." So he watched it. And immediately when he said that, he said, "Get me that guy's
number." >> Every time you go by here, does it hurt a little bit? >> It It hurts a lot every time.
>> Greg Hardy was convinced Dale Warner was behind his sister's disappearance. Did
she love living here? >> She did. >> Although the sheriff's office had conducted at least seven searches
and interviewed Dale several times, Greg was growing impatient by what he saw as
a lack of progress. Authorities, says Greg, told him that without a body, it would be difficult to
charge Dale with murder. Which is why Greg called Billy Little. >> Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you
won't, but don't sit around and wait for Santa Claus to come. You got to solve this case.
>> Missouri-based attorney and investigator Billy Little made his first trip to Lenawee County in the spring of 2022.
>> My goal is always to just discover the truth, find out what happened. The nice thing about the truth is it
doesn't have a side. >> Billy Little got to work on his own investigation and learned from Dee's
family that the couple argued frequently, especially about money. >> This was not a happy marriage, a
marriage of endless love. >> Dee's adult children told him their mom had often talked about divorce, but that
she didn't want to split custody of their little sister Lena with Dale. Still, the day before Dee disappeared,
they say something had changed. >> Had you really seen your mother like that before?
>> Upset, yes. But this was just very different. She was like almost calm. >> Dee's kids say that she had finally had
enough and was going to tell Dale that night she wanted to sell the profitable trucking business and end her marriage.
>> This was Dee's life. Why did she want to sell the business? >> Because it had become too difficult
emotionally and personally for her. That's how bad the marriage had gotten. >> Greg told Billy Little that he thought
Dale was moving money between the businesses after Dee disappeared. Greg had already filed a civil suit to
protect Dee's interest and to get more information about what Dale was doing. >> Call it gut feeling if you'd like,
whatever you'd call it. >> In court documents, Dale says he did move money on the advice of
professionals. The more Billy Little learned, he says, the more he liked the family, became
convinced that Dee was no longer alive. >> The evidence that she's dead is the absence of evidence that she's alive. No
surveillance cameras, no electronic signature, her phone's not found, her bank accounts were never accessed, cash
wasn't taken from the house, even the ring. She didn't even take that. >> Greg and Billy Little tried to increase
the pressure on Dale. Friends had started a social media campaign called Justice for Dee, and
Greg paid for this billboard that he says he wrote sarcastically saying, "Help Dale find Dee." It went up at a
big intersection near Dale's farm, where Greg says drivers from the trucking company would be sure to see it every
day. >> Help Dale find Dee. Um it was part of almost psychological operations. >> But Little says he and Greg were mostly
focused on trying to find evidence to help build a murder case without a body. >> You got a lot of equipment. You've got a
lot of chemicals. There are a lot of ways to dispose of a body on a farm. >> And they continued to search
relentlessly for any trace of Dee. >> You can see there's a silo right over there. That's the location of where the
buildings were. >> This property, about 3 miles from Dale and Dee's home, is one of the places
that stood out to Greg. Six months after Dee disappeared, there was a fire where
the old farmhouse used to be, and Greg says the neighbors told him they thought Dale, who owned the property with Dee,
had set that fire. The fire was determined to be a controlled burn, which are common in the area.
Police searched this site in October 2021, just a few days after that fire. It's
not known what, if anything, they learned. Greg and Billy Little came here themselves the next year.
>> We use a drone to fly not only this site, but every site we could find around here. We flew a couple thousand
acres of drone footage. >> They found nothing conclusive, but that old farm was just one site they thought
was suspicious. >> There's basically three or four major sites that bother me. >> There was a field near Raquel's house
that Dale had farmed. >> Which one? Where is it? >> It's right around the corner here.
>> And another field two towns over that Dale had access to. And many more places Greg wanted police
to check further. >> And isn't the really hard part about this, Greg, is there's just so many
