Preliminary hearing continued to June for Lenawee County man accused of murdering wife Dee Warner

Prosecutors on Wednesday, the first day of the hearing, laid out evidence as to why Dale has been charged with killing Dee, noting tension in their relationship through frequent arguments and Dee telling family and friends on multiple occasions that she wanted a divorce unusual behavior from Dale before and after her disappearance.

Brian Bush, Dale and Dee's former son-in-law and the first of five witnesses to testify, performed odd jobs on the Warner farm in Tipton, Mich., and said he was close with Dale but his relationship with Dee depended on the day.

Bush said he purchased items from Amazon at Dale's request, one of which was a tracker that one of Dee's children later found on a Hummer she drove. Bush said he set up an app to track the device on his personal phone at Dale's request, and Dale would call him to ask for its location.

Witness Kyle Wagner performed various IT tasks for Dale and Dee was asked about a security system with cameras he had installed on the Warner property and given Dale access to upon his request. Wagner said he changed passwords to the security system on Dale's request on April 26, the day after Dee went missing, but did not copy information from Dee's phone at Dale's request since he did not feel comfortable doing so.

Amy Alexander, Dee's former sister-in-law who had been close with her for more than a decade and organized the #JusticeforDee group in response to her disappearance, was the third witness to testify and said Dee would temporarily leave Dale and stay at a lakehouse following some arguments between the couple.

She noted Dee regularly mentioned divorce, which Dale's defense argued was a non-factor in her disappearance since it wasn't an infrequent occurrence. Dale's defense also argued multiple times that prosecutors were leading witnesses, meaning they were framing questions that suggested specific answers, and bringing up information irrelevant to the case, including when prosecutors asked Alexander about Dee's interactions with her daughter Angalena, the only child Dale and Dee had together.

Alexander was later called back to the stand after the hearing took a break for lunch. Prosecutors asked her if she could recall specific comments Dee made to her about divorce "in the weeks leading up to" her disappearance. The defense then questioned Alexander's recollection of when the last time Dee mentioned divorce before her disappearance.

Todd Neyrinck was the last witness called to the stand before the hearing took the lunch break. He began working for Dale Warner-owned DDW Investments in the mid-2000s and eventually ran its trucking business.

Dee and Neyrinck worked in neighboring offices, and Neyrinck said the last time he had seen Dee was in the office on April 23, two days before she was eventually reported missing. Neyrinck said she "seemed frazzled" and "not herself" at the time.

One of Dee's children from a marriage prior to Dale, Rikkell Bock, was the final witness to testify Wednesday. She described Dee's marriage to Dale as "business partners" and said her mother was unhappy in the relationship, often bringing up divorce.

Dee regularly watched Dateline NBC, known for its true crime stories, and told Rikkell she was worried Dale "could do something like that to me."

When prosecutors asked Rikkell what Dee meant by that comment, Rikkell said Dee believed Dale could "make her disappear."

Rikkell said divorce "was a common conversation" Dee brought up with her and that she seemed certain of intending to divorce the last time she mentioned it prior to her disappearance.

Rikkell described to prosecutors how she searched for Dee on the day of her disappearance, attempting to call her phone and going straight to voicemail, reaching out to family members and trying to find any clue of where Dee had gone, as it was unusual for Dee to leave without her children knowing where she was going.

Dale eventually called Rikkell, saying that Dee was angry with him, that the two hadn't spoken since the argument and that he wanted to know if Rikkell had spoken with her.

Rikkell said she and Dale eventually spoke in person at the Warner home after she had been trying to locate her mother and that Dale showed her Dee's wedding ring he said she had found. Rikkell said it was uncharacteristic of Dee to take her wedding ring off.

Rikkell testified that Dale told on the night before Dee's disappearance that the two "barely fought" and that he gave her a massage following the argument and she eventually fell asleep on a couch. Rikkell also said Dee seemed uncomfortable and stopped Dale when he had, in the past, put his hands on Dee's shoulders and massaged her.

Dale had also told Rikkell that Dee was "always trying to ruin his life."

The hearing adjourned Wednesday afternoon and is expected to start again Thursday at noon.

The examination began again Thursday with prosecutors calling Zack Bock, one of Dee Warner's children from a previous marriage, to the stand. His testimony lasted for about two hours.

