They Fought About Money Before She Vanished — and Was Found Sealed in a Fertilizer Tank Years Later

The trial has commenced for Dale Warner, the Michigan farmer accused of strangling his wife Dee and then sealing her body in a fertilizer tank

NEED TO KNOW

• Dale Warner, the Michigan farmer accused of strangling his wife Dee and then sealing her body in a fertilizer tank, is on trial
• Prosecutors said Dale killed Dee after she told him she planned to sell their business and leave him
• “I’m ready to move out and be done with this,” Dee allegedly texted Dale prior to the murder. “You treat me as if I’m not worthy of anything. I’m not going to live like this”

Opening statements in the trial of a Michigan farmer accused of strangling his wife and then sealing her body in a fertilizer tank began Thursday, Feb. 12.

Dale Warner is charged with murder and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of his wife Dee Warner, 52, who vanished from their Tipton farm in April 2021. Her remains were discovered in a fertilizer tank on property the family owned in August 2024. 

Authorities concluded Dee died by strangulation and blunt force trauma to her head and face.

Prosecutors said Dee was found inside the tank wrapped in a tarp in her pajamas and had duct tape around her face and neck, WTOL reported.

During opening statements, prosecutors said the couple’s relationship was marked by "no intimacy, just secrecy," according to WTOL. The night before the killing, she told Dale she planned to sell their businesses and leave him.

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Prosecutors also showed jurors a series of texts Dee sent to Dale prior to her killing.

"I'm ready to move out and be done with this,” Dee allegedly texted. “You treat me as if I'm not worthy of anything. I'm not going to live like this."

"We don't even talk,” read another text. “We are just roommates."

"Our relationship has gotten so much worse."

The case came to light on April 25, 2021, when Dee’s daughter from her first marriage, Rikkell Bock, stopped by her mother’s house for their usual Sunday breakfast. Dee, a mother and stepmother of nine children, was nowhere to be found.

Her vehicles were still parked at the property, but an overnight bag — along with a curling iron, a makeup bag, her phone and her purse — was missing.

Dale allegedly told family members he last saw his wife sleeping on a couch early that morning and the couple had quarreled the night before. Bock and other family members said Dale told them that he thought Dee had run off, leaving her $40,000 wedding ring on his desk in the farm’s office, but suspected she would return home. 

Dee was reported missing by her family later that day.

Authorities discovered Dee’s remains in Aug. 2024 after Dee’s family members remembered seeing Dale in the barn with a fertilizer tank shortly after the murder.

Dale’s attorneys argued during opening statements that he was not the only person on the property when Dee vanished.

"What you won't see is proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” defense attorney Marisa Vinsky told jurors, per WTOL. "The law does not let imagination to replace proof."

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