places? >> There are so many places. >> In August 2022, the Michigan State Police took over Dee's case.
Greg and Billy Little had pushed for this because they say the state police had more experience and resources than
the county sheriff. >> Okay. And what did you do after that? >> I laid down at the house and went to
sleep. >> After the state police took over the case, they interviewed Dale again and
pressed him on his story. Dale told them that the argument with that employee just before Dee disappeared was partly
about Dee taking money from the business. >> Dee said he called her outside and said,
"I know what you've been doing. You've been taking this money. I know you've been doing this.
And she's been having some kind of money problems." >> But police did not have evidence that
Dee had stolen money. In September, the family filed another suit to have Dee Warner declared legally dead. Greg says
he wanted to be able to file a wrongful death suit against Dale one day. The family waited for news on the
criminal case. And then, >> It was pretty crazy because we had a meeting with the prosecutor the same
day. And she gave me no indication. >> On November 21st, 2023, 2 and 1/2 years after Dee Warner went missing, the news
came that her husband Dale was under arrest. Stephanie was preparing for her mother's
funeral when she got the call. >> Raquel's boyfriend called me. And he said Dale was arrested for
murder. And I fell to my knees at the funeral home. I was just so happy. >> Dale Warner was charged with the murder
of his wife Dee. >> Mr. Warner does enter a plea not guilty. >> He pleaded not guilty.
And Dee's family braced themselves for a long legal battle ahead. >> However long it took,
we wouldn't stop fighting. >> You had to testify. Were you nervous? >> Yeah. I mean,
all you do is tell the truth. So, that's what I kept telling myself. >> On May 1st, 2024, just a little more
than 3 years after Dee Warner disappeared, her friends and family gathered here, at the Lenawee County
District Court, for the first day of Dale Warner's preliminary hearing. >> All rise, please.
>> It would be up to Judge Anna Frushour to decide if the case should move to trial.
>> I was worried because there is so little physical evidence. >> There is no body. There are no body parts.
>> Dee had been recently declared dead in civil court, but Dale Warner's defense
attorney, Mary Chartier, said, "This was a fact prosecutors would need to establish themselves in the criminal
case." >> Whether Ms. Warner is dead is something that the the government needs to prove.
>> Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth? >> But the state was determined to show
that while there was no body, there was also no evidence that Dee was still alive.
>> Since April 24th, 2021, have you seen Dee Warner? >> No. >> Have you heard from Dee Warner?
>> No. In the months leading up to Dee going missing, >> and prosecutor Jackie White worked to
show there was no evidence that Dee had taken off on her own. >> She's got a second phone.
>> She asked Stephanie vocal about that secret phone that Dale claimed his wife had.
>> Did she ever discuss getting a second phone with you? >> She did. She had asked me to look
into pricing and trying to find one for her. Yes. >> Okay, so up until April 25th, 2021, did you ever purchase that
phone? >> No. >> Could she have bought the phone on her own? >> Yeah, she could have bought it on her
own, but she would have had somebody else set it up. She was not tech-savvy. >> People would call Daniel Dureyor.
>> Michigan State Police Detective Daniel Dureyor is the lead investigator on this
case. >> Do you swear to you swear to tell the truth? >> He testified about the exhaustive
searches law enforcement did to find any trace of activity from D over the 3 years she had been missing.
>> We did search warrants for health care records, phone records. We searched numerous vehicles. We got records for
social media. We did several land searches. >> All their searches came up empty, but
D's daughter Raquel had noticed something curious at the Warner home. On the sand, she said that on the day
her mother disappeared, she saw tire tracks by the back of the house. >> There were two tracks that led up to the
sliding glass door. >> There were no security cameras pointed at this part of the property, but the
prosecution suggested that the tracks Raquel saw were left by Dale using the farm's JCB front-end loader to remove
D's body from their home. >> When parking the front-end loader, the JCB in the spot, the bucket attached to
it fits between those two pillars and you can set it on the deck up against the back door.
