It wasn’t unusual for Dee Warner to leave home when she was upset, her family and friends said. April 25, 2021, however, was different.
That day, the 52-year-old businesswoman and mother of five disappeared and didn’t respond to messages or calls, sparking an investigation that lasted years.
A new “20/20” episode, “Help Dale Find Dee,” airing Friday, Oct. 23, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines Warner’s case.
You can get more behind the scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Warner, who lived in a small community in southeastern Michigan, was known for her fiery personality and care for others.
“[She was] vibrant, loving, nurturing,” her daughter Rikkell Bock told ABC News’ Linsey Davis. “Always somebody that was wanting to take care of people.”
Bock went to Warner’s house that Sunday morning with her partner and two children, but her mother was nowhere to be found. She began to worry after her mother didn’t respond to messages and calls.
Warner’s husband, Dale, said he saw his wife at 6 a.m. that day, when he left to go spray the crops the couple managed on their farm. Her children called police that Sunday evening to report her missing.
Dale Warner told authorities in initial interviews that he was not worried about Warner’s disappearance, as it was typical for her to leave after an argument, which he said the couple had engaged in the night before she went missing. He insisted he had no knowledge of her whereabouts.
Searches of the home revealed no initial evidence of a murder scene. Warner appeared to have taken her toiletry bag and hair tools with her, and her wedding ring was left on Dale Warner’s desk.
After requesting a ping of Warner’s phone, police discovered it had been off since 7:14 a.m. on Sunday.
The Warners owned an agricultural business, a trucking company, and a commercial spraying and farm services company. According to prosecutors, the only part that was going well financially at the time of Warner’s disappearance was the trucking company, which was entirely in her name. The others were shared with Dale Warner.
On the night of her disappearance, Warner was supposedly planning on telling her husband she wanted a divorce, according to her friend Stephanie Voelkle.
Suspicious of Dale Warner and his apparent lack of assistance in search efforts, Warner’s brother, Gregg Hardy, bought a billboard that read “Help Dale Find Dee” to put pressure on his brother-in-law.
It escalated when townspeople began urging state police to take over the investigation and took to the streets chanting “Jail for Dale.” The Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office ultimately turned over the case to the Michigan State Police.
Investigators learned Dale Warner had made an internet search following Warner’s disappearance in which he clicked on a video showing how to bury a 1,000-gallon propane tank.
Michigan State Police launched a large-scale search of the couple’s property, which spanned 1,500 acres. Believing Warner could be buried somewhere there, teams began searching underground.
Warner’s family member also reported tracks from heavy machinery leading up to the house where a car was usually parked, indicating the machine could have been used to haul Warner’s body from the house.
Though a body had not yet been found, police felt they had enough information to arrest Dale Warner in November 2023. He pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife.
Eventually, police came across a suspicious looking anhydrous tank — a heavy-duty, pressurized metal container — on the property with a fresh coat of paint and sticker that read “do not use.” An X-ray revealed Warner’s body inside — she was in her pajamas, barefoot and wrapped in a tarp.
The body was well-preserved due to the tank’s conditions, and medical examiners determined that she died of strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.
In February 2026, at Dale Warner’s trial, prosecutors alleged that killed his wife and stored her body in the tank. They claimed he learned that night he was facing a divorce that would have left him with a struggling farm business.
Dale Warner was found guilty and sentenced to up to 70 years in prison. His attorney said he will seek an appeal.
Hardy said he grieved his sister the day he knew she was gone, and that his life will never be the same without her. Warner’s daughter, Bock, wants to remember who she was in life.
“What happened to her does not define who she is,” Bock said. “She was a strong, strong woman and the people that knew her the most knew that they could rely on her for whatever it was and that is the truth. She was a good person.”
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