The "No Body" Case of Dee Warner

Summary

Summary of “48 Hours” Episode: The "No Body" Case of Dee Warner

Podcast Information:

• Title: 48 Hours
• Host/Author: CBS News
• Episode Title: The "No Body" Case of Dee Warner
• Release Date: February 3, 2025
• Description: This episode delves into the perplexing disappearance of Dee Warner, exploring the intricate investigation, family dynamics, and eventual breakthrough in a case that initially lacked physical evidence.

Introduction

In this gripping episode of 48 Hours, CBS News correspondent Aaron Moriarty unravels the mysterious disappearance of Dee Warner from Lenaway County, Michigan. Over three years, the case remained unsolved until a significant breakthrough led to the arrest of her husband, Dale Warner. This summary captures the key discussions, insights, and developments presented in the episode.

Background and Disappearance

On Sunday, April 25, 2021, Dee Warner vanished from her family farm under suspicious circumstances. Her daughter, Raquel Bock, recounts the events leading up to her disappearance:

“If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to a text message in five minutes, I was getting another one.”
— Raquel Bock [05:08]

Despite Dee’s usual reliability, she failed to answer calls or texts that Sunday morning. Raquel describes Dee as a “bubbly, outgoing person” who managed multiple businesses adeptly but struggled with gaining respect in her predominantly male trucking industry.

Initial Investigation

Immediately after Dee was reported missing, the Warner family launched a thorough search of the 700-acre property. The family, assisted by the FBI, scoured the area on foot:

“We all went on foot. The first year was a struggle.”
— Raquel Bock [02:23]

Despite extensive searches, no trace of Dee was found. The absence of her belongings, such as her makeup bag and passport, heightened suspicions.

Suspicion on Dale Warner

As days turned into months, family members began to suspect Dale Warner, Dee’s husband, due to inconsistencies in his statements and his apparent lack of concern. Raquel notes:

“She never would have left like this. Never, never, never.”
— Raquel Bock [03:50]

Greg Hardy, Dee’s brother, became increasingly doubtful of Dale’s explanations, especially after viewing a 48 Hours episode featuring investigator Billy Little. This led Greg to enlist Little’s help in uncovering the truth.

Involvement of Investigator Billy Little

Billy Little initiated his own investigation, focusing on Dale’s financial activities and potential motives. Little revealed:

“The evidence that she's dead is the absence of evidence that she's alive.”
— Raquel Bock [19:50]

Little and Greg intensified their efforts, utilizing drones to search expansive areas and scrutinizing Dale’s movements and business transactions. Their relentless pursuit aimed to build a case despite the lack of a body.

Legal Proceedings

After two and a half years, on November 21, 2023, Dale Warner was arrested and charged with Dee’s murder. During the preliminary hearing on May 1, 2024, the prosecution faced the challenge of establishing probable cause without physical evidence:

“There is no body. There are no body parts.”
— Raquel Bock [28:12]

Despite these hurdles, Judge Anna Freshauer ruled there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, citing Dale’s suspicious behavior and the absence of Dee’s presence.

Discovery of Dee Warner’s Body

In a pivotal moment, authorities located Dee Warner’s body concealed in a large metal fertilizer tank on the property. This discovery occurred after extensive re-examination of potential hiding sites:

“It was my mom. Well, it was a body in a tank.”
— Raquel Bock [38:16]

The body was confirmed through DNA testing, solidifying the case against Dale Warner as malicious intent was evident through the concealment method.

Aftermath and Impact

The identification of Dee Warner brought a sense of closure to her family, although the emotional scars remain deep. Raquel reflects on the impact:

“I miss her laughter and her comfort. You miss her very much. I miss her every day.”
— Raquel Bock [40:28]

Dale Warner’s trial is scheduled for September 2, 2025, where the family hopes justice will be served. Raquel emphasizes the importance of truth and the enduring strength of her mother’s legacy.

