00:00:10
Where's Mom? >> I called her phone and it went straight to voicemail. >> I've never seen my mom not answer her
00:00:18
phone. >> Where are you? What are you doing? No response. >> Something's not right.
00:00:23
>> Something wasn't right. >> My name is Zach Fack. >> I am Raquel. >> My mom was Dee Warner.
00:00:30
>> Dee was my mom. >> Raquel called me. She was at Mom's house and she couldn't find her.
00:00:38
Her cars were there. She wasn't there. >> There's no chance that she would not drive the Escalade to wherever the hell
00:00:45
she was going. Not my sister. >> My mom was a very bubbly, outgoing person. >> She made you laugh. There wasn't a day
00:00:54
that I was in the office where we weren't laughing. >> She's a very, very good businesswoman.
00:00:59
She's very smart. She could be very tough. You didn't want to be on her bad side.
00:01:05
>> She was good sister-in-law. >> She spoke the truth. >> You knew where you stood with her.
00:01:09
>> She was always done up. Her nails were done. Her hair was done. Her eyelashes
00:01:13
were done. Always ready to go and beautiful. >> We report her missing at night, Sunday
00:01:22
night. >> Well, are you Dale? That's what I hear your wife is missing. >> Well, I don't know if she's missing or
00:01:33
if she just left. >> That was not unusual for your mom to pack her bags and disappear for a day,
00:01:41
right? >> Right. >> This isn't the first time she's done this, guys. >> Why is this so different?
00:01:46
>> Because nobody knew where she was at. >> I don't know. I think I'm >> And so another day goes by. As far as
00:01:51
I'm concerned, I'm not you know, alarmed yet. >> I began searching and searching.
00:01:58
>> We were running around. >> Looking at all the credit cards to see if there was a charge on it.
00:02:02
>> Dee Warner hasn't been seen since late April. >> She's just a mess that day, a complete
00:02:14
mess. Hyperventilating and throwing up and crying. >> The FBI searched Warner's Franklin
00:02:21
Township property. >> They've looked everywhere. >> 5 6 700 acres. We all went on foot.
00:02:30
>> The first year was a struggle. >> Authorities say they are constantly following up on tips.
00:02:38
>> It's been more than 2 years since Dee Warner's disappearance. >> There's not a day since she left that I
00:02:44
don't wonder what happened to her. >> When you're driving through here, are you still wondering where Dee is?
00:02:51
>> Yeah, you know, it sort of haunts you. >> She was reported missing more than 3
00:02:57
years ago. >> She never would have left like this, never. >> Never. >> Never. >> When do you miss your mother the most?
00:03:11
>> When life gets hard. >> Do you think Dee Warner was murdered? >> Yes. Wholeheartedly.
00:03:20
>> Absolutely. >> We have been struggling because everybody said you don't have a body,
00:03:25
you don't have a body. >> I know a no body homicide is very hard. >> Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you
00:03:32
won't. But don't sit around waiting for Santa Claus to come. You got to solve this case.
00:04:27
>> I remember riding my bike around there, riding the four-wheelers around there,
00:04:32
just being a kid. That was where I I grew up, so it's home. It'll always be home to me, but
00:04:38
it's home in a different way now. >> It was Sunday, April 25th, 2021, a spring morning in the farmland of
00:04:46
Lenawee County, Michigan. Rachael Bach drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly
00:04:54
breakfast with her mother, Dee Warner. >> Sundays, we would go up to my mom's first thing.
00:05:00
>> Rachael says that when her mom was not there and not answering calls or texts,
00:05:05
it just didn't feel right. >> If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to
00:05:11
a text message in 5 minutes, I was getting another one. Hello. >> One of Dee's cars, a Hummer, was parked
00:05:19
at the farm office just down the road. What about your mother's car that she drove all the time, the Cadillac?
00:05:25
>> It was parked in the garage. >> So, all your mother's cars are there? >> Yes.
