Billboard trolls lacking Michigan girl Dee Warner’s husband, suspected of her homicide

Dee Warner disappeared on a Sunday morning within the spring, simply as the primary crops have been being planted within the farmland of Lenawee County, Michigan. Warner, 52, was dwelling on a farm together with her second husband, Dale Warner, and their one little one collectively, then 9. The Warners ran three important companies from their farm, and Dee Warner had 4 grownup kids from her first marriage—all dwelling on their very own.

Dee Warner’s daughter, Rikkell Bock, lived a couple of half-mile from her mom’s farm — shut sufficient to see her mother’s home from her personal entrance yard.

It was Bock who first observed Dee Warner was lacking, on April 25, 2021, when she came visiting for his or her weekly Sunday breakfast and located no signal of her mother at residence. Each of Dee Warner’s vehicles have been on the property, and he or she was not responding to calls or texts, which Bock says was very uncommon. As she tells “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty in “The ‘No Physique’ Case of Dee Warner,” “if my mother may glue her telephone to her hand, she would.”

Dee and Dale Warner owned a trucking enterprise with about 15 workers. In addition they had a farm enterprise, elevating crops, and a chemical firm that bought fertilizer and seed, all based mostly on their rural property. Dee Warner is described by family and friends as an excellent businessperson — robust, beneficiant and hard-working. 

Bock says she and her grownup siblings had seen their mom the day earlier than she disappeared and says Dee Warner advised them she had been in a combat with two workers from the trucking enterprise that Saturday. Bock says her mother was very upset that day, which is a part of the explanation they made the choice to name the sheriff’s workplace and report her lacking that Sunday.

After police bought that decision, the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Workplace despatched a deputy out to the Warner residence. Dale Warner met the deputy and advised him about his spouse’s combat with their workers the day earlier than. He mentioned Dee had been upset, however that he wasn’t that alarmed as a result of he observed her make-up bag, hair dryer and curling iron have been gone. He additionally mentioned his spouse had been identified to go away earlier than when upset. Dale Warner advised police that he thought his spouse would cool off and are available again residence.

Dee Warner’s brother Gregg Hardy and his spouse Shelley Hardy say they have been fearful that Dee Warner had been so upset that she might have harmed herself — and questioned if that was why nobody may discover her. Gregg Hardy says he organized about 50 individuals to do a foot search of the farmland round his sister’s farm the weekend after she was reported lacking, to see if they might discover any hint of her. Their search got here up empty.

Gregg Hardy says on the day of that search, Dale Warner confirmed up on a four-wheeler and “would not actually take part.” Gregg Hardy says he quickly started to worry that Dale Warner might have harmed his sister, telling Moriarty, “I used to be getting these, name it a intestine feeling for those who like, no matter you’d name it, however I used to be very suspicious of his mannerisms.” 

As time handed, Gregg Hardy says his suspicion solely grew. Hardy says it was about six weeks after Dee Warner had disappeared when he requested Dale Warner how he thought the investigation was going. He says Dale Warner advised him he thought the seek for his spouse was just a little gradual, however OK, and Hardy says he accused Warner of mendacity about what occurred to his spouse and vowed to get him.

Police had searched repeatedly for any hint of Dee Warner, however discovered no signal of her lifeless or alive, and no indicators of violence. Dale Warner spoke to police many occasions voluntarily about his spouse and allowed them to look his properties on a number of events. He would later assert, by way of an legal professional, that he had not harmed Dee and that he had repeatedly denied harming her in his conversations with police.

Gregg Hardy organized a public vigil at his farm within the fall of 2021 to publicly ask for justice and draw consideration to his sister’s case. At that vigil, Hardy accused Dale Warner of telling a concocted story that his sister had left on her personal. Hardy advised “48 Hours” that he was impatient for police to make a transfer. However the now former county prosecutor says he emphasised to Hardy on the time how essential discovering a physique or comparable bodily proof was and was conscious of the dangers of constructing an arrest too shortly.

Three months after that vigil, Shelley Hardy was watching an episode of “48 Hours” a couple of case the place the sufferer’s household suspected foul play, however there was no physique. The episode featured legal professional and investigator Billy Little, who mentioned about that different case, “You do not have a physique. So what? You aren’t getting to get away with homicide since you’re good at disposing of our bodies.”

Gregg and Shelley Hardy say they have been each moved by that assertion, and needed to search out Little and see if he may assist them with Dee Warner’s case. Little got here to Lenawee County the following month to do what he may to help.

A part of Little’s assist, Gregg Hardy says, was strategic: he gave Hardy recommendation on the right way to use the press to get the phrase out about Dee Warner’s case. And Little says he did a variety of footwork — speaking to potential witnesses, strolling properties the place Hardy thought they may discover proof, and flying drones over the land to search for clues.

A part of that effort, they each say, was to make Dale Warner really feel the stress of their investigation. Quickly after Little got here to assist, Hardy says he paid for a billboard that learn, “Assist Dale Discover Dee,” and put it up at an enormous intersection close to the Warner residence, the place, Hardy says, the truck drivers from their trucking firm would be sure you see it.

The billboard was meant sarcastically, Little and Hardy say, since they each did not assume Dale Warner was performing like a involved husband. Little additionally mentioned the billboard was meant virtually as a type of psychological stress on Warner, and to publicly disgrace him for his or her perception that he was not doing sufficient to search out his spouse.

With a group of Dee’s buddies and supporters, Little and Hardy continued to carry extra rallies, and vigils, and lobbied to have state police take over the case from the county sheriff. Michigan State Police did take over Dee Warner’s case in August 2022, however had been helping on the investigation earlier than that, as did the FBI. In November 2023, state police arrested Dale Warner and charged him with Dee Warner’s homicide. Dale Warner pleaded not responsible.

On the time of that arrest, police nonetheless had not discovered any hint of Dee Warner. Dale Warner was certain over for trial in June of 2024 and his trial for homicide is slated to start on Sept. 2, 2025.

Dale Warner and his legal professional declined to talk to “48 Hours” in regards to the case pretrial, as did the state police and the county prosecutor. Warner’s legal professional advised “48 Hours” in an e mail that “Mr. Warner maintains his innocence, and we’re ready to vigorously combat for him in courtroom and current his protection.”

In August 2024, quickly after Dale Warner was certain over for trial, police discovered a serious piece of bodily proof within the case.

For particulars of that discovery and extra in regards to the case, watch “The No Physique Case of Dee Warner” Saturday Feb. 1, 2025, at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount +.