TECUMSEH, Mich. — Human remains found on a Lenawee County property belonging to Dale Warner were identified as his wife, Dee Warner, authorities said.
The announcement was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, at 6:42 p.m. Wednesday by Michigan State Police.
The identification was made by the Jackson County Medical Examiner Office, which also ruled her death a homicide, according to the statement. The manner of death, which also also determined, was being withheld “pending further investigation,” the post stated.
Mrs. Warner went missing April 25, 2021, from her home on Munger Road in Franklin Township northwest of Tecumseh, and searches of the surrounding area turned up nothing.
Shortly after his sister Dee Ann Warner vanished, Gregg Hardy happened into a barn on the Lenawee County property where she and her husband, Dale, lived to find Mr. Warner spray-painting an old anhydrous ammonia tank.
Mr. Warner’s explanation that it was a simple maintenance task didn’t seem right, Mr. Hardy said Sunday, because the fertilizer tank was as small as others he had been selling off, and in any case Mr. Warner tended not to do such manual labor himself.
The tank, Mr. Hardy said, was intended to be Mrs. Warner’s tomb.
Despite the absence of a body, Mr. Warner, 56, was arrested in November and charged with open murder and tampering with evidence.
County authorities declared Mrs. Warner legally dead in March, and in June, Anna Frushour, a visiting judge from Washtenaw County, found probable cause for the charges against Mr. Warner and bound them over to circuit court after hearing three days of testimony.
The state police announced Sunday morning that human remains had been found “during the execution of a search warrant in Lenawee County on property belonging to Dale Warner.”
The Sunday announcement said the remains were “currently in the process of being recovered and there will be a great deal of work and testing completed before positive identification is made.”
“Investigators will continue to gather evidence and work with the Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office to ensure a conviction,” the Wednesday statement said.
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