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Anya Cain
I'm Anya, and today we're going to talk about a range of cases from felony murder to family murders. Content warning. This episode contains discussion of murder, including the murder of a child. So today we're going to be going to some of the A states. Alabama and Alaska.
Kevin Greenlee
But you told me you think every state in our union rates the letter grade A because you love them all equally.
Anya Cain
I agree. They're like my children.
Kevin Greenlee
You told me the mother of states. Yeah, you're the mother or something. But you say you're like a patriot. You just love every state equally.
Anya Cain
That's what patriotism means, right?
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah.
Anya Cain
Loving all the states.
Kevin Greenlee
So no one can get mad at Anya.
Anya Cain
No one can get mad at me ever. Because of this.
Kevin Greenlee
Whatever your state is, she loves it.
Anya Cain
I don't care. I feel like some people are shaking their heads, but this means you're not allowed to get mad at me ever. I've. I've pulled the chess move. Checkmate. Checkmate. Listeners, I love your state. How are you going to be mad at me? How are you going to be mad?
Kevin Greenlee
Now, I'll be honest. I'm not going to name names. I have some favorite states, some states that are not so favorite.
Anya Cain
Folks, if you want to cancel Kevin, that's fine. I'm. I support it at this point because
Kevin Greenlee
I'm not into this.
Anya Cain
He might not like your state.
Kevin Greenlee
I'm not into this. Bland to support everything for all.
Anya Cain
Yeah, it's. Well, for me, it's obviously very sincerely held and not just something we made up off the cuff in this conversation, and certainly not something I'm trying to do to suck up and get more support from the listeners. But for you, I just want the listener. Just. You're sitting in your car, you're cleaning the house, you're trying to fall asleep. Whatever you're doing. Think about this for a minute. Kevin may hate your beloved home state. He may think that all the people from there are dirt bags. So just consider that maybe you're one of his favorites, but frankly, maybe you're not. That guy keeps who are you going to prefer? Who are you going to prefer? The person who loves your state equally or the person who might actually look askance at it?
Kevin Greenlee
Or if you're worried I might not like your state, you know, tell us. Tell us why we should love your state. Or tell us why I should.
Anya Cain
So now you're going to make them, like, try to, like, win you over?
Kevin Greenlee
Wow, am I dissing states over here?
Anya Cain
You're sitting around dissing states.
Kevin Greenlee
Well, the odds are the state that I don't like is not your state listener. It's. It's somebody else's state listeners.
Anya Cain
I think we have sizable listenership in the state I'm thinking of that you don't like.
Kevin Greenlee
You don't even know what states. I don't.
Anya Cain
Oh, okay, so I've kept it from you. You're keeping a secret from your wife.
Kevin Greenlee
I was worried. You can't keep a secret. Anything I tell you, you blast on
Anya Cain
the show uses leverage to become the more popular host. O.
Kevin Greenlee
Okay, well, yeah, I know you pretty well.
Anya Cain
Maybe I'll sleuth this one out. I'll get my army of sleuths on it. Okay, what are we. What are we. What are we talking about? What is happening? Should we.
Kevin Greenlee
I made an off the cut off comment about a states in response to something you said, and the next thing I know, this happened.
Anya Cain
Oh, gosh. All right. Well, when it comes to states, one that I've never been to but always is a little bit near and dear to my heart is actually main. And the reason for that is. Speaking of a, my name starts with a. When I started typing on the computer, and, like, in class for the first time, we had, like, a computers class. Anytime I would type my name in, it would try to autocorrect to Maine, which I preferred over the other option, which was acne. So, hats off to Maine. Shall we embark?
Kevin Greenlee
Yes. On this journey of the cane train.
Anya Cain
Alabama, Alaska, Michigan, and Tennessee. My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.
Kevin Greenlee
And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.
Anya Cain
And this is the murder sheet.
Kevin Greenlee
We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. This is the murder sheet.
Anya Cain
And this is the cheat sheet. Children and chatgpt. Sam, What the heck was that?
Kevin Greenlee
I thought I'd mix it up a little bit.
Anya Cain
No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, never again.
Kevin Greenlee
It's good to surprise people.
Anya Cain
No, it's not. I don't like that. That was terrible. Also, you say this is the murder sheet, and then I say this is the title of the episode. That just sounds dumb.
Kevin Greenlee
Well, you could say we're the cheat sheet.
Anya Cain
We're not the cheat sheet.
Kevin Greenlee
I thought this is how you identified yourself.
Anya Cain
No, it's not. And so never again, okay? Never again. Let's just. Let's just pretend like that didn't happen.
Kevin Greenlee
I just like to mix.
Anya Cain
No, I don't like you mixing things up, okay? You mix things up and things go to hell in a hand basket.
Kevin Greenlee
So I just like to keep you guessing.
Anya Cain
You wanted to mix things up, and suddenly we have a true crime podcast that we have to do. See, I guess that was a good thing.
Kevin Greenlee
All right, so maybe trust my.
Anya Cain
No, I won't. Okay, let's go. Alabama.