00:05:31
>> And she's not responding to any kind of calls or texts? >> No. >> The fertilizer sprayer, usually parked
00:05:39
in a barn, was gone, and Rachael's stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it working. Was that normal?
00:05:47
>> Yeah, it was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day. >> Raquel went down the road to Dee's
00:05:56
brother Greg and his wife Shelley's house. >> She said, "We can't find her." And I'm like, "What do you mean you
00:06:03
can't find her?" They said, "Her car is here. We have called everybody. We don't
00:06:08
know where she's at." >> First thing I did was call her number. If she was somewhere, she would answer
00:06:13
my phone call. And then I texted her. >> And did you >> And nothing. >> Raquel and her aunt Shelley went driving
00:06:22
to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions. >> There were blankets laying on the couch
00:06:30
and tissues. Tissues everywhere. Everywhere there was these tissues. >> They looked upstairs in the bedroom and
00:06:39
bathroom for clues. >> Her makeup bag was gone, her curling iron and all of that stuff was gone.
00:06:45
>> Later they learned Dee's phone and passport were missing, too. >> The feeling that I had in my stomach was
00:06:51
nothing but fear. >> Zack Bock, another of Dee's four children from her first marriage, soon
00:06:58
came over to join the search. He went down to the farm office to look for any sign of his mom.
00:07:06
>> There's cameras here in the office. I'll look at the cameras. >> There was a security camera inside the
00:07:11
office and a few more outside. >> I never saw her walk to the office. I never a vehicle.
00:07:17
I didn't see her. >> And there was something else out of the ordinary. Their 9-year-old sister Lena,
00:07:26
Dee and Dale's only child together, had stayed at her cousin's house the night before and Dee hadn't yet called or come
00:07:34
to get her. >> Lena went everywhere with my mom. They were very, very close. >> And would she ever leave Lena behind
00:07:42
with Dale? >> Never. >> I called my siblings, we met up at my house, and we called the sheriff's
00:07:50
department. >> By now, it was late in the day on Sunday, and the Lenawee County Sheriff's
00:07:57
Office sent a deputy to talk to Dale. The conversation was recorded on a body camera.
00:08:05
>> I am Deputy of Lenawee County Sheriff's Office. How are you, sir? >> This and other body cam footage has been
00:08:11
adjusted at times for clarity. >> She was sleeping on the couch. >> Dale told police he had last seen Dee
00:08:19
that morning before he went out to work. >> And then this morning around 6:00 I got
00:08:24
up and you know, she was snoring away. I text her, she didn't answer, so I figured,
00:08:28
well, she's still sleeping. >> Dale seemed to believe his wife was alive and well, and that she left
00:08:35
intentionally. >> Well, her hair curler's gone. Her hair dryer's gone. Her makeup bag's
00:08:43
gone. I went in to see all that stuff gone and I was real concerned. >> He said she might be using another
00:08:49
phone. >> I told the other kids she's got a second phone. >> Do you have her phone number?
00:08:54
>> No, it's a secret phone that she doesn't know that I know she has it. >> Dale also told police that Dee had been
00:09:01
upset and suffering from a migraine the night before after an argument with two of her employees.
00:09:08
>> I think well, last night she was really upset. She was talking bad things as far as employees. One
00:09:16
employee decided to quit. We got three different businesses here, so the tensions are high all the time.
00:09:24
>> Dale and Dee ran three main businesses from their farm. Zach was their bookkeeper.
00:09:30
>> My mom ran essentially the office for all three businesses. >> There was a trucking business with about
00:09:38
15 employees that D managed. >> She always referred to it as her trucking business.
00:09:44
>> And there was the farm itself and a chemical company that sold fertilizer and seed.
00:09:50
>> Which was the most successful? Which did the best? >> 100% the trucking company.
00:09:56
>> Stephanie Vogel worked for Dale and Dee and describes Dee as a good business person, tough, generous, and
00:10:03
hardworking. But Raquel says that running that trucking business was not easy for Dee.
