Dateline NBC - Talking Dateline: The Day Dee Disappeared

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Josh Mankiewicz sits down with Andrea Canning to discuss her episode, “The Day Dee Disappeared.” In April 2021, Dee Warner vanished from her Michigan farm. Investigators pursued multiple leads, but kept coming back to her husband, Dale. In 2023, Dale Warner was charged with his wife’s murder, even though her remains had not been found. That changed ahead of trial, when Dee’s remains were located in a most unlikely place. Dale was found guilty of second-degree murder. Andrea shares an exclusive clip from her interview with Dee’s nephew, who recounts an unusual visit with a psychic who offered a theory about what might have happened to Dee. Josh and Andrea discuss how they both covered the case and how Josh’s podcast, Missing in America, shed light on Dee’s disappearance early on. Plus, Josh is joined by Dateline producer Sergei Ivonin to answer your questions from social media. Have a question for Talking Dateline? Send us a DM @DatelineNBC or leave a voicemail at [phone]. Your question could be featured in an upcoming episode. Listen to the full episode of “The Day Dee Disappeared”: https://swap.fm/l/dl_thedaydeedisappeared Listen to Josh’s Missing in America episode on Dee’s case: https://swap.fm/l/miadeeannwarner Start listening to the new season of Missing in America, out now: https://swap.fm/l/miafdlw Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, everybody. I'm Josh Mancoitz, and we're all here to play password. Wait. Sorry. Different program. I'm Josh Mancoitz and we're talking Dateline. Today with Andrea. Hi, Andrea. Hey, Josh. So we're here to talk about Andrea's episode, which is called The Day D Disappeared,

which is actually one of the very few dateline stories that two dateline correspondents covered. These two. both of us. You for missing in America and me. For TV, yes. Now, if you've not seen this episode, you can watch it on Peacock, you can listen to it on the Dateline podcast feed, and then come back here. And then later, we have an extra clip about a psychics theory about what might have happened to D. Warner. But first, let's talk Dateline. Now, for anybody who did not see the broadcast, here's what you need to know. The victim was D. Warner, and she was a single. successful farmer and businesswoman.

She was reported missing in April of 2021. Now, from very early on, investigators suspected her husband, Dale, had killed her, and they ended up arresting him in November of 2003, even though they had not found Dee's body. Her body was found much later, and they found it on the property hidden in a fertilizer tank. Dale ended up being convicted at trial, and he was sentenced to 70 years. behind bars. So, you know, one of the things that I thought was really interesting about this when I was looking at it for missing in America is, you know, it seemed impossible to imagine that D. Warner was not on that property somewhere. I mean, everything she had was there. Her car was there.

Like, she didn't just go away. She was somewhere on that property. It certainly seemed that way from the beginning. That was that was the thought of most people close to the case and one person from law enforcement told us and we didn't include this in the show but that they had actually had an FBI profiler looking at the case at one point who said that they believed that Dee was somewhere on the property and likely buried. So the buried part was not accurate, of course, but the you know, what went into this theory

by the FBI certainly panned out. So when I was when I was first working on this story, you know, I heard about this giant property on which Dee was missing, you know, because it's not just the buildings there, but obviously

you know, many, many, many more acres around it. Yeah, it's huge. When I saw the farm, I mean, it looks like a farm like out of a movie. And, and I sort of didn't think of it as sort of that pristine and camera ready. It's interesting what your, what your mind does, because when I was hearing about it on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on American, I was like, this is some like giant sprawling property where, or the buildings are all a couple of miles apart. But that's not true. It's all kind of,

the, the, the working part of it is actually concentrated. and then the fields are spread out around it. Yeah, acres and acres and acres of land. I mean, and it's beautifully kept, as you say, beautiful. And all of that had to be searched because nobody knew where she was, but they strongly believe she was out there somewhere. Yeah, and that's a, you know, it's such a daunting task. You know, they use drones, they use dogs.

They had the PI use drones. The state police used drones. The county police. I mean, they looked everywhere for her and they just could not find her. And that's where Dale's diabolical plan was working for a long time with the tank. You know, let's sort of put yourself in his mind. What do you think the end game was here? How was he going to get away with this?

Eventually he was going to just dispose of the tank, some time in the future, just drive it off the property somewhere, bury it, move from. break it open and move her again? I mean, I don't know. There was a search he had done for how to move a very large tank. So, like, I don't know if he was planning on moving it at some point.

