48 Hours - The No Body Case Of Dee Warner

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

When a woman disappears, her children are certain she’s been murdered. But without a body, they know it will be hard to get justice. Erin Moriarty reports. To learn more about listener data and ou...r privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Where's mom? I called her phone and it went straight to voicemail. I've never seen my mom not answer her phone. Where are you? What are you doing? No response. Something's not right. Something wasn't right. My name is Zach Fock. I am Raquel.
Starting point is 00:00:28 My mom was Dee Warner. Dee was my mom. Raquel called me. She was at mom's house and she couldn't find her. find her. Her cars were there. She wasn't there. There's no chance that she would not drive the escalade to wherever the hell she was going. Not my sister. My mom was a very bubbly, outgoing person.
Starting point is 00:00:52 She made you laugh. There wasn't a day that I was in the office where we weren't laughing. She's a very, very good businesswoman. She's very smart. She could be very tough. You didn't want to be in her bad side. She was a good sister. She spoke the truth. You knew where you stood with her. She was always done up. Her nails were done. Her hair was done.
Starting point is 00:01:13 Her eyelashes were done. Always ready to go and beautiful. We report her missing at night, Sunday night. Hello. Are you Dale? Your wife is missing? Well, I don't know what she's missing or she just left. That was not unusual for your mom to pack her bags
Starting point is 00:01:40 and disappear for a day, right? Right? This isn't the first time she's done this, guys. Why is this so different? Because nobody knew where she was at. I don't know. Until another day goes by. Right.
Starting point is 00:01:53 I'm concerned, but I'm not. You know, modern? Yeah. I began searching and searching. We were running around. Looking at all the credit cards to see if there was a charge on it. Dee Warner hasn't been seen since late April. She had an altercation.
Starting point is 00:02:07 You know, I'm sorry. I'm sad. She's just a mess that day, a complete mess, hyperventilating and throwing up and crying. The FBI searched Warner's Franklin Township property. They've looked everywhere. Five, six, 700 acres. We all went on foot. The first year was a struggle.
Starting point is 00:02:35 Authorities say they are constantly following up on tips. It's been more than two years since DeWarner's disappearance. There's not a day since she left that I don't wonder what happened. When you're driving through here, are you still wondering where Dee is? Yeah, you know, that sort of haunt you. She was reported missing more than three years ago. She never would have left like this. Never. Never.
Starting point is 00:03:03 Never. When do you miss your mother the most? It gets hard. Do you think Dee Warner was murdered? Yes. Wholeheartedly. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:03:22 We had been struggling because everybody's struggling because everybody said you don't have a body, you don't have a body. I know a no body homicide is very hard. Maybe you'll find the body. Maybe you won't. But don't sit around waiting for Santa Claus to come. You've got to solve this case. Erin Moriarty reports the nobody case of D. Warner.
Starting point is 00:03:52 I remember riding my bike around there, riding the four-wheelers around there, just being a kid. That was where I grew up. So it's home, it'll always be home to me, but it's home in a different way now. It was Sunday, April 25th, 2021, a spring morning in the farmland of Lenoa County, Michigan. Raquel Bach drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly breakfast with her mother, D. Warner. Sundays, we would go to my mom's first thing. Raquel says that when her mom was not there and not answering calls or texts, It just didn't feel right.
Starting point is 00:04:35 If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would. If I didn't respond to a text message in five minutes, I was getting another one. Hello. One of these cars, a Hummer, was parked at the farm office just down the road. What about your mother's car that she drove all the time, the Cadillac?
Starting point is 00:04:54 It was parked in the garage. So all your mother's cars are there? Yes. And she's not responding to any kind of calls or text. No. The fertilizer sprayer usually parked in a barn was gone, and Raquel's stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it working. Was that normal?