00:10:10
>> I know that she had a hard time getting respect from some of the farmers because
00:10:14
she was a woman and younger and pretty. >> Dale told police that conflict between
00:10:19
Dee and their employees was nothing new. >> She handled all the cases with employees. Well, she's pretty wired. You
00:10:26
know what I'm saying? She's pretty wired. >> I I don't know, but she's in your face and tell you how it
00:10:32
is. >> On Saturday, the day before she went missing, Dee had texted Stephanie asking
00:10:39
her how to block the driver who had quit from the company's Facebook page. >> I told her how to do it.
00:10:47
That was at 4:34 >> on Saturday afternoon, April 24th. >> Yep. And then at 4:44 I said, "Did you
00:10:56
tell Zach?" At 7:43 I said, "How are you?" And she never answered. >> That's the very last time you ever heard
00:11:09
from Dee Warner. >> Dee's sister-in-law, Shelly, wondered if the pressures had just become too much
00:11:21
for Dee. >> You're thinking at that point she might have taken her life? >> I did.
00:11:27
>> We were worried because of everyone's report of her emotional behavior. >> She had been upset and had an argument
00:11:34
on Friday and Saturday. >> The crescendo was building up. There might have been a breaking point.
00:11:56
>> Can you think of a day when no one knew where your mother was? A full day? >> No.
00:12:03
>> After hearing nothing from Dee Warner, some of those closest to her feared she
00:12:08
may have harmed herself. And they noticed that Dale, her husband, didn't seem very worried.
00:12:15
>> The sheriff will have her brought back home. >> Dale had told police that Dee, when
00:12:20
upset, had a history of spending the night elsewhere. >> I'm calling back. So, somebody picked
00:12:26
her up. >> And he said he thought she might come back eventually. >> I mean, I don't know what else to do
00:12:33
other than wait a day or so and see what she or Dee shows up. >> But the sheriff's office did not wait
00:12:39
for Dee to show up. They came out on Monday and Tuesday to conduct interviews and search the property.
00:12:46
On Thursday, 4 days after Dee disappeared, they searched the farm again. And Dale agreed to talk to them
00:12:54
at length at the kitchen table. >> The sheriff went out Saturday morning. >> Dale now told investigators that he and
00:13:03
Dee had had a fight on Saturday. He said she had accused him of talking about her
00:13:08
behind her back to the employees she had fought with, which Dale denied. >> And she hung up the phone and I had no
00:13:17
more contact with her the rest of the day. I tried calling her several times and
00:13:20
she wouldn't answer the phone. >> He said he didn't talk to Dee again until that evening at home when their
00:13:27
fight continued. >> She says she don't care about anybody, cares about me. Then what is the matter
00:13:32
if I'm even here? >> Dale and Dee have been partners in life and business since they started their
00:13:39
first company together in 2005, the year before they got married. Was this a love match?
00:13:47
Did you feel that way? >> No. She had a desire for success. >> Yes. >> I believe that's what her attraction
00:13:54
was. I really do. >> They weren't an obvious pair. Dee's family and friends say she loved
00:14:02
to have fun, dress up, go out, and dance. Dale, they say, just seemed to work a lot.
00:14:11
>> I don't know what she seen in him. I really don't. He doesn't like to do things with her.
00:14:17
I went on a cruise with her because he didn't want to go. >> Dale was fairly quiet, kind of distant from all
00:14:25
of us kids. >> When he did communicate, it was usually he kind of like to poke at
00:14:30
people where he knew would hurt the worst. >> Raquel says Dale helped feed Dee's
00:14:36
insecurities. >> I don't think she ever felt good enough. Like she felt like she had to prove
00:14:44
constantly everything in her life, her looks, her her money, her businesses, everything.
00:14:50
>> Dee's family later learned she had been having an affair. It didn't surprise them, they said, given the state of her
00:14:58
marriage. But police say her affair partner was out of town the weekend she went missing and could not have had
00:15:06
anything to do with the case. A week after her disappearance, Dee's brother Greg organized a search of the
00:15:15
land around her home. >> We all went on foot and we walked uh probably 5, 6 700 acres.
