March 19, 2026

GUILTY: Kouri Richins Convicted; Dale Warner Welded Wife Dee Inside an Ammonia Tank

GUILTY: Kouri Richins Convicted; Dale Warner Welded Wife Dee Inside an Ammonia Tank
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player icon
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player icon

Monday's verdict came down fast: three hours, five counts, guilty across the board. Kouri Richins, the Utah realtor who wrote a children's grief book after allegedly poisoning her husband Eric with a fentanyl Moscow Mule, now faces life in prison. Sentencing lands May 13th — what would have been Eric's 44th birthday. Then: the case you need to know. Dale Warner of Tecumseh, Michigan, tracked his wife Dee over 2,100 times, strangled her, wrapped her in blue tarps and duct tape, and welded her body inside an anhydrous ammonia tank buried on their farm. Three years missing. One jury, one verdict: guilty.

Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!

Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform. 


You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Garret Fisher's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.

But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.


We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Garret's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:12.320
Kalaroga Shark Media, Thursday, March nineteenth, twenty twenty six. I'm

2
00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.839
Garrett Fisher. This is Daily Crime and Justice. We have

3
00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:19.519
two verdicts today. One came down Monday. One came down

4
00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.280
nine days ago in a Michigan courtroom in a case

5
00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.800
I need to walk you through from the beginning because

6
00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:27.519
if you haven't been following it, you've been missing one

7
00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:31.800
of the most methodical, chilling spousal murder cases this country

8
00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:36.520
has seen in years. First Koori Richins, the Utah Mom,

9
00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:41.560
the grief book author, the Moscow Mule. On Monday, a

10
00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.920
jury of six men and six women deliberated for exactly

11
00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:52.159
three hours before coming back with five words for five counts. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

12
00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.240
We brought you up to speed on Monday's testimony. Today

13
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:58.679
we have the verdict, we have her face when she

14
00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.479
heard it, and we have of what comes next. Then

15
00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:07.840
Dale and Dee Warner to comes Michigan. April twenty fifth,

16
00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.120
twenty twenty one. Dee Warner tells her husband the marriage

17
00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.040
is over, that she's selling the trucking company, that she's done.

18
00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:19.000
She says it the night before she disappears the morning after.

19
00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:23.079
Her body wasn't found for three years. When investigators finally

20
00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.519
located her, she was wrapped in two blue tarps, bound

21
00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:28.840
in duct tape, stuffed in a tank that had been

22
00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:33.400
cut open and welded, shot sealed inside a fertilizer vessel

23
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:36.840
on the property she and her husband shared. Dale Warner

24
00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:41.319
checked her GPS location over two thousand times. He searched

25
00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:45.239
chemical cremation on his phone. He searched widower dating sites

26
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:50.200
eleven days after she vanished. On March tenth, twenty twenty six,

27
00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.599
Dale Warner was convicted of second degree murder and tampering

28
00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:57.040
with evidence. He will be sentenced May seventh. Let me

29
00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:04.239
walk you through both cases, start to finish. We've been

30
00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:08.039
following Coury Richards since jury selection began in February. We

31
00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.280
covered the opening statements, the housekeeper who sold her fentanyl,

32
00:02:11.719 --> 00:02:14.280
the lover who broke down on the stand, the internet

33
00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.639
searches she thought she deleted. On Monday, it was time

34
00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.759
for the jury to decide. They didn't take long. Three

35
00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:24.719
hours of deliberations at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah,

36
00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:28.879
six men, six women, thirteen days of testimony, and then

37
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.439
Judge Richard Morezak called the room to order before the

38
00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:36.919
jury entered. The judge issued a specific instruction no outward

39
00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.879
reactions to the verdict. Coury Richins stood at the defense

40
00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.759
table in a floral patterned shirt, hair pulled back in

41
00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:49.280
a neat bun. She was visibly shaking, taking deep, deliberate breaths,

42
00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.840
trying to compose herself for what she already seemed to

43
00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:58.599
know was coming. The judge read the first count, aggravated murder, guilty,

44
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:04.120
gasped hung her head. She kept it bowed as the

45
00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:08.680
word guilty rang out four more times, aggravated attempted murder

46
00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:12.639
related to the Valentine's Day fentanyl sandwich she allegedly gave

47
00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:15.719
Eric three weeks before she killed him. Two counts of

48
00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:20.039
insurance fraud and forgery for the life insurance policy. A

49
00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:23.840
handwriting expert testified appeared to have been signed by someone

50
00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:27.919
other than Eric. Five counts, five guilty verdicts three hours.

