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

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media, Thursday, March nineteenth, twenty twenty six. I'm Garrett Fisher. This is Daily Crime and Justice. We have two verdicts today. One came down Monday. One came down nine days ago in a Michigan courtroom in a case I need to walk you through from the beginning because if you haven't been following it, you've been missing one of the most methodical, chilling spousal murder cases this country has seen in years. First Koori Richins, the Utah Mom, the grief book author, the Moscow Mule. On Monday, a jury of six men and six women deliberated for exactly three hours before coming back with five words for five counts. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

0:52 We brought you up to speed on Monday's testimony. Today we have the verdict, we have her face when she heard it, and we have of what comes next. Then Dale and Dee Warner to comes Michigan. April twenty fifth, twenty twenty one. Dee Warner tells her husband the marriage is over, that she's selling the trucking company, that she's done. She says it the night before she disappears the morning after. Her body wasn't found for three years. When investigators finally located her, she was wrapped in two blue tarps, bound in duct tape, stuffed in a tank that had been cut open and welded, shot sealed inside a fertilizer vessel on the property she and her husband shared. Dale Warner checked her GPS location over two thousand times. He searched chemical cremation on his phone. He searched widower dating sites eleven days after she vanished. On March tenth, twenty twenty six, Dale Warner was convicted of second degree murder and tampering with evidence. He will be sentenced May seventh. Let me walk you through both cases, start to finish. We've been following Coury Richards since jury selection began in February. We covered the opening statements, the housekeeper who sold her fentanyl, the lover who broke down on the stand, the internet searches she thought she deleted. On Monday, it was time for the jury to decide. They didn't take long. Three hours of deliberations at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah,

2:25 six men, six women, thirteen days of testimony, and then Judge Richard Morezak called the room to order before the jury entered. The judge issued a specific instruction no outward reactions to the verdict. Coury Richins stood at the defense table in a floral patterned shirt, hair pulled back in a neat bun. She was visibly shaking, taking deep, deliberate breaths, trying to compose herself for what she already seemed to know was coming. The judge read the first count, aggravated murder, guilty, gasped hung her head. She kept it bowed as the word guilty rang out four more times, aggravated attempted murder related to the Valentine's Day fentanyl sandwich she allegedly gave Eric three weeks before she killed him. Two counts of insurance fraud and forgery for the life insurance policy. A handwriting expert testified appeared to have been signed by someone other than Eric. Five counts, five guilty verdicts three hours.

3:28 Eric Richins's family had filled at least a row of seats every single day of that trial. His sister Amy silently dabbed tears from her eyes as the verdict was read. Richins's mother, Lisa Darden, who stood by her daughter throughout stony faced, lips pressed together, not a tear, not a word. Outside the courthouse, Amy spoke to reporters four years ago, our family lost the brightest light, she said. Eric is deeply loved and missed every single day. We are grateful for everyone who is worked tirelessly to bring justice for Eric. Our focus is now on honoring Eric's life and supporting his boys. His boys, three of them growing up without their father because their mother allegedly killed him for money, and a fresh start with her handyman boyfriend. Let's recap the case for anyone coming in late. Eric Richins, thirty nine years old, successful Stonemasonry businessman commas Utah March fourth, twenty twenty two, found dead in his bed in the early morning hours. Coury called nine one one, saying she'd come back to their room and found him cold. She told the dispatcher they'd been celebrating her closing a deal on a two point nine million dollar mansion in Midway with homemade moscow mule cocktails and a lemon drop shot.

4:46 An autopsy found more than five times the lethal limit of fentanyl and Eric's system for the next year and two months, Coury Richins played the grieving widow. She wrote a children's book, Are You with Me? An angel wingfather watching over his son from heaven. She went on local TV to promote it. She was not at that point charged with anything. In May twenty twenty three, she was arrested. Here's what prosecutors laid out a trial. At the time of Eric's death, Corey was seven point five million dollars in debt to more than twenty high interest lenders. Her real estate business was in free fall. She was having an affair with a handyman and military veteran named Robert Josh Grossman, and in text before Eric died, she talked about her dream of being with him. In the days after, she messaged Grossmand about making him her new husband. She booked a luxury Caribbean resort vacation under the prenup. Coury got nothing from Eric's stonemasonry business in a divorce, but if he died, she believed she'd inherit his four million dollar estate. There was one problem Eric didn't know she was counting on. He had quietly placed his money in a trust for his sons and appointed his sister as trustee.