Kevin Greenlee
Alabama. My source for this is nbcnews.com so one controversial doctrine out there, I call it a doctrine, is felony murder. It's very controversial indeed. Anya, if you could sum up felony murder in a few well chosen, articulate words, how would you do it?
Anya Cain
If you are engaged in a felony and it results in the death of a person, you can be charged with murder even if you did not specifically murder them. The. The classic example is if a bank robber is robbing a bank with, let's say, three friends, and one of them shoots and kills a teller, the other men, who perhaps. Maybe one guy's just a getaway driver, maybe other guys in the vault, maybe the other guy's holding a gun on some employees, they're all potentially going to be charged with felony murder because the. The killing took place while they were committing a dangerous felony. I mean, I'm kind of boiling it down. I think there's more nuances to it that. But is that. Is that essentially.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, that's basically the idea is if you're going to do something that is so inherently dangerous, such as armed robbery, and you willingly participate in that, obviously, as a human being who lives on this earth, you're aware that armed robberies are indeed very dangerous. Things can get out of control, be very easy, if not likely, for a person to get killed during the commission of that offense. So therefore, the thinking goes, you should be held responsibility. You should be held responsible not just for the robbery, but you should also be held responsible for the death.
Anya Cain
I think that is good.
Kevin Greenlee
And it is a very controversial doctrine because there's often cases where people get sentences that seem disproportionate when they did not literally commit the act that directly caused the death. I first became aware of this doctrine, oddly enough, when I was a child, because there was A comic book called the Untold Legend of the Batman, where it is expl. That the whole reason Batman chooses to become Batman as opposed to going into police work is that he disagrees fundamentally with the felony murder rule.
Anya Cain
Oh, please.
Kevin Greenlee
Well, you disagree with Batman.
Anya Cain
Yeah. Batman's wrong. Sorry, Batman,
Kevin Greenlee
you're going out on a limb here.
Anya Cain
I like felony murder. I think it's a good thing, and I'm sick of pretending it's not.
Kevin Greenlee
When you say you like felony murder, you don't mean you like people.
Anya Cain
No.
Kevin Greenlee
Felonies that lead to murder.
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Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, no, please, please clarify. I have to be over here.
Anya Cain
I love doing felony murders. No, I. I think it's good. I think it's actually good. I think it gets. I think sometimes it is a way to basically, people. If you say, if you abduct a woman, okay, and, you know, you. You kidnap her, you drive her around, you do all these things and. And prevent her from escaping, and then your sick buddy strangles her to death, I want that guy to go away from murder as well. I mean, I feel like he's. Yeah, both of them. So, I mean, now, like, anything, it can be abused. And. And certainly there are instances where prosecutors take it way too far. So I. I agree that's not always wholly a good thing. I often think it's. It's kind of just this, you know, people caterwauling over it. I really don't. I think. I don't think it should be that controversial. I. Many of the cases we've looked at that involve it seem fair, and it's like, oh, no. Someone's going to be held accountable for the disaster that they helped create. What a nightmare. You know, I mean, like, this person, like, no one. No one argues this. This person was also, like, shooting guns and doing stuff. And, you know, it's like, oh, no, we're going to, like, lose this shining light in society. They're going to go to prison for life. What a nightmare. You know, I'm sorry, I've just gotten very, like. Now, again, you can pick out specific cases that I think it's misused in. And in that. In those cases, perhaps some clemency should be issued. I think you're going to talk one about one today that I actually do have some thoughts on. But in general, I do. I think it's kind of wielded around, like, it's this, like, scary, awful thing. And I really, again, like, prosecutors in general sometimes go too far. Prosecutors overcharge. You know, like, that can be an Issue in and of itself. Acting like felony murder is like this kind of. Whoa. Should we even be doing it? Yes, we should. Accountability.
Kevin Greenlee
And when you say we should be doing felony murder, not committing them. See, I have to keep an eye on you.
Anya Cain
Charging. I'm switching sides. I'm fighting in the war on crime on the side of the criminals. I'm switching sides.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, I really gotta keep an eye on you.
Anya Cain
No, I mean, yeah, go ahead.
Kevin Greenlee
What happened in Alabama all the way back in 1991? A man named Charles Sonny Burton was one of a group of men involved in a robbery at a car parts store. During the commission of that robbery, a customer named Doug battle was killed. Mr. Burton was not the one who pulled the trigger. The guy who pulled the trigger did not get the death penalty. Mr. Burton did get the death penalty under the felony murder doctrine because again, he was a willing participant in this violent felony that ended in a death, even if he did not personally commit the crime. Did not personally commit the act that ended in the death. His execution date was coming up. There was a lot of protest about this. I believe even the victim's daughter said it seemed in some way unfair that the person who pulled the trigger was getting a less severe punishment than Mr. Burton. And so, as a result of all of this, the governor of Alabama actually chose to commute his sentence because she thought it would be unfair. She wrote, quote, I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not, end quote. The Alabama attorney general, on the other hand, was disappointed that she did this and felt that Mr. Burton's sentence should have been carried out as decided by the jury. Save money, look better shop our sponsor quints today and refresh your wardrobe with some new styles for spring.
