Dale Warner: Jail Call Revealed

Dale Warner in court today. Photo by Tracy Stengel.

It appears the prosecution has rested in the Dale Warner murder trial. Dale is charged with the murder of his wife, Dee Ann Warner, and tampering with evidence.

Today, Det. Lt. Drewyor of Michigan State Police (MSP) was the on the stand the entire day.

In March 2022, Drewyor joined a task force between LCSO, MSP, and the FBI. After seeing surveillance video of Dale gathering welding supplies and moving a welder the day Dee vanished, Drewyor and his partner, Det. Singleton, developed a theory there was a welding element to Dee’s disappearance.

He didn’t share the theory with the LCSO officer-in-charge, Det. Greca, because Drewyor learned information was being leaked. “I wasn’t sure who I could trust,” Drewyor said. Later in his testimony, he said the leak had come from a U.S. Marshal.

Drewyor testified the first search warrant he was involved with on this case was in April or May 2022. MSP was assisting Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO.) During the search approximately 100 computers, phones, and electronic devices were seized from Dale and Dee's Munger Road home in Tecumseh, Michigan.

In August 2022, LCSO handed the case over to MSP.

Throughout the time Dee was missing, Dale claimed Dee had an addiction to prescribed opiates. “I found nothing to indicate any abuse of scheduled narcotics,” Drewyor said. He reviewed her insurance and CVS records. He also checked a database used by pharmacists and physicians to prevent doctor shopping.

In his journals, Dale claimed Dee had a habit of sneaking out in the middle of the night. Drewyor found no evidence of Dee slipping out in the wee hours of the morning. Dale secretly used a tracking device and the OnStar app multiple times a day to find out where she was but never tried to locate in the middle of the night.

Other claims in Dale’s journals were that Dee had nightmares so terrifying her Apple watch and all her jewelry would come off in the bed, Dee was scared to be alone, and that Dee believed there was someone watching her on the hill on Carson Highway near their home. Drewyor found no evidence of any of this.

Dale claimed Dee had a secret phone. Drewyor found no evidence of that.

On May 23, 2023, Drewyor interviewed the man with whom Dee had an extramarital affair. Dee communicated with him on her primary phone. The relationship ended months before her disappearance. His claims he was in Florida when she went missing were confirmed by Delta Airlines and credit card charges.

Until June 2024, Drewyor believed that Dee was welded inside of something and buried. There had been extensive searches of over 3,000 acres owned or leased by Dale Warner, and they hadn’t found a trace of Dee.

There had also been searches of property owned by Gregg Hardy, including the basement of one of his rental properties. The vacant house of Dale’s mother, Clara Michaluk, was also searched.

Drewyor knew Dale had done a Google search May 5, 2021, of what to do with a 1,000-gallon propane tank. He thought he should look closer at all the tanks Dale had on the farm due to his fertilizer business. Drewyor consulted Dee’s brother, Gregg Hardy, as to where Dale stored the anhydrous ammonia tanks.

A search warrant executed on August 16, 2024, resulted in tank #34 being found in a barn on Dale’s Paragon Road property. It stuck out because it had a non-factory weld. Drewyor escorted the tank to the Ambassador Bridge where it was x-rayed. It was stored overnight at the Northville MSP Crime Lab where the exterior was fingerprinted.

That night, Drewyor called Dale’s son, Jaron Warner, and told him he was searching Paragon Road the following day looking for a tank that was an anomaly. Jaron didn’t know the tank had already been seized.

The next day, August 17, 2024, Dale made a call to his son, Jaron, from jail. Immediately, Jaron told Dale that Drewyor called the night before and was going to search for tank 34 on Paragon Road that very day.

Dale replied, “Oh great.”

Both knew the call was being recorded. Jaron made several comments such as, “this is ****ing ideocracy,” and “our tax dollars at work.”

Dale asked if tank #34 was the one “we touched up with paint” and put decals on?

“I have no idea which one it is,” Jaron said.

The conversation was stilted and awkward.

Then, Dale changed the subject to complaining about his meal of undercooked rice and beans.

Meanwhile, the tank was moved to the MSP post in Monroe, and the factory weld side was cut off. Dee’s body was wrapped in duct tape and then in a tarp and duct taped again. She wore loungewear and a few pieces of jewelry. Dee was found barefoot.

A steel baffle was in the tank near her head which is commonly used in chemical tanks to prevent a fluid vortex. In this case, there was only ¼ to ½-inch anhydrous ammonia in the bottom of the tank.

Detective Drewyor inside a safe similar to the one in the Sprayer Barn. Photo via prosecution.

Throughout the trial there has been talk of safes. Dee and her son, Zack, kept one upstairs. It was small. Dale wanted to know what was inside, so he has his son-in-law buy an identical one. He broke into the original and replaced it with the look alike.

But body cam video shows a large safe covered with a camouflage blanket in the Sprayer Barn on the day Dee went missing – not far from tank #34.

In October 2021, during a search, the FBI had Dale open the large safe and they took a picture of the empty inside. They never swabbed it for DNA.

By the time Drewyor realized it may have held Dee’s body while the tank was being prepared, it was gone.

It’s still missing.

The safe was 5’ wide and chest high to Drewyor who is 6’7” tall. Dee was 5’3, about 140 pounds. Drewyor found a similar gun safe by the same manufacturer. He removed the shelves and got in it. Pictures show him in a couple different positions with plenty of room to spare.

In March 2025, Jaron Warner was arrested for accessory to murder after the fact. He was released because the prosecution couldn't locate a key witness in the case. That witness was Det. Greca who had to be hunted down by U.S. Marshals, arrested, and released on a $50K bond in order for him to testify in Dale's murder trial

The defense is expected to call three witnesses tomorrow, one of which, is Dee’s brother, Gregg Hardy. Wednesday, the trial will pause to give the prosecution and the defense time to prepare closing arguments. The trial will resume at 9 AM on Thursday.

For background information on the case, you can start here. For daily trial updates, visit justiceforallmag.com.