51
00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:31.560
Eric Richins's family had filled at least a row of

52
00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:35.479
seats every single day of that trial. His sister Amy

53
00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:38.719
silently dabbed tears from her eyes as the verdict was read.

54
00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:42.960
Richins's mother, Lisa Darden, who stood by her daughter throughout

55
00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:47.159
stony faced, lips pressed together, not a tear, not a word.

56
00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:52.000
Outside the courthouse, Amy spoke to reporters four years ago,

57
00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:56.000
our family lost the brightest light, she said. Eric is

58
00:03:56.199 --> 00:03:59.240
deeply loved and missed every single day. We are grateful

59
00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.360
for everyone who is worked tirelessly to bring justice for Eric.

60
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.000
Our focus is now on honoring Eric's life and supporting

61
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.400
his boys. His boys, three of them growing up without

62
00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.639
their father because their mother allegedly killed him for money,

63
00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:17.439
and a fresh start with her handyman boyfriend. Let's recap

64
00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:20.959
the case for anyone coming in late. Eric Richins, thirty

65
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:27.759
nine years old, successful Stonemasonry businessman commas Utah March fourth,

66
00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:31.040
twenty twenty two, found dead in his bed in the

67
00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:34.439
early morning hours. Coury called nine one one, saying she'd

68
00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.040
come back to their room and found him cold. She

69
00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.000
told the dispatcher they'd been celebrating her closing a deal

70
00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.639
on a two point nine million dollar mansion in Midway

71
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.240
with homemade moscow mule cocktails and a lemon drop shot.

72
00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:49.680
An autopsy found more than five times the lethal limit

73
00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.160
of fentanyl and Eric's system for the next year and

74
00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:57.079
two months, Coury Richins played the grieving widow. She wrote

75
00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:00.839
a children's book, Are You with Me? An angel wingfather

76
00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.399
watching over his son from heaven. She went on local

77
00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.439
TV to promote it. She was not at that point

78
00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:11.720
charged with anything. In May twenty twenty three, she was arrested.

79
00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:15.120
Here's what prosecutors laid out a trial. At the time

80
00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.959
of Eric's death, Corey was seven point five million dollars

81
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.920
in debt to more than twenty high interest lenders. Her

82
00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.439
real estate business was in free fall. She was having

83
00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:26.279
an affair with a handyman and military veteran named Robert

84
00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.800
Josh Grossman, and in text before Eric died, she talked

85
00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.959
about her dream of being with him. In the days after,

86
00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:36.439
she messaged Grossmand about making him her new husband. She

87
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:41.319
booked a luxury Caribbean resort vacation under the prenup. Coury

88
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:44.839
got nothing from Eric's stonemasonry business in a divorce, but

89
00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:48.480
if he died, she believed she'd inherit his four million

90
00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:52.240
dollar estate. There was one problem Eric didn't know she

91
00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.959
was counting on. He had quietly placed his money in

92
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.480
a trust for his sons and appointed his sister as trustee.

93
00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:02.000
Coury did it. No, she was planning to spend money

94
00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.399
that was never going to be hers. The state's star

95
00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:09.319
witness was the housekeeper Carmen Lauber, who testified she sold

96
00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:12.079
drugs to Kouri four times around the time of Eric's death,

97
00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:15.600
including the fentanyl that prosecutors say ended up in that

98
00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:20.480
Moscow mule. The Valentine's Day attempt came first a fentanyl

99
00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:24.839
lace sandwich from a local diner. Eric fell Ill allegedly

100
00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:28.360
told friends he feared his wife was poisoning him. After

101
00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.639
that failed attempt, prosecutors say Kouri went back to Lauber

102
00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:36.680
and asked for the Michael Jordan's stuff, more powerful, something

103
00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:40.560
that would actually work. As prosecutor Brad Bludworth put it

104
00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:44.519
in closing, she learned from her mistake. Days later Eric

105
00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:49.279
was dead. Richan's lover, Grossmann, took the stand and broke

106
00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:53.839
down in tears. He testified that just days after Eric's death,

107
00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:57.480
Courry asked him what it felt like to kill someone.

108
00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:00.120
He wiped his eyes and rested his head on the stand, and,

109
00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.839
as he recalled it, the internet searches Koori thought she'd

110
00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:10.279
deleted women Utah Prison how to delete cell phone data

111
00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:15.079
if someone is poisoned? What goes down on the death certificate?

112
00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:18.759
As she tried to wipe her phone and internet history

113
00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.680
before her arrest, she didn't get it all. Bloodworth told

114
00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:25.160
the jury in closing, the first minute is not the

115
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:27.920
sound of a wife becoming a widow. The first minute

116
00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:30.720
is the sound of a wife becoming a black widow.

117
00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:35.680
The defense argued Richand's world had collapsed when Eric died,

118
00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.759
that the investigation was sloppy, that Eric may have had

119
00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:43.240
his own drug history, and that Coury was being scapegoaded

120
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:47.160
by Eric's family for not grieving properly. They called zero witnesses.

121
00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:51.000
Three hours later, the jury had heard enough. Coury Richins

122
00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:55.759
faces life in prison. Her sentencing date May thirteenth, twenty

123
00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:59.560
twenty six, that would have been Eric Richards's forty fourth birthday.

124
00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:03.360
She also faces a civil case with Eric's family over

125
00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.879
the estate she tried to steal and separate financial fraud

126
00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.079
charges for the seven point five million dollar debt she

127
00:08:10.279 --> 00:08:13.680
was allegedly running while playing the Grieving Widow on TV.

128
00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:17.560
Eric Richards was thirty nine years old. He had three

129
00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:20.839
sons and a business he built himself. He trusted the

130
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.920
person who was supposed to be his partner. Someone has

131
00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:38.960
to say his name, Eric Richards, remember him. I want

132
00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.759
to take you to Lenowe County, Michigan farm country, about

133
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:46.360
thirty miles southwest of ann Arbor, the town of Tecumsa,

134
00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.799
and a couple named Dale and Dee Warner. Dee Warner

135
00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:54.039
was a businesswoman. She and Dale ran several operations on

136
00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:59.240
their Monger farm, a trucking company and Annehydris ammonia fertilizer business,

137
00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:02.720
a hand full of other ventures, employing a small team

138
00:09:02.759 --> 00:09:06.399
of workers who saw them both nearly every day. By

139
00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:09.039
all accounts, d was the one who kept things running.

140
00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.480
She was intense, She was demanding. She was also someone

141
00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:17.879
her children, her employees, and her friends clearly loved. She

142
00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:22.240
had children from before her marriage to Dale, Zachary Rickle Amber,

143
00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:26.440
her daughter, and their extended family, including her nephew, Parker Hardy,

144
00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:30.120
who lived next door to the property. They were close.

145
00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:33.679
Dee's son, Zachary, testified that the only time she ever

146
00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.080
didn't respond to him was when she disappeared. The marriage

147
00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:41.320
to Dale had been deteriorating for years. De's personal assistant,

148
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.480
who had worked for the family since she was sixteen,

149
00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:47.000
testified that what started as a real marriage had become

150
00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:51.039
more like a business arrangement. Dale made degrading comments about

151
00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:54.120
D's cooking, her clothing loud enough for her to hear

152
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:58.600
Dee's massage. Therapists saw bruises on her eight to ten times.

153
00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000
A bruise on her hip looked like a handprint, mark's

154
00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.799
consistent with being grabbed. The last time the therapist saw

155
00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:11.039
d the Wednesday before she disappeared, D was shaking, distraught,

156
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:14.279
said she was tired of her situation. Said she wanted

157
00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.759
to consult a lawyer. D had been talking about divorce

158
00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.240
for at least three years, but in April twenty twenty one,

159
00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:29.039
something shifted. She wasn't just talking anymore. Saturday, April twenty fourth,

160
00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:33.879
twenty twenty one, D has an eyelash extension appointment. She

161
00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.840
arrives crying. She's on the phone during the appointment at

162
00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:42.200
least two calls, including one from her husband. She's upset.

163
00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:46.120
That night, De's daughter Rickle sees her. D tells her

164
00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.320
she's going to leave Dale and divorce him. She's going

165
00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:54.240
to sell the trucking company. She's done. She'd said this before,

166
00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:58.080
but not like this. This time felt different. This time

167
00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:00.000
she seemed like a woman who had made up her mind.

168
00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:04.360
Later that night, Dale's sister in law, Amy, arrives at

169
00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:06.919
the property to pick up a child for a sleepover.

170
00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:11.159
Amy sees D on the deck. D has red, blotchy

171
00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:15.720
spots on her neck, puffy eyes, makeup not perfect, which

172
00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:20.000
was unusual for D. Amy testifies that d tells her

173
00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:24.159
I'm done. I'm selling the trucking company. I'm asking Dale

174
00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:29.039
for a divorce. That was April twenty fourth. D was

175
00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:32.279
last seen the morning of April twenty fifth. Her phone

176
00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:35.720
made its last Internet connection at seven o five am.