Anya Cain
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Kevin Greenlee
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Anya Cain
Same here. I'm really looking to try out their linen pieces as the temperatures turn warmer. But since it's still pretty chilly out I'm relying on my Quince Mongolian cashmere sweaters to weather the changing seasons. I'm regularly wearing all of them and they've held up so great despite my constant use. These things are great.
Kevin Greenlee
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Anya Cain
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Kevin Greenlee
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Anya Cain
They can help you wear all the hats at once. They're there to take stuff off your plate so you can drill down and focus on what moves you, what drives you forward, what you're really good at. I really wish we'd been working with Shopify when we first started. They're a game changer, a one stop commerce platform that lets you do so much fast and conveniently.
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Anya Cain
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Kevin Greenlee
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Anya Cain
Grocery Outlet Bargain Market well, I mean personally, I think Alabama Governor K. Ivey made the right call on this one. It doesn't seem fair. This is an instance where I feel like the application of felony murder may be appropriate, but the sentence seems unduly harsh when you consider that. Now felony murder is supposed to essentially be murder, right? And a murderer might get the death sentence, the death penalty. But when you look at this a little bit closer, I think it's, you know, I think this is, I think personally this is an appropriate use of the commutation, especially considering the relatives of the victim also support that. And this man was not the trigger man. Now I do want to say though that I feel like this is about like penalties. I don't have a problem with this guy going away for life for participating in this situation that costs this man his life. That to me seems wholly appropriate because I, I again, he participated in this. He made his choice and it was a bad one. And you know, but yeah, this is, I think where people are bothered by felony murder when it has this kind of outcome where you have, okay, the guy who actually shot him isn't going to be executed, but this guy is. I think that is something to be concerned about. And I understand why people protested it. I understand why the governor made her call. So that this is one area where I feel like this was the right move. I'm also this I will admit that I am somewhat biased about this because while I'm somewhat ambivalent on the death penalty as a whole, I'm often bothered by the concept that sometimes it feels that. And again, this is understandable given our system. It's all by states, right? So like some states have the death penalty, others don't. But sometimes it feels like some of the most heinous, disgusting, horrific crimes that involve like victims being tortured and sexually assaulted and like living in fear for hours before being killed. Like those don't warrant, like those don't get the death penalty. But then a robbery gone wrong does. Now I am in no way. Minimizing the suffering of, of this murdered gentleman and his family. I'm not. All lives lost are a big deal as far as I'm concerned. I'm just saying when there's a bunch of really heinous elements like sex motivated and all that stuff, it's just, you're kind of like, wow, it feels kind of arbitrary and inconsistent. And this is one of my big problems. Again, I said I'm ambivalent. But I also have a problem with the death penalty in the sense that like, okay, sometimes it feels like, you know, we're not, we're not wielding it in a way that really makes a lot of sense. And when you look at it, it does make sense because it's just different states and their laws and that's all appropriate. It's just more of like it's, I mean, am I, don't, am I making any sense right now?
Kevin Greenlee
I understand your point of view. I think I've said on the show I'm not a death penalty guy, so that's where I fall.
Anya Cain
You always say that and it always sounds so I'm not. Are there death penalty guys who are just sitting around cracking open a cold one and be like, yeah, I love the death penalty. You know, I, I, I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with the death penalty and I very much understand that reasoning and I very much have felt like I was very solidly in that camp for a long time and I've kind of shifted out of it a little bit. But I guess intellectually I tend to be like maybe a little bit more on the side of against the death penalty because I feel like it is arbitrary versus on the side of it. I'm, I'm just at a point where I might be intellectually against it, but emotionally I very much understand proponents point of view.
Kevin Greenlee
So shall we move from Alabama? You said you wanted to make this a very special alphabetical episode where we do the states in alphabetical order. Not all states, because we'd be here all day.
Anya Cain
We're going to be here all day, guys.
Kevin Greenlee
But so I guess the next one you're going to take us all the way up to Alaska.
Anya Cain
Alaska. The beautiful state of Alaska. I've had the pleasure of visiting Alaska once with my friend many years ago and it is just gorgeous. It is a beautiful, beautiful, very cool place.
Kevin Greenlee
And you told me it's tied with 49 other states as your favorite state.