00:15:24
>> Wow. >> We we came up with zero. >> By now, Dee's family was growing suspicious of Dale.
00:15:33
On the day Dee went missing, Dale told each of them what happened, but they say they all heard slightly different
00:15:40
versions. >> She had a bad migraine headache. She was laying on the floor. He gave her
00:15:47
a massage. She went to sleep. He picked her up and put her on the couch about 12:30. He got up about 6:00, 6:30. He
00:15:56
left, but she was snoring on the couch. >> Zack says Dale told him he had had a fight with Dee.
00:16:03
>> He said that they had a really big fight the night before. >> But Raquel says Dale told her the fight
00:16:09
was no big deal. >> He said that they had a little fight the night before. And she was all mad and she won't answer
00:16:16
him now. >> And there was another odd detail in the story Dale told Dee's family and police
00:16:24
that Sunday. >> The only thing that's really strange, too, is this time she put her wedding
00:16:30
ring in her desk. Yeah, she's never done that before. >> Raquel, Zack, and Greg all say he showed
00:16:40
them that ring on Sunday, too. Seeming to offer it as proof that Dee had left intentionally
00:16:48
and maybe for good. But Greg says that ring is worth as much as $40,000, and leaving it behind didn't sound like
00:16:59
Dee. >> That's not my sister. Not only would she not give him the wedding ring back, she probably would
00:17:06
have thrown a Molotov cocktail in the house on her way out. >> As time passed, the family's suspicions
00:17:12
that Dale had harmed his wife only grew. About 6 weeks after Dee went missing, Greg says he confronted Dale about how
00:17:22
he thought the investigation was progressing. >> I asked him point blank, "Dale, what do
00:17:27
you think about your wife is still missing? She just disappeared into thin air?"
00:17:34
And he said to me, "Well, it it could be a little faster, but I think they're doing a good job."
00:17:39
And that's when I I told him, I said, "You know what? You're a liar." And uh And I told him, "I'll get you."
00:17:54
>> You told him that? >> Yeah. >> But believing Dale had something to do with Dee's disappearance was very
00:18:02
different from being able to prove it. The Michigan State Police and the FBI helped the county sheriff conduct a
00:18:10
large-scale search of their properties again in October. But there was still no sign of Dee alive
00:18:18
or dead. >> We had been struggling because everybody said you don't have a body. You don't
00:18:22
have a body. >> In February 2022, 10 months after Dee had gone missing, Shelly was watching an episode of 48
00:18:33
Hours featuring an investigator named Billy Little. >> You don't have a body. So what? You
00:18:39
don't get to get away with murder because you're good at disposing of bodies. >> So I thought, "Oh my gosh.
00:18:47
I I got to have Greg see this." So he watched it. And immediately when he said that, he said, "Get me that guy's
00:18:54
number." >> Every time you go by here, does it hurt a little bit? >> It It hurts a lot every time.
00:19:24
>> Greg Hardy was convinced Dale Warner was behind his sister's disappearance. Did
00:19:29
she love living here? >> She did. >> Although the sheriff's office had conducted at least seven searches
00:19:35
and interviewed Dale several times, Greg was growing impatient by what he saw as
00:19:41
a lack of progress. Authorities, says Greg, told him that without a body, it would be difficult to
00:19:48
charge Dale with murder. Which is why Greg called Billy Little. >> Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you
00:19:56
won't, but don't sit around and wait for Santa Claus to come. You got to solve this case.
00:20:00
>> Missouri-based attorney and investigator Billy Little made his first trip to Lenawee County in the spring of 2022.
00:20:10
>> My goal is always to just discover the truth, find out what happened. The nice thing about the truth is it
00:20:16
doesn't have a side. >> Billy Little got to work on his own investigation and learned from Dee's
00:20:22
family that the couple argued frequently, especially about money. >> This was not a happy marriage, a
00:20:29
marriage of endless love. >> Dee's adult children told him their mom had often talked about divorce, but that
00:20:38
she didn't want to split custody of their little sister Lena with Dale. Still, the day before Dee disappeared,
00:20:45
they say something had changed. >> Had you really seen your mother like that before?