5:59 Coury did it. No, she was planning to spend money that was never going to be hers. The state's star witness was the housekeeper Carmen Lauber, who testified she sold drugs to Kouri four times around the time of Eric's death, including the fentanyl that prosecutors say ended up in that Moscow mule. The Valentine's Day attempt came first a fentanyl lace sandwich from a local diner. Eric fell Ill allegedly told friends he feared his wife was poisoning him. After that failed attempt, prosecutors say Kouri went back to Lauber and asked for the Michael Jordan's stuff, more powerful, something that would actually work. As prosecutor Brad Bludworth put it in closing, she learned from her mistake. Days later Eric was dead. Richan's lover, Grossmann, took the stand and broke down in tears. He testified that just days after Eric's death, Courry asked him what it felt like to kill someone.

6:57 He wiped his eyes and rested his head on the stand, and, as he recalled it, the internet searches Koori thought she'd deleted women Utah Prison how to delete cell phone data if someone is poisoned? What goes down on the death certificate? As she tried to wipe her phone and internet history before her arrest, she didn't get it all. Bloodworth told the jury in closing, the first minute is not the sound of a wife becoming a widow. The first minute is the sound of a wife becoming a black widow. The defense argued Richand's world had collapsed when Eric died, that the investigation was sloppy, that Eric may have had his own drug history, and that Coury was being scapegoaded by Eric's family for not grieving properly. They called zero witnesses.

7:47 Three hours later, the jury had heard enough. Coury Richins faces life in prison. Her sentencing date May thirteenth, twenty twenty six, that would have been Eric Richards's forty fourth birthday. She also faces a civil case with Eric's family over the estate she tried to steal and separate financial fraud charges for the seven point five million dollar debt she was allegedly running while playing the Grieving Widow on TV. Eric Richards was thirty nine years old. He had three sons and a business he built himself. He trusted the person who was supposed to be his partner. Someone has to say his name, Eric Richards, remember him. I want to take you to Lenowe County, Michigan farm country, about thirty miles southwest of ann Arbor, the town of Tecumsa, and a couple named Dale and Dee Warner. Dee Warner was a businesswoman. She and Dale ran several operations on their Monger farm, a trucking company and Annehydris ammonia fertilizer business, a hand full of other ventures, employing a small team of workers who saw them both nearly every day. By all accounts, d was the one who kept things running.

9:09 She was intense, She was demanding. She was also someone her children, her employees, and her friends clearly loved. She had children from before her marriage to Dale, Zachary Rickle Amber, her daughter, and their extended family, including her nephew, Parker Hardy, who lived next door to the property. They were close. Dee's son, Zachary, testified that the only time she ever didn't respond to him was when she disappeared. The marriage to Dale had been deteriorating for years. De's personal assistant, who had worked for the family since she was sixteen, testified that what started as a real marriage had become more like a business arrangement. Dale made degrading comments about D's cooking, her clothing loud enough for her to hear Dee's massage. Therapists saw bruises on her eight to ten times.

9:59 A bruise on her hip looked like a handprint, mark's consistent with being grabbed. The last time the therapist saw d the Wednesday before she disappeared, D was shaking, distraught, said she was tired of her situation. Said she wanted to consult a lawyer. D had been talking about divorce for at least three years, but in April twenty twenty one, something shifted. She wasn't just talking anymore. Saturday, April twenty fourth, twenty twenty one, D has an eyelash extension appointment. She arrives crying. She's on the phone during the appointment at least two calls, including one from her husband. She's upset.

10:42 That night, De's daughter Rickle sees her. D tells her she's going to leave Dale and divorce him. She's going to sell the trucking company. She's done. She'd said this before, but not like this. This time felt different. This time she seemed like a woman who had made up her mind. Later that night, Dale's sister in law, Amy, arrives at the property to pick up a child for a sleepover. Amy sees D on the deck. D has red, blotchy spots on her neck, puffy eyes, makeup not perfect, which was unusual for D. Amy testifies that d tells her I'm done. I'm selling the trucking company. I'm asking Dale for a divorce. That was April twenty fourth. D was last seen the morning of April twenty fifth. Her phone made its last Internet connection at seven o five am.