Starting point is 00:05:16 Yeah. It was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day. Raquel went down the road to Dee's brother Greg and his wife, Shelley's house. She said, we can't find her. And I'm like, what do you mean you can't find her? They said, her car's here. We have called everybody. We don't know where she's at.
Starting point is 00:05:39 First thing I did was call her number. If she was somewhere, she would answer my phone call. And then I texted her. And did you? And nothing. Rekyll and her Aunt Shelley went driving to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions. There were blankets laying on the couch and tissues.
Starting point is 00:06:00 Tissues everywhere. Everywhere, there was these tissues. They looked upstairs in the bedroom and bathroom for clues. Her makeup bag was gone, her curling iron and all of that stuff was gone. Later they learned Dee's phone and passport were missing too. The feeling that I had in my stomach was nothing but fear. Zach Vock, another of Dee's four children from her first marriage, soon came over to join the search. He went down to the farm office to look for any sign of his mom.
Starting point is 00:06:34 There's cameras here in the office. I'll look at the cameras. There was a security camera inside the office and a few more outside. I never saw her walk to the office. I never saw her drive a vehicle. I didn't see her. And there was something else out of the ordinary. Their nine-year-old sister Lena,
Starting point is 00:06:55 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 to get her. Lena went everywhere with my mom. They were very, very close. And would she ever leave Lena behind with Dale? Never. I called my siblings.
Starting point is 00:07:16 We met up at my house and we called the Sheriff's Department. By now, it was late in the day on Sunday, and the Lanoaway County Sheriff's Office sent a deputy to talk to Dale. The conversation was recorded on a body camera. I am empty off, my only county sheriff's office. How are you, sir? This and other body cam footage has been adjusted at times for clarity. She was sleeping on the couch.
Starting point is 00:07:45 Dale told police he had last seen D that morning before he went out to work. And then this morning around 6 o'clock I got up and, you know, she was snoring away. I texted her and she didn't answer, so I figured, well, she's still sleeping. Dale seemed to believe his wife was alive and well, and that she lived. left intentionally. Well, her hair turn was gone, her hair drive's gone, the makeup bag's gone. I wouldn't even see all that stuff gone.
Starting point is 00:08:14 I wasn't real concerned. He said she might be using another phone. I told the other kids she's got a second phone. You even have a phone number, 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 upset and suffering from a migraine the night before. after an argument with two of her employees.
Starting point is 00:08:37 I came home last night and she was really upset. She was talking with bad things as far as employees, the one employee decided to quit. We got three different businesses here, so the tensions are high all the time. Dale and Dee ran three main businesses from their farm. Zach was their bookkeeper. My mom ran essentially the office for all three.
Starting point is 00:09:04 businesses. There was a trucking business with about 15 employees that Dee managed. She always referred to it as her trucking business. And there was the farm itself, and a chemical company that sold fertilizer and seed. Which was the most successful? Which did the best? 100% the trucking company. Stephanie Vogel worked for Dale and Dee and describes Dee as a good business person, tough, generous, and hardworking. But, Raquel says that running that trucking business was not easy for Dee. I know that she had a hard time getting respect from some of the farmers because she was a woman and younger and pretty. Dale told police that conflict between Dee and their employees was nothing new.
Starting point is 00:09:51 I mean, she got all occasions with quite two people. I mean, she's pretty white, if you know, my wife. I don't know, but she's in your face and tell you how it is. On Saturday, the day before she went missing, Dia texted Stephanie asking her how to block the driver who had quit from the company's Facebook page. I told her how to do it. That was at 434. On Saturday afternoon, April 24th. Yep. And then at 444, I said, did you tell Zach? At 743, I said, how are you? And she never answered.
Starting point is 00:10:36 That's the very last time you ever heard from Dee Warner. Dee's sister-in-law, Shelly, wondered if the pressures had just become too much for Dee. You're thinking at that point she might have taken her life? I did. We were worried because of everyone's report of her emotional behavior. She had been upset and had an argument on Friday and Saturday. The crescendo was building up. There might have been a breaking point.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Can you think of a day when no one knew where you're... your mother was, a full day. No. After hearing nothing from Dee Warner, some of those closest to her feared she may have harmed herself. And they noticed that Dale, her husband, didn't seem very worried.