00:20:52
>> Upset, yes. But this was just very different. She was like almost calm. >> Dee's kids say that she had finally had
00:21:01
enough and was going to tell Dale that night she wanted to sell the profitable trucking business and end her marriage.
00:21:10
>> This was Dee's life. Why did she want to sell the business? >> Because it had become too difficult
00:21:18
emotionally and personally for her. That's how bad the marriage had gotten. >> Greg told Billy Little that he thought
00:21:27
Dale was moving money between the businesses after Dee disappeared. Greg had already filed a civil suit to
00:21:34
protect Dee's interest and to get more information about what Dale was doing. >> Call it gut feeling if you'd like,
00:21:41
whatever you'd call it. >> In court documents, Dale says he did move money on the advice of
00:21:47
professionals. The more Billy Little learned, he says, the more he liked the family, became
00:21:54
convinced that Dee was no longer alive. >> The evidence that she's dead is the absence of evidence that she's alive. No
00:22:04
surveillance cameras, no electronic signature, her phone's not found, her bank accounts were never accessed, cash
00:22:10
wasn't taken from the house, even the ring. She didn't even take that. >> Greg and Billy Little tried to increase
00:22:20
the pressure on Dale. Friends had started a social media campaign called Justice for Dee, and
00:22:28
Greg paid for this billboard that he says he wrote sarcastically saying, "Help Dale find Dee." It went up at a
00:22:37
big intersection near Dale's farm, where Greg says drivers from the trucking company would be sure to see it every
00:22:45
day. >> Help Dale find Dee. Um it was part of almost psychological operations. >> But Little says he and Greg were mostly
00:22:56
focused on trying to find evidence to help build a murder case without a body. >> You got a lot of equipment. You've got a
00:23:04
lot of chemicals. There are a lot of ways to dispose of a body on a farm. >> And they continued to search
00:23:11
relentlessly for any trace of Dee. >> You can see there's a silo right over there. That's the location of where the
00:23:17
buildings were. >> This property, about 3 miles from Dale and Dee's home, is one of the places
00:23:25
that stood out to Greg. Six months after Dee disappeared, there was a fire where
00:23:31
the old farmhouse used to be, and Greg says the neighbors told him they thought Dale, who owned the property with Dee,
00:23:39
had set that fire. The fire was determined to be a controlled burn, which are common in the area.
00:23:47
Police searched this site in October 2021, just a few days after that fire. It's
00:23:54
not known what, if anything, they learned. Greg and Billy Little came here themselves the next year.
00:24:02
>> We use a drone to fly not only this site, but every site we could find around here. We flew a couple thousand
00:24:08
acres of drone footage. >> They found nothing conclusive, but that old farm was just one site they thought
00:24:17
was suspicious. >> There's basically three or four major sites that bother me. >> There was a field near Raquel's house
00:24:25
that Dale had farmed. >> Which one? Where is it? >> It's right around the corner here.
00:24:31
>> And another field two towns over that Dale had access to. And many more places Greg wanted police
00:24:39
to check further. >> And isn't the really hard part about this, Greg, is there's just so many
00:24:44
places? >> There are so many places. >> In August 2022, the Michigan State Police took over Dee's case.
00:24:53
Greg and Billy Little had pushed for this because they say the state police had more experience and resources than
00:25:00
the county sheriff. >> Okay. And what did you do after that? >> I laid down at the house and went to
00:25:08
sleep. >> After the state police took over the case, they interviewed Dale again and
00:25:15
pressed him on his story. Dale told them that the argument with that employee just before Dee disappeared was partly
00:25:23
about Dee taking money from the business. >> Dee said he called her outside and said,
00:25:28
"I know what you've been doing. You've been taking this money. I know you've been doing this.
