Show full transcript 1:01 She had disappeared from the family home. 1:05 You go through so many scenarios. 1:08 Where in the hell is she? 1:12 My family and I need to know something. 1:15 We searched every tip, every lead. 1:17 More than 4,000 acres of land have been searched. 1:20 For 52-year-old Dee Warner. 1:22 They've used sonar, drones, cadaver dogs. 1:25 They started putting up billboards around town. 1:28 Somebody has to know something. 1:33 Help Dale find Dee. 1:35 Help Dale. 1:36 Try to find his wife. 1:38 It's a literal needle in a haystack. 1:40 You're not certain where to look. 1:41 You have to look everywhere. 1:42 Dee's four adult children and her brother 1:44 have spent every waking moment 1:46 trying to find the 52-year-old mother. 1:49 It was a total mystery of what happened to Dee Warner. 1:52 It was like somebody just hit the stop button. 1:54 Online. 2:03 So it was a Sunday. 2:05 Me and Dustin and our two girls 2:07 went over to my mom's house. 2:10 Was that a routine? We'd eat breakfast at her house and then we would go grocery shopping. 2:15 A regular Sunday breakfast, so regular that they don't even text about it anymore, they 2:20 just show up to the home. We walked in and nobody was in there. And so I texted mom and 2:27 I asked her, where are you? And I didn't get a response. So we just made some breakfast, 2:34 We cooked some eggs and toast and cleaned up and we just left. 2:41 I called her and the phone went straight to voicemail. 2:45 She always answered her phone, always answered text messages anytime, any day. 2:50 It was just odd to me, so I called her friends, my other sister, my brother. 2:56 Nobody knew where she was, nobody had heard from her. 2:59 And so I went down to my uncles, which is just down the road, to see if maybe she 3:04 went down there. Approximately 10 o'clock in the morning. I was out in the field 3:11 farming. I said well I've not seen her I've not heard from her but if I call 3:15 her she would always answer her phone and she did not answer and her phone 3:20 went right to the voicemail. And then we came back to the house and checked 3:30 around again. You know we were just looking all over the house, the rooms, 3:34 the bathrooms, the escalators parked in the garage. Her second vehicle which 3:39 which was a Hummer, was parked down at the office. 3:41 Was it unusual that the Hummer and Escalade 3:45 were both there on the property Sunday morning 3:47 and she wasn't? 3:48 Yes, my mom, I mean, if she was leaving, she was driving. 3:52 Dee never, never, never walked anywhere. 3:56 She would drive to her office, 3:58 which was only a few feet away. 4:09 The house and office sat on a 1500 acre farm 4:11 that Dee shared with her husband, Dale. 4:14 Dale called me in the mix of the time period and he said she was sleeping on the couch this morning when I left at 6 a.m. 4:23 Dale Warner was very big into the farming business. All hours of the day he would be working on equipment or in the field. 4:33 Dale went out to spray the fields which was common of him to do early in the morning Sunday. 4:41 Day and I were very close. 4:43 I was her only blood nephew. 4:45 Around noon, one o'clock, my father called me, and he said, well, they can't find my 4:51 sister. 4:52 Do you know where she's at? 4:54 I have no idea. 4:56 The only thing I know to do, I'm the one that installed all of her security cameras. 4:59 And I said, let's review the cameras. 5:02 We've got cameras all over his property that point in all different directions. 5:06 The kids start going to the office, and they're looking at the cameras. 5:10 tried to find any clue. Did a vehicle come? Did a person come? Did she leave on her own? 5:16 Is there a camera that shows her walking to the road? There's never anything on camera that showed 5:22 her into a vehicle. There are areas of the farm where the surveillance cameras don't pick up, 5:29 so Ms. Warner could have left voluntarily from that location or Ms. Warner could have been taken 5:33 out from that location, and that would not be caught on camera. 5:38 No sign of anything out of the ordinary. 5:45 Tell me about the kind of person your mom was. 5:49 Vibrant, loving, nurturing. 5:53 Always somebody that was wanting to take care of people. 5:57 Everywhere we went, she knew somebody. 5:59 Outgoing, bubbly. 6:03 Very fiery personality. 6:05 She had four adult children of her own. 6:08 for adult stepchildren that were from Dale's first marriage. 6:12 D and Dale had one child together who was nine years old at the time of her disappearance. 6:17 She was obsessed with her kids. I mean, she loved them. 6:22 If I needed help with anything, whether it was my kids, my house, my work, she was there. 6:30 What was your mom like as a grandmother? 6:32 She was very involved. She bragged about them all the time. She loved to be a grandma. 6:39 D was a successful businesswoman that showed it off. 6:43 She did not hide her wealth. 6:46 We were always going shopping for things and we always liked a lot of bling. 6:51 Dress to the nines, full jewelry, designer clothing. 6:55 Got her nails done, massage, facials. 6:58 Always put together from like sun up to sun down. 7:01 She would never leave the house without the lashes, the makeup, hair done. 7:05 No, no. 7:06 It's your hairstylist and you would do mom's hair. 7:10 Even when I styled it, she always styled it herself. 7:13 She was very particular about how she liked her stuff done. 7:19 Aside from Dean not being there that morning, 7:22 everything else seemed to be a typical Sunday morning. 7:25 Were you worried? 7:26 I was worried, yes. 7:29 She was always in contact with people. 7:31 Something isn't right. 7:33 They should have some sort of text message 7:35 call to say I'm here I'm there. So then a search family members began around the 7:43 home they're looking in the bedroom they're looking in the office Dale is 7:47 now home and he's convinced that she had taken off they had an argument the 7:51 night before it wasn't uncommon for her to leave after a heated argument. The 7:58 night before Dale said that they got into a little fight she got a migraine 8:03 and he gave her a massage and she fell asleep on the ground and he picked her up 8:07 and put her on the couch and then she was there at 6 a.m. when he left. 8:12 By evening I was very alarmed. In fact, Shelly called me and said, 8:16 listen, do you think they should call the police? And my response was 8:19 instantaneous, absolutely. About five or six o'clock that night we left the 8:26 house and everybody kind of went home and my siblings we decided that we 8:31 needed a call 9-1-1. An officer is requesting a ping for a phone for a 8:38 missing person. Was there ever a thought that maybe this woman had a hidden 8:42 lifestyle? This isn't the first time she's done this, guys. We're in Tipton, 9:02 Michigan, a very small town in southeastern Michigan. It's not even a 9:11 one horse town, it's a half horse town. You drive through Tipton and you blink 9:17 and you miss it. We have a post office and a church and that's all we got. 9:26 Typical farming community. You have your soybeans, corn, cattle. 9:32 Basically just all farmland. 9:34 My family settled here in 1831. 9:38 The main foundation of what our family's been involved in has been agriculture. 9:42 It has been for our family for six generations and of course D was part of that. 9:48 This is a small town. 9:50 Was there an active buzz in the community about where's Dee Warner? 9:56 You all call 911. 9:57 At what point do you really think this is not okay? 10:04 Really from the very beginning. 10:11 I quite literally took this exact route to get up to the kids when I first was dispatched 10:16 to this incident. 10:19 My name is Austin Hall and I'm a former deputy with the Lunaway County Sheriff's 10:24 Office. 10:26 started my shift like normal at 4 p.m. shortly after there I was called to meet 10:31 with a family that was saying that their their mom was missing. So in talking 10:37 to the kids I contact dispatch and at least have a phone ping requested. An 10:42 officer was requesting a ping for a phone for a missing person which came 10:46 back relatively quickly within about 10 minutes. The last time the device was 10:51 on since this morning at 07.14 hours Eastern time. 10:56 It was peeing off of the closest horizon tower that was just 11:00 a half a mile from the farm. 11:03 So after I talked with the kids, I 11:05 felt like I needed to go check it out myself 11:08 and talk to the husband who was home there with her 11:12 that morning. 11:15 Anytime we have interactions with the public, 11:17 like, we always wear body worn cameras. 11:23 And I go and knock on the door, 11:25 and as I turned to my right, 11:26 I saw somebody coming around. 11:28 Oh, that's Dale Warner. 11:29 Hello? 11:31 Are you Dale? 11:34 Excellent. 11:35 I am Deputy All from Lonely County Sheriff's Office. 11:37 How are you, sir? 11:38 Good. 11:38 So I hear your wife is missing? 11:40 Well, I don't know if she's missing or if she just left. 11:44 And he tells me that the day before, 11:46 the two of them kind of got into an argument. 