Zack said he helped Dale and Dee's businesses that operated out of the Warner farm navigate financial issues in the mid to late 2010s. He said the various businesses, except for DDW Investments solely owned by Dee, were not profitable when he began helping. The other businesses were owned 50/50 by Dale and Dee, according to Zack.

Zack testified that he spoke to Dee "all day, every day," both in person and over calls and texts and does not remember a time he was ever sent to voicemail.

Zack noted to prosecutors how he also helped Dale and Dee navigate financial issues with Northstar Bank and a local John Deere dealership, which eventually sued Dale, Dee and their companies. The total debt they owed the dealership owner was "just over $4 million," which they continued to pay back until after Dee disappeared.

Dale's defense repeatedly accused Zack of not having enough knowledge of the choppy financial situation to speak on it, referring to him as a "bookkeeper."

Zack and Dee bought a lakehouse in Sand Lake, Mich., in 2018, which Zack said he eventually moved into. Zack said Dee described the lakehouse as an "investment and safe haven, a place for her to be able to go when her and Dale would get into a fight." Zack said Dee would stay overnight at the lakehouse overnight about once a month and bring her and Dale's daughter, Angalena, with her every time, usually notifying Zack over text.

Prosecutors asked Zack about a time before Dee's disappearance when he tried to access an electronic safe he had at Dale and Dee's home, but the combination he normally entered was not working. So, he grabbed a backup key that successfully opened the safe and discovered an unspecified amount of money Dee had in the safe was no longer there. Zack said he and Dee were the only ones who had access to the combination and key.

The last time Zack saw his mother in person was in the late morning of the day before she went missing, April 24, 2021, at his sister Amber Bock's house. Zack said she was visibly upset and had been crying. Dee texted Zack later in the afternoon of the same day saying she was "done with this" and would sign all her portions of the Warner businesses over to him.

Zack said after receiving a call from his sister Rikkell on the day of Dee's disappearance, he texted and called his mother with no response and then drove over to her home with Dale.

Prosecutors then showed surveillance footage of Zack arriving at an office housing Dee's desk on the Warner property. He said he did not find anyone inside and then checked nearby areas and vehicles outside of the office.

Zack eventually met with Dale on the property. Zack testified that Dale asked him, "you really don't know where your mom is?" to which Zack responded "no."

He and Dale then walked into the office together and then parted ways. While both were in the office, Zack said Dale exclaimed "oh f--- ... this was on my desk" and held up Dee's wedding ring. Zack said he has never seen Dee take her wedding ring off and that he immediately began to look at security footage on Dee's computer in the office.

Zack originally looked at the office camera to search for Dee or find any clues to her whereabouts and saw that his sister, Rikkell, was the only person who had been in the office that morning. Zack said he never saw Dee on the security camera.

Zack said Dale was watching the security footage with him and then "randomly stopped and said, well, I'm going to go spray. Let me know if you see anything."

"Then 10 minutes later, (Dale) came back in," Zack said. Dale continued to leave and come back to the office throughout the day while Zack watched the footage and would watch the footage over his shoulder with him.

Zack said he then searched various properties the Warners owned and did not find Dee. Zack later on in the night on the same day Dee went missing said he tried to access the security footage from his phone and from Dee's computer but found that he was locked out. Kyle Wagner, who handled IT tasks for the Warners, told Zack that Dale had requested he change the passwords to access it.

Dale's defense then questioned Zack and asked him about his role in the Warner companies' finances and his experience with managing finances. He told the defense that he did not have any formal education about financing or bookkeeping or hold any degrees in related fields but had been trained in how to manage the finances by a certified public accountant who helped set up and manage the businesses.

Zack told the defense that he watched the security footage on Dee's computer for about two hours and went back to April 23. The cameras are motion-sensored, he said, so the footage was in snippets, only capturing footage of when the cameras detected movements.

The defense asked Zack what he and his mom had access to that Dale did not have access to, and he named the following: a bank account with Dee's name on it, a DDW Investments bank account that he believes only Dee had access to and personal bank accounts of hers. Dee also kept cash "everywhere," Zack said, including the safe they both had access to, in her car, in her clothes and elsewhere.

The defense also asked Zack about when he searched a truck on the Warner property while trying to find Dee on the day she went missing. He said he searched the truck, which was owned by DDW Investments' trucking company, to see who had been on the property because the employee who drove it had quit the previous day and was told by Dee to clean it out. Zack said the truck was not cleaned out when he checked it.

