Gregg Hardy: Dale Warner Did Nothing to Find His Wife
- tracystengel
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
The prosecution and defense have rested in the Dale Warner murder trial. Dale Warner was charged with the open murder of his wife, Dee Ann Warner, and tampering with evidence. Dale declined a plea deal offering him 2nd degree murder and tampering.
Julie Bock, Dale’s ex-wife, was today’s first witness. Dale and Julie began dating in high school. Five years later, on December 30, 1988, they married. They had four children before divorcing almost 15 years later.
The prosecution was particularly interested in the breakup because Dale had told investigators after Dee disappeared that he would never go through another divorce. Not ever.
The farmland and equipment went to Dale, plus he had to pay off the $130K mortgage on the house. Julie kept the house free and clear.
Julie was granted full custody of the children, and a bitter custody battle ensued. Dale paid $1,200/month in child support and then it was bumped up to $1,600.
The defense, however, focused on a cough Dale had. Julie acknowledged he did have a little cough while they were married and forgot about it until around 2017 when they both attended a banquet for their daughter.
The prosecution said in a May 3, 2021, interview, Dale told police his lungs were burned from anhydrous ammonia. The defense objected and the subject of the cough did not resurface.
Todd Neyrinck testified he began working at Dee’s trucking business in 2006.
He last saw Dee Friday, April 23, 2021, two days before she was reported missing. Todd described her as “agitated” and “not herself.” Instead of being dressed to the nines, she wore sweatpants and a loose top. “She was always dressed up and ready to take on the world every day,” Todd said.
On Sunday morning, Todd was on the Warner farm at 3:25 AM. He had to drive one of Dee’s semi-trucks to Burns Harbor, Indiana. He noticed the light over the kitchen sink was on. The bedroom and living room TV lights were on as well.
He returned that afternoon at 3:30 PM. Dee’s nephew and her adult son and daughter were in the office searching through surveillance camera footage for any sign of Dee. Todd went to his side of the office and did paperwork until around 4:30 PM.
He saw Dale loading the sprayer in the Sprayer Barn. Dale walked out to talk to him before Todd left the property.
Todd testified he hadn’t seen Dale weld anything at all in the two years prior to Dee’s disappearance.
Gregg Hardy, Dee’s brother, was the last to testify. His statements were filled with raw emotion. At times, he was overcome with grief. By far, it was the most moving testimony in this trial.
From the beginning, Gregg has been the driving force behind pushing this case forward. Through the years, it often stalled, but Gregg never stopped urging law enforcement and the prosecutor to dig deeper. The community rallied behind him, demanding the person or persons responsible for Dee’s death be held accountable.
Gregg’s testimony was anticipated to be tense. The defense made it no secret they planned to use Gregg to cast doubt in the jurors’ minds that maybe Dale didn’t kill Dee. Maybe it was Gregg?
On May 1, 2024, the first day of the preliminary exam, Mary Chartier asked Todd Neyrinck what the relationship was like between Gregg and Dale. Todd answered that it had been strained throughout the years. The prosecution objected. Ms. Chartier told the judge that if Dale did not kill Dee, they couldn’t rule out Gregg Hardy as the murderer.
Today, Gregg testified he was in college when Dee was born. The 19-year age difference made him more of a father figure to Dee than a brother. For instance, when Dee was in high school and threw a blowout party, Gregg had to come over and shut it down.
When Dee vanished, Gregg and Dee weren’t just siblings, they were neighbors. The Hardy and Warner farms were about a mile apart.
Mary Chartier asked Gregg if he had wanted details of the investigation from law enforcement.
“I definitely wanted to find my sister,” Gregg said.
She continued to ask the same question. In earlier hearings, Ms. Chartier implied Gregg had insinuated himself so deep into the investigation, the police didn't consider him a possible suspect.
“I was expecting to work with authorities to find my sister,” Gregg said.
The two also went in circles regarding whether it would be a liability to Gregg if the prosecution did not obtain a conviction against Dale. Another point of contention was when Ms. Chartier asked Gregg if he had pointed the police in the direction of a particular tank or not. Gregg had seen a rusty old tank in the Sprayer Barn the week after Dee vanished and told law enforcement, but it was not the tank that contained Dee’s body.
Gregg was in a field when his wife, Shelley, called and said they couldn’t find Dee.
Immediately, Gregg called and then texted Dee. When she didn’t answer, he became concerned.
“We didn’t typically just chat. When I called her, it was about something important,” Gregg said.
It went both ways. If Dee called, she expected him to answer. “If I didn’t, I would catch it,” he said with a sad smile.
That evening, about 8:00 PM, Gregg told Shelley, “I’m going to go down and see Dale.”
Shelley went with him.
Dale was tilling part of a field. Gregg found it odd.
Typically, a farmer would till the entire field and then seed it while it had a good seed bed – within a few hours or the next day. Dale didn’t seed this particular field for weeks.
Dale stopped tilling to talk to Gregg and Shelley. Gregg asked him what was going on.
According to Gregg, Dale said, “Well, she took off. We had a helluva fight. She left.”
Dale listed off the things Dee had taken, like her phone, makeup bag, and curling iron.
“He reached in the left pocket of his jeans and pulled out her wedding ring and was bouncing it around like a golf ball,” Gregg said.
In the days that followed, Gregg called everyone he could think of who might know where Dee was. He estimated it was well over 100 people.
Meanwhile, he didn’t see any effort from Dale. “It bothered me a lot because he wasn’t doing anything,” Gregg said.
The next morning, Dale showed up in Gregg’s robotic milking facility. He wanted to know if Gregg’s son, Parker, could get information off Dee’s old phone that she had recently replaced.
Dale was forthcoming to Gregg about using the OnStar app to track Dee. Gregg suggested they use the locations where Dee was known to have been and see if they have cameras. Maybe there was a clue as to who picked her up.
Dale wasn’t interested in doing that.
That first week, Gregg kept in close contact with Dale. “I was concentrating on the situation at hand and me communicating with Dale was critical,” Gregg said.
About two weeks after Dee went missing, things weren’t adding up. Gregg asked Dale to come to his office. “I was getting pretty stern about this,” Gregg said.
Gregg suggested Dale offer the public a reward to find his wife.
Dale didn’t do it, so months later, Gregg offered a $50,000 reward to find his sister.
“I got no significant interest from Dale to make it [Dee’s disappearance] public,” Gregg said. At the end of the first week, Gregg organized a search party of about 30 people just in case Dee was injured somewhere. They searched about 500 to 1,000 acres.
Dale did not participate in the search.
Gregg obtained Dee’s phone records from her son and called any numbers he didn’t recognize hoping for a clue. He did podcasts, put up billboards, talked to news media, and asked friends to spread the word.
In November 2021, Gregg held a vigil for Dee and another in April 2022, near the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
Gregg described the support from the public as, “huge.”
Dee left Dale many times throughout their marriage. Gregg testified she had used his home as a safe haven with her children on occasion as Dee was especially close to his wife, Shelley.
The jurors asked Gregg if Dee was bipolar. He said, “No, but she could love me and hate me at the same time.”
When the defense questioned him further, Gregg said, “She had a very dynamic personality. She was very outgoing. She’d be very loving to me but if she disagreed with me, I would really know it. But the interesting part is if she were mad at me today, she’d probably hug me tomorrow.”
The prosecution and defense have the day off tomorrow to prepare for closing arguments. The trial will resume Thursday at 9:00 AM.
For background on this case, you can start here. For daily trial updates, visit justiceforallmag.com.