Starting point is 00:11:43 She'll cool off and start her back home. Dale had told police that Dee, when upset, had a history of spending the night elsewhere. She took all her bag, so somebody picked her up. And he said, he thought. He thought she might come back eventually. I don't know what else to do other than wait a day or someone to see what Sheriff's shows up.
Starting point is 00:12:05 But the Sheriff's Office did not wait for Dee to show up. They came out on Monday and Tuesday to conduct interviews and search the property. On Thursday, four days after Dee disappeared, they searched the farm again. And Dale agreed to talk to them at length, at the kitchen table. It started going out on Saturday morning. Dale now told investigators that he and Dee had had a fight on Saturday. He said she had accused him of talking about her behind her back to the employees she had fought with, which Dale denied. And she hanged up the phone, and I had no more protected for the rest of the day.
Starting point is 00:12:46 I could try to call her several times and she wouldn't answer to phone. He said he didn't talk to Dee again until that evening at home when their fight. continued. She says, you don't hear about me, nobody cares about me. What is it bad if I'm even here? Dale and Dee had been partners in life and business since they started their first company together in 2005, the year before they got married. Was this a love match?
Starting point is 00:13:15 Did you feel that way? No. She had a desire for success. Yes. I believe that's what her attraction was. I really do. They weren't an obvious. obvious pair. Dee's family and friends say she loved to have fun, dress up, go out, and dance.
Starting point is 00:13:33 Dale, they say, just seem to work a lot. I don't know what she's seen in him. I really don't. He doesn't like to do things with her. I went on a cruise with her because he didn't want to go. Dale was fairly quiet, kind of distant from all of us kids. When he was, When he did communicate, it was usually he kind of like to poke at people where he knew would hurt the worst. Raquel says Dale helped feed Dee's insecurities. I don't think she ever felt good enough. Like she felt like she had to prove constantly everything in her life. Her looks, her money, her businesses, everything.
Starting point is 00:14:18 Dee's family later learned she had been having an affair. It didn't surprise them they said. said, given the state of her marriage, but police say her affair partner was out of town the weekend she went missing and could not have had anything to do with the case. A week after her disappearance, Dee's brother Greg organized the search of the land around her home. We all went on foot and we walked probably five, six, seven hundred acres. Wow. We came up zero.
Starting point is 00:14:55 By now, Dee's family was growing suspicious of Dale. On the day, Dee went missing. Dale told each of them what happened, but they say they all heard slightly different versions. She had a bad migraine headache. She was laying on the floor. He gave her a massage. She went to sleep.
Starting point is 00:15:17 He picked her up and put her on the couch about 12.30. He got up about 6. 630, he left, but she was snoring on the couch. Zach says Dale told him he had had a fight with Dee. He said that they had a really big fight the night before. But Raquel says Dale told her the fight 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 him now.
Starting point is 00:15:45 And there was another odd detail in the story. Dale told Dee's family and police that Sunday. The only thing that's really strange too is this time she put her wedding ring in my desk. Yeah, she's never done that before. Raquel, Zach and Greg all say he showed them that ring on Sunday too, seeming to offer it as proof that Dee had left intentionally and maybe for good. But Greg says that ring is worth as much as 45,000. as $40,000, and leaving it behind didn't sound like Dee.
Starting point is 00:16:28 That's not my sister. Not only would she not give him the wedding ring back, she probably would have thrown a Molotov cocktail in the house on her way out. As time passed, the family's suspicions that Dale had harmed his wife only grew. About six weeks after Dee went missing, Greg says he confronted Dale about how he thought The investigation was progressing. I asked him point blank, Dale, what do you think about? Your wife's still missing.