00:25:33
And she's been having some kind of money problems." >> But police did not have evidence that
00:25:39
Dee had stolen money. In September, the family filed another suit to have Dee Warner declared legally dead. Greg says
00:25:49
he wanted to be able to file a wrongful death suit against Dale one day. The family waited for news on the
00:25:56
criminal case. And then, >> It was pretty crazy because we had a meeting with the prosecutor the same
00:26:02
day. And she gave me no indication. >> On November 21st, 2023, 2 and 1/2 years after Dee Warner went missing, the news
00:26:13
came that her husband Dale was under arrest. Stephanie was preparing for her mother's
00:26:21
funeral when she got the call. >> Raquel's boyfriend called me. And he said Dale was arrested for
00:26:28
murder. And I fell to my knees at the funeral home. I was just so happy. >> Dale Warner was charged with the murder
00:26:40
of his wife Dee. >> Mr. Warner does enter a plea not guilty. >> He pleaded not guilty.
00:26:48
And Dee's family braced themselves for a long legal battle ahead. >> However long it took,
00:26:57
we wouldn't stop fighting. >> You had to testify. Were you nervous? >> Yeah. I mean,
00:27:22
all you do is tell the truth. So, that's what I kept telling myself. >> On May 1st, 2024, just a little more
00:27:30
than 3 years after Dee Warner disappeared, her friends and family gathered here, at the Lenawee County
00:27:37
District Court, for the first day of Dale Warner's preliminary hearing. >> All rise, please.
00:27:43
>> It would be up to Judge Anna Frushour to decide if the case should move to trial.
00:27:49
>> I was worried because there is so little physical evidence. >> There is no body. There are no body parts.
00:27:57
>> Dee had been recently declared dead in civil court, but Dale Warner's defense
00:28:02
attorney, Mary Chartier, said, "This was a fact prosecutors would need to establish themselves in the criminal
00:28:09
case." >> Whether Ms. Warner is dead is something that the the government needs to prove.
00:28:15
>> Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth? >> But the state was determined to show
00:28:19
that while there was no body, there was also no evidence that Dee was still alive.
00:28:25
>> Since April 24th, 2021, have you seen Dee Warner? >> No. >> Have you heard from Dee Warner?
00:28:32
>> No. In the months leading up to Dee going missing, >> and prosecutor Jackie White worked to
00:28:40
show there was no evidence that Dee had taken off on her own. >> She's got a second phone.
00:28:47
>> She asked Stephanie vocal about that secret phone that Dale claimed his wife had.
00:28:53
>> Did she ever discuss getting a second phone with you? >> She did. She had asked me to look
00:28:59
into pricing and trying to find one for her. Yes. >> Okay, so up until April 25th, 2021, did you ever purchase that
00:29:08
phone? >> No. >> Could she have bought the phone on her own? >> Yeah, she could have bought it on her
00:29:13
own, but she would have had somebody else set it up. She was not tech-savvy. >> People would call Daniel Dureyor.
00:29:21
>> Michigan State Police Detective Daniel Dureyor is the lead investigator on this
00:29:27
case. >> Do you swear to you swear to tell the truth? >> He testified about the exhaustive
00:29:31
searches law enforcement did to find any trace of activity from D over the 3 years she had been missing.
00:29:39
>> We did search warrants for health care records, phone records. We searched numerous vehicles. We got records for
00:29:45
social media. We did several land searches. >> All their searches came up empty, but
00:29:52
D's daughter Raquel had noticed something curious at the Warner home. On the sand, she said that on the day
00:30:00
her mother disappeared, she saw tire tracks by the back of the house. >> There were two tracks that led up to the
00:30:08
sliding glass door. >> There were no security cameras pointed at this part of the property, but the
00:30:15
prosecution suggested that the tracks Raquel saw were left by Dale using the farm's JCB front-end loader to remove
00:30:24
D's body from their home. >> When parking the front-end loader, the JCB in the spot, the bucket attached to
00:30:31
it fits between those two pillars and you can set it on the deck up against the back door.
00:30:37
>> Remember, Dale said his wife was asleep in the living room when he left that morning, close to those sliding doors.