11:48 They had an employee altercation that Deet kind of headed out with one of their their truck drivers 11:54 She had an altercation with one of our employees and I came home last night and she was really upset 12:00 One employee decided to quit 12:02 And he says she's an in-your-face kind of girl. I had altercations with quite a few people 12:07 I mean, she's pretty wired if you know my wife. I don't know but 12:13 She's in your face and tell you how it is 12:15 And that was a very common story that even the kids, you know, said that she was a very 12:19 opinionated woman. 12:20 How would you describe her as a business woman? 12:22 Strong and dedicated. 12:24 Tough? 12:25 Yes. 12:26 She could get angry and she could yell and she could scream. 12:29 Outspoken if she liked you, if she liked you, if she didn't, she didn't like you. 12:33 I worked with Dee for five years. 12:35 I did. 12:36 Accounts payable. 12:37 I did accounts receivable. 12:39 We became really good friends. 12:41 I think she bumped heads a lot of times with other men because it's a woman in a big position. 12:48 She probably did have enemies just because of her personality. 12:55 So this is all their land? 12:57 That's correct. 12:58 What you have here by the first blue silo, that is what's referred to as the office. 13:03 What do you learn then about the businesses that D and Dale own together? 13:07 There's three primary ones. 13:08 They have the farming operation, they have the trucking company, 13:11 large semi-tracker trailer type business and also some commercial spraying and farming services. 13:16 His priority was clearly the farming operation and her baby was the trucking company. 13:21 This was no ragtag farm business. This was an empire of farming businesses. 13:30 There's thousands of acres involved. There are millions of dollars involved. 13:37 So he goes on to say that that night they argue she gets a headache. 13:43 Finally, we basically passed out on the couch, went to sleep, and got her calmed down. 13:48 And I thought, you know, that was close to midnight when she finally went to sleep. 13:52 And then this morning around six o'clock, I got up and, you know, she was snoring away. 13:56 So then I went out and got my chemicals and got the sprayer loaded up and went and sprayed 14:00 a batch. 14:01 Got back here and I went in the house and she was gone. 14:04 He reported several items to be missing. 14:06 Her hair curler's gone, her hair dryer's gone, her makeup bag's gone, and she has a gold bag packed all the time. 14:17 Because of the frequency in which she left, she kind of always had a bag packed it seemed. 14:21 He mentions that she takes off all the time and it was very much a run-of-the-mill situation. 14:28 She's with someone somewhere. I don't know what else to do, other way today or so and see what she shows up. 14:34 Yeah, I mean if you sign, I don't want to get everybody all fired up. 14:37 The kids are all fired up and called police to get her. 14:40 This isn't the first time she's done this, guys. 14:42 The kids had told me that it's far from the first time that she has left that having an upset argument with Dale. 14:48 And so I said, is there anything unusual about this time? 14:51 And he said, well, the only thing unusual about it is that their daughter didn't go with her. 14:57 They went everywhere together and you didn't see one without the other ever. 15:00 I'm concerned because my daughter's wondering what the hell's going on. 15:03 It's one thing to be wife to be pissed off and take off. Well, you know, that's we really just got three different businesses here 15:10 So the tensions are high all the time and very common marital dispute like that oftentimes 15:14 It's you know mom got mad at dad and took off and there was walking down the road to cool off some steam 15:20 She a person who's normally keeps your phone on her hip or is she's pretty never without it never without it 15:26 But I told the other kids she's got a second phone. It's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know 15:31 she has it. But why would she have it? I have no idea. I haven't confronted her about it because 15:36 I didn't want the confrontation. Okay. Well that might be an important chunk of information there. 15:42 If someone disappeared on their own and there's no activity on their own cell phone, 15:48 this secret phone could be something that she used to communicate with someone else. 15:53 And then on top of that, he reaches his hand in his pocket. The only thing that's really 15:58 Really strange too, is this time she put her wedding ring on my desk. 16:02 Pulls out the biggest wedding ring I've ever seen in my life, and it's interesting. 16:07 That ring was approximately $35,000 to $40,000. 16:11 She never took it off. 16:13 Leaving a wedding ring to me would say that the marriage might be over. 16:17 So that reinforced to Mr. Warner that she had left voluntarily. 16:21 She leaves behind a $40,000 wedding ring. 16:24 Doesn't quite make sense. 16:26 Was she having an action here to look fair? 16:27 She's talked flirtatious about somebody. 16:54 There's nothing more peaceful to me than being in the middle of a quiet field and hearing just nature. 17:00 It's my way of being closest to God. 17:05 My job during the spring season is a lot of tractor riding. 17:09 It's a lot of time in a cab of a tractor with really nothing but a radio to listen to. 17:15 So you're just stuck with your thoughts. 17:17 And I spent countless hours thinking about where D could be, what happened to D. 17:27 It's now been 24 hours since D. Warner has been reported missing. 17:31 And the Lenaway County Sheriff's Office heads back to the Warner House. 17:34 This time it's Detective Kevin Greca who talks to her husband Dale. 17:38 Hi. 17:40 I'm Detective Greca from the Sheriff's Department. 17:42 Can we step inside and talk? 17:43 Yeah, let's do it. 17:44 Yeah, so we can figure out what's going on. 17:47 He says, oh, come on in, come on in. 17:48 As he comes in, he goes right into his kitchen and he's like, 17:52 I forgot I have a roast in the oven. 17:54 Good thing she don't go up, I forgot I'm alive. 17:59 Dale was not panicked. 18:01 You didn't hear worry in his voice. 18:03 You don't expect foul play. 18:05 You know, I mean, I don't want to get, 18:07 her kids are going around, you know, getting excited. 18:10 That's fine. 18:10 That's right. 18:11 Right. 18:12 But she's done this before. 18:14 I mean, I don't want to get everybody all worked up, 18:15 excited for when she shows up tomorrow. 18:18 I just wanted to go home. 18:24 Is this her here? 18:27 How long have you guys been married? 18:29 Roughly. 18:31 Your mom and Dale get married in 2006. 18:36 Do you remember the wedding day? 18:38 I do. 18:39 I remember the wedding day being happy. 18:40 We all went and got her hair done. 18:42 She was excited and happy to have the wedding 18:44 and get married and kind of move on 18:47 with their life together. 18:49 So they were both previously married 18:51 and they began their relationship 18:52 as an extramarital affair. 18:54 At some point, they both leave their spouses 18:57 and end up getting married. 18:59 The Warners and the Hardys, I always 19:02 refer to the families being as the Hatfields and McCoys 19:05 because it seemed like they were always 19:07 trying to outdo each other. 19:12 Dale and your mom in their marriage, 19:14 were they opposites, were they similar? 19:17 Dale and my mom were very much opposites. 19:19 My mom was outgoing. 19:20 She loved to do things. 19:22 She loved talking to people. 19:23 Dale was very quiet. 19:27 He didn't like to socialize. 19:29 He didn't really have friends. 19:30 He was a boring person. 19:32 He didn't want to do anything. 19:33 All he wanted to do was farm. 19:34 And farming was his life. 19:37 This was a lifelong interest for Dale. 19:40 Even in his high school yearbook, 19:41 he's pictured as a member of the future farmers of America. 19:45 I personally believe that D's attraction to Dale was 19:49 they both had ambitions to do more than they were doing. 19:52 They wanted to build a little empire. 19:56 Look, when I came in here, and she's always got her own nail, 19:59 her curling iron, her curling hot dog, her hairdryer, 20:04 and then her big ass makeup bag. 20:05 And those are gone. They're gone. 20:07 We poured through the house trying to find something. 20:12 Searching through bedrooms, combed through that rug. 20:15 Look at the couch cushions. We even looked through garbage. 20:18 There is nothing in the house that would point to a kidnapping, a murder. 20:25 There's no blood stains anywhere. Nothing seems out of place. 20:30 Nothing stolen, nothing broken. 20:35 They don't find anything in the house that leads them to think that there was a crime that occurred. 20:40 Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 20:46 The detective started doing some follow-up and some interviews. 20:48 At Tuesday, after she went missing, Detective Greca came to my house and questioned me. 20:59 Sorry, my dog's freaking out. 21:00 I am gonna start this up just so... 21:03 I was really nervous because I'm like, wow, like the police are involved. 21:08 You've reached out to her in nothing, and that's just... 21:10 I've tried snap, I have tried messenger. 21:14 One thing that Dale reported to the Sheriff's Department immediately was that she had a secret phone. 