Conclusion

This episode of 48 Hours masterfully intertwines personal narratives with investigative journalism, highlighting the relentless quest for justice in the absence of initial evidence. The Warner family’s determination, coupled with expert investigation, ultimately unraveled the mystery surrounding Dee Warner’s disappearance, underscoring the profound human element in criminal justice cases.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Raquel Bock: “You gotta solve this case.” [04:16]
• Greg Hardy: “All these things point in one single direction, clearly without any question.” [39:26]
• Billy Little: “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.” [21:27]

Timestamps Referenced:

• [02:23] to [41:51] cover the main content of Dee Warner’s case, excluding advertisements and non-content segments.

Transcript

[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

Plus, Section 31 is just a place.

[Raquel Bock]

For people to bend the rules. Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder.

[Zach Bach]

What a cute idea.

[Raquel Bock]

This is chaos.

[Zach Bach]

Let's get messy.

[Raquel Bock]

Don't miss Star Trek. Section 31. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount Pl. 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 Bach. 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 a 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 reported her missing at night. Sunday night.

[Zach Bach]

Hello.

[Raquel Bock]

Are you Dale?

[Zach Bach]

Excellent.

[Raquel Bock]

I hear your wife is missing. Well, I don't know if she's missing or if she just left.

[Zach Bach]

That was not unusual for your mom to pack her bags and disappear for a day, right?

[Raquel Bock]

Right. This isn't the first time she's known this guy.

[Zach Bach]

Why is this so different?

[Raquel Bock]

Because nobody knew where she was at. I don't know. Until another day goes by, right? I'm concerned, but I'm not. No alarms 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 had an altercation with my employees, two of them. She was really sad. 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.

[Zach Bach]

It's been more than two years since Dee Warner's disappearance.

[Raquel Bock]

There's not a day since she left that I don't wonder what happened to her.

[Zach Bach]

When you're driving through here, are you still wondering where Dee is?

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah. You know. And sort of haunt you. She was reported missing more than three years ago. She never would have left like this. Never, never, never.

[Zach Bach]

When do you miss your mother the most?

[Raquel Bock]

When life gets hard.

[Zach Bach]

Do you think Dee Warner was murdered?

[Raquel Bock]

Yes. Wholeheartedly. Absolutely. We had 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 gotta solve this case. Aaron Moriarty reports the nobody case of Dee Warner. I remember riding my bike around there, riding the four wheelers around there, just being a kid. That was where I grew up. So it's home. It'll always be home to me, but it's home in a different way now.

[Zach Bach]

It was Sunday, April 25, 2021. A spring morning in the farmland of Lenaway County, Michigan. Raquel Bock drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly breakfast with her mother, Dee Warner.

[Raquel Bock]

Sundays we would go to my mom's first thing.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel says that when her mom was not there and not answering calls or texts, it just didn't feel right.

[Raquel Bock]

If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to a text message in five minutes, I was getting another one. Hello?

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

It was parked in the garage.

[Zach Bach]

So all your mother's cars are there?

[Raquel Bock]

Yes.

[Zach Bach]

And she's not responding to any kind of calls or texts?

[Raquel Bock]

No.

[Zach Bach]

The fertilizer sprayer, usually parked in a barn, was gone. And Raquel's stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it, working. Was that normal?

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah, it was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel went down the road to Dee's brother Greg and his wife Shelly's house.

[Raquel Bock]

She said, we can't find her. And I'm like, what do you mean you can't find her? They said, her car's 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 text.

[Zach Bach]

Her and did you.

[Raquel Bock]

And nothing.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel and her aunt Shelly went driving to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions.

[Raquel Bock]

There were blankets laying on the couch and tissues, tissues everywhere. Everywhere there was these tissues.

[Zach Bach]

They looked upstairs in the bedroom and bathroom for clues.

[Raquel Bock]

Her makeup bag was gone. Her curling iron and all of that stuff was gone.

[Zach Bach]

Later they learned Dee's phone and passport were missing too.

[Raquel Bock]

The feeling that I had in my stomach was nothing but fear.