Anya Cain
Exactly. Thank you for thanking. Exactly. Yeah, we went to Anchorage and so this actually centers around Anchorage and I apologize if I pronounce anything wrong. I tried to look up all the pronunciations, but I'm also kind of just stupid when it comes to talking sometimes. So my sources for this one are Alaska news source CBS News, a press release from Alaskan authorities, specifically the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the state troopers, to be exact. And in addition to that, I also relied on some reporting from Newspapers.com the from Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch News, and the Juneau Empire. So this is a case that one of our listeners actually suggested, and thank you so much to that listener they posted in our Facebook group. One good way to let us know about cases you want us to cover for Cheat sheet is send us an email, pop cheat sheet in the subject line, and we'll see it pretty easily. And, but also, you know, if you post in our Facebook group, I might see that too. And I'm really glad I saw this one because this case suggestion is just, it's like an odyssey and I really went down the rabbit hole a bit. So I think some of the folks in our Facebook group actually know people who were associated with this. And I, I can't even imagine because it's a really troubling and sad situation. So I'll go into it. We have to, to understand the story, we actually have to go back to a specific couple. Alvin Millard and Renee Jackson. These two were in love. They were in Alaska. It was the 1990s. They were both from Anchorage and Rene attended service High school. So did Alvin, and He also attended SAVE high schools. They both graduated in 1994. Now, somewhat oddly, they had a personal connection to another Alaskan murder from that year, and that was one of Renee's friends. She was raped and murdered that same year. 18 year old Bonnie Craig. Her body was found in Mchugh Creek, south of Anchorage on September 28, 1994. She'd been bludgeoned in the back of her head and the case went cold for many years. But in 2006, Kenneth Dion, an armed robber in prison in New Hampshire, was found to be a DNA match and he was convicted of her murder. So unfortunately, Renee had that sort of brush with murder because a friend of hers had been taken and murdered. So very, very traumatic. But Alvin and Renee ultimately wed on July 31, 1999. At that point, Renee was attending the University of Alaska at Anchorage, and she was a bookkeeper for her father, Terry W. Jackson, a cpa. Her mother was Patricia, and her grandfather was a very, you know, somewhat, you know, influential man named Carl Rentschler. He was a developer and a realtor, and apparently One of the 12 Alaskans who appeared before President Dwight Eisenhower to try to convince him to make Alaska a state. Alvin, on the other hand, was the son of Bethann and Mario Millard. And he was a welder at that point for a one propeller and impeller. Now they went on, they were supposed to go on a honeymoon to New Zealand. According to their wedding announcement, they sort of came off as adventurous. They talked about how they loved snow machining, motocross racing, and they were married at the Brayton Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. And then it noted that they took a week off of work and then went to their new home in Wasilla. Wasilla is a city in sort of the Anchorage metropolitan area. So this young couple, couple years into their marriage, had their first child. May. May 15, 2003, a new baby boy was born to them. And he was 8 pounds and 4 ounces. And then they called him Ian Travis Millard. Then two years later, March 30, 2005, their second child, Dean Thomas, was born. 8 pounds and 9 ounces. So this is one thing that really always troubles me about these kind of cases. The concept that you could create your own disco. Your, like the. The being that is going to bring about your own destruction. In other words, you know, fall in love, meet a person, have children with them, have a child with them, and that child goes on to kill you. There's something about that that's just. I don't know, it's so disturbing to me. I mean, you and I have talked about that before, right?
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, we talked about it recently. I think in terms of the Nick
Anya Cain
Reiner case, it just, it's, you know, we talk about how horrifying it is when a parent kills their child, how against nature that is. But there's something unnatural about this too. So the years pass. It's 2016 at this point. Dean was at the Tenaya Elementary School. Ian was at the Tealand Middle school. Dean was 10, Ian was 12. The Millard boys did soccer, swimming, rock climbing. And family friends at least described them as outgoing, funny and adventurous boys. And they got that sense of adventure, I think, from their parents, especially their mom, Renee. She was really described as a devoted mom and wife. She was, you know, known to the swim teams and the soccer teams. And she was a serious athlete in her own right. She was actually a cross country coach. She was a mountain runner, a triathlete, raced on bicycles all the time. She did an ironman In Hawaii, which involved like a 1.2 mile open water swim, a 56 mile bike race and like a half marathon, which is just insane to me. And Ian actually took off for his mom. He was apparently a triathlete too, was a big swimmer on the Wasilla Waves team, a mountain runner. So you know, all of that's, all of that sounds very good to me. I mean like my family, we were, we were into soccer and swimming and it's like, you know, working out and being healthy was important. So like you kind of like it just seems like all American, you know, everything seems normal. But on Monday morning, February, that was February 4first, 2016, police get a call from a juvenile in a home in a quiet neighborhood of Meadow Lakes, Wasilla. The troopers rush over and they find that there's been a shooting. So you know, have the helicopter flying around. The Alaska State troopers are searching for a killer en masse. At this point they realize that 40 year old Renee Miller Millard and 10 year old Dean had been shot dead. Alvin was not there. He was away working at the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska at the time. At that point he was with GIS Construction in Anchorage. 