21:19 So when it came to this investigation one of the bridges we had to cross was was she having an extramarital affair and then 21:26 Who are you aware of right now with her having an affair with right now? 21:30 I don't know aware of her having an affair with anyone. She has never told me. She kind of keeps that 21:36 Okay, sideburner, but she's talked flirtatious about somebody. I just know they talk 21:44 Thanks again. 21:45 Thank you. 21:45 Appreciate it. 21:46 Yep. 21:50 Dale initially is very consistent about the fact that he does not believe his wife to 21:55 be having an affair. 21:56 You don't think she's having an affair? 21:58 No. 21:59 I don't think so. 22:00 Me neither. 22:01 I could be wrong if I'm wrong on several things, but I don't think she could have 22:05 had an affair. 22:05 Okay. 22:05 So, any previous relationship she had, we were chasing them down in this time. 22:12 What did you hear or ultimately determine about that? 22:15 She was involved in an affair, at least one at one point, that did end prior to her disappearance. 22:21 When did you learn that your mom was having an affair? 22:25 I was a senior in high school. 22:28 My mom would have me watch my little sister and she would ask to go to town to go tanning. 22:37 I ended up going through her phone one time and I saw some messages 22:43 that confirmed that it was happening, 22:45 and then I didn't need to know anymore. 22:48 Do you ever see it here, Coris? 22:50 Police tracked down a man who seems to have had 22:52 an acrimonious relationship with Dee. 22:55 Almost the type of hate of Dee. 23:04 This show is sponsored by 23:06 Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. 23:10 On June 25th, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris 23:14 was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida. 23:16 More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. 23:19 But on the new podcast, Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalen travels 23:25 to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel and who may be responsible. 23:30 Retired Gainesville police detective Courtney Roberts joins Sarah to review evidence. 23:35 That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before 23:40 her death and then the same man walking away alone. 23:43 soon the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved homicides. 23:50 Who killed Angel Harris? 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Head to abcsecretsavings.com slash 2020 and start sleeping easier today. 25:03 that's abcsecretsavings.com slash two zero two zero fall never arrives all at 25:12 once burst the air then the light and slowly the things you love begin to 25:18 find each other a jacket meets a dress a hoodie slips beneath a blazer an old cap 25:24 finds a new scarf because you don't simply step into the season you create 25:29 it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall find fall your way at Ross 25:35 Every minute that passed was more unusual than somebody who was just mad and took off. 25:54 They're casting a wide net on trying to talk to as many people as possible. 26:00 The Sheriff's Office is talking to these kids, friends, acquaintances, her brother. 26:06 They're talking to Dale. 26:09 Everyone had their own theory. 26:16 She had COVID three, four weeks ago. 26:18 This was in 21. COVID is still a very big deal going around. He said that she was 26:24 having real bad brain fog and just not quite acting right. It wasn't my wife 26:29 anymore. It's like her whole personality, everything about her 26:33 chain and I don't I don't get it. I work in the medical industry so as far as 26:39 like COVID has affected people maybe psychologically it really didn't mess 26:43 her more than others. I did not see any evidence of her personality changing with COVID, no. 26:50 What about meds? Do you know what she's doing on meds? I don't know the meds either. 26:54 You know she takes them? I know she takes medication, but I don't know what she takes. 27:00 She had had neck pain very bad, along with migraines. She had excruciating migraines. 27:07 The interview on April 26th, they were kind of walking through the home and he's asked 27:12 about prescription medications. 27:14 He mentioned she had taken something for her migraine. 27:18 The Medicaid, did you think she took them? 27:21 And Dale walks them over and pulls open the medicine cabinet and it's just full of 27:26 bottles. 27:28 No, I mean, I don't need to talk to them. 27:29 I mean, took them physically, so there's a crap load here. 27:31 Any clue if she took some? 27:34 She's got this many in every vehicle she's got. 27:36 Okay, all right. 27:38 And it's... 27:39 What about, uh, my house? 27:41 What about, uh, on the suicidal end? 27:44 Well, she was talking about killing her. 27:45 You know, when she gets... 27:46 Mm-hmm. 27:47 When you get pissed off, she's seeing stuff. 27:48 She won't be any quicker than that. 27:50 What's that? 27:51 Yeah, that's fine. 27:52 I mean, it's just... 27:54 When was the last time she had said something like that? 27:56 It was that night. 27:58 Okay. 27:58 So, she's talking about killing herself and... 28:00 Okay. 28:02 I'm like, we'll be dead. 28:03 You take that as more of a tension or something like that was just normal. 28:06 Okay. 28:08 But I was doing green salt. 28:17 You know, all of my siblings and everybody's like, you know, I guess I get that she ran 28:21 off before versus never gone like this. 28:24 This is all new. 28:26 Police believe Dean may have had more than one affair in the past. 28:29 So they speak to a man rumored to have been involved with her to see if she did 28:33 have a second phone. 28:34 He's a fair weather person. 28:36 She might be missed by some but not by me. 28:38 You know, if it was something she wanted or something in her favor, she was as good as 28:44 it gets. 28:44 She was a perfect friend, but if it wasn't going her way, you're a f***. 28:50 Have you ever had an affair with her? 28:52 Absolutely not. 28:53 Never once have I ever slept with her. 28:55 So, any physical anything you guys ever kissed? 29:00 Yeah, I kissed her a couple of times, but that was absolutely the end of it. 29:04 He explains that years later, 29:06 he and Dee fell out over a dispute 29:08 over a potential business deal. 29:10 I had no love for Dee Warner. 29:11 I mean, I wouldn't kill her, but I mean, 29:14 I don't care that she's gone either. 29:16 You have absolute confidence 29:17 that you were not involved in her disappearance. 29:19 He was helpful. 29:20 He provided me what I asked him 29:23 and he did it diligently to prove 29:24 that, hey, I had nothing to do with this. 29:26 How'd you communicate outside of her normal phone 29:29 and all that kind of stuff? 29:30 So, nothing. 29:31 That's why- 29:31 phone's the only way I ever talked to her. If she had a second phone, I have no idea. 29:37 Okay. I'm not blowing smoke up yet. I really appreciate your comment. This is really important 29:42 today. It gives a lot of good information. My thanks. The respect you guys gave me, 29:45 anything I can do to help, I will. You know, I don't care much for Dean, 29:50 because I do really like all of her kids. And I'm sorry they lost their mom, 29:55 you know, or if they didn't, if she's gone somewhere. He was in fact in Florida 29:59 at the time and all of his time was accounted for. 30:03 He was excluded as a suspect. 30:04 We never found any kind of evidence 30:06 that she had a true second phone. 30:10 Mr. Warner was trying to come up with places 30:12 he thought where Ms. Warner might be. 30:14 He was trying to come up with aliases 30:16 he thought she might use or people she might contact. 30:20 Like one day he came in and sat next to me 30:22 and you know, where do you think she is? 30:23 Who do you think could have picked her up 30:25 and not said anything? 30:26 And I'm just like, I have no idea, Dale. 30:28 I don't know anybody that she knows that would pick her up and not tell any of her family. 30:34 Dale could tell Parker that when he was having trouble sleeping, he would go out and work on 30:38 these tanks, painting them. Well, I said, what the hell are you doing with this hydros tank? 30:43 He puts his head down. He said, I just can't sleep at night. He said, I don't know what 30:48 the hell's happened to Dee. And he said, she left me in this terrible mess. And he said, 30:54 So I just can't sleep at night. 30:55 So I told the guys to bring some 30:57 inhydrous tanks in that needed painted. 30:59 And I would paint them at night when I couldn't sleep. 31:02 So I said, that's what I've been doing. 31:04 She appeared to be at a breaking point. 31:06 They were starting to see some signs, 31:08 starting to see some issues, 31:10 bleeding into the marriage and the businesses. 31:13 She just seemed defeated on Saturday when I saw her. 31:17 But she's usually fiery and when she's mad, 31:20 she just, you know, she'll pack her bag 31:22 and she'll leave. 31:23 And this was very different. 31:24 This was a calm, defeated mom. 31:31 She wasn't, in my opinion, 31:33 Deanna and I both went back home. 31:36 She like, wasn't in her right mind. 31:38 She kept going, like, talking, 31:41 and she was talking about a fight that she had had with. 31:45 Oh God, what does this mean? 31:48 Todd, Narek shows up on the farm 31:50 at approximately 3 o'clock in the morning on the 25th of April. 