The husband of a woman who vanished in 2021 was charged in her murder Wednesday after authorities spent hundreds of hours investigating the case but failed to find her body, police said.
Dale Warner, 55, was arrested at home Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on one count of open murder and one count of tampering in the disappearance of Dee Ann Warner, 52, Michigan State Police said in a news release.
Dale Warner’s bond was set at $20 million, the agency said.
State police officials said investigators had “pieced together a very difficult case” with “unique challenges” because her body has not been found.
“We will continue our efforts to bring closure to the family and to find Dee Warner’s remains so that her family can lay her to rest,” said Capt. Steve O’Neill, a state police commander.
The agency did not identify a possible motive or provide details about evidence that helped identify Dale Warner as a suspect. A police spokesperson declined to comment.
Dee Warner’s brother, Gregg Hardy, said his family has suffered significantly — “and there’s one person who could have eliminated all of that, and that person is in jail tonight,” NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit reported Wednesday.
He described his sister’s marriage of 15 years as abusive and said she “suffered from the same thing a lot of battered women have, and that is [thinking] they can change the person that they’re married to,” the station reported.
A lawyer for Dale Warner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dee Warner, a mother of five who ran a trucking company and farming business, was last seen by her husband on the morning of April 25. Three of her adult children reported her missing the same day.
Lenawee County Sheriff Troy Bevier told NBC’s “Dateline” last year that there had been a business dispute among her, her husband and one or two employees the night she disappeared.
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