[Zach Bach]

Zach Bach, 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.

[Raquel Bock]

There's cameras here in the office. I'll look at the cameras.

[Zach Bach]

There was a security camera inside the office and a few more outside.

[Raquel Bock]

I never saw her walk to the office. I never saw her drive a vehicle. I didn't see her.

[Zach Bach]

And there was something else out of the ordinary. Their nine 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.

[Raquel Bock]

Lena went everywhere with my mom. They were very, very close.

[Zach Bach]

And would she ever leave Lena behind with Dale?

[Raquel Bock]

Never. I called my siblings. We met up at my house and we called the sheriff's department.

[Zach Bach]

By now it was late in the day on Sunday and the Lenaway County Sheriff's office sent a deputy to talk to Dale. The conversation was recorded on a body camera.

[Raquel Bock]

Hi, I'm Kathy, all from Lane County Sheriff's Office. How are you, sir? Good.

[Zach Bach]

This and other body cam footage has been adjusted at times for clarity.

[Raquel Bock]

She was sleeping on the couch.

[Zach Bach]

Dale told police he had last seen Dee that morning before he went out to work.

[Raquel Bock]

And then this morning around 6:00, I got up and, you know, she was snoring away. I text her and she didn't answer. So I figured, well, she's still asleep.

[Zach Bach]

Dale seemed to believe his wife was alive and well and that she left intentionally.

[Raquel Bock]

Well, her hair curler's gone, her hair dryer's Gone. Her makeup bag's gone. I went and seen all that stuff gone. I was real concerned.

[Zach Bach]

He said she might be using another phone.

[Raquel Bock]

I told the other kids she's got a sack phone. Do you even have a phone number, Bill? It's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know she has it.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

I came home last night, she was really upset. She was talking bad things as far as employees. And one employee decided to quit. We got three different businesses here, so the tensions are high all the time.

[Zach Bach]

Dale and Dee ran three main businesses from their farm. Zach was their bookkeeper.

[Raquel Bock]

My mom ran essentially the office for all three businesses.

[Zach Bach]

There was a trucking business with about 15 employees that Dee managed.

[Raquel Bock]

She always referred to it as her trucking business.

[Zach Bach]

And there was the farm itself and a chemical company that sold fertilizer and seed, which was the most successful, which.

[Raquel Bock]

Did the best 100%. The trucking company.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

I know that she had a hard time getting respect from some of the farmers because she was a woman and younger and pretty.

[Zach Bach]

Dale told police that conflict between Dee and their employees was nothing new.

[Raquel Bock]

I mean, I had all occasions with quite a few people. She's pretty wired, you know. My wife, I don't know, but she's in your face and tell you how it is.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

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. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get.

[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

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[Raquel Bock]

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[Zach Bach]

Can you think of a day when no one knew where your mother was?

[Raquel Bock]

A full day, no.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

She'll cool off and she'll come back home.

[Zach Bach]

Dale had told police that Dee, when upset, had a history of spending the night elsewhere, took all her bags.

[Raquel Bock]

So somebody picked her up.

[Zach Bach]

And he said he thought she might come back eventually.

[Raquel Bock]

I mean, I don't know what else to do other than wait a day or so and see what she shows up.

[Zach Bach]

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, four days after Dee disappeared, they searched the farm again, and Dale agreed to talk to them at length at the kitchen table.

[Raquel Bock]

It started lamp on Saturday morning.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Did she hang up the phone? And I had no more contact with her rest of the day. I tried to call her several times.

[Zach Bach]

And she wouldn't answer her phone, he said. He didn't talk to Dee again until that evening at home, when their fight continued.

[Raquel Bock]

She says, you don't care about me. Nobody cares about me. What does it matter if I'm even here?

[Zach Bach]

Dale and Dee had 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?

[Raquel Bock]

No. She had a desire for success. I believe that's what her attraction was. I really do.

[Zach Bach]

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 seem to work a lot.

[Raquel Bock]

I don't know what she's 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 liked to poke at people where he knew would hurt the worst.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel says Dale helped feed Dee's insecurities.