31:56 This is interesting, you have another person that Dee was arguing with 31:59 into that weekend showing up at the property at an hour. 32:13 Dale talked to the police a number of times. 32:17 And he did allow them to search his property a number of times. 32:21 It's still an active working farm property while this is going on. 32:25 It is not roped off with tape, people are coming and going on to the property, but he is allowing them to walk around. 32:34 In the early afternoon on April 27th, Detective Greca went back on scene, and Greca's saying, 32:43 you got a canine here that's going to start looking, as well as some drones. 32:56 I'm really sorry guys, but I got work to do. I've got fields that, you know, this is the one sunny day 33:03 I'm gonna have this week. I gotta get to work. You guys were told me this this morning. You know, 33:15 the proper thing and said, okay guys, I'm sorry, 33:19 consent's withdrawn, we've gotta go. 33:21 And so they all load back up and they leave. 33:25 All right, we just got shut down, 33:27 so we'll debrief somewhere. 33:29 He's like, nope, you guys are done. 33:32 So he got the search warrant, 33:34 goes back shortly after eight o'clock. 33:37 I did call Dale. 33:38 We do have a search warrant for the property 33:40 at this point. 33:41 We're just looking for her. 33:43 They arrive with the drones the dogs to davor dogs as well as just search dogs 33:50 Nothing evidentiary. It was found nothing substantial was found nothing at all ends that day 33:57 So then we go back this cluster in the world if it wasn't before we got there 34:03 Dale was actually in the spray bar the first moment he calls 34:07 And as we're talking to him he actually agrees for another consent search to happen 34:13 We call more canines. We call more drones. We call more officers and detectives to come help. 34:19 He says, hey, I just want you to know you shouldn't bring your dogs into the spray barn. 34:26 The fence load and insecticide and fungicides. Sure. I just want to take the dogs in there 34:31 because the floor is still covered with it and they'll soak up through the feet. 34:33 There's off one of our shepherds from that one. Yeah. I mean, just kind of do what you 34:38 but I got my dogs and I don't let them in there either one. 34:42 They must have lost one of them. 34:44 They've come at the bar before. 34:45 From there. 34:47 We were running around. 34:49 We were calling friends. 34:52 And so what was our next step? 34:56 We decided to have a search on that Saturday. 35:01 Greg, who's Dee's older brother, 35:04 took it upon himself to organize a community search. 35:07 friends, family that may have known D. 35:10 We were the first ones to do a broad on foot search 35:14 and we walked at least 600 to 1,000 acres of land on foot. 35:24 They were walking miles through fields 35:26 and roads and cow pastures, 35:29 just looking for anything for my mom. 35:32 We kind of had all designated Greg as our main leader and he finally said, 35:42 Shelly, Dee's not coming home and at that point I realized I thought I'm sure she's 35:53 not going to now. So while Dee's family is starting to come to terms with the 35:58 idea that Dee may be gone, investigators are looking into a new 36:02 shortly before her disappearance, Dee got into an argument with one of her trucking company employees. 36:08 A big part of what made her trucking business successful was their primary dispatcher 36:14 and kind of manager of the business, Todd. Todd Nairig. 36:19 She was very protective of Todd. She did anything she could for him. 36:26 And then there was a lot of time where they bumped heads. It was a love-hate relationship. 36:31 I've seen her that afternoon, the Friday before she went missing. 36:37 That was the day that her and Todd got into it. 36:42 Todd told Detective Greca that he and Dee had a confrontation 36:45 about the rates they were charging trucking customers, and it escalated. 36:50 She was making a big deal, and just, like, I was stealing from her. 36:58 It's just, she was made the right man it was. 37:01 I had not seen her that upset before. 37:04 I have seen her upset. 37:06 I feel like she was done. 37:08 And so that led into a fight with my mom and Dale 37:10 because my mom felt like Dale didn't have her back. 37:15 Was there ever a time you suspected Todd? 37:18 When I found out that Todd left at 3 a.m. on the 25th, 37:23 it felt very strange to me. 37:25 Todd Narek shows up on the farm at approximately three o'clock in the morning on the 25th of 37:34 April, and he does that to pick up a load to drive to Burns Harbor, Indiana, and he's on 37:41 the property for approximately 10, 15 minutes, and then he leaves the property and does his, 37:47 takes the load. Where he was going, scared me. He was going to the Burns Harbor, 37:54 It's just like a metal melting place, essentially, 37:57 so she could have been in the back. 38:00 So the only two people that were on that property 38:02 right around the time that Dee went missing 38:05 was Dale and Todd. 38:07 Was Todd involved? 38:08 How do I eliminate that? 38:10 How do I include or exclude him? 38:13 A plan was hatched to secretly record Todd. 38:16 All that help was that I had run into her 38:18 and she'd been doing, 38:20 which is a horrible thing for you right now. 38:22 Wow. Did you kill her? 39:03 It's now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. 39:06 My name is Sonny Cook. 39:08 Ever since the accident, my mom looks different. 39:11 You think your mom has been swapped out with a different woman? 39:13 I know something, okay? 39:15 Something's wrong. 39:16 I don't know what's going on with you, but I know that I'm your mother. 39:19 If that's not your mom, what do you think she is? 39:22 I don't know, but I need to find her. 39:24 Watch the Hulu Original Series Phony now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney 39:28 Plus for bundle subscribers. 39:30 Terms apply. 39:30 on October 19th 2025 the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a 39:37 heist movie now nearly a year out there are still critical questions to be 39:42 answered we're used to following heists in movies from the perspectives of the 39:46 ever-so-glamorous and dangerous perpetrators but when it happens in 39:50 real life the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear and even 39:56 and less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. 40:00 In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day 40:03 like you've never heard them before, 40:05 through the eyes of the people who live them. 40:08 I'll follow the investigation 40:09 into how this could have happened, 40:11 who could have been behind it, 40:13 and then I'll join the international hunt 40:16 for the Louvre jewels. 40:18 Heist at the Louvre, 40:19 a new series from ABC Audio. 40:21 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, 40:24 or your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. 40:36 Multiple law enforcement agencies were in Lenaway County today, resuming the ongoing search for D. Warner. 40:42 Order was last seen at her home on Munger Road in Franklin Township outside to Cumsy, Michigan. 40:47 At this point, we haven't ruled anything out. We're still investigating it as a missing person. 40:52 Six months now and we have nothing. Nothing added up. Time is your enemy, right? 40:59 And what was frustrating to me is I saw no urgency from the authorities. 41:04 We were sure there's probably no more physical evidence we're gonna find. 41:11 So they started checking airlines. It was a lot of administrative nonsense. 41:15 It took a lot of time. But as far as the community was concerned, 41:18 they weren't seeing any action. The family hired Billy Little as a private investigator. 41:25 I'm Billy Little, I'm an investigator and an attorney, 41:31 families that are missing, loved ones, 41:34 and they don't feel like they're getting the kind of results 41:36 they want, that's generally when they reach out. 41:42 So I went up to Michigan and started digging in. 41:47 Billy was the person to come in and stir the imaginary 41:51 s*** pot, for excuse my language, 41:55 but that was what got the ball rolling again. 41:58 that he rallied people. 42:00 Gave us a hope that we could still push forward. 42:05 This is Billy Lettle. 42:06 I'm looking into the D Warner disappearance. 42:10 Wanted to know if you had a minute to talk. 42:12 Wanted to ask you some questions 42:13 about the D.M. Warner case. 42:16 In that very morning of her disappearance, 42:19 a truck driver had picked up a truck 42:22 and left the premises to go to the Chicago area. 42:27 So one of my first calls was to this guy named Todd Narek. 42:32 There were some reasons to look at him. 42:34 Todd was on the property in the early morning hours of that Sunday. 42:39 It was very suspicious to me, but I didn't want to believe that he had anything to do with it 42:46 because him and my mom were very close. 42:49 I was trying to get him to talk about the case and the things that were going on 42:54 while he was in what he felt was a safe environment. 42:58 So this young lady was willing to record their interactions. 43:05 Somebody called me and asked if I knew what I'm a nice guy. 43:09 I don't know, you know, but who called her brother then? 43:13 All I know is that I've run into her as she's been doing. 