Tecumseh farmer Dale Warner, who was found guilty of murdering his wife and storing her body inside a sealed fertilizer tank for three years, has been transferred to an Upper Peninsula prison.
Warner was transferred to Alger Correctional Facility in Munising on Wednesday, according to Jenni Riehle, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Corrections. He had been housed at the Charles E. Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson before the transfer.
The disappearance of Dee Warner
Dee Warner’s disappearance became one of southeastern Michigan’s highest-profile missing person cases after the 52-year-old Franklin Township woman vanished from her home in April 2021. Investigators said Dee and her husband had argued the previous day over the finances of their farming businesses. Dale Warner told police he last saw his wife sleeping on the couch before leaving for work and initially suggested she might have left following one of their arguments.
The Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the FBI, spent years searching for Dee Warner, using cadaver dogs, ground-penetrating radar and forensic excavations. In 2022, the sheriff’s office asked the Michigan State Police to take over the investigation, which ultimately led to Warner’s arrest in late 2023.
Investigators located Dee Warner’s remains in August 2024 inside a sealed fertilizer tank stored in a farm building on Warner property near Tipton, about two miles from the couple’s home. Prosecutors said she had been strangled, placed inside the tank, which was cut open, resealed and repainted, and marked with a tag reading “Do not use” in an effort to conceal the body.
Dale Warner’s trial
Following a trial that began in January 2025, a Lenawee County jury convicted Dale Warner in March of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence after about nine hours of deliberations. Judge Michael Olsaver later sentenced Warner to 31 to 60 years in prison on the murder conviction, saying the crimes left lasting psychological harm on the victim’s family.
The case has continued to generate developments beyond the conviction. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Dee Warner’s family alleges Dale Warner was controlling and abusive during the marriage and seeks $100 million in damages. Separately, former Lenawee County Sheriff’s Detective Kevin Greca, who worked on the initial investigation, was arrested in Ohio in December 2024 after prosecutors said he resisted efforts to secure his testimony during Warner’s murder trial.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Dale Warner, who stored wife’s body in a tank, moved to new prison
Reporting by Kevin J. Hardy, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kevin J. Hardy, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