When asked by the defense, Zack said since Dee went missing, he has spoken with police at least 20 times, spoken with the prosecutor's office less than 10 times and spoken with Billy Little, an investigative attorney on the case, less than 10 times.

Devin Newell, an engineer who works on advanced driver assist systems at General Motors, was the second witness called to the stand Thursday. He said he investigates the field performance of GM vehicles and looks at data collected by OnStar, a subsidiary technology used by GM that can provide GPS locations for vehicles equipped with it among other functions.

The prosecution handed Newell a stack of documents containing information from the date range Jan. 1, 2020, to April 28, 2021, collected by OnStar about the Cadillac Escalade Dee drove he had reviewed upon the request of the prosecutor's office. Both Dale and Dee owned the OnStar account, according to Newell.

The defense and prosecution argued back and forth about whether the records were valid for Newell to speak on in court. Judge Anna Frushour eventually overruled the defense's objection to the records and allowed their usage.

The records show requests for data on the Escalade and requests to unlock the Escalade, Newell testified. The OnStar mobile app has "device IDs" for each individual vehicle it tracks and keeps extensive data about the phone used to track it.

Newell said, according to the records, there were more than 2,000 "get vehicle location" requests, about 90 "get vehicle data" requests and two "unlock vehicle" requests for the Escalade. Records also show "numerous" requests to locate the Escalade while it was in motion, Newell said.

From March 1-4, 2021 an Apple iPad was shown to be accessing the OnStar account, according to records. From March 22, 2021, to April 25, 2021, an Apple iPhone was shown to be exclusively accessing the account. Unlock requests for the Escalade were made on March 25 and April 25.

The defense then questioned Newell, who explained that the request "get vehicle location" returns the GPS location of the vehicle and places it on a map. The "get vehicle data" request shows information like tire pressure, the amount of oil in the car and other details.

On April 24, 2021, a "get vehicle data" request and a "get vehicle location" request were made at 6:23 p.m. OnStar records cannot provide who made the requests, just the device that the request was made on, Newell said.

The final witness Thursday was Danielle Vandenheuvel, a digital forensic analyst for the Michigan State Police. She said her role in the case was to acquire and analyze data from cell phones, including an iPhone that appeared to be used by Dale, she said.

Prosecutors gave Vandenheuvel a stack of records containing information she complied on three apps the phone used: Find My iPhone, Milestone and myCadillac. On the date range for the records, this iPhone connected to a cellular network and used all three of those apps multiple times on April 25, 2021.

Vandenheuvel said she believes the phone went into service around March 19, 2021. She testified that the email address used on this phone was the same email address that Newell testified was used for the OnStar app.

The hearing adjourned Thursday afternoon and is expected to start again Friday at 8 a.m.

The hearing opened Friday with Georgia Ziegler, a specialist in historical cell phone records for the Michigan State Police, as the first witness.

Ziegler said she used two different softwares, CellHawk for mapping and PLX for analysis, to look at Verizon records associated with Dee Warner in the case. She also said she looked at cell phone records for Dale Warner.

Dee's phone showed the last iMessage available from iCloud was on April 18, Ziegler said.

Her phone last accessed the internet on the Verizon network at 7:01 a.m. on April 25, 2021, Ziegler said. It is not known if this internet access was user-activated. The last outgoing call made from her phone was at 4:47 p.m. on April 24, 2021. The defense objected that Ziegler could not know for certain if it was Dee who accessed the phone at these times.

On April 25, 75 calls went to voicemail.

There were no outgoing texts or calls from her phone after April 25, Ziegler said.

Ziegler said she could not determine from the records if the cell phone was moving when it made the connections and received calls and texts.

The next witness called to the stand was Stacey Brodie, a massage therapist of 10 years. She said she serviced Dee Warner as a client for her neck pain about once a week and later befriended her. The longest gap between when she gave Dee a massage was about two to three weeks.

Prosecutors asked Brodie if Dee appeared to "be under the influence of anything" at appointments, to which Brodie said no.

Brodie said she observed a "purplish-greenish" bruise "about the size of an orange" on Dee's right hip within the first year she started serving Dee. Brodie said she did not remember a more specific date, but that she had been serving Dee for about five years in 2021.

When Brodie saw the bruise, she said she asked Dee about it. Brodie testified that Dee told her the following: "Dale and I got into a fight and he pushed me into the dresser."

Brodie said Dee at a later point in time had another bruise that she got during a fight with Dale, but did not go into more detail.