00:30:49
>> In his 2022 interview with police, Dale had an explanation for those tracks. He
00:30:55
said he thought he used the loader to go back to the house and get his worksheet
00:31:00
for the sprayer at around 6:30 a.m. >> No evidence that Ms. Warner is dead and no evidence that she was murdered was
00:31:20
found, correct? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The defense emphasized there was no evidence Dale Warner had anything to do
00:31:27
with Dee's disappearance. And in fact, his statements about what he was doing that morning were supported
00:31:34
by security videos around the farm. The videos played in court show Dale at 7:00
00:31:41
a.m. using that front end loader. At 7:45 a.m. police say he texts Dee, "Going to be spraying. Call you later."
00:31:52
He is seen 3 minutes later driving a sprayer onto the road and returning at 8:13 a.m.
00:32:00
>> So, you have the sprayer records for the John Deere and then did you actually
00:32:03
even do a sprayer reenactment? >> We did, yes, ma'am. >> Consistent with what Mr. Warner said,
00:32:08
right? >> Consistent with the time that occurred on that morning, yes. >> The defense also argued that Dale had
00:32:15
not acted like a guilty man. >> Are you Dale? >> He allowed police to search his
00:32:21
properties and spoke to them many times after Dee disappeared. Only parts of a few of those interviews
00:32:28
were played in court, but his attorney said that Dale had repeatedly denied harming Dee.
00:32:35
>> Of all the phone calls interviews with Mr. Warner, he never once said I he harmed his wife, correct?
00:32:43
>> Correct. >> He was always adamant that he did not, correct? >> Yes. >> Over and over the defense underscored
00:32:51
the lack of physical evidence in the case. >> Do you have a murder weapon in this
00:32:55
case? >> No, ma'am. >> Big pool of blood, anything like that? >> No, we have no forensic evidence of that
00:32:59
nature, no, ma'am. >> They honed in on Mr. Warner from the beginning. >> In her final statement to the judge,
00:33:06
Mary Chartier argues that there is no basis for the charges. >> If he murdered his wife, where on earth
00:33:15
is Ms. Warner? >> Since 4:25 2021, nobody has heard from or seen Dee Warner. >> Prosecutor Jackie Weiss maintained that
00:33:28
the state's case was strong. >> All we're required to prove at this stage is probable cause to believe that
00:33:36
Dale Warner killed Dee Warner, and probable cause standard has been met. >> The decision was now with the judge, and
00:33:44
Dee's supporters were worried. Would Dale now face the murder charge at trial, or would he walk out as a free
00:33:51
man? >> The thought of him getting out was just scary. Do we have enough? >> All rise, please.
00:34:16
>> How nervous were you before the judge issues the ruling? >> So, I was horrible. It was so horrible.
00:34:25
I felt like I could just curl up in a ball, and Oh. >> On June 7th, 2024, Judge Anna Freschauer
00:34:40
returned to court with her decision. She first spoke about Dee. >> Dee Warner was a woman with a big heart
00:34:47
and a temper. She cared for her children and grandchildren and employees. There was nothing in the evidence that
00:34:54
suggested she would disappear intentionally, especially from her children. >> And there was nothing she heard, the
00:35:00
judge said, that made her feel differently. >> The statements by Dale Warner of a
00:35:05
secret phone >> She's got a secret phone. >> and someone coming to pick up Dee Warner
00:35:09
>> She's with someone, somewhere. >> were not supported by any facts or evidence in this case.
00:35:14
>> But there was enough evidence, she said, to believe that Dee Warner was dead, and
00:35:19
that her husband was likely the one behind it. >> There's probable cause that Dee Warner
00:35:24
died by homicide at the hands of the defendant, Dale Warner. >> All right. >> This is reality. They think that there's
00:35:32
enough evidence that he killed our mom to go to trial. >> Dale Warner has been ordered to stand
00:35:39
trial for the murder of his wife, but Billy little knows the real work is still ahead.