Starting point is 00:16:58 She just disappeared in thin air. And he said to me, well, it could be a little faster, but I think they're doing a good job. And that's one I told him. I said, you know what? You're a liar. And I told him, I'll get you. You told him that.
Starting point is 00:17:22 Yeah. But believing Dale had something to do with Dee's disappearance was very different from being able to prove it. The Michigan State Police and the FBI helped the county sheriff conduct a large-scale search of their properties again in October. But there was still no sign of D, alive or dead. We had been struggling because everybody said, you don't have a body, you don't have a body. In February 2022, 10 months after Dia had gone missing, Shelly was watching an episode of 48 hours featuring an investigator named Billy Little. You don't have a body. So what? You don't get to get away with murder because you're good at disposing of bodies.
Starting point is 00:18:12 So I thought, oh my gosh, I got to have Greg see this. So he watched it. And immediately when he said that, he said, get me that guy. number. Every time you go by here, does it hurt a little bit? It hurts a lot every time. Greg Hardy was convinced Dale Warner was behind his sister's disappearance. Did she love living here? She did.
Starting point is 00:18:49 Although the sheriff's office had conducted at least seven searches and interviewed Dale several times, Greg was growing impatient by what he saw as a lack of progress. Authority, says Greg, told him that without a by... it would be difficult to charge Dale with murder, which is why Greg called Billy Little. Maybe you'll find the body, maybe you won't. But don't sit around and wait for Santa Claus to come. You got to solve this case.
Starting point is 00:19:18 Missouri-based attorney and investigator Billy Little made his first trip to Lenoway County in the spring of 2022. My goal is always to just discover the truth, find out what happened. Then I say about the truth is it doesn't have a side. Billy Little got to work on his own investigation and learned from Dee's family that the couple argued frequently, especially about money. This was not a happy marriage, a marriage of endless love. Dee's adult children told him their mom had often talked about divorce,
Starting point is 00:19:56 but that she didn't want to split custody of their little sister, Lena, with Dale. Still, the day before Dee disappeared, they say something had changed. Had you really seen your mother like that before? Upset, yes. But this was just very different. She was, like, almost calm. Dee's kids say that she had finally had enough and was going to tell Dale that night she wanted to sell the profitable trucking business
Starting point is 00:20:26 and end her marriage. This was Dee's life. Why did she want to sell the business? Because it had become too difficult emotionally and personally for her. That's how bad the marriage had gotten. Greg told Billy Little that he thought Dale was moving money between the businesses after Dee disappeared. Greg had already filed a civil suit to protect Dee's interests and to get more information about what Dale was doing. Call it gut feeling if you'd like, whatever you'd call it.
Starting point is 00:21:00 In court documents, Dale says he did move money on the advice of professionals. The more Billy Little learned, he says, the more he liked the family, became convinced that Dee was no longer alive. The evidence that she's dead is the absence of evidence that she's alive. No surveillance cameras, no electronic signature, her phone's not found, her bank accounts for her never access, cash wasn't taken from the house, even the ring. She didn't even take that.
Starting point is 00:21:35 Greg and Billy Little tried to increase the pressure on Dale. Friends had started a social media campaign called Justice for Dee, and Greg paid for this billboard that he says he wrote sarcastically saying, help Dale find Dee. It went up at a big intersection near Dale's farm, where Greg says drivers from the trucking company would be sure to see it every day. Help Dale Findee. It was part of almost psychological operations.
Starting point is 00:22:12 But Little says he and Greg were mostly focused on trying to find evidence to help build a murder case without a body. You've got a lot of equipment. You've got a lot of chemicals. There are a lot of ways to dispose of a body on a farm. And they continue. to search relentlessly for any trace of Dee. You can see there's a silo right over there. That's the location of where the buildings were. This property, about three miles from Dale and Dee's home,
Starting point is 00:22:42 is one of the places that stood out to Greg. Six months after Dee disappeared, there was a fire where the old farmhouse used to be. And Greg says the neighbors told him they thought Dale, who owned the property with Dee, had set that fire. The fire was determined to be a controlled burn, which are common in the area.