>> Remember, Dale said his wife was asleep in the living room when he left that morning, close to those sliding doors.
>> In his 2022 interview with police, Dale had an explanation for those tracks. He
said he thought he used the loader to go back to the house and get his worksheet
for the sprayer at around 6:30 a.m. >> No evidence that Ms. Warner is dead and no evidence that she was murdered was
found, correct? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The defense emphasized there was no evidence Dale Warner had anything to do
with Dee's disappearance. And in fact, his statements about what he was doing that morning were supported
by security videos around the farm. The videos played in court show Dale at 7:00
a.m. using that front end loader. At 7:45 a.m. police say he texts Dee, "Going to be spraying. Call you later."
He is seen 3 minutes later driving a sprayer onto the road and returning at 8:13 a.m.
>> So, you have the sprayer records for the John Deere and then did you actually
even do a sprayer reenactment? >> We did, yes, ma'am. >> Consistent with what Mr. Warner said,
right? >> Consistent with the time that occurred on that morning, yes. >> The defense also argued that Dale had
not acted like a guilty man. >> Are you Dale? >> He allowed police to search his
properties and spoke to them many times after Dee disappeared. Only parts of a few of those interviews
were played in court, but his attorney said that Dale had repeatedly denied harming Dee.
>> Of all the phone calls interviews with Mr. Warner, he never once said I he harmed his wife, correct?
>> Correct. >> He was always adamant that he did not, correct? >> Yes. >> Over and over the defense underscored
the lack of physical evidence in the case. >> Do you have a murder weapon in this
case? >> No, ma'am. >> Big pool of blood, anything like that? >> No, we have no forensic evidence of that
nature, no, ma'am. >> They honed in on Mr. Warner from the beginning. >> In her final statement to the judge,
Mary Chartier argues that there is no basis for the charges. >> If he murdered his wife, where on earth
is Ms. Warner? >> Since 4:25 2021, nobody has heard from or seen Dee Warner. >> Prosecutor Jackie Weiss maintained that
the state's case was strong. >> All we're required to prove at this stage is probable cause to believe that
Dale Warner killed Dee Warner, and probable cause standard has been met. >> The decision was now with the judge, and
Dee's supporters were worried. Would Dale now face the murder charge at trial, or would he walk out as a free
man? >> The thought of him getting out was just scary. Do we have enough? >> All rise, please.
>> How nervous were you before the judge issues the ruling? >> So, I was horrible. It was so horrible.
I felt like I could just curl up in a ball, and Oh. >> On June 7th, 2024, Judge Anna Freschauer
returned to court with her decision. She first spoke about Dee. >> Dee Warner was a woman with a big heart
and a temper. She cared for her children and grandchildren and employees. There was nothing in the evidence that
suggested she would disappear intentionally, especially from her children. >> And there was nothing she heard, the
judge said, that made her feel differently. >> The statements by Dale Warner of a
secret phone >> She's got a secret phone. >> and someone coming to pick up Dee Warner
>> She's with someone, somewhere. >> were not supported by any facts or evidence in this case.
>> But there was enough evidence, she said, to believe that Dee Warner was dead, and
that her husband was likely the one behind it. >> There's probable cause that Dee Warner
died by homicide at the hands of the defendant, Dale Warner. >> All right. >> This is reality. They think that there's
enough evidence that he killed our mom to go to trial. >> Dale Warner has been ordered to stand
trial for the murder of his wife, but Billy little knows the real work is still ahead.
>> My fear for getting past the preliminary hearing is probably a one out of 10.
Um my fear of getting a conviction at trial is probably an eight out of 10. >> It's a high bar.
>> Yeah. >> Law enforcement was still searching for physical evidence, and in August 2024,
two months after that preliminary hearing concluded, that's exactly what they found.
>> Breaking news in the case of Dee Warner. >> Dee's family heard about it first.
>> I received a a message that said, "We need to have an emergency meeting with the detectives."
>> They met detectives at Greg and Gelly's farm. Police told them they had gone back to a property that Dale and Dee
owned and taken away a large metal tank that was used to store fertilizer. According to a search warrant, that tank
had a non-factory weld on the back and a sign on it that said, "Out of service. Do not fill."