12 year old Ian was the sole survivor and police would pretty quickly figure out why that was. The following day, February 2, 2016, they took 12 year old Ian into custody. Not much information came out about this from there because of his, you know, very young age. But Alaska's news source reported that he spent several years locked up in a juvenile detention center. His juvenile records obviously, like all juvenile records are not public. At some point though, he was apparently released from the McLaughlin McLaughlin Youth center when he was about 19, which I think would have been around 2022. And someone with the name Ian Millard is actually listed in the newspaper as a 2021 UA scholar. I think that's University of Alaska. So yeah then, so like that's a horrible tragedy, right? Like just a hor, like who knows what happened? Is there it. Was it an accident? Was it some kind of like childish dispute? Was there some kind of burgeoning mental illness? Was the happy picture painted by family friends when talking to the newspaper totally false and they were struggling with this kid and he just, or was it something where it wasn't false and like one day he just did this like I don't know, I don't know the answer. I'm, I'd be curious if people do know because I, I. Either way it's terrifying. If they were struggling and it's like they weren't being able to get help, that's awful. And then if there was no struggle and then one day he just did this, that's also terrifying. So that's what happens then. Much like Renee's friend Bonnie Craig, a terrible fate befell another young woman in the anchorage area. Around September 25, 2023, Atasia Banks went missing. She was 18 years old. She was from Anchorage, Alaska. Her family reported her missing on October 21, 2023. After not hearing from her for a while, November Anchorage Police Department launches an investigation and then ultimately hands it over to the Alaska State Troopers because they find a clue indicating that she was last known to be alive in the Matsu Valley. So the Matsu is the, the Matanuska Susitina Valley. And this is about like 35 miles north of Anchorage. It's pretty fast growing area. There's a town called Palmer there, and that is the borough seat. So for years, Atasia's family waited in anguish. And then troopers kept working it. They ultimately reviewed the case again and then headed up to Wasilla. And they found on September 4, 2025, the remains of Atasia. Those were on Moose Meadows Road in Wasilla. And they quickly determined that they believed she was murdered. Her body was autopsied by the state medical Examiner's office about six months ago. Around, probably around September of 2025, Ian Millard moved in with his father, Alvin, and Alaska Bureau of Investigation continued working the case. Now, there's been some pretty big developments recently. On March 5, 2026, a grand jury in Palmer, Alaska indicted Ian Millard. The following day, March 6, he was driving on Nick Goose Bay Road and the Alaska State Trooper SWAT team swooped in and arrested him. He was remanded to the Matsu Pretrial center on the following charges. Murder in the second degree, manslaughter, and tampering with physical evidence. Atasia Banks's family released a statement. They called Atasia, quote, an amazing sister, daughter, aunt and friend. A bright bubbly soul whose laughter could light up any room. They talked about how she was, loved the arts, painting, writing, poetry. And this is what they said of Ian, quote, ian Millard is a dangerous individual who must be held accountable. Our family will not rest until justice is served. End quote. So he so far not pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Palmer courtroom on March 9, 2026. But for me, I would really love to know what happened with his family because I feel like if we can understand that, we can best better understand the situation. What were the perceptions of the motive for that because is this guy just kind of like a born murderer? You know, I mean, like, I think that's rarer than people who are made into murderers. But I think it can happen. And I would want to know, yeah, what is this guy's deal? And honestly, it really troubles me. Obviously, you want to be more lenient when kids do horrible things because you would hope that they could be rehabilitated easier than adults who become hardened into a criminal lifestyle. But the idea that he was let out and, like, pretty shortly thereafter this young woman lost her life potentially because of him is very troubling. And there needs to be some conversation around that.
Kevin Greenlee
I agree.
Anya Cain
But anyways, that's what happened in Alaska. Now I will go back to Michigan. I'll go back to the contiguous United States and talk about a case that we already covered before. This is most of my reporting kind of came from wtol. And this is the case of De Warner. This is a case that we covered, you know, years ago, have kind of dropped in on a couple times. And it's out of Lenaway County, Michigan. Concerns a woman named Dee Warner. She was 52. She was a businesswoman, married, ran a trucking firm from a backyard barn on her property. And she vanished around April 24th or 25th. She went missing from her home in Tipton, Michigan. Cell phone, unused. Bank account untouched. She was married to a guy named Dale Warner. And on. And things were not going well. Many people noted that their relationship had been deteriorating. There were some indications that he may have been violent towards her. He may have inflicted intimate partner violence on her. And on April 24, she told People that she planned to tell him that their marriage was over and she wanted to sell the trucking business and get out of there. So Dale, when he later admitted to police that on April 24, this kind of crucial day, he indeed argued, but she got a migraine, so they stopped arguing. He rubbed her shoulders and she fell asleep on the floor. And then he moved her to a couch. Kind of a weird story, in my opinion. And then he says the next morning at 7:45am he texted her, quote, going, spraying, call you later. Then he returned to the Munger, their property on munger road at 8:15am Surveillance video of Dale on April 25 shows that he's gathering welding equipment, seemingly on their property. Okay, so that's happening. Then you have These adult children, two of them, on April 25, show up in the morning. They're going to have breakfast with their mom. This is a planned thing. She does not show up, she's not answering text, she's not answering calls. She's just missing. She's gone. They're trying to search for her and they want to go to the police. But Dale did not want to contact the police, which is odd, you know what I mean? Like you, you'd think most spouses would want to err on the side of caution. But he doesn't want to contact the police. He says, oh, this is normal. She sometimes leaves for a couple days, but she always comes back. But these adult children were unswayed and they actually reported her missing that evening, April 25, 2021. So then the, the detectives, you know, police, rather Lenaway County Sheri, they execute a search warrant at the Property on Tuesday, April 27. At that point, Dale was not there, but his son, Jaron Warner was there and called him to say cadaver dogs would be there. After this surveillance video showed Dale arriving at his Munger Road property. It showed him using a front end loader to move an anhydrous tank into a spray barn. So the drone footage from law