It was, you know, his plan was working until it wasn't. It was, to me, it was sort of like this evil genius of like, you know, I'm going to use my skills and cut this tank open and

put her in. And, you know, it's pretty, oh, like it gives you chills when you think about someone going to those lengths. Well, it really does. And, you know, I mean, it had so much more impact in your story than it did to me, you know, in my story, which is like seeing him moving that tank around right in front of investigators. That was just, that was just absolutely chilling. I mean, he's brazen. Now, you know, no one knows 100% that the D was in the tank he was moving around.

That was one of the defense's argument, but they believe that it was. Because there are other tanks there, right? There are a lot of tanks. Right. If she wasn't in that one that he was moving at that moment, she was in another identical tank like that. Yeah. And, you know, it was, everything was right in front of them, the family, the police. You know, all the clues were there.

They just weren't seeing them yet in the way. that they needed to see them. It's just, you know how it goes, Josh, with these. The pieces aren't always put together for a while. And then suddenly the puzzle comes into focus and you put your final piece in. And that's really, that's really what happened. And it was, you know, it was Greg going back, Dee's brother and saying, you know, I remember Dale working on a tank, you know, and Parker said the same thing. And then kind of hit them years later. They were like, wait a second. What if, you know, what if the tank has something to do with this? And then I found it so interesting how law enforcement was afraid to open the tank

because, you know, what's in there? Is it going to explode? Right. You know, are we going to die from chemical fumes? And, you know, and Dale had even talked about those chemicals during the early days trying to keep, you know, saying keep the cadaver dogs away. There's chemicals here. And I will say he did a good job.

of misdirection there because, you know, I mean, the cops are certainly listening very carefully for anybody who says, yeah, you can search the entire property, but don't look in there, whatever you do, right? I mean, they're trained to sort of pick up on that kind of thing. And he did a very good job of saying, like, look, you guys do what you need to do, but be careful their chemicals here, you know, with the dogs. He even talked about his dogs that they had issues with their paws, you know, stepping in the chemicals. And so, So, you know, here they are. They've got this tank that is now sticking out like a sore thumb because it's freshly painted. It has the decals on it. It's like been, you know, moved to this barn. And so what do they do? They put it on a flatbed and haul it to the Ambassador Bridge because where can you X-ray giant items but at customs at the Canadian United States border? At the border.

Right. And they did it. And then there was the silhouette, you know, of D, which, whew. I mean, I, like, I haven't seen many stories, cases like this where you make a discovery like that. And someone was that diabolical. And there she is in a tank in her pajamas. Yeah. No.

You know, it's. That was, that outline of her body is, is chilling. Because the thing is, like, a lot of times when law enforcement, Orsman finds a body. It doesn't really look like a body anymore, you know? Yeah. But this did. She was preserved. This looked like exactly like the silhouette of a body. She didn't have the elements, you know, that bodies usually face, you know, they, who knows, I don't know if the chemicals preserved her at all. But being in that tank, she was pristine. I thought your interviews were really good in this story. Thank you. Thank you.

Your interview with the family, I thought it was really, really great. And they were good. Really nice down-home farmers, as you would expect, business people, really great people. We did have an incident outside of the barn where I was trying to interview Greg. And Dale's brother was out in the field, doing plowing the field. And the tractor came by the interview and coded us with a very, very heavy coating of dust to the point where we had to stop the interview and I was breathing in dust and it was going in my eyes and I was coughing. I was like my eyes hurt. But yeah, that was the first time I've been

dust bombed by someone involved in a story. Did you like my plaid dress, Josh? I liked you. I thought you had exactly the right wardrobe for the story. I kind of just, you know what? I was like, why not try something different? Now, of course, Greg and Shelley, Greg shows up in a suit and Shelley's dressed beautifully and I'm in the plaid, and you look like a country and western star. You know, this is a, this might be interesting for Dateline viewers and listeners,

which is, you know, what to wear in interviews is sort of an ongoing discussion at all times, with all correspondence. You know, you don't want to look much more formal than the people

you're interviewing, right? I mean, if they're wearing T-shirts, you don't want to come in, you know, wearing a suit and tie, right? You know, you also don't want to look sort of disrespectfully casual to people who, you know, might be, maybe have dressed up for their only lifetime TV appearance. But like, you know, when I, generally when I'm interviewing defense attorneys or prosecutors, it's always safe to wear a suit and tie. Oh, yes, absolutely. Right. Much harder is when you're in the hard. or you're sitting across from the family of the victim.