43:17 It's just a horrible thing for you right now. 43:20 Well, did you kill her? 43:23 No. 43:24 I took a polygraph in the past and the remove I made that thing. 43:28 Zon camera. 43:29 My phone has been tracked and taken and run through the police thing. 43:33 Todd, if you were involved in this in any way. 43:38 I wouldn't go along with anything happened to her. 43:41 As pissed off as I was at her, I still have feelings because 90% of the time she 43:49 He was a joy to be around, and for 95% of the time that I worked there, it was always 43:59 this great relationship. 44:02 He was probably one of the first employees that worked for Dee when she began the trucking 44:09 company, and she became very close with this guy, and he was very close to her. 44:16 Todd willingly took a lie detector test in which he passed. 44:21 In my opinion he was not directly involved in this either before or even an accessory after the fact. 44:29 There was a camp of people absolutely that thought perhaps D was killed and he was there to help. 44:35 And ultimately this theory was disproven. 44:37 I eventually was able to rule Todd out. 44:40 There was definitely something in the community where they wanted answers so there was this 44:47 grassroots movement to try to find her. 44:50 We had the Justice4D Facebook page. 44:52 The Justice4D Facebook group, it's got 25,000 people in it. 44:57 The community definitely helped big time. 45:00 We went through thousands of signs that said Justice4D. 45:04 anything we could do to shout from the rooftops of like we need help from our 45:10 community we did. And Dale was not part of that? No. There was actually a sign put 45:16 in his yard and he he took it immediately. Took it down? Yes. If your wife is 45:22 missing, why are you not out there looking for her? Was he doing anything 45:28 to try to find your mom? 45:29 No. 45:30 I really don't think he has, 45:32 he did anything at all to find her. 45:36 He did not show up to the searches on foot, 45:39 even when the law enforcement showed up 45:42 to talk to him about her being reported missing. 45:45 He was never urgent to find her at all. 45:50 Until another day goes by, I'm concerned, 45:54 but I'm not alarmed yet. 46:00 The vigils were held at our event center at the dairy. 46:03 It was amazing to see how many people rallied together. 46:08 Tonight, Warner's brother Greg spoke out for the first time. 46:11 It is my opinion that he does not leave her home voluntarily. 46:16 But rather, she was planning on confronting Dale 46:20 when he returned home around 8 p.m. that night. 46:25 So now the gloves are coming off. 46:28 And I said, well, Dale, listen. 46:29 I know you did it, and I am going to get you. 46:53 So this is my mom's farm. 46:55 My mom and dad divorced, and then Dale moved in. 47:00 And I live right here, right behind her. 47:06 When everything unfolded, we could pretty much monitor everything. 47:12 I just was afraid. 47:14 I didn't want things to get worse. 47:19 Was your mom a fan of true crime shows? 47:22 Yeah, she loved true crime. 47:24 Did she ever suggest to you anything about what she saw actually playing out 47:29 in her own life? Yeah, she did. She made a comment about it, you know, mentioning 47:34 something that Dale could do something like that to her. And by that, I would 47:39 assume she means he could kill her. Their marriage was very volatile. They 47:47 were constantly fighting with each other. They were in marriage counseling. 47:51 Money was absolutely an issue. Dale didn't like these personal spending. 47:56 Dee didn't like the fact that Dale always needed the latest fire equipment. 48:00 Were the businesses doing well? 48:02 The trucking company was doing well, and that's about it. 48:06 Who owned the trucking company? 48:07 The trucking company was 100% my mom's name. 48:11 They were certainly having a tumultuous time at the end. 48:15 The businesses and the issues with those certainly appear to be bleeding over into the marriage. 48:20 They'd had times when they'd lost millions on different pieces. 48:28 I did see Dale get angry a few times. 48:32 I remember her telling me they were in an argument in her bedroom 48:36 and he got upset and pushed her and she fell and hit her head on the dresser. 48:45 It was the next morning she came in and showed me the goose bump on her head. 48:51 I just remember distinctly asking her like, 48:53 Do you, why is this okay? 48:59 No incidents of domestic violence or abuse 49:01 were ever reported to authorities. 49:04 You know, my mom would say, 49:05 I feel like Dill's following me. 49:07 I think he's tracking me. 49:10 In July of 2020, she had the car in for service 49:14 and was brought to her attention 49:16 that this tracking device was in the car. 49:20 She was put back by that. 49:22 She was really upset. 49:24 Dill denied that it was a tracker. 49:26 He claimed that he was using it to diagnose a problem with the Hummer. 49:30 Did your mom discuss with you that she was going to leave Dale? 49:34 Yes, her biggest thing was she never wanted to divorce Dale 49:38 because she didn't want to leave my little sister with him. 49:41 I did have the hope that she would just one day get sick of it and just be done. 49:51 She told me Saturday she wanted to sell everything. 49:54 She said, I told Dale I want to sell everything. 49:57 I thought, wow, she's really serious. 50:02 D was going to have a final conversation with Dale about leaving, splitting up the businesses 50:09 on that night. 50:10 And she knew it was going to be an argument and she didn't want the daughter to see that. 50:15 So she had a friend that she contacted and said, hey, can you watch the daughter for 50:20 tonight? 50:21 Because I'm going to have a conversation with Dale. 50:26 He was afraid if my mom divorced him, he would lose everything. 50:30 The trucking company, the farm, everything. 50:39 80 acres right here. 50:41 In my view, all the pointers were pointing at Dale Warner. 50:46 Granted, we didn't have a body. Nothing. 50:49 There were a couple of places that I was suspicious about. 50:53 If Dale had wanted to get rid of her body, it only seemed logical 50:57 that it had to be somewhere close. 51:00 So Billy said, can you show us where that location is? 51:04 You want me to show you where that is now? 51:05 Yeah, let's do it. 51:06 Well, we're here. 51:08 So we walked back there, and I specifically 51:10 pointed out this location, and said 51:13 that no one had really looked there. 51:15 So we turned around to come back. 51:18 And I said, OK, we've got a problem. 51:21 I said, here comes Dale Warner. 51:29 Howdy. 51:31 How are you, sir? 51:33 What's your trespass? 51:34 You know that, right? 51:35 Yeah, you know, I just realized that when. 51:37 Oh, you didn't just realize that. 51:38 You know that. 51:40 Well, I got Mr. Hardy here with you. 51:42 Okay. 51:42 Can you fucking trespass him, too? 51:45 What would you do, Greg? 51:46 If I was down to your place, you didn't have permission. 51:49 If you could still fucking call me and ask. 51:52 I'm sorry. 51:53 No, you're not sorry. 51:54 I'm fucking natural. 51:57 Well, it was truly showing your true colors. 52:01 I think he became more and more suspicious that I was on to him. 52:05 The family had really started to latch onto Dale because of his behavior and 52:14 because of his blasé demeanor, not participating in the searches. 52:22 That's your guy. Tell me about the billboard. Help Dale find D. Yeah so 52:35 Greg bought the billboard to get Dale's attention of like are you going to 52:41 help us find your wife or no. We would like this billboard to trigger Dale to 52:52 get some emotion out of him because somebody knows something. My reaction is 53:01 I laughed. I thought it was very hysterical because obviously he hasn't 53:06 lifted one finger to help find her. It was a psychological play. We were 53:12 hoping that by having this kind of impact on Dale Warner that at some 53:16 At some point, perhaps, the authorities would literally give him a hard interview and maybe 53:21 he would actually talk. 53:24 You couldn't make a turn without seeing some kind of yard sign, without seeing something 53:28 on the side of a farm building. 53:31 At every turn in Tipton, Michigan, you'll spot signs like these demanding justice for 53:36 D. Remember, this has been going on months, right? 53:39 And we were getting nothing. 53:40 I mean absolutely nothing. 53:41 Sheriff Troy Buvier says detectives have kept an open mind, but have told these husband that he is a person of interest in the case. 53:55 I won't say he's been extremely active in the search, but he's been cooperative. 54:02 I was very frustrated along with everyone else because I did not feel like he was a suspect at all. 54:10 Justice for me! 54:11 So the family caused this uproar of saying we need the state to take over this investigation. 54:17 I'm not afraid to tell the sheriff what I think and I'm not afraid to call out people who are not being accountable. 54:23 And so that's what I did. 54:26 This is my favorite picture of us. 54:46 Oh my gosh. 54:48 She was always the life of the party. 54:51 We were at a Jason Aldean concert in that picture. 54:55 We went to a lot of concerts. 54:58 This was the Keith Urban Concert in the Suites that really shows her personality. 