enforcement also shows him moving the tank. Police say that the tank at that point contained Dee Warner's remains. Lenaway County Sheriff's office, Michigan State Police, and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation get involved with this case. The, the sheriff's office ends up handing it over to the Michigan State Police. And investigators also find that Dale was searching on an iPad for information on how to dispose of a 10,000 gallon propane tank, which is similar in size and sort of shape and structure to an anhydrous tank. And they also found searches on his device for dating sites for widows. Interesting. They find that he, they find that he was tracking Dee's whereabouts. He used an app to track her Cadillac, where that was going, and he also put a tracking device in her hummer. So on November 21, 2023, Dale Warner is arrested. Detectives start searching for tanks that seemed to be re welded. And this was based on that welding materials footage they had. And they find a, you know, many tanks on the property apparently. But tank number 34, they find that was re welded and that was on a different property of the Paragon road property. On August 16, 2024, law enforcement went out to the both of the properties and they kind of honed in on that tank and they found her remains in that anhydrous tank. And, and that tank is meant to hold anhydrous ammonia, which is, you know, used in fertilizer. You can kind of inject it right into the so soil. And it has to be stored in these special containers. So her body was well preserved. It had been wrapped in tarp, bound with duct tape and, you know, just a horrific find. They do an autopsy and find. Well, first, on August 17, 2024, the day after they get the tank, Dale is in his jail cell and there's a call between him and his son Jaren. Jaren says Michigan state police detective Daniel Drew Drew your texted him saying that they had seized an inhydrous tank for X ray screening. Jaren told his dad that it was tank number 34. Dale asked him, is that the one we painted and put decals on? Then Dr. Patrick Cho, a medical examiner in Oakland county, Michigan conducted the autopsy. He labeled the manner of death homicide, cause of death, strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head and face. The prosecution's case, I think, I think the trial as a whole lasted 13 days or 30 witnesses. Prosecutors kind of relied on the three following basic points. In addition to some of the evidence I also listed earlier. He was the last person to see his wife alive. He had a motive to kill her. She was about to leave him. And he lied to police about key aspects of the case. And there's all that video of him moving around the tank and all that. So jurors deliberated for two days, about eight hours in total, and they came back with a verdict. Guilty of second degree murder. Warner is going to be sentenced on May 7th. His defense attorney, Mary Chartier says he plans to appeal and they want the venue for the trial to be changed.
Kevin Greenlee
Interesting case.
Anya Cain
Yeah, I'm I it to me, it seems like a pretty clear cut spousal murder, but it's certainly an interesting one. It's. It's often very dangerous for a domestic abuse or an intimate partner violence abuse victim to be in a position where they are leaving. Like that is the time their abuser will kill them or, you know, go after them in a meaningful, in an even more extensive way.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, that's true. We don't tell each other cases before we do them. And maybe we should because I almost picked that case.
Anya Cain
Oh, geez.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah, it's an interesting case.
Anya Cain
It would have been a three day. It would've been a three case episode instead of four.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah. I'm really happy you covered it.
Anya Cain
Thank you.
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Anya Cain
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Kevin Greenlee
Now we're going to go down south of Michigan to the great state of Tennessee, which is, you reminded me before we started recording, is known as the hog and hominy state.
Anya Cain
Okay. Is it really? Are you just making that up?
Kevin Greenlee
Well, I mean, that's what you told me.
Anya Cain
Okay.
Kevin Greenlee
And you also said, Kevin is one of my favorite states, along with all
Anya Cain
other 49 of them.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah. You want to be everything to everybody.
Anya Cain
Yeah. That's why I'm really mentally healthy.
Kevin Greenlee
This is a very upsetting one. And I saw a lot of stories on this particular case. I thought the most comprehensive one I found at wdef, this case involves a former NFL player named Darren Lee, who has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetual. He calls police and say, oh, there was some sort of accident. She fell. And police come to the house. There's blood, different places in the house. It looks like there's been some attempt to clean. But basically, the story he told them, oh, this was like an accident. It doesn't really match up with what they see in terms of blood. And the autopsy report is devastating. I'm going to read some of the injuries they found on this poor woman in the autopsy report. Contusion on the right side of the face, large right scalp hematoma, large right subdural hematoma over entire cerebral hemisphere. Confluent abrasion of left side of face, laceration at left brow ridge, fracture of left cheekbone, fractures of maxillary central incisor teeth, perimortem fracture of cervical spine, multiple shallow perimortem stab wounds of chest and left thigh, and a recent bite mark on the left shoulder. So it's unclear how long this woman was subject to this kind of abuse. It's unclear what exactly happened, but he was clearly lying with what he told Police. And I think there's a pretty convincing case that he killed this woman and he did so in a brutal and horrible manner. But what really jumped out at me about this case is that it seems like every day we're reading stories about how people are finding new ways to use AI and ChatGPT and things like that. And this man, about 12 hours or so before he called 911 to report this alleged accident, he had a conversation with ChatGPT. Anya, do you see the messages? I'd like to read his messages. And you read the ChatGPT messages if you're okay with that. And I should note some of this has been redacted. And so when something's redacted, we just say redacted. So this is Mr. Lee. Don't know what to do right now. Fiance did her crazy thing again and now she's messed up. I wake up and she has two swollen eyes. I didn't do anything self inflicted. She stabbed herself, slit her eye idk but she isn't waking up or responding. What do I do? Allie? What should I tell my friend to handle someone non responsive but wants to call the police?
