Michigan Man Gets Up to 70 Years for Wife's Hidden Body Murder

Dale Warner’s prison term closed the case with the kind of grim finality true-crime readers know too well: a missing spouse, a hidden body, and a courtroom finally putting a number on the cover-up. Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Michael Olsaver sentenced the 58-year-old on May 7, 2026, to 31 to 60 years for second-degree murder, plus a consecutive 17 months to 10 years for tampering with evidence, creating an effective maximum of up to 70 years behind bars.

The sentence came after a March 10 jury verdict found Warner guilty in the death of his wife, Dee Warner, who disappeared on April 25, 2021, after she was last seen at home in rural Tecumseh, in Lenawee County, Michigan. Investigators did not find her remains until August 17, 2024, when they were recovered from a resealed anhydrous-ammonia tank on property tied to Warner. What had once been industrial equipment became a cold steel tomb, and that detail sat at the center of the prosecution’s case.

At trial, prosecutors argued that Dee Warner had been beaten, strangled and duct-taped before being placed in the tank. They also said the killing followed a deteriorating marriage, one in which Dee had talked about leaving and selling the couple’s business interests, including the trucking operation. Witnesses testified about the family’s farming and trucking businesses, the Paragon Road property, and the practical ties that made her disappearance so devastating once she was gone.

Digital evidence also played a major role. Trial testimony included OnStar data from Dee’s Cadillac Escalade and cellphone evidence tied to Dale Warner, adding technical weight to the state’s theory as investigators pieced together the timeline after years of uncertainty. The case grew beyond a homicide into a long-running family and business collapse, with the disappearance rippling through Dee’s relatives, property disputes and guardianship issues involving the couple’s daughter.

The sentencing hearing was driven by victim-impact statements from Dee’s family, including her children, brother and sister-in-law. One son, Zack Bock, told the court he did not want to believe his stepfather could be responsible. Dee’s daughter described how Warner cut off communication and left the family believing Dee had simply walked away. That testimony gave the sentence its emotional force, turning the concealment of Dee Warner’s body into proof not just of murder, but of the cruelty that followed it.