177
00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:39.120
Its final ping off a cell tower came at seven

178
00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:44.840
fourteen am. After that, nothing no calls, no texts, no

179
00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:49.080
credit card activity, no bank withdrawals, no passport use. Nothing.

180
00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.080
When Rickle and Dustin, her daughter and son in law,

181
00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:55.039
came over for breakfast that morning, no one was home.

182
00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:59.240
Dee's hummer was parked at the farm. The door was unlocked.

183
00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:03.960
They searched property, They couldn't find her. They checked surveillance cameras.

184
00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:07.840
They saw Dale on video, not d. Dale told them

185
00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:10.279
she must have left during the night. That the last

186
00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:12.240
time he saw her she was asleep on the couch.

187
00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:16.440
He discouraged them from calling the police. Let's not get

188
00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.519
ahead of ourselves, he reportedly said. They called the police anyway.

189
00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:24.759
Here's what investigators would eventually piece together about what Dale did.

190
00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:27.559
On April twenty fifth, while people were looking for his wife,

191
00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:31.399
surveillance cameras placed on the property by D herself. She

192
00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.519
had wanted them, she had chosen the locations she had

193
00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:39.440
managed access, caught Dale moving equipment throughout the morning, a

194
00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:44.919
JCB front loader moving tanks, operating machinery around the spray barn,

195
00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:49.080
a building where an hydros fertilizer tanks were stored. One

196
00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:52.159
of D's daughter's witnesses noticed that the JCB had no

197
00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.639
reverse tracks visible in the gravel near the house. The

198
00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:58.679
hummer had been moved between visits, and the driver's seat

199
00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:02.440
was adjusted for someone's than Dale. A rusty tank appeared

200
00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:04.679
in the spray barn that family members said they'd never

201
00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:08.399
seen there before, and later Dale told family he was

202
00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:10.759
painting tanks in the spray barn in the middle of

203
00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:13.840
the night because he couldn't sleep after d went missing.

204
00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:16.799
You know, it's hard to paint in the dark. The

205
00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:20.559
inside of a welded tank you've just sealed shut. Investigators

206
00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:23.559
searched more than three thousand acres over the following years.

207
00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.879
They used cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar, one hundred and

208
00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:32.639
thirty Michigan State Police officers. In one search alone, they

209
00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:37.080
found nothing. One reason the search was so difficult cadaver

210
00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:40.080
dogs can't detect a body sealed inside a tarp inside

211
00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:43.559
a welded tank. They're trained for scent. If there's no

212
00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:49.320
scent escaping, there's no alert. In August twenty twenty four,

213
00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:53.440
three years and four months after D vanished, investigators acted

214
00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:55.919
on a theory they had developed from evidence and tips

215
00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.039
that D might be welded inside a tank and buried

216
00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:01.840
on the property. They X rayed a tank on property

217
00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.840
in Lenawe County belonging to Dale. They cut it open.

218
00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.440
Inside human remains wrapped in two blue tarps, bound with

219
00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:13.960
duct tape, wearing pajamas and underwear, no shoes, no socks,

220
00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:17.200
no purse, no phone, no passport. There was half an

221
00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:19.480
inch of brown ammonia sludge in the bottom of the tank.

222
00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.720
The body was preserved, likely due to the oxygen deprived environment.

223
00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.879
It had been sealed in there. D Warner had been

224
00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:32.159
sealed in there The medical examiner identified her through dental records.

225
00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:36.799
The cause of death strangulation and blunt force trauma, the

226
00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:42.360
manner homicide. Both causes could independently have killed her. She

227
00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:45.759
had contusions on her cheeks, her eye, the back of

228
00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:50.360
her head. Internal injuries including blunt force trauma to her temples,

229
00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:56.320
bruising of the tongue and epiglottis consistent with strangulation. D Warner,

230
00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.440
based on the evidence, was strangled and beaten on the

231
00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:02.159
morning she told her husband she was leaving him. She

232
00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:16.360
was fifty four years old. Dee Warner remember her. Dale

233
00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:19.799
Warner was arrested in November twenty twenty three, charged with

234
00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:23.440
first degree murder and tampering with evidence. He rejected a

235
00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:26.480
plea deal for second degree murder. He wanted a trial.

236
00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.639
He got one. Fourteen trial days beginning February twelfth, twenty

237
00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:34.159
twenty six. The jury heard from more than thirty witnesses

238
00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:37.240
over two weeks. They visited key locations on the property

239
00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:41.240
and began their deliberation, only to have a juror suffer

240
00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.799
a medical emergency on March sixth, pushing the verdict to Tuesday,

241
00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:48.639
March tenth. Let me walk you through what the prosecution

242
00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:54.120
put together the surveillance Dale Warner was obsessed with tracking

243
00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:58.480
his wife. Between January twenty nineteen and April twenty twenty one,

244
00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:01.440
he checked D's location through the on Star app on

245
00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:05.679
her Cadillac Escalate over two thousand, one hundred times. That's

246
00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:09.440
sixteen months. That's roughly four location checks every single day.

247
00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.240
He had a GPS tracker placed on her Hummer. He'd

248
00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.159
asked his son in law to buy it on Amazon

249
00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.919
and paid him back in cash. He had trail cameras

250
00:16:17.960 --> 00:16:21.440
set up. He had employees monitor her movements and report back.

251
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.840
And when D's IT contractor came to help with the

252
00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.799
farm's surveillance system, Dale asked about cloning D's phone. The

253
00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:33.039
contractor refused without D's consent. That's not a husband, that's

254
00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:37.679
a surveillance operation. After d disappeared, Dale made a move

255
00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:41.759
that investigators found telling. He called the same IT contractor

256
00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.360
and asked him to remove all other users from the

257
00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:49.600
surveillance camera access. De's nephew Parker Hardy, her son Zachary Bach,

258
00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.159
anyone else who'd been watching those feeds. He left only

259
00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:56.399
himself with access to cameras on the property. The tank

260
00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:01.159
a welding expert examined the anhydrous amos tank where D's

261
00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:04.480
body was found and testified that the weld showed signs

262
00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:09.440
of human error, not machine precision repair welds not factory.

263
00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:13.279
He estimated the total weld length was one hundred and

264
00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:16.359
twenty eight inches, which at six to ten inches per minute,

265
00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.640
would take roughly twenty one to thirty six minutes to complete.

266
00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:23.240
Cutting the tank open with a grinder would take approximately

267
00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:27.640
fifty minutes and six to eight grinder wheels one person

268
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:30.720
could do it with the right tools. On the tank itself,

269
00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:35.359
forensic analysts found a latent fingerprint Dale Warner's left middle finger.

270
00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:39.359
They also found paint samples consistent with materials found elsewhere

271
00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:43.640
on the property and on Dale's phone. Searches that speak

272
00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:49.359
for themselves. Chemical cremation, What is liquid cremation and why

273
00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.640
is it illegal? What to do with a one thousand

274
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:58.759
gallon propane tank? Widower's dating site? Ten Widower dating sites

275
00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:04.839
dating page. These were found on his device. Several were

276
00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:08.680
dated in May twenty twenty one, just weeks after D disappeared.

277
00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:13.359
Investigators also found screenshots on Dale's phone of text messages

278
00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.599
between D and another man, suggesting Dale had been reading

279
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:21.200
her private conversations. These personal assistant testified she had an

280
00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.079
affair for at least a year before her death, a

281
00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:28.720
man listed as Michael in her phone. Dale knew the

282
00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:32.039
day D was reported missing. The surveillance video showed Dale

283
00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:36.640
moving the JCB the front loader around the property. Farm

284
00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:41.119
employees were there that day. One, Jason Gravell, testified Dale

285
00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:43.240
asked for the tank to be moved to the spray barn,

286
00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:47.200
possibly to clean it up. Gravell has since dealt with

287
00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:51.839
a serious medical issue affecting his memory. Another employee, Parker Hardy,

288
00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:55.559
D's nephew, testified that when he arrived at the farm

289
00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:58.640
looking for D, he noticed that JCB had no reverse

290
00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:01.799
tracks in the gravel, and he noticed a rusty tank

291
00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:03.920
in the spray barn that had never been there before.

292
00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:08.480
One detail that stayed with me from the trial. Dale

293
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.200
told family members later that night that he had been

294
00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.880
out in the spray barn painting tanks because he couldn't

295
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:17.960
sleep after D went missing. Of course he did. The

296
00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:21.720
defense pushed back hard. They argued the prosecution's case was

297
00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.039
built on speculation, not proof. Multiple people were on the

298
00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:29.720
property that day. No blood was found anywhere, not in

299
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:33.200
the house, not in the vehicles, not in the JCB bucket.

300
00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:37.519
The defense challenged the timeline, the cell tower data, and

301
00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:42.359
the reliability of witness memories. They argued Dale had cooperated

302
00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:46.400
with authorities, had consented to most searches, and that assuming

303
00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:49.519
he was responsible because he didn't look guilty enough was

304
00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:54.279
not justice. They also raised this large scale cadaver dog

305
00:19:54.359 --> 00:19:59.039
searches found nothing the prosecution couldn't definitively explain how Dale

306
00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:03.000
moved D's by without leaving a single trace. They noted

307
00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:06.640
the missing items her shoes, her phone, her purse were

308
00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:10.079
never located. But here's what the defense couldn't explain away

309
00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:15.119
Dale Warner's fingerprint on a welded tank, Dale Warner's phone,

310
00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:20.279
searches for chemical cremation and widower dating sites. Within weeks

311
00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:25.039
of his wife's disappearance, Dale Warner checking his wife's GPS

312
00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:29.599
location over two thousand, one hundred times, Dale Warner asking

313
00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.640
to have other people removed from the surveillance camera access

314
00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:36.200
the day she went missing, and Dale Warner telling people

315
00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:38.119
he was up painting tanks in the middle of the

316
00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:41.079
night on a property where his wife's body would eventually

317
00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.160
be found sealed inside one. The jury deliberated for several

318
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:49.000
hours on March tenth, twenty twenty six, before returning their

319
00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:53.759
verdict guilty of second degree murder, guilty of tampering with evidence.

320
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:57.200
He rejected the plea deal for second degree murder, the

321
00:20:57.319 --> 00:21:00.920
exact charge he was ultimately convicted on. Someone should ask

322
00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:04.000
him how that feels. Dale Warner will be sentenced on

323
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.759
May seventh, twenty twenty six. He faces life in prison.

324
00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:11.359
D Warner was last seen alive the morning of April

325
00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:15.759
twenty fifth, twenty twenty one. She was a businesswoman, a mother,

326
00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:20.720
a grandmother. She ran companies, She managed employees. She helped

327
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:24.160
her daughter remodel her house. She had a lash technician

328
00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:27.880
she visited regularly, a massage therapist she trusted enough to

329
00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:32.400
show her bruises. She had children who called and texted constantly,

330
00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:35.319
and who knew something was terribly wrong the first moment

331
00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:38.839
she didn't respond. She was fifty four years old, and

332
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.640
she'd spent years trying to find the exit from a

333
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.799
marriage that was slowly crushing her. The night before she died,

334
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:49.200
she finally set out loud to people she loved, I'm done,

335
00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:54.119
I'm leaving I'm selling everything. She didn't make it to morning.

336
00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:57.680
Someone has to say her name, Dee Warner. Remember her

337
00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:02.599
two verdicts today, two women who told the people closest

338
00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.839
to them that something was wrong. D Warner told anyone

339
00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:09.240
who would listen she wanted out of her marriage. Corey

340
00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:11.559
Richards told friends that in many ways it would be

341
00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.079
better if Eric were dead. In both cases, someone died,

342
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.359
and in both cases the jury came back with the

343
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.839
same answer. Coory Richards is sentence May thirteenth, what would

344
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:26.519
have been Eric's forty fourth birthday. Dale Warner is sentenced

345
00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:30.559
May seventh. He is sixty five years old. Sentencing coverage

346
00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:34.799
as it happens, New episodes every day. If today's show

347
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:38.119
mattered to you, leave a review, share it, tell someone.

348
00:22:38.680 --> 00:22:41.319
Every listen is a vote for keeping these stories alive.

349
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:45.000
I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This is Daily Crime and Justice.

350
00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:52.640
Daily Crime and Justice is an entertainment podcast. We research

351
00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:59.920
our stories using publicly available sources, news outlets, court records, tabloids, and, yes,

352
00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:05.160
the Internet, which is occasionally wrong. We also use AI

353
00:23:05.240 --> 00:23:09.000
assisted research tools, which means we work fast, but we

354
00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.359
are not infallible. We try hard to get things right.

355
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:17.200
Sometimes we won't. If we make an error, we'll correct it.

356
00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:21.920
We are not lawyers, investigators, or the court of record.

357
00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:27.200
We're storytellers covering cases that matter. Nothing on this show

358
00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:29.880
should be taken as legal fact or used in your

359
00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:34.599
own legal proceedings. Treat it like what it is. Quality

360
00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:38.039
entertainment about real events, consumed responsibly.