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A Michigan man was found guilty of killing his wife after her remains were discovered inside a farm fertilizer tank, bringing a yearslong, nationally watched case to a close.
Dale Warner was convicted by a jury on Tuesday of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Warner was charged with murder in 2023, more than two years after his wife, Dee Warner, 52, went missing from her home in Franklin Township in April 2021.
Investigators did not find her body until 2024, when her remains were located in rural Michigan inside a fertilizer tank, which had a tag reading “out of service” and “do not fill.”
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Dale Warner was convicted of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of his wife, Dee Warner, whose remains were found in a fertilizer tank in rural Michigan. (Jacob Hamilton/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP, File))
During the trial, defense attorneys argued there was no physical evidence tying Warner to his wife’s death.
An autopsy showed Dee Warner was strangled and suffered blunt force trauma.
Her disappearance and murder trial received widespread attention, including on true-crime podcasts and TV shows.
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Dale Warner was found guilty by a jury in the 2021 killing of his wife, Dee Warner, after her remains were discovered in 2024.
“Justice for Dee” signs and banners were hung around Lenawee County, roughly 70 miles southwest of Detroit.
Prosecutors described a stressed marriage between Dee and Dale Warner, though the defense team argued that was irrelevant.
Prosecutor Jackie Wyse argued in court that Dale Warner could have called 911 and said, “I screwed up,” after realizing what happened to his wife, but then taped her mouth and nose, preventing her from breathing.
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Dee Warner, 52, went missing from her Franklin Township home in April 2021. Her remains were located three years later in rural Michigan. (Facebook/Dee Warner)
“Those were all conscious decisions,” Wyse said.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Mary Chartier argued there was reasonable doubt in the case.
She said that Dale Warner denied hurting his wife and cooperated with investigators during the search.
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“You are not here to judge Mr. Warner as a husband,” Chartier said during the trial. “You may think he was a bad husband, a not-very-attentive husband, whatever you may think of him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.