You want to wear something that doesn't make them feel uncomfortable. You want to feel, you know, accessible and approachable. And sometimes a suit can be kind of a barrier to that. So I sometimes don't do that. I mean, you know, not all of us can, you know, throw on, you know, converse all-stars. I mean, you know, some people, you know. Who are we talking about here? Look, it's a, it's a personal call for all of us at Dateline.

Well, almost all of us, let's just say. Yes, we love you, Keith, and we love your style. You know, it's what makes him Keith, Josh. It is what makes him Keith. It's people love the converse. He's cool. He's cool, right? He is cool, though, and I'm not saying that to be, like, I'm actually saying, I think

Key course is cool. Oh, no. Keith is effortlessly. It's Keith's world. live in it. Always. Yes. Okay. So when we get back, we have an extra clip about a psychics visit to the Warner's house and what she believes happened to Dee inside. So let's talk a little about Dee and Dale. You know, I love the idea that she was both sort of, you know, rugged and, you know, perfectly

comfortable, you know, in boots and Carhart and also, you know, dressed. up in a boardroom. Yeah, and also leopard print, right? Cheetah leopard everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, didn't you love the image of that D wouldn't, you know, go to the gas station without full hair and makeup? Yeah. And she had her daughter, her little mini-me, who also wore the cheetah and, you know, and Dee just sounds like a riot on the, like on the farm. So often on Dateline, I hear about the people who are no longer with us. And as their family and friends are, describing them, one of the things I think to myself is, man, I wish I knew them because they sound like a blast. And Dee is one of those people. Like, I am positive that, like, if we all sat down for lunch, we would have a terrific time. Yeah. I'd like to have, like, a strawberry

d'aq with D. You know, just, like, have a drink, talk. I think we'd have fun. And swap some stories. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Fashion advice. So she and Dale both left their spouses to marry each other. And then their spouses who had been dumped end up marrying each other. And then, you know, and then Dee and Dale are together. And she's sort of doing the business part of it. And he's kind of handling the hands-on part of it. And they build this, like, very successful multi-business empire.

Yeah, and it was struggling there near the end. Because Dale did a lot of the, you know, the hard labor, the farming. Dee handled the employees. She handled the trucking company, which was hers, her baby. But, you know, while they had a lot of land, so they were definitely rich with property. the farming side of the business was struggling. And that's why Dee was ready to just get out. She was just done.

And what I remember is that she was telling people that if she left, she was going to take the trucking business for herself since she had sort of built that herself. And that was the part of the business that was making the most money. Yeah. And I think there's definitely some more reporting to do on that because I don't think it was quite that simple because they were married. I don't know that there was a pre-nup, so Dale might have been entitled to some of that. I'm not really sure.

You know, how many searches, how many times they searched that property before somebody figured out? Like, maybe we should, like, drag that tank to the Canadian border and x-ray it. I mean, I'm sure they've, they probably lost count of how many times they searched. The one person who the family says did not search was her husband Dale. I will say, I mean, that is sort of the brightest of red flags in a lot of episodes of Dayline is not just who searches for the missing person, but who does not. Who does not? I know I've seen that before, and I know you have to.

Right. Or who doesn't show up to the press conference, you know, with the family who's, you know, trying to get help from the public. That's always a red flag to me, too. I mean, if you love this person and this is your spouse, the mother of your child, you know the farm better than anybody. It's your farm and you're not looking according to the family. I mean, that's just unacceptable and bizarre. Right.

So let's talk about hiring a psychic. Now, you know, in law enforcement, the use of psychics is one of those things that's kind of cyclical. There are times when it's very much not in vogue, and then there are times when you hear investigators, particularly lead investigators, say, I don't really want to leave any stone unturned here, and we've tried a bunch of things.

I mean, it's certainly not the first thing you do, but it is something that investigators sometimes do when they feel like they're kind of coming up blank on all the usual avenues. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how effective they are. I certainly wouldn't turn it down if I had a loved one missing and a psychic wanted to help. I probably would welcome any help I could get, I think. I mean, I don't. I think that I would be saying to police, if it's my family, I'd be like, wait, that's where we are now.