Starting point is 00:23:06 Police searched this site in October 2021 just a few days after that fire. It's not known what, if anything, they learned. Greg and Billy Little came here themselves the next year. We use a drone to fly not only this site, but every site we could find around here. We flew a couple thousand acres of, of drone footage.
Starting point is 00:23:29 They found nothing conclusive, but that old farm was just one site they thought was suspicious. There's basically three or four major sites that bother me. There was a field near Raquel's house that Dale had farmed. Which one? Where is it? It's around the corner here. And another field, two towns over, that Dale had access to. And many more places great.
Starting point is 00:23:57 Greg wanted police to check further. And isn't the really hard part about this, Greg, is there's just so many places. There are so many places. In August 2022, the Michigan State Police took over Dee's case. Greg and Billy Little had pushed for this because they say the state police had more experience and resources than the county sheriff.
Starting point is 00:24:20 Okay. And what do you do that for that? I had back to the house when you know, Bill's spring. After the state police took over the case, they interviewed Dale again and pressed him on his story. Dale told them that the argument with that employee just before Dee disappeared was partly about D taking money from the business. Dia said he called her all of a sudden I know what you've been doing. She'd been taking this money and I know you've been doing this. But police did not have evidence that D had started doing it anymore.
Starting point is 00:24:54 But police did not have evidence that D had stolen. stolen money. In September, the family filed another suit to have Dee Warner declared legally dead. Greg says he wanted to be able to file a wrongful death suit against Dale one day. The family waited for news on the criminal case. And then... It was pretty crazy because we had a meeting with the prosecutor the same day. And she gave me no indication. On November 21st, 23, two and a half years after D. Warner went missing, the news came that her husband Dale was under arrest. Stephanie was preparing for her mother's funeral when she got the call.
Starting point is 00:25:43 Raquel's boyfriend called me, and he said Dale was arrested for murder. And I fell to my knees at the funeral home. Just so happy. Dale Warner was charged with the murder of his wife, Dee. Mr. Warner does enter a plea not guilty. He pleaded not guilty. And Dee's family brace themselves for a long legal battle ahead. However long it took, we wouldn't stop fighting.
Starting point is 00:26:24 Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mystery. is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailan Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of The Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious.
Starting point is 00:26:51 You had to testify. Were you nervous? Yeah. I mean, all you do is tell the truth. truth. So that's what I kept telling myself. On May 1st, 2024, just a little more than three years after D. Warner disappeared. Her friends and family gathered here at the Lanoaway County District Court for the first day of Dale Warner's preliminary hearing.
Starting point is 00:27:31 All right, please. It would be up to Judge Anna Freshauer to decide if the case should move to trial. I was worried because there is so little physical evidence. There is nobody. There are no body parts. Dee had been recently declared dead in civil court. But Dale Warner's defense attorney, Mary Chardier, said this was a fact prosecutors would need to establish themselves in the criminal case. Whether Ms. Warner is dead is something that the government needs to prove. Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth?
Starting point is 00:28:06 But the state was determined to show that while there was no body, there was also no one. was also no evidence that Dee was still alive. Since April 24th, 2021, have you seen D. Warner? No. Have you heard from D. Warner? No. In the months leading up to D. going missing. And prosecutor Jackie Wise worked to show there was no evidence that D had taken off on her own.
Starting point is 00:28:34 She's got a second phone. She asked Stephanie Vogel about that secret phone that Dale claimed. his wife had. Did she ever discuss getting a second phone with you? She did. She had asked me to look into pricing and trying to find one for her, yes. Okay, so up until April 25th, 2021, did you ever purchase that phone? No. Could she have bought the phone on her out? Yeah, she could have bought it on her own, but she would have had somebody else set it up. She was not tech savvy. People would call Daniel Drewyer. Michigan State Police Detective Daniel Drew York is the lead investigator on this case.
