Dale Warner found guilty in death of wife Dee Warner. What to know

Charles E. Ramirez and Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News on Jul 31, 2026

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DETROIT — Dale Warner, a Tecumseh farmer, was accused in 2023 of killing his wife, Dee Warner, and putting her body in a sealed fertilizer tank.

Dee Warner was last seen in April 2021 at her Munger Road home in Franklin Township. She was 52 at the time. Police said the day before she vanished, she, her husband and one or two of their workers had argued about the finances of the Warners’ farming businesses.

Lenawee County Sheriff's deputies initially investigated her disappearance with the help of the FBI. In 2022, the sheriff's office requested that the Michigan State Police take over the search.

Dale Warner was ordered in June 2024 to stand trial in connection with his wife's death. Dee Warner's remains were found on her husband's property and identified two months later.

Dale Warner's trial in Lenawee Circuit Court in Adrian began in January. And a jury in March found Warner guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence after deliberating for nine hours over two days.

Lenawee County Circuit Judge Michael Olsaver sentenced Warner to a minimum of 31 years in prison and up to 60 years for second-degree murder.

"Unfortunately, this is one of those tragedies where the chapter doesn't always end," Olsaver said before sentencing Warner. "Some will never recover from the injuries and psychological harm they experienced as a result of these crimes."

The search for Dee Warner

Police looked for her for three years, using cadaver dogs, ground-penetrating radar and forensic excavations.

The search ended in 2024 in a storage building on a Warner farm in Tipton in northern Lenawee County. Her body was inside a fertilizer tank that was cut open and resealed.

Dee Warner, a mother of five, was strangled and placed into a fertilizer tank that was resealed, repainted and placed into a farm building with other equipment, police said. A tag affixed to it read “Do not use.”

The farm was located two miles from the Warners’ home in Tecumseh.

Dale Warner told police he last saw his wife sleeping on their sofa when he went into work at 6 a.m.

He said he wasn’t alarmed by her absence because they had had a fight and, after past arguments, she would leave for a spell. Her makeup bag and hair dryer also were gone, he told police.

He told police they had fought over money and infidelity. Police said his remarks were riddled with inconsistencies.

The Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office originally investigated the case and the Michigan State Police took it over in August 2023. Warner was arrested three months later.

Kevin Greca, a sheriff’s detective involved in the original investigation, was arrested in December in Ohio.

Greca, who retired in 2024, allegedly had resisted efforts by prosecutors to arrange his testimony during the murder trial. It wasn’t known what his testimony might involve.

Details emerge about the marriage of Dale and Dee Warner

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Dee Warner’s family shed some light on her marriage to Dale. They were married in 2006.

The legal action, filed last year in Lenawee Circuit Court, described Dale Warner as controlling and violent, once tossing his wife into a dresser during an argument.

The lawsuit said Dale had asked a farm worker to buy a GPS tracker to place on his wife’s car.

He also had asked another worker to copy the contents of his wife’s phone, according to the lawsuit, which sought $100 million in damages from Dale Warner for Dee's death.