[Raquel Bock]

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 money, her businesses, everything.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

We all went on foot, and we walked probably 5, 6, 700 acres. Wow. We came up zero.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

She'd 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 around 6, 6:30 he left, but she was snoring on the couch.

[Zach Bach]

Zach says Dale told him he had had a fight with Dee.

[Raquel Bock]

He said that they had a really big fight the night before.

[Zach Bach]

But Raquel says Dale told her the fight was no big deal.

[Raquel Bock]

He said that they had a little fight the night before, and she was all mad, and she won't answer him now.

[Zach Bach]

And there was another odd detail in the story Dale told Dee's family and police that Sunday.

[Raquel Bock]

The only thing that's really strange, too, is this time she put her wedding ring on my desk. Yeah, she's never done that before.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel, Zach, 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.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

As time passed, the family's suspicions that Dale had harmed his wife only grew. About six weeks after Dee went missing, Greg says he confronted Dale about how he thought the investigation was progressing.

[Raquel Bock]

I asked him point blank, dale, what do you think about this? Your wife's still missing. She just disappeared on thin air. And he said to me, well, it could be a little faster, but I think they're doing a good job. And that's when I told him. I said, you know what? You're a liar. And I told him, I'll get you.

[Zach Bach]

You told him that?

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

We had been struggling because everybody said, you don't have a body, you don't have a body.

[Zach Bach]

In February 2022, 10 months after Dee had gone missing, Shelly was watching an episode of 48 Hours featuring an investigator named Billy Little.

[Raquel Bock]

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. And so I thought, oh my gosh, I gotta have Greg see this. So he watched it, and immediately when he said that, he said, get me that guy's number.

[Zach Bach]

Every time you go by here, does it hurt a little bit?

[Raquel Bock]

It hurts a lot every time.

[Zach Bach]

Greg Hardy was convinced Dale Warner was behind his sister's disappearance. Did she love living here?

[Raquel Bock]

She did.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you won't. But don't sit around and wait for Santa Claus to come. You gotta solve this case.

[Zach Bach]

Missouri based attorney and investigator Billy Little made his first trip to Lenaway county in the spring of 2022.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

Billy Little got to work on his own investigation and learned from Dee's family that the couple argued frequently, especially about money.

[Raquel Bock]

This was not a happy marriage, a marriage of endless love.

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

Upset? Yes. But this was just very different. She was, like, almost calm.

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

Because it had become too difficult emotionally and personally for her. That's how bad the marriage had gotten.

[Zach Bach]

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 interests and to get more information about Will. What Dale was doing.

[Raquel Bock]

Call it gut feeling if you'd like. Whatever you'd call it.

[Zach Bach]

In court documents, Dale says he did move money on the advice of professionals. The more Billy Little learned, he says, the more he, like the family, became convinced that Dee was no longer alive.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Helped Dale find Dee. It was part of almost psychological operations.

[Zach Bach]

But Little says he and Greg were mostly focused on trying to find evidence to help build a murder case. Without a body, you've got a lot of equipment.

[Raquel Bock]

You've got a lot of chemicals. There are a lot of ways to dispose of a body on a farm.

[Zach Bach]

And they continued to search relentlessly for any trace of Dee.

[Raquel Bock]

You can see there's a silo right over there. That's the location of where the buildings were.

[Zach Bach]

This property, about three miles from 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.

[Raquel Bock]

We used 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.

[Zach Bach]

They found nothing conclusive, but that old farm was just one site they thought was suspicious.

[Raquel Bock]

There's basically three or four major sites that bother me.

[Zach Bach]

There was a field near Raquel's house that Dale had farmed. Which one? Where is it?

[Raquel Bock]

It's right around the corner here.

[Zach Bach]

And another field two towns over that Dale had access to and many more places Greg wanted police to check. And isn't the really hard part about this, Greg, is there's just so many places.