You know, we're turning to the supernatural. You guys are out of bullets. That's it. But on the other hand, there is no question, and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence of psychics actually helping in investigations. And there's also plenty of evidence that they were wrong about things. Right. I mean, I say it can't hurt, right? In this case, the psychic reached out to the family, and the family felt like, you know, we're desperate at this point.

We're happy to hear what you have to say. And we actually have some extra sound with Dee's nephew Parker who talks about the psychic coming on the farm. Let's listen to that. I was put in contact with a lady named Kathy, and I said, Kathy, I said, I'll be just completely honest with I don't want to offend you. I said, I just don't, I've never had any psychic experience or never really believed in it, to be honest. But I said, I will tell you that I am so desperate to find my aunt that I'll do anything at this point. And so my mother and I went down to Dee's house with her, and she said, you can record me, but you can never get. me. She said, I don't want you to guide me. I don't want you to say a word. She said, you have to be

completely mute. And so I said, okay. And so I turned on my recorder on my phone and we just followed her. And my mother before this had even happened, had this theory of what happened to Dee. And the theory was that something happened upstairs by the Murphy door. She was either pushed or shoved or drugged down the stairs. And then she was drug out the sliding glass door. And we didn't know the rest of the story at that point. Well, Kathy walks in this house and completely reiterates that story without even knowing it. She said, why do I feel drug out that door?

The very door that we said that we thought she was drug out. And so this woman became D. I can't even explain it. We got through kind of that reading, and she would go upstairs, and she felt lots of pain to her head by the Murphy door, and basically meaning like she had been beaten. And then she said, why do I feel drug down these stairs, and why do I feel drug out these doors?

And she just went all around the house and just had this reading of D. Wow. Well, D, they did, the medical examiner said D had blunt force trauma, to the head. And they also believe that the, a front loader vehicle pulled up to the, the doors of the house. This is what they believe because some deputies saw big tracks by the door. So they think that Dale pulled her out of the house and put her in the front loader and took her to the barn where the safe was, put her in the safe, this giant safe and then eventually moved her to the tank. So, so the, you know, this information was not out when the psychic was there. Right. So, and it, I mean, and it, it does fit.

It does fit. You know, it's certainly provocative. Years and years ago here in Los Angeles, this is like going back more than a quarter century, a friend of mine told me that she was going to go to a psychic reading and asked if I wanted to come along. And I was like, sure. So I went. And we walked in to this place with this, with this psychic. And this woman did not even know my name.

And I was on local television in L.I. But, I mean, this was way before Dateline. I was not a well-known face. I'm pretty sure she didn't know me or what I did for a living. And she told me a bunch of things. that were going to happen in my life, none of which have happened yet. But also, they haven't been disproven either. I'm not going to go into what they are.

They were not important. Well, they were not important major things, but they were sort of smaller, smaller things that might or might not be true. But one amazing thing happened was she said to me at the end, is there anything you want to ask me? And I said, well, my car got stolen the day before yesterday. And I'm kind of interested as to whether or not. Yeah, I'm going to get my car back because also my briefcase was in the car.

And so I lost a lot of valuable stuff in there. It wasn't as concerned about the car. And I didn't even tell her anything about like what kind of car it was or where it was, right? and she said to me, in front of Ardvarks, which was the name of the children's clothing store in Hollywood where I had parked it. And I was like, yeah. And she said, yeah, there's a balcony above Ardvarks for some other stores. She goes, they were standing up there and they were watching you as you parked. And so, of course, I went back there.

And there is a balcony up above Ard Varks. And maybe somebody was there. That, I got to say, was weird. and there's absolutely, there is no way she could have known that. Did you get your car back? I did get my car back, but it, I didn't get my briefcase back. And the car had been significantly damaged by the time I did get it back. I went to a psychic with my mom and I was single.

And I think the question was like, will I, you know, find someone or whatever? And the psychic said, your future husband is up in the air. And I was like, oh, well, that's nice. I mean, that's big, right? But, Josh, Josh, I married a fighter pilot. I know. He was up in the air at that time. Yes.

He probably literally was up in the air. So that was kind of cool. Come on. That's perfect. Yeah, now, you know, I mean, the only thing that the psychic said is that you will one day work with a tall white-haired man who will resent you deeply and try. to undermine you at every turn. And that hasn't really... And he'll wear converse.