55:07 We had a special moment where Blue Ain't Your Color came on. 55:11 And there's a portion in that song, something about that guy isn't right for you. 55:31 I screamed at her and I'm like sobbing because, you know, he's not right for you. 55:38 He's not treating you good and she kind of looked at me and smiled and I don't know 55:43 I just always remember that moment, and I just wish that it happened to D 55:54 Warner the mother of five from Tecumseh has been missing more than a year now 56:01 It was tense to say the least for the sheriff's office. They were under immense pressure 56:16 In a statement to ABC News the Lena Way County Sheriff's Office said this investigation presented many 56:22 challenges for an office of our size and we recognize our resources were 56:26 limited. After months of built demands of wanting the case to be taken to the 56:33 state police became louder and louder. Glenaway County is no longer safe under 56:38 the current leadership and threat to its citizens. I wouldn't wish what my 56:43 family has gone through upon anyone and we're going to do whatever it takes to 56:46 bring justice to my aunt and prevent this from happening again. We do care it 56:57 because we care. 57:01 Last week on the 26th, I made an official request 57:04 to Michigan State Police to become the lead agency. 57:20 So you joined this case, missing woman, de-warner. 57:26 What are your first steps when you start? 57:28 The first thing I do is essentially a basic review 57:31 just to get an understanding of what's already been done. 57:34 At what point did you really turn your investigation 57:38 more toward Dale? 57:39 Well, it's interesting because you don't investigate people. 57:42 as a detective, you investigated an incident. 57:44 And what we found consistently is the only pieces 57:46 of evidence that were pointing towards a person 57:48 were all indicating that Dale was involved in somehow. 57:54 If we're going to be charging Dale with her murder, 57:57 it was going to be strongly based off 57:59 of circumstantial evidence. 58:00 And I absolutely knew I needed him to come in and talk 58:04 to me one more time. 58:08 Dale Warner was seated in this corner 58:10 where the blue chair is. 58:11 Hey, Dale, we've got a seat for you. 58:13 His attorney at the time, Larry Leib, 58:15 was here in this red chair, and myself and my partner 58:19 were situated in chairs roughly in this area. 58:26 Why wouldn't you do something to me? 58:31 My boy, I mean, that's, I'm very, my soulmate. 58:34 I love her. 58:36 Okay. 58:37 The state police really wanted to dig in 58:40 on all of his stories. 58:41 What made sense? 58:42 What didn't make sense? 58:45 Going into the interview, there are things he did 58:48 on his phone at the time of her disappearance. 58:50 He had never been directly confronted on these things, but depending on his answer would lend credibility to the fact that he was involved in Dee's disappearance. 59:01 By his own statement, prior to 1030, as far as he knows, it's a normal Sunday and Dee's sleeping on the couch. 59:08 Dale says once he was told that Dee was nowhere to be found, he used his phone to access the farm's surveillance system. 59:17 Okay, so when you try to access the cameras, what were you doing? 59:21 I was looking to see who was in the office and D was on the cameras. 59:25 Okay, so it's just looking for D. 59:27 That's all the shiny dips. 59:27 Yeah. 59:28 Okay. 59:29 And what about when you checked the location for iPhone? 59:33 For what purpose was that? 59:35 It's like where she's at. 59:36 Same thing. 59:36 I think everybody was trying to find her iPhone. 59:39 Essentially, those items on his phone, he states that he was looking for his wife. 59:45 That he's checking the cameras to see if he can find her. 59:47 and he's trying to find her iPhone to see where she is. 59:51 But unfortunately for him, 59:53 he did all of those things before she's missing. 59:57 You did all of those things before 60:00 you even learned that she was missing. 60:02 Before she's missing? 60:04 Yes. 60:05 If I looked at the camera system 60:07 to see if anybody's in the office 60:09 and if it works that time, so. 60:12 Was there anything unusual about 60:14 where the cars were parked that morning on Sunday? 60:16 I mean the the Hummer was parked in front of the office so that was you know 60:22 unusual especially if she wasn't in there. Dee's Hummer was typically parked 60:28 behind the house. The morning she went missing Dee's nephew said in its usual 60:32 spot he saw tracks from a JCB front-end loader. The reason that was 60:38 suspicious was that Dee had been sleeping right inside that back door. 60:43 So the working theory was Dale moved the Hummer so we could park the front and 60:48 loader there and he had to park the front and loader there because that was the 60:51 easiest way to get the body out of the house. The JCB tracks were out where 60:57 the Hummer was parked. Was that used to you? It used to me. State Police did an 61:06 experiment where they got a search warrant they used the JCB they drove 61:10 it up to the porch just like Dale had done on Sunday morning and sure 61:14 enough they were able to lay the bucket right down in between the two 61:17 Columns behind that backdoor 61:20 There's actually no doubt that you did something with her that morning. Actually no doubt 61:25 She's not dead. She's not dead. She's sitting back somewhere watching us and laughing at me. That's not the truth though 61:33 You're being dishonest. I'm not being dishonest 61:37 Bill this is your opportunity to tell us what happened on Sunday. This is your time to set the record straight 61:43 I've told you I guess Larry's we're done. I guess what else to say much 61:47 There's nothing else to say guys. She's not dead. You're looking at the wrong place and you're looking at the wrong guy. 61:54 Okay. Like he's done, he's done. 62:01 There was no body. There was no physical evidence that connected that he did it. 62:08 Is that good Christmas? Thank you too. 62:17 Oh gosh, we're having trouble finding her body and you know you wake up at two 62:24 o'clock in the morning and you think oh did she go here did he did he put her 62:28 here. The search for a missing Lenaway County woman intensified today Michigan 62:32 State investigators actively digging at a site as we speak. We had to find her 62:39 findee. 62:59 Tell us how difficult it is to have this vast of an area as a crime 63:04 We had no physical evidence so you're left pondering what's possible and you 63:09 go with what's the most likely which are areas of control and those are the areas 63:13 that they they own and the areas that they lease for farming which is still 63:16 thousands of acres so it's a it's a literal needle in a haystack. Within a 63:24 couple weeks of Dee's disappearance Dale conducted an internet query on his 63:29 iPad and the video that he clicked on was how to bury a large thousand 63:34 Galen propane tank, which became in part why we were working off of the theory that she was buried 63:40 based off all the land that they had. And then when the state police took over, it got a whole 63:45 new life. You saw the state police doing more searches. I mean, we would literally some days 63:49 watch them dig and bring in big pieces of equipment. We've been up here for most of 63:54 the morning and I want to give you a live look at what's happening. D Warner disappearing in 63:58 2021, this is the property of Dee and Dale Warner. 64:04 So we conducted a multi-day search 64:07 with between 100 and 150 personnel, depending on the day, 64:11 to make sure that we searched in different levels. 64:14 If she was there, we wanted to find her. 64:16 They've been pretty tight-lipped today 64:17 about exactly why they are digging 64:19 and what brought them here, even to Dee's family. 64:22 I think that there's something 64:24 that they've really been tipped off of here. 64:26 I don't know what it is. 64:27 We've been searching and searching and searching I mean I'd hired drones we've 64:32 been on foot the state police I mean it goes on and on and on and it became very 64:37 apparent we weren't finding her buried. Nothing, we found absolutely nothing. 64:48 In 2023 I did meet with detectives and they walked me through this case and at 64:58 At that point in time, I was convinced that Dale murdered his wife. 65:03 How did you react when they said, yeah, we have enough fear? 65:07 We just felt like, you know, here's the next step. 65:11 You know, we were a long way from the end, but this is such a good step forward. 65:19 Hey, Dale. 65:20 You're under arrest for the murder of you, Warner, for staying behind your back. 65:23 Are you kidding me? 65:24 Interlace your fingers. 65:25 Are you going to pray? 65:26 I got the call from my news director and it was almost like you're not gonna 65:35 believe it. They arrested him. We just received the news from MSP today that an 65:40 arrest has finally been made. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to be there when 65:49 they put the handcuffs on him because I knew they were down the 65:53 road but they wouldn't let it. It was like that 900 pound elephant was off of 66:02 your shoulders for a second. The Michigan State Police believe they've cracked this 66:06 case but it is far from over. Dale Warner officially charged with his wife's 66:10 murder and tampering with evidence pleading not guilty today. In any kind 66:15 of an arrest, a murder arrest in Michigan, there's a preliminary hearing. 