Brodie testified the last time she saw Dee was April 21, four days before she went missing, when she visited her business for a massage. Dee seemed "not herself" at that appointment, "seemed very upset, had been crying, seemed a little preoccupied."

"The very last thing (Dee) ever said to me, ever, was that she was tired and that it was time to talk to a lawyer," Brodie testified.

Dee had an appointment the following week, after she went missing, that she did not show up to or cancel. Brodie said Dee never no-call, no-showed appointments and would contact Brodie or her office to cancel appointments.

"I never just didn't hear from her," Brodie said.

Brodie said she met Dale twice during the time she knew Dee at the Warner home, but did not speak to him either time aside from greeting him. She went to the Warner home once to help alleviate intense pain during the COVID-19 pandemic and once to exchange gifts.

Dee brought her phone with her to appointments and occasionally wore an Apple Watch. Dee was the only client who kept her phone on the table with her during appointments and only answered her phone if her children were contacting her, Brodie testified.

The defense asked Brodie to describe Dee, to which she said the following:

"She was as fierce as a lion with the heart of a lamb. She loved fiercely, she presented herself as fierce, tenacious, but at the heart of it all, she cared a lot. She cared for me, my family, she went out of her way to set my son up with a friend of hers for welding. If my husband was laid off, she was trying to find jobs for him to do, put him in contact with people for jobs. I had a lot of respect for Dee."

When asked by the defense, Brodie said when someone posted a positive thing about Dale in the #JusticeforDee Facebook group, she would comment saying that it was not appropriate for the group.

Brodie said when asking Dee about her bruises during the appointments, she asked her "why she stayed."

"She said she had already been divorced once and she had the businesses and (Angalena) to consider, that that's why she stayed ... she said she was the only involved parent and (Angalena) would be screwed if something happened to her," Brodie testified.

The defense asked Brodie if she could know if Dee was the only involved parent in Angalena's life because she was not in their home, to which she said no and that she only learned what Dee told her.

The third witness on Friday was Stephanie Voelkle, who worked for DDW Investments in April of 2021. She described herself as Dee's assistant in the company, handling accounts, invoicing and "a little bit of everything."

She and Dee were best friends and talked every day. She said she "did not really have" a relationship with Dale. Voelkle said she and Dee spoke in person in the office every day and over the phone regularly, using the Snapchat messaging app.

Voelkle said the longest period of time prior to her disappearance that she and Dee went without talking was about two days. She said Dee did not specifically use the word "divorce," but instead described "leaving" Dale.

Voelkle said Dee described the purchase of the lakehouse as a "safe haven" and "a place to escape."

Voelkle said she saw Dee with her cell phone "all the time" and the two discussed Dee getting a second phone, but to Voelkle's knowledge, Dee never did get a second phone. Dee asked Voelkle to look into pricing and trying to find a second phone for Dee, she testified.

The last time Voelkle saw Dee was after 3 p.m. on April 23, two days before her disappearance, at the office on the Warner farm, she said. Dee's demeanor was "nervous" and "trying to prepare herself" for a conversation with an employee.

A text conversation between the two about "Todd and Terry" happened on April 24. Voelkle said Dee told her in this conversation she was "hyperventilating and throwing up" and that she told Dale "she wanted to sell everything."

Sometime around November or December of 2020, Voelkle said Dee in the office showed her a bump on her forehead. She said Dee's hair was covering the bump, which Voelkle described as a "goose egg," and that it was roughly the size of a quarter.

Voelkle said about five months before the time Dee had the bump on her head, Dee told her she did not want to leave Angalena alone with Dale.

On April 25, 2021, Voelkle received a call from Rikkell Bock at about 10:30 a.m. and then called Dale at about 10:35 a.m. because she wanted to know where Dee was. Voelkle said Dale told her the following:

"Oh, she's upset with me. We had a fight last night. Last time I had seen her was 6 a.m. when I got up to go spray."

Dale did not describe the fight to her, Voelkle said.

Voelkle then told Dale that Rikkell was looking for Dee and Dale said he would call Rikkell.

Voelkle next spoke with Dale at about 6 or 7 p.m. on April 25 when he called her, asking if Voelkle "remembered if Dee was having a blood test the prior week" and that Dee had been "acting weird the night before," she said.

Voelkle said she did not know why Dale was asking about a blood test.