Did they say that he would wear converse? I think they did mention that, actually. Yeah. Yeah, she could really see into the future. All right, anyway, back to real life here. Dale was arrested before Dee's body was found. Yeah. They really went out on a limb arresting him without the body.

I mean, that was a bold move by the prosecutor, but the family wanted them to go, the prosecutor to go forward. The prosecutor felt that they could do this. And, you know, it was a miracle that they found D. It obviously just helped their case immensely and propelled them into that trial, you know, to a guilty verdict.

So when we come back, we're going to answer some questions from social media, but we're going to be answering them with the producer of this episode, not with you, because, let me guess you're going up in the air with your husband.

I am going on assignment, Josh. I'll be shooting a new Dateline. That'll make viewers and listeners very happy. Andrea, thank you. Thanks. Coming up next, I will be joined by Dateline producer Sergei Ivanov

to talk about this episode and to answer your questions from social media. Welcome back and we're joined by Sergey Ivinen, producer of this episode. And let's Go right to social media. Here's an audio question. So let's listen to that.

My name is Jen Smith. I've been a long time watcher, and I was struck by the initial responding officer. It seems like he responded to the call and questioned Dale and seemed to accept what Dale was saying at face value. So my question is, did he walk through the house, did he walk through the outbuildings? Because since D,

was determined to have not been placed in the tank for a number of days. It seems like if he had shown up willing to treat the initial missing person's call as a crime, then he may have seen some indications of foul play. Thanks again for your show. Watch and listen to it constantly. No live, 10, 15 hours a day. Sergey, you above or below 10 or 15 hours a day of daylight. I think she beats me on that for sure.

Yeah. Okay, so that's an interesting question because a lot of times when law enforcement, when they do a welfare check, I think they generally expect it's going to turn out that it was much ado about nothing. I mean, I did one, it did a story a few months ago in which the officer was looking in the windows of the house and he's whistling while he does it. because he's like, you know, this is, you know, this is not a dangerous thing that I'm doing, and it's not going to go anywhere. And then, of course, it turns out he sees a body and he calls medical right away. So what about that?

You know, do you think officers maybe sort of were fooled by Dale early on? I mean, he certainly had a little time to sort of perfect his story. Well, yeah, Josh, the short version of it, the deputy treated this as a grown woman who'd walked out after a fight. This is not a crime scene. This is a missing person because the story that Dale tells him is that there's nothing on the surface that contradicts it. And also, remember that Dee did this before. After a fight, she would go to the lakehouse. She would disappear for a couple of days. So when Austin Hall, Deputy Austin Hall of the Lennon Week County shows up, he just responds to a missing person. So nothing really tips him off

that there's foul play here. Right. And, you know, that's one of the things that families of missing people here all the time, which is this person's an adult and they can do whatever they want. And so all the families that I cover on missing in America, they run into that. And then they say the same thing, which is, yeah, I get that. You don't understand. I'm telling you my daughter, sister, husband, friend would not be out of touch like this for no reason, right?

And again, D might have left. She might have left Dale. She might have walked out of the property, but not without that little girl. So now a question about exactly that, about Dale and Dee's daughter, Angelina. Alexis FDT wants to know. I'd like to know who's raising the little girl. I'm assuming a sister. Is that assumption correct?

That assumption is not correct. Angelina is being raised by the Warner side of the family. Was there a battle over that? Not to my knowledge, because when DeGo's missing, it's not a crime at the time. She stays with the father until he's later charged and convicted of murder. And then he just calls his relatives and hands her over. Exactly. So essentially, Angelina lost both of her parents.

Right? Yeah. So that's a real tragedy in cases like that. And unfortunately, we do see that quite often when we cover stories like this. Sergei, thank you for joining us on Talking Dateline. Come back anytime. Thanks, Josh. Good to be here.

Well, that's it for talking Dateline for this week. Thanks, everybody for listening. And remember, if you have any questions about our stories or about anything else, you can write to us on social media at At Dateline NBC. You can also leave us a voicemail. at 212-413-5252 for a chance to be featured right here on Talking Dateline. You can also watch the video version of Talking Dateline on Peacock or YouTube, or you can subscribe to the NBC News app.

Also, please check out my new podcast, Missing in America. This is season five of that. We take a look at six missing person cases. First two episodes are out now, and you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. And also, for more on DeWarner's case, you can check. check out Season 1, Episode 6 of Missing in America. We'll have a link to that in the description of this episode. We'll see you Fridays on Dateline on NBC.