Starting point is 00:29:17 And Richard Swear to tell the truth. He testified about the exhaustive searches law enforcement did to find any trace of activity from D over the three years she had been missing. We did search warrants for health care records, phone records. We searched numerous vehicles. We got records for social media. We did several land searches. All their search.
Starting point is 00:29:39 came up empty, but Dee's daughter Raquel had noticed something curious at the Warner home. On the stand, she said, that on the day her mother disappeared, she saw tire tracks by the back of the house. There were two tracks that led up to the siding glass door. There were no security cameras pointed at this part of the property. But the prosecution suggested that the tracks Raquel saw were left by day. using the farm's J.C.B. front-end loader to remove Dee's body from their home. When parking the front-end loader, the JCB in this spot, the bucket attached to it fits between those two pillars, and you can set it on the deck up against the back door.
Starting point is 00:30:27 Remember, Dale said his wife was asleep in the living room when he left that morning, close to those sliding doors. Okay. In his 2022 interview with police, Dale had an explanation for those tracks. He said he thought he used the loader to go back to the house and get his worksheet for the sprayer at around 6.30 a.m. I think I had to run and grab my damn sheet. I load sheet, I don't remember for sure. And I come back to JCV the loader, hold around by the house.
Starting point is 00:31:01 And I run in and I had to grab something out of the house. And I run back out, pat the loader, back back out. No evidence that Ms. Warner is dead, and no evidence that she was murdered was found, correct? Yes, ma'am. The defense emphasized there was no evidence Dale Warner had anything to do with Dee's disappearance. And in fact, his statements about what he was doing that morning were supported by security
Starting point is 00:31:24 videos around the farm. The videos played in court showed Dale at 7 a.m. using that front end loader. At 7.45 a.m., police say he texts D. going to be spraying, call you later. He is seen three minutes later driving a sprayer onto the road and returning at 8.13 a.m. So you had the sprayer records for the John Deere, and then did you actually even do a sprayer reenactment?
Starting point is 00:31:54 We did, yes, ma'am. Consistent with what Mr. Warner set, right? Consistent with the time that occurred on that morning, yes. The defense also argued that Dale had not acted like a guilty man. Are you, Dale? He allowed police to search his properties and spoke to them many times after Dee disappeared. Only parts of a few of those interviews were played in court, but his attorney said that Dale had repeatedly denied harming D. Of all the phone calls and interviews with Mr. Warner, he never once said he harmed his wife, correct?
Starting point is 00:32:32 Correct. He was always adamant that he did not, correct? Yes. Over and over the defense underscored the lack of physical evidence in the case. Do you have a murder weapon in this case? No, ma'am. Big pool of blood, anything like that? No, we have no forensic evidence of that nature, no ma'am. They hone in on Mr. Warner from the beginning.
Starting point is 00:32:53 In her final statement to the judge, Mary Chartier argues that there is no basis for the charges. If he murdered his wife, where on earth is Ms. Warner? Since 425, 2021, nobody has heard from or seen D. Warner. Prosecutor Jackie Wise maintained that the state's case was strong. All we're required to prove at this stage is probable cause to believe that Dale Warner killed D. Warner and probable cause standard has been met. The decision was now with the judge, and D's supporters were worried. Would Dale now face the murder charge at trial, or would he walk out as a free man?