66:18 A preliminary examination in Michigan is essentially a mini-trial just to 66:23 if there is enough probable cause to see that A, a crime was committed and B, that the defendant 66:30 is the one that may have committed it. So we do hear evidence. The hearing will determine 66:36 if Dale Warner will stand trial for the death of Dean Warner. Mary Chardier, defense lawyer, 66:43 she's one of the best. At the preliminary examination, the detective admitted they had 66:49 no evidence at the point that she had even been murdered, 66:52 let alone that Mr. Warner was purportedly 66:55 the person who did it. 66:56 A nobody homicides arrest and trial is very uncommon. 67:02 Without a body, this case was extremely hard. 67:05 We've got one shot. 67:07 And if her body's found in another date and time 67:09 and a jury has found him not guilty, 67:11 we can't come back and redo this. 67:13 There was no body, so they couldn't even 67:15 say that she was dead. 67:18 were you thinking they're really going to be able to charge him they'll really 67:22 be able to get a conviction we have all this circumstantial evidence but you 67:27 know you can argue that either way it was yeah we we had no idea we were so 67:32 scared breaking news in the case of Dale Warner today a judge ruling the 67:37 Lannaway County man will stand trial for the murder of his wife Dee this is 67:42 a break that the family was waiting for. 67:46 It is a relief to see it happen, 67:49 but she's still gone and they still hadn't found her. 67:57 Investigators for a long portion of these disappearance 68:01 believed she was somewhere underground. 68:04 Is there a possibility that this body is above ground? 68:08 They were doing a search that day. 68:11 I got a text, the detective wants 68:13 just have an emergency meeting tonight. 68:23 Fall never arrives all at once. 68:26 Burst the air, then the light, 68:29 and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. 68:32 A jacket meets a dress, 68:34 a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, 68:36 an old cap finds a new scarf, 68:38 because you don't simply step into the season. 68:41 You create it layer by layer 68:43 until it finally feels like fall. 68:46 Find Fall Your Way at Ross. 68:51 What has fallen in my lap is huge. 68:55 FX is the low down. 68:58 Sometimes you just kind of blow things up. 68:59 You're not Jason Bourne. 69:01 Ethan Hawke and Tommy Lee Jones. 69:04 The conspiracy theorist. 69:06 Lies again. 69:06 The critically acclaimed series returns. 69:09 Which way is it? 69:09 Be normal now and again. 69:11 Where is your punk rock spirit? 69:14 FX is the low down. 69:16 Now streaming on Hulu. 69:23 I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. 69:29 The vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy. 69:33 That family wasn't real. 69:35 You sure about that? 69:36 I had a father called Vision. 69:37 How is this possible? 69:40 Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. 69:44 Nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy. 69:48 Now streaming only on Disney Plus. 69:58 Part of the darker side of policing from a personal point, 70:03 especially when you're working on violent crime, 70:05 is you're at home with your wife and your kids, 70:08 or you're doing family stuff, but you're always 70:10 thinking about whatever you're working on. 70:14 You have an idea, you jot it down, 70:16 or you remember you have to do something. 70:18 And so I lived this case for years. 70:25 The investigation focused underground 70:28 for the majority of the time but I believe investigators then they started 70:33 thinking that maybe they should take a look above ground. I had kind of up and 70:39 down relationship with Greg Hardy but at this point we were on pretty good 70:42 terms so I could calmly get information and when we were on good terms he was 70:46 very helpful. I asked him about the tanks. He calls and he said listen Greg 70:51 he said where does Dale Warner keep those anhydrous tanks? I said well 70:55 there's some at the home farm and there's some on the Paragon farm. So 71:01 So investigators got a search warrant to take a look at what fertilizer tanks on Dale's 71:07 property had maybe been tampered with, something that didn't come with the original tank. 71:13 These tanks, they're approximately 30 feet long. 71:17 They weigh thousands of pounds, they're very large. 71:20 When I get to the Paragon Road barn on that particular day, there's, I think right 71:26 about 13 or 14 tanks stored kind of in conjunction with each other. There's an open part of the barn 71:32 and some stored outside all kind of parked near each other. It was Greg, diesel to brother, 71:39 that had remembered Dale painting one of the fertilizer tanks on his property. I said all I 71:46 can tell you is the tank that I saw he was working on to to restore it. So if you were 71:53 looking for that tank it would have fresh paint or new paint it would have a 72:00 non-factory weld on it. And so what did you find here? There were tanks kind of 72:09 scattered throughout everywhere and it wasn't until close to the end of my 72:13 time at this property that I opened that barn door and I saw that one tank 72:17 alone. This particular tank was painted fresh it very clearly had a 72:23 a non-factory weld was painted after this weld 72:26 and then had new stickers applied to it 72:28 and a tag that says, do not use. 72:32 Which all those things together were suspicious to me. 72:35 Then he calls back. 72:37 He said, how can we find out 72:39 if there's something in the tank? 72:41 I said, well, it's ammonia, it's a gas. 72:45 You'd have to be careful because it's toxic. 72:47 Because the gas is so toxic, 72:49 they're designed to not have any openings. 72:52 and so you can't see what's inside of them so we had to come up with a way of 72:56 if we find a tank that's of interest how are we going to search it. I said you 73:01 know Dan that there's an x-ray machine at the Canadian border if you could get 73:05 those guys to do that they radiograph trucks there so they could easily 73:10 radiograph this tank. We didn't know exactly what had led investigators to 73:18 that tank but we knew it was different than the searches we've seen 73:22 before. We're all wondering why that one, what did they learn, and what's inside. 73:30 They loaded it on a flatbed trailer by a record service, took it to Detroit. 73:36 When I am putting this tank on a tow truck to drive it an hour to go get an x-rayed, 73:42 I am zero confident that this is going to amount to anything that's beneficial to the case. 73:48 But that's the job, that you look, right? 73:53 And when I show up, a bunch of other people come in this room, 73:56 the x-ray flashes on the screen, 73:59 and the guy sitting in the chair says, there she is. 74:05 I can truly tell you that next to the birth of my children 74:08 was one of the most profound moments I've had. 74:16 This is a prepaid call from... 74:18 Dale. 74:20 So, information is really powerful in police investigations, 74:23 And especially when someone's incarcerated, listening and monitoring their jail phone calls can be really important. 74:30 So after having the tank x-rayed, I called Dale's son, Jaren, and informed him of the search that we had conducted. 74:36 I had to take any hydrogen tank number 34 is what their search warrant said. 74:41 Tank number 34? 74:43 Yup. So they took that tank and another, you know, x-rayed or something. 74:48 I'm like, what if I would have wasted time? 74:53 Why would you care if I'm cutting one of your old tanks open unless you knew 74:57 what was inside of it? After years of searching, underground, of searching the 75:07 properties, she was inside that tank the entire time. D was found in pajamas in 75:22 the tank. She was barefoot wrapped inside of a tarp. The tank was essentially 75:29 airtight and no insects or animals could get in it, so all the things that would typically 75:34 degrade a body were not able to get inside. It was much more well preserved than what I would 75:39 anticipate. I got a text, the detective wants to have an emergency meeting tonight. 75:48 What did you think? Immediately I knew something wasn't right. I mean I knew like 75:52 my stomach was just in knots and we met up, we all met up, my siblings and everything, 75:57 and he showed us the pictures of my mom in the tank. 76:04 You're seeing pictures of your mom deceased. 76:08 How do you feel? 76:09 It was such a mix of emotions. 76:11 It was the relief that we felt because we knew that our mom didn't run away. 76:19 But then to think about the reality of what happened to her was really hard. 76:24 knowing this whole time that while I was working she's like in a tank behind me 76:33 in a barn is disgusting. Well your first year overcome with emotion and sad and 76:42 grief and then then there's another relief like this is gonna be so much 76:49 better to prove that he did it. Well this morning a case that has gripped 76:59 Southeast Michigan for years. 77:01 Inside the courtroom, it was high stakes. 77:04 It was high tension. 77:06 And it was high tech. 77:07 Surveillance cameras capture the chilling moments 77:10 at life on the farm with Dale Warner. 