Anya Cain
Okay, but this is serious. But you can redacted protect everyone. Here's exactly what to tell your friend. Step by step.
Kevin Greenlee
Doesn't want to.
Anya Cain
Got it. Doesn't redacted. Here's exactly what redacted is the safest way to handle it without framing it as police trouble.
Kevin Greenlee
Stab wound like punctures from hitting anything?
Anya Cain
Yeah, it can happen but there's to make Can a slip and fall cause puncture wounds? Yes, but usually only under specific conditions. What it can look like? Small deep puncture looking wounds, minimal bleeding at first then swelling. Looks stabby even though it wasn't. Bottom line. Yes, falls can cause puncture appearing wounds. They usually don't look like clean knife stabs. Context plus surrounding injury pattern matters more than the hole itself. If you want tell me where's on the body. Where on the body? How many punctures, depth and size, what objects were nearby. I can help you sanity check whether it lines up with a slip and fall or if it's something that should be evaluated asap.
Kevin Greenlee
Yes, middle gut and side hip chat.
Anya Cain
If you want you can tell me Depth, superficial versus deep bleeding amount, time since injury, whether pain is increasing. I'll help you decide the right level of care. No panic, just smart next steps.
Kevin Greenlee
Both her eyes are swollen.
Anya Cain
Okay, pause the jokes for half a second because while yes, the eyes being swollen is still possible from a fall but it crosses in to seek immediate help territory. Not meh.
Kevin Greenlee
Isa bet she got blood all over the damn place and that's the end of it. And that's just really. It's horrifying to me because basically he seemed to be using ChatGPT to get information on how to cover up a crime.
Anya Cain
Yeah, obviously.
Kevin Greenlee
And how to. What kind of story to come up with. Oh, these are the wounds. Can I say this? Or this? And that's really, really appalling.
Anya Cain
So this is not one of those cases that sounds like necessarily that it's like a AI chat GBT induced psychosis where you have someone who's perhaps mentally unstable who then starts talking to Chat GPT or one of the different AI bots and like convincing himself, oh, the. The government's trying to put a computer chip in my brain. This is, this is truly like he's trying to get away with murder.
Kevin Greenlee
Yes.
Anya Cain
It's horrible. And he's even like, he's even like trying to be like, oh, she did it to herself. Even though, like, when you see the extent of the injuries, that doesn't make any sense.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah. So there's nothing in there that has him directly explicitly confessing. But certainly we know all the circumstances. These are highly incriminating conversations he's having with Chat gbt.
Anya Cain
I think it's. It's very stupid to do this because. Yeah, it's. He. He can't pretend like he didn't know about it. And also, you know, forensics exist and, and the medical examiner is going to be able to testify that no, these could not have been self inflicted.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah.
Anya Cain
Despite his claims to chat GPT.
Kevin Greenlee
Yeah. And my heart just goes out to the. The victim in the case and her family.
Anya Cain
It's horrible. Absolutely horrible.
Kevin Greenlee
I think that wraps up the cases for this week. We don't really have any promotional announcements, of course. We had a wonderful time last night at the Marian Library.
Anya Cain
We did indeed. They're awesome.
Kevin Greenlee
What a great experience.
Anya Cain
We're recording this before we went, but we know we're gonna have a great time.
Kevin Greenlee
What was your favorite part?
Anya Cain
All of it. No, it's gonna be. I know, it's gonna be a blast. I'm really excited. We're gonna head there tomorrow and it's gonna be great.
Kevin Greenlee
By tomorrow you mean yesterday?
Anya Cain
Yeah, I mean, huh. We're time traveling. No, I mean like, we're recording this now, like a week before it's supposed to come out, so.
Kevin Greenlee
No, we're not. We're recording it two days before it comes out.
Anya Cain
Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know what time is. Time is a flat circle, babe. All right. Are you gonna tell one of your little anecdotes?
Kevin Greenlee
But do you think if we, like, recall specific details about what happened last night, it would make them happen?
Anya Cain
What? Huh?
Kevin Greenlee
If I said, anya, wasn't it something how people loved your colorful hat, would that mean, well, to make it. Don't make Kevin to be a liar. I better wear a hat and people better love it.
Anya Cain
Yeah, I'm not too worried about that.
Kevin Greenlee
People. Rose is one to cheer when they. They saw you do your hat dance.
Anya Cain
No one? No, you know what? Enough. Go to your anecdote.
Kevin Greenlee
This was something you asked me to tell. I'm not sure.
Anya Cain
I mean, I did. Well, you said the other day, and I cracked up laughing. So I. I don't know. We don't really have a lot going on, so I didn't really. I can't really think of anything else.
Kevin Greenlee
So years and years and years ago. This is decades ago, literally, probably about 20, 25 years ago. I'm at the Naval Pier in Chicago. Doesn't matter why I'm there, doesn't matter who I'm with, I'm there.