Starting point is 00:33:42 The thought of him getting out was just scary. Do we have enough? How nervous were you before the judge issues, the ruling? So, it was horrible. It was so horrible. I felt like I could just curl up in a ball and... Ugh. On June 7, 2024, Judge,
Starting point is 00:34:28 Judge Anna Fresh Hour returned to court with her decision. She first spoke about Dee. D. Warner was a woman with a big heart and a temper. She cared for her children and grandchildren and employees. There was nothing in the evidence that suggested she would disappear intentionally, especially from her children. And there was nothing she heard, the judge said, that made her feel differently. The statements by Dale Warner of a secret phone,
Starting point is 00:34:55 she's got a second phone. And someone coming to pick up D. Warner. She's with someone somewhere. We're not supported by any facts or evidence in this case. But there was enough evidence, she said, to believe that Dee Warner was dead and that her husband was likely the one behind it. There's probable cause that Dee Warner died by homicide at the hands of the defendant, Dale Warner. All right. This is reality.
Starting point is 00:35:20 They think that there's enough evidence that he killed our mom to go to trial. Dale Warner has been ordered to stand trial for the murder of his wife. But Billy Little knows the real work is still ahead. My fear for getting past a preliminary hearing is probably a one out of ten. My fear of getting a conviction at trial is probably an eight out of ten. It's a high bar. Yeah. Law enforcement was still searching for physical evidence, and in August 2024,
Starting point is 00:35:55 Two months after that preliminary hearing concluded, that's exactly what they found. Breaking news in the case of Dee Warner. Dee's family heard about it first. I received a message that said we need to have an emergency meeting with the detectives. They met detectives at Greg and Shelley's farm. Police told them they had gone back to a property that Daly owned and taken away a large metal tank that was used to store fertilizer. According to a search warrant, that tank had a non-factory weld on the back
Starting point is 00:36:35 and a sign on it that said, out of service, do not fill. When the tank was scanned, investigators finally found what they had been looking for. It was my mom. Well, it was a body in a tank. It took just days, authorities say, to confirm that the body inside that tank was Dee Warner. Her death was ruled a homicide. And how did she die? They're not sharing that with me.
Starting point is 00:37:11 Authorities are not granting any interviews about this case before the trial. But that warrant also says that security video from the day Dee was reported missing showed Dale in one of the farm buildings searching for something near the welding equipment. For three years, police had been looking for Dee's body underground, and now they had come to believe that she might have been concealed above ground. The tank was in this agricultural storage building right behind me. And was the cylinder right in here? Yeah, it was parked here.
Starting point is 00:37:47 So Dale would have access to all this. Greg says he has no doubt now that Dale can't. killed Dee and hit her body. All these things point in one single direction, clearly, without any question. And that's a Dale. That's correct. Dale's defense attorney declined to speak
Starting point is 00:38:08 to 48 hours on camera, but she told us that Dale maintains his innocence and said in this email, they're prepared to vigorously fight for him in court and present his defense. Isn't it likely that Dale's gonna argue, well, that was a cylinder sitting out in a barn. Anybody had access to that cylinder. Someone could have come into his own barn and put your mom?
Starting point is 00:38:35 Absolutely. I mean, he can say anything. Raquel says finding her mom's body after these three long years gave the family a sense of peace. I wanted to shout from the rooftops to everybody that she didn't leave us. willingly. Dee's family laid her to rest in a private burial soon after her body was identified.
Starting point is 00:39:06 Her daughter, Lena, now 12, was with them. The one thing that she knows for sure that was her mother there. That her mother didn't leave her. It was real. It's like you get hit in the stomach every time. I miss her laughter and her comfort. You miss her? Very much.
Starting point is 00:39:32 I miss her every day. Raquel and Zach say they miss their mother deeply and that her death has changed them in profound ways. I'm now three years sober, and shortly after she went missing, I started my own real estate company. I stopped being scared of failing on something because there was nothing left to.
Starting point is 00:40:01 loose. He's my mom's spirit. Very hardworking and driven and determined. Your children will grow up hearing about Dee. Yeah. What will you tell them about your mother? Oh, my mom enjoyed
Starting point is 00:40:26 being a grandma so much. They will always remember how she would have been there. My mom would have been there for everything. Dale Warner's trial, scheduled to begin on September 2nd, 2025. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

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