The week after Dee went missing, Voelkle said Dale asked her if she knew anyone who would pick Dee up and not tell anyone. She said he also described what happened on the night of April 24. Dale told Voelkle that he and Dee had a fight, he felt like she was trying to pick a fight, she was irate and that he remembered the couple's counselor advising him to stay calm, Voelkle testified.

Dale told Voelkle that Dee seemed aggravated by his calmness during their fight on April 24. He also told Voelkle that Dee's neck was sore so he massaged her on the couch and she fell asleep.

Voelkle said Dee seemed uncomfortable if Dale tried to massage her neck and shoulders, "especially after a fight."

Voelkle booked vacations Dee was planning through a timeshare the Warners owned. She said two trips were booked in 2021 for Dale, Dee and Angalena and four trips were booked in 2022 for Dale, Dee and Angalena.

Voelkle said she never saw Dee without her wedding ring on her finger and that she and Dale never had a conversation about the ring.

Dee had asked Voelkle to help her find a phone that worked internationally. Voelkle did not purchase that phone for her but said she does not know for certain if Dee purchased the phone herself.

Voelkle said Dee had a temper and she witnessed her raising her voice at Dale.

Voelkle described a time when Dale ordered Dee out of the DDW Investments office and started yelling at her. The two were "face-to-face" and Dale was leaning in with his hands behind his back. Dee was sitting and arguing back with Dale, Voelkle said.

Nikole Anderson, a criminal intelligence analyst with the Michigan State Police, was the fourth witness called to the stand. She provided multiple database checks for the Dee Warner case, looking "into any kind of pattern of life activity," she said. She was first contacted for the case in May of 2021.

All of the database checks she performed, which included facial recognition, vehicle registration and other checks for indicators that could assist law enforcement in locating Dee, came back negative, she said.

The fifth witness Friday was Daniel Drewyor, a Michigan State Police detective sergeant in the special investigation section. The Lenawee County Sheriff's Office contacted him in March of 2022 to assist in the Dee Warner case. He said his primary goal at the beginning of the investigation was to collect evidence, including that which could go away over time.

He explained he conducted search warrants at locations, including the Warner home, to collect what he estimated to be more than 100 electronic devices.

He eventually took the investigation over from the sheriff's office and made a variety of search warrants, but not all returned results.

Drewyor analyzed bank accounts associated with the Warners and says there was cash in bank accounts solely owned by Dee on the day she went missing. Transactions, all made by a conservator and none by Dee, and deposits were made on the accounts after the day she went missing, he said.

He reviewed Dee's medical records from January of 2020 to April 25, 2021. He said she had "numerous" medical billing during that time period, sometimes three to four instances in a month. There is no medical use through Blue Cross Blue Shield after the day she went missing. He also said she picked up prescriptions during that time period close to once a week. There was no prescription activity after the day Dee went missing aside from two autofills that were never picked up.

Drewyor conducted another search warrant for electronic devices that accessed Google applications on the Warner residence and surrounding property on the day Dee went missing. He said one device was detected, associated with the romantic partner of one of Dee's daughters, Rikkell Bock, in the area on that day.

A search warrant for iCloud usage on Dee's phone was conducted, too. After Dee went missing, the only usage of her iCloud was investigators using it and Dale acquiring a new phone and accessing Dee's iCloud it on two different instances to use her phone number as a business phone, Drewyor said.

Drewyor said a search warrant for Dale's new phone with the iCloud was conducted on May 10, 2022. He says Dale told him he already had the phone he was looking for, but Drewyor said he eventually learned that he did not. Drewyor said he had agreed with Dale to return some of the electronic devices in order for Dale to continue business endeavors and Dale called him from Dee's phone number to ask about this notifying Drewyor that he did not have the phone that Dale initially told him he did. He returned to Dale with a search warrant to obtain that phone and Drewyor said Dale was not compliant, refusing to give up the phone. Drewyor did eventually obtain the phone.

Through an interview with Brian Bush, Drewyor said he learned Dale told Bush to buy a tracker for the Hummer because Dale suspected Dee was having an affair. Drewyor also says Bush told him Dale claimed the argument the couple had the day before Dee's disappearance was because Dale "confronted her about money and cheating."

Drewyor also said Bush told him that Dale wanted a camera installed to see who was coming and going to the safe in Zack Bock's room in the Warner home because he suspected it contained secret money.

Dee's wedding ring is worth approximately $30,000, Drewyor testified.

The hearing was adjourned and continued to June 6 and 7.