Anya Cain
That sounds really sketchy.
Kevin Greenlee
Sounds very mysterious. All you need to know is that for some reason on the morning of my visit, I wake up and I say, oh, I know what would be a great idea. I'm gonna wear tan pants. And I've. I don't. I'm not sure if I've worn tan pants since.
Anya Cain
I don't think I've ever seen you. I think you. You're pretty much jeans and like black jeans.
Kevin Greenlee
So maybe this will help explain that. In case you haven't been there, Naval Pier is. There's like Ferris wheels, There's like a shops. At least at this time, there was an enclosed building. And somewhere in the middle of this enclosed building which houses several businesses, there's like some sort of performance area. Not necessarily a stage, but it's an area where, like, people can do things and you can sit down and watch. They have these little chairs or little built in seats there. And as I'm walking by this. This performance area, there's a big burly guy riding on a very, very small unicycle, which. Okay, but what really catches my attention is he's a very angry man. He's a very, very angry man. Relatable, because it's packed. There's almost no free seats, mostly children. And they're like cheering him. And he is loudly Complaining about how this looks easy riding this tiny unicycle. It's really, really hard. It took him a long time to learn. And I remember this. He starts in front of the fascinated children. He points to parts of his legs where the muscles are particularly sore from doing this unicycle work. And the children just look. Oh, that's great to know what other muscles are sorcerer. And so as I'm watching this, I think, okay, this is for me.
Anya Cain
I love this.
Kevin Greenlee
I think I had other plans, but I'm going to sit down and see where this goes. And for some reason, the place is packed, but there is one seat that is open, and there's people standing near that seat, but there's nobody actually sitting in that seat. So I just. I said, that's my seat. And so I just go over there and I just plop down on it. And when I do, I immediately by my pants, I feel kind of a hot moistness.
Anya Cain
Oh, no.
Kevin Greenlee
I'm not as a finely tuned machine as the angry unicyclist, but I do. I leap up as quickly as possible, but it's too late. The reason no one was sitting there was someone had spilled some hot coffee. And I sat on this in my tan pants, which now have on the back of them where the part of the body where you sit down now has a very big brown stain, which is very, very noticeable.
Anya Cain
Poor Kevin.
Kevin Greenlee
That's the story you wanted me to tell.
Anya Cain
I like the part about the angry Eunice like, list, though. I love that. I hate this. No one's making you do it, dude.
Kevin Greenlee
And the crowd was digging it. I don't know why. He was, like, pointing. Oh, yeah, this muscle. This muscle. And the kids.
Anya Cain
Yeah, we love him suffering,
Kevin Greenlee
but is that what podcasting is? Don't you often say, oh, yeah, this is really hard for us.
Anya Cain
It sucks, guys, but it sucks. No, I don't feel like. No, it's not. We're just sitting around. Oh, my goodness. Well, are we done for the day?
Kevin Greenlee
Were you surprised that all of the living presidents showed up at our event in Marion to present you with a key to the country? Because they applauded. They were so thrilled with how you love all the states.
Anya Cain
Did ChatGPT say you were gonna say that was gonna happen? Poor Kevin. He's so delusional.
Kevin Greenlee
All right, now that I've said it, it has to happen.
Anya Cain
Oh, yeah, yeah. The other. The living presidents would be so embarrassed if they. They heard this and realized they hadn't come. We were just sitting around waiting for them. Sadly, you're gonna People who come to the Ohio came to the Ohio event. Now you know why Kevin was wistfully looking at the door the whole time. All right, thank you guys so much for listening. Bye.
Kevin Greenlee
Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us@murdersheetmail.com if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.
Anya Cain
If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com. if you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www. Buymeacoffee.com murdersheet. We very much appreciate any support.
Kevin Greenlee
Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web@kevintg.com if you're looking to talk with
Anya Cain
other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet Discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.
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Date: March 13, 2026
Hosts: Anya Cain (journalist) & Kevin Greenlee (attorney)
In this dynamic “Cheat Sheet” episode, hosts Anya Cain and Kevin Greenlee deliver a whirlwind tour through four distinct true crime cases—touching on controversial legal doctrines, shocking acts within families, and the intersection of AI and criminal behavior. The cases span across Alabama, Alaska, Michigan, and Tennessee. With their trademark banter and thorough journalistic style, the hosts mix sharp legal analysis and compassionate storytelling while diving into complex, disturbing crimes.
Timestamps: [06:11]–[13:10]
Timestamps: [20:40]–[32:28]
Timestamps: [32:29]–[38:52]
Timestamps: [40:39]–[47:57]
This episode blends thoughtful legal critique of felony murder, examination of recidivism following juvenile murder convictions, analysis of intimate partner violence, and a chilling look at the role of AI in contemporary crime. By pairing meticulous case reporting with lively, transparent commentary, Anya and Kevin draw listeners into complex real-world issues, offering both insights and empathy.
For listeners wanting detailed news on true crime and criminal justice, this Cheat Sheet delivers four rapid but nuanced case studies—each raising potent questions about law, technology, and the human condition.
End of summary.