00:35:45
>> My fear for getting past the preliminary hearing is probably a one out of 10.
00:35:49
Um my fear of getting a conviction at trial is probably an eight out of 10. >> It's a high bar.
00:35:58
>> Yeah. >> Law enforcement was still searching for physical evidence, and in August 2024,
00:36:06
two months after that preliminary hearing concluded, that's exactly what they found.
00:36:13
>> Breaking news in the case of Dee Warner. >> Dee's family heard about it first.
00:36:19
>> I received a a message that said, "We need to have an emergency meeting with the detectives."
00:36:27
>> They met detectives at Greg and Gelly's farm. Police told them they had gone back to a property that Dale and Dee
00:36:34
owned and taken away a large metal tank that was used to store fertilizer. According to a search warrant, that tank
00:36:43
had a non-factory weld on the back and a sign on it that said, "Out of service. Do not fill."
00:36:52
When the tank was scanned, investigators finally found what they had been looking
00:36:58
for. >> It was my mom. Well, it was a body in a tank. >> It took just days, authorities say, to
00:37:07
confirm that the body inside that tank was Dee Warner. Her death was ruled a homicide.
00:37:17
And how did she die? >> Uh they're not sharing that with me. >> Authorities are not granting any
00:37:23
interviews about this case before the trial. But that warrant also says that security video from the day Dee was
00:37:31
reported missing showed Dale in one of the farm buildings searching for something near the welding equipment.
00:37:39
For 3 years, police have been looking for Dee's body underground. And now they had come to believe that she might have
00:37:47
been concealed above ground. >> The tank was in this agricultural storage building right behind me.
00:37:55
>> And was the cylinder right in here? >> Yeah, it was parked here. >> So, Dale would have access to all of
00:38:00
this. >> Greg says he has no doubt now that Dale killed Dee and hid her body. >> All these things point in one single
00:38:11
direction, clearly, without any question. >> And that's a Dale. >> That's correct.
00:38:16
>> Dale's defense attorney declined to speak to 48 Hours on camera, but she told us that Dale maintains his
00:38:23
innocence and said in this email they're prepared to vigorously fight for him in
00:38:29
court and present his defense. Isn't it likely that Dale's going to argue, well,
00:38:36
that was a cylinder sitting out in a barn. Anybody had access to that cylinder. Someone could have come into
00:38:42
his own barn and put your mom? >> Absolutely. I mean, he he can say anything. >> Raquel says finding her mom's body after
00:38:56
these three long years gave the family a sense of peace. >> I wanted to shout from the rooftops
00:39:04
to everybody that she didn't leave us willingly. >> Dee's family later dressed in a private
00:39:13
burial soon after her body was identified. Her daughter Lena, now 12, was with them.
00:39:21
>> The one thing that she knows for sure that was her mother there. That her mother didn't leave her.
00:39:29
It was real. >> It's like you get hit in the stomach every time. I miss her laughter and
00:39:38
her comfort. >> You miss her? >> Very much. I miss her every day. >> Raquel and Zach say they miss their
00:39:50
mother deeply and that her death has changed them in profound ways. >> I'm now 3 years sober
00:39:59
and shortly after she went missing I started my own real estate company. I stopped being scared of failing on
00:40:09
something cuz there was nothing left to lose. >> She's my mom's spirit. Very a hard working and driven and
00:40:23
determined. >> Your children will grow up hearing about D. >> Yeah. >> What will you tell them about your
00:40:32
mother? >> Oh. My mom enjoyed being a grandma so much. They will always remember how she would
00:40:47
have been there. My mom would have been there for everything. >> CBS next Saturday. A young girl found
00:41:05
dead in a swamp. >> Did this look like an accident or something else? >> Something entirely different.
00:41:10
>> A decades-old mystery with a surprising answer. >> Oh, no. >> Oh, no. >> I never would have guessed how this
00:41:17
ended. >> 48 Hours is all new. CBS next Saturday 10:00 9:00 Central and streaming on
00:41:22
Paramount Plus.