[Raquel Bock]

There are so many places.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Okay, and what do you do after that? I headed back to the house. Maybe they'll spring.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Said he called her out, said, I know what you mean doing. He's been taking this money and.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

And then it was pretty crazy because we had a meeting with the prosecutor the same day, and she gave me no indication.

[Zach Bach]

On November 21, 2023, two and a half 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 Bock]

Raquel's boyfriend called me and he said, dale was arrested for murder. And I fell to my knees at the funeral home, just so happy.

[Zach Bach]

Dale Warner was charged with the murder of his wife, Dee.

[Raquel Bock]

Mr. Warner does enter a plea of not guilty.

[Zach Bach]

He pleaded not guilty. And Dee's family braced themselves, themselves for a long legal battle ahead.

[Raquel Bock]

However long it took, we wouldn't stop fighting.

[Zach Bach]

You had to testify. Were you nervous?

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah. I mean, all you do is tell the truth. So that's what I kept telling myself.

[Zach Bach]

On May 1, 2024, just a little more than three years after Dee Warner disappeared, her friends and family gathered here at the Lenaway County District Court for the first day of Dale Warner's preliminary hearing.

[Raquel Bock]

All rise, please.

[Zach Bach]

It would be up to Judge Anna Freshauer to decide if the case should move to trial.

[Raquel Bock]

I was worried because there is so little physical evidence. There is no body. There are no body parts.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Whether Ms. Warner is dead is something that the government needs to prove. Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth?

[Zach Bach]

But the state was determined to show that while there was no body, there was also no evidence that Dee was still alive.

[Raquel Bock]

Since April 24, 2021, have you seen Dee Warner? No. Have you heard from Dee Warner? No. In. In the months leading up to Dee going missing.

[Zach Bach]

And prosecutor Jackie Wise worked to show there was no evidence that Dee had taken off on her own.

[Raquel Bock]

She's got a sacrophone.

[Zach Bach]

She asked Stephanie Voelkel about that secret phone that Dale claimed his wife had.

[Raquel Bock]

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 25, 2021, did you ever purchase that phone? No.

[Zach Bach]

Could she have bought the phone on her own?

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

Daniel Drewier, Michigan State Police. Detective Daniel Druyork is the lead investigator on this case.

[Raquel Bock]

You swear to tell the truth?

[Zach Bach]

He testified about the exhaustive searches law enforcement did to find any trace of activity from Dee over the three years she had been missing.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

All their searches came up empty. But Dee's daughter Raquel had noticed something curious at the Warner home. On the stand, she said that on the day her mother disappeared, she saw tire tracks by the back of the house.

[Raquel Bock]

There were two tracks that led up to the sliding glass door.

[Zach Bach]

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 Dee's body from their home.

[Raquel Bock]

When parking the front end loader, the JCB in this spot, the bucket attached to it fits between those two pillars. And you can set it on the deck up against the back door.

[Zach Bach]

Remember, Dale said his wife was asleep in the living room when he left that morning. Close to those sliding doors.

[Raquel Bock]

He was still sleeping.

[Zach Bach]

OK. 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 6:30am, I think I had.

[Raquel Bock]

To run and grab my damn sheet, my load sheet. I don't remember for sure. I come, got to jcb, the loader pulled around by the house and I run in. I had to grab something out of the house and I run back out, got the loaders back up. No evidence that Ms. Warner is dead and no evidence that she was murdered was found, correct? Yes, ma'am.

[Zach Bach]

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 7am using that phone, front end loader. At 7:45am, police say he texts d going to be spraying. Call you later. He is seen three minutes later driving a sprayer onto the road and returning at 8.13am so you had the sprayer.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

The defense also argued that Dale had not acted like a guilty man.

[Raquel Bock]

Are you, Dale?

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Of all the phone calls and interviews with Mr. Warner, he never once said he harmed his wife, correct? Correct. He was always adamant that he did not, correct? Yes.

[Zach Bach]

Over and over, the defense underscored the lack of physical evidence in the case.

[Raquel Bock]

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 hone in on Mr. Warner from the beginning.