When the tank was scanned, investigators finally found what they had been looking
for. >> It was my mom. Well, it was a body in a tank. >> It took just days, authorities say, to
confirm that the body inside that tank was Dee Warner. Her death was ruled a homicide.
And how did she die? >> Uh they're not sharing that with me. >> Authorities are not granting any
interviews about this case before the trial. But that warrant also says that security video from the day Dee was
reported missing showed Dale in one of the farm buildings searching for something near the welding equipment.
For 3 years, police have been looking for Dee's body underground. And now they had come to believe that she might have
been concealed above ground. >> The tank was in this agricultural storage building right behind me.
>> And was the cylinder right in here? >> Yeah, it was parked here. >> So, Dale would have access to all of
this. >> Greg says he has no doubt now that Dale killed Dee and hid her body. >> All these things point in one single
direction, clearly, without any question. >> And that's a Dale. >> That's correct.
>> Dale's defense attorney declined to speak to 48 Hours on camera, but she told us that Dale maintains his
innocence and said in this email they're prepared to vigorously fight for him in
court and present his defense. Isn't it likely that Dale's going to argue, well,
that was a cylinder sitting out in a barn. Anybody had access to that cylinder. Someone could have come into
his own barn and put your mom? >> Absolutely. I mean, he he can say anything. >> Raquel says finding her mom's body after
these three long years gave the family a sense of peace. >> I wanted to shout from the rooftops
to everybody that she didn't leave us willingly. >> Dee's family later dressed in a private
burial soon after her body was identified. Her daughter Lena, now 12, was with them.
>> The one thing that she knows for sure that was her mother there. That her mother didn't leave her.
It was real. >> It's like you get hit in the stomach every time. I miss her laughter and
her comfort. >> You miss her? >> Very much. I miss her every day. >> Raquel and Zach say they miss their
mother deeply and that her death has changed them in profound ways. >> I'm now 3 years sober
and shortly after she went missing I started my own real estate company. I stopped being scared of failing on
something cuz there was nothing left to lose. >> She's my mom's spirit. Very a hard working and driven and
determined. >> Your children will grow up hearing about D. >> Yeah. >> What will you tell them about your
mother? >> Oh. My mom enjoyed being a grandma so much. They will always remember how she would
have been there. My mom would have been there for everything. >> CBS next Saturday. A young girl found
dead in a swamp. >> Did this look like an accident or something else? >> Something entirely different.
>> A decades-old mystery with a surprising answer. >> Oh, no. >> Oh, no. >> I never would have guessed how this
ended. >> 48 Hours is all new. CBS next Saturday 10:00 9:00 Central and streaming on
Paramount Plus.

CASE UPDATE: On March 10, 2026, a jury found Dale Warner guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of his wife Dee Warner.

For three years, the Michigan mother and businesswoman, was missing and presumed dead. Her family was convinced she was murdered, but they knew that without a body or physical evidence, it would be difficult to prove. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports in “The ‘No Body’ Case of Dee Warner.” (This episode aired on Feb 1, 2025.)

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Dee Warner's disappearance leads to her husband's arrest for murder after her body is found in a tank on their property.

Key points

Dee Warner's Disappearance. Dee Warner goes missing, leaving her family and friends in turmoil.
Investigation Takes a Turn. Investigator Billy Little joins the case, emphasizing the need for action.
Family's Growing Suspicion. As time passes, Dee's family grows suspicious of her husband Dale.
Dale Warner Arrested. On November 21st, 2023, Dale Warner was arrested for the murder of his wife Dee.
Judge Rules for Trial. Judge Anna Freschauer ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial against Dale Warner.
Dee Warner's Body Found. In August 2024, authorities found Dee Warner's body in a metal tank, confirming her death as a homicide.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You got to solve this case.

Billy Little's advice on the investigation.

3:36WatchMar 11, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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