77:27 This case ranks at the top of all of the list imaginable. 77:31 The hardest case, the oddest case. 77:34 The most difficult case, most stressful case, 77:36 most interesting case that I've had easily. 77:39 We charged it in November of 2023. 77:41 We didn't get to trial until February of 2026. 77:44 The trial begins in Adrian, Michigan. 77:48 It's in a small courtroom, packed shoulder to shoulder. 77:52 Opening statements begin today in the murder trial of Dale Warner. 77:56 This is D. Warner. 77:59 April 24, 2021, she went home to tell her husband, the defendant, 78:05 that the marriage was over. 78:07 She was never seen or heard from again. 78:09 We anticipated a trial with dozens of witnesses and the witnesses might know a part of the 78:15 beginning, a part of the middle, and part of the end. 78:20 The prosecution's theory is that there is an argument, there is a fight, there is a 78:25 blow up between the two of them. 78:26 There is a physical altercation and Dee loses her life that night. 78:31 This marriage had no intimacy, only secrecy. 78:35 The medical examiner ruled that it was a homicide by blunt force trauma to the 78:41 head and strangulation. When they read us the autopsy information that was brutal. 78:48 Prosecutors did a really good job of painting a timeline of what may have 78:52 happened. I think he kills her he goes out gets the JCB brings it up to the 78:59 house puts her body in the bucket takes her back into the spray barn. 79:04 Prosecutors point to a safe in the spray barn. 79:07 That's where they believe Dee's body was stored after the murder. 79:10 How could he have hid her body while he was doing all these things 79:13 and all these people are moving around the farm? 79:16 And the obvious answer from the people side is he put her in that safe. 79:21 I'm going to show you people's exhibit 254. What is this? 79:25 That's me laying inside of the safe. 79:28 Dee Warner's body would have fit in the safe that was in the spray barn. 79:31 Then, according to prosecutors, Dale moved Dee's body out of the safe and into the tank. 79:38 I want you to understand where the cameras are and what they show. 79:41 The surveillance video is absolutely key, especially in retrospect. 79:45 There's powerful testimony from a welder about everything you would need to properly open up something like a tank 79:52 and then close it and weld it shut. 79:55 Talk about mig welding or wire welding. 79:57 He would have used this type of welder, a mig welder. 80:00 Well, here he is getting that exact welder that he had on the property. 80:05 Typically, you would use an angle grinder with an abrasive wheel. 80:10 Here he is on video getting an angle grinder on Sunday afternoon. 80:14 A welding mask and then probably heavy-duty welding gloves. 80:20 There's Dale getting welding masks and gloves. 80:23 The welding expert mentioned that you would get almost a sunburn 80:26 if you weld without long sleeves. 80:29 If you did this without something on your arms, what would you expect to see? 80:34 You could expect to see essentially some burn marks. 80:37 This is from the body camera on Monday the 26th and there's Dale's arm. 80:43 And that becomes pretty pivotal because the prosecution is arguing that that's a burn from the welding. 80:50 thing. This is the spray barn here. As you can see in the back left corner here, that 80:58 is tank 34. When we get a little bit too close for his liking, he's going to start spraying. 81:04 I sat right out of the barn. I was tough to see and know that we were right there and 81:09 we we might have been able to save that family from a lot more anguish. I'd like to 81:19 walk through some of the reasonable doubts this afternoon. The defense had to completely 81:23 redo their defense strategy from we don't know where she is to we don't know 81:28 exactly who did it. The government's speculative theory is that Mr. Warner 81:32 killed Ms. Warner in the house while not leaving a single trace of physical 81:38 evidence. There was no direct evidence that Mr. Warner harmed Ms. Warner. They 81:43 were trying to make the argument there'd be every reason for him to have 81:45 a piece of farm equipment. This is a guy with an active farm and he has a 81:49 wife that has disappeared before and he is going on with his life. The fact 81:53 that he grabbed a welder. No, I don't equate to him cutting open the tank, putting his 81:58 wife inside, putting it back on again, welding it, shot, painting it. The defense kept repeating 82:05 that this was all circumstantial. There's no evidence that Ms. Warner was in the safe, 82:10 no blood, no hair, no DNA, absolutely nothing. Yes, she was murdered. Yes, she was found 82:15 in a tank. And their story was that Dale did not do any of that. Your Honor, the 82:19 The defense would have called Gregory Hardy. 82:22 They were asking hard questions. 82:24 How do you have access to the property? 82:25 What do you know about tanks? 82:27 You said you wanted them to look for a specific tank, correct? 82:31 Yes. 82:31 Thank you. 82:32 And then once the tank was found, you told the police that you know how to cut an anhydrous 82:37 tank open, right? 82:39 Yes. 82:40 It seemed to me like it was more in our favor than the defense. 82:44 We were able to show all the things that he did to try to find D. 82:47 I called anybody that I could think of. 82:51 Greg was emotional during his testimony. 82:54 Do you have an idea of how many people you called in this effort? 82:58 I'm sure over a hundred. 83:00 It was really powerful testimony about a brother who's just done everything he possibly could to find his sister. 83:08 Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. We are ready to proceed with closing arguments at this point. 83:13 The prosecutor does not need to have a motive to prove that the defendant had reason to commit the crime. 83:20 But he was not getting another divorce. 83:23 I bet you won the divorce. 83:25 I sure as hell don't want to go through no matter what. 83:28 It's not worth it. 83:29 If Dee divorced Dale and the trucking company was actually hers, 83:35 he was left with a failing farming business. 83:38 I think he was very much motivated by the money, 83:40 what he was going to lose. 83:42 You're not here to determine if a tragedy occurred because it did. 83:46 What you are here to determine is if the government has proven its case against Mr. Warner 83:50 beyond a reasonable doubt, and it didn't. 83:53 We want you to return a verdict of guilty of murder and tampering with evidence. 83:59 You have these 12 people that are really determining his fate. 84:03 Was it convincing enough? 84:05 You may think you have the best case in the world, but you, at the end of the day, 84:09 don't know what the jury is going to do. 84:11 It was almost like every emotion, you feel it all at once. 84:14 You're almost in disbelief. 84:26 The last five years has been the hardest years by far of my life. 84:36 In a case where a woman is murdered or goes missing, everyone thinks the husband did it. 84:43 We were trying to get across to the jury the lack of any direct evidence that Mr. Warner 84:47 murdered Ms. Warner. 84:50 Breaking news out of Ladaway County, Michigan in the murder trial of Dale Warner. 84:54 the jury has reached a verdict. 84:57 Members of the jury, you do say upon your oath that you find the defendant, 85:02 Dale Warner, as to count one, guilty of second-degree murder, as to count two, 85:11 guilty of tampering with evidence. 85:15 It's not like it's just a light switch. When you've done this for five years, 85:21 365 days a year, damn near 24 hours a day, it doesn't just hit you in that moment when 85:28 the verdict guilty comes out. 85:30 You want to cry, you want to laugh, you want to smile, you want to yell. 85:34 The kids finally have some closure. 85:37 We finally have answers for them. 85:40 It didn't feel real. 85:41 I mean it was really hard to really process that this is actually done and we can move 85:51 forward. 85:51 You've since gotten engaged. 85:54 Yes. 85:56 My mom highly encouraged us to get married a long time ago. 86:04 He had it made so that my mom's birthstone is a part of the ring. 86:25 Muay muu. 86:26 Today's the day. 86:28 Yeah, it is Sensing Day. 86:30 I took a quick look at my impact statement 86:34 and tried to muster the personal fortitude to deliver it today. 86:41 This is what we've been waiting for. 86:44 Now is our turn to give our peace of mind. 86:53 Good morning, Your Honor. 86:54 My name is Raquel, 86:55 and I am the mother of three of Dee's beautiful grandchildren. 86:59 My mom was blessed to meet two of them, 87:01 but my youngest will only know her through the stories we share. 87:04 Her death created a pain and burden that none of us will ever fully recover from. 87:08 I only hope that the only way Dale Warner is able to leave prison is in a small dark box. 87:16 May God absolutely have no mercy on him whatsoever. 87:22 Dale, you not only destroyed all of our lives, but also the lives of your children and families. 87:27 Dean knew we would fight to the end and we won. 87:31 And now I'm going to remove my bracelet. 87:33 that I've worn since Dee was missing 87:38 because we got justice, thank you. 87:46 Alanaway County Judge handed down a sentence 87:48 of up to 70 years in prison.
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