[Zach Bach]

In her final statement to the judge, Mary Chartier argues that there is no basis for the charges.

[Raquel Bock]

If he murdered his wife. Where on Earth is Ms. Warner? Since 4 25, 2021, nobody has heard from or seen Dee Warner.

[Zach Bach]

Prosecutor Jackie Wise maintained that the state's case was strong.

[Raquel Bock]

All we're required to prove at this.

[Zach Bach]

Stage is probable cause to believe that.

[Raquel Bock]

Dale Warner killed Dee Warner, and probable.

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

The thought of him getting out was just scary. Do we have enough? All rise, please.

[Zach Bach]

How nervous were you before the judge issues the ruling?

[Raquel Bock]

It was horrible. It was so horrible. I felt like I could just curl up in a ball and. Ugh.

[Zach Bach]

On June 7, 2024, Judge Anna Freshauer returned to court with her decision. She first spoke about Dee.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

And there was nothing she heard, the judge said, that made her feel differently.

[Raquel Bock]

The statements by Dale Warner of a secret phone. She's got a second 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.

[Zach Bach]

But there was enough evidence, she said, to believe that Dee Warner was dead and that her husband was likely the one behind it.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

Dale Warner has been ordered to stand trial for the murder of his wife. But Billy Little knows the real work is still ahead.

[Raquel Bock]

My fear for getting past the preliminary hearing was probably a 1 out of 10. My fear of getting a conviction at trial is probably an 8 out of 10.

[Zach Bach]

It's a high bar.

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Breaking news in the case of Dee Warner.

[Zach Bach]

Dee's family heard about it first.

[Raquel Bock]

I received a message that said, we need to have an emergency meeting with the detectives.

[Zach Bach]

They met detectives at Greg and Shelley's farm. Police told them they had gone back to a property that Daylen de 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.

[Raquel Bock]

It was my mom. Well, it was a body in a tank.

[Zach Bach]

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?

[Raquel Bock]

They're not sharing that with me.

[Zach Bach]

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 three years, police had been looking for Dee's body underground, and now they had come to believe that she might have been concealed above ground.

[Raquel Bock]

The tank was in this agricultural storage building right behind me.

[Zach Bach]

And was the cylinder right in here?

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah, it was parked here.

[Zach Bach]

So Dale would have access to all this?

[Raquel Bock]

He did.

[Zach Bach]

Greg says he has no doubt now that Dale killed Dee and hit her body.

[Raquel Bock]

All these things point in one single direction, clearly without any question.

[Zach Bach]

And that's a Dale?

[Raquel Bock]

That's correct.

[Zach Bach]

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.

[Raquel Bock]

Absolutely. I mean, he can say anything.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel says finding her mom's body after these three long years gave the family a sense of peace.

[Raquel Bock]

I wanted to shout from the rooftops to everybody that she didn't leave us willingly. Hazel's a bracelet.

[Zach Bach]

Dee's family later to rest in a private burial. Soon after her body was identified, her daughter Lena, now 12, was with them.

[Raquel Bock]

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.

[Zach Bach]

Raquel and Zach say they miss their mother deeply and that her death has changed them in profound ways.

[Raquel Bock]

I am now three years sober, and shortly after she went missing, I started my own real estate company. I stopped being scared of failing on something because there was nothing left to lose. He's my mom's spirit. Very hardworking and driven and determined.

[Zach Bach]

Your children will grow up hearing about Dee.

[Raquel Bock]

Yeah.

[Zach Bach]

What will you tell them about your mother?

[Raquel Bock]

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. Dale Warner's trial is scheduled to begin on September 2, 2025. Join me Tuesday for postmortem from 48.

[Zach Bach]

Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

[Raquel Bock]

Streaming on Paramount Plus. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery. We don't know what we're looking for. Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Time. No symptoms and history or clues. You saved your life. We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it, if I'm being honest. Solve the puzzle, save the patient. Morris Chestnut is Watson. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. And new episodes return Sunday, February 16th on CBS.