11:36 Its final ping off a cell tower came at seven fourteen am. After that, nothing no calls, no texts, no credit card activity, no bank withdrawals, no passport use. Nothing. When Rickle and Dustin, her daughter and son in law, came over for breakfast that morning, no one was home. Dee's hummer was parked at the farm. The door was unlocked. They searched property, They couldn't find her. They checked surveillance cameras. They saw Dale on video, not d. Dale told them she must have left during the night. That the last time he saw her she was asleep on the couch. He discouraged them from calling the police. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, he reportedly said. They called the police anyway.

12:20 Here's what investigators would eventually piece together about what Dale did. On April twenty fifth, while people were looking for his wife, surveillance cameras placed on the property by D herself. She had wanted them, she had chosen the locations she had managed access, caught Dale moving equipment throughout the morning, a JCB front loader moving tanks, operating machinery around the spray barn, a building where an hydros fertilizer tanks were stored. One of D's daughter's witnesses noticed that the JCB had no reverse tracks visible in the gravel near the house. The hummer had been moved between visits, and the driver's seat was adjusted for someone's than Dale. A rusty tank appeared in the spray barn that family members said they'd never seen there before, and later Dale told family he was painting tanks in the spray barn in the middle of the night because he couldn't sleep after d went missing.

13:14 You know, it's hard to paint in the dark. The inside of a welded tank you've just sealed shut. Investigators searched more than three thousand acres over the following years. They used cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar, one hundred and thirty Michigan State Police officers. In one search alone, they found nothing. One reason the search was so difficult cadaver dogs can't detect a body sealed inside a tarp inside a welded tank. They're trained for scent. If there's no scent escaping, there's no alert. In August twenty twenty four, three years and four months after D vanished, investigators acted on a theory they had developed from evidence and tips that D might be welded inside a tank and buried on the property. They X rayed a tank on property in Lenawe County belonging to Dale. They cut it open.

14:05 Inside human remains wrapped in two blue tarps, bound with duct tape, wearing pajamas and underwear, no shoes, no socks, no purse, no phone, no passport. There was half an inch of brown ammonia sludge in the bottom of the tank. The body was preserved, likely due to the oxygen deprived environment. It had been sealed in there. D Warner had been sealed in there The medical examiner identified her through dental records. The cause of death strangulation and blunt force trauma, the manner homicide. Both causes could independently have killed her. She had contusions on her cheeks, her eye, the back of her head. Internal injuries including blunt force trauma to her temples, bruising of the tongue and epiglottis consistent with strangulation. D Warner, based on the evidence, was strangled and beaten on the morning she told her husband she was leaving him. She was fifty four years old. Dee Warner remember her. Dale Warner was arrested in November twenty twenty three, charged with first degree murder and tampering with evidence. He rejected a plea deal for second degree murder. He wanted a trial.

15:26 He got one. Fourteen trial days beginning February twelfth, twenty twenty six. The jury heard from more than thirty witnesses over two weeks. They visited key locations on the property and began their deliberation, only to have a juror suffer a medical emergency on March sixth, pushing the verdict to Tuesday, March tenth. Let me walk you through what the prosecution put together the surveillance Dale Warner was obsessed with tracking his wife. Between January twenty nineteen and April twenty twenty one, he checked D's location through the on Star app on her Cadillac Escalate over two thousand, one hundred times. That's sixteen months. That's roughly four location checks every single day.

16:10 He had a GPS tracker placed on her Hummer. He'd asked his son in law to buy it on Amazon and paid him back in cash. He had trail cameras set up. He had employees monitor her movements and report back. And when D's IT contractor came to help with the farm's surveillance system, Dale asked about cloning D's phone. The contractor refused without D's consent. That's not a husband, that's a surveillance operation. After d disappeared, Dale made a move that investigators found telling. He called the same IT contractor and asked him to remove all other users from the surveillance camera access. De's nephew Parker Hardy, her son Zachary Bach, anyone else who'd been watching those feeds. He left only himself with access to cameras on the property. The tank a welding expert examined the anhydrous amos tank where D's body was found and testified that the weld showed signs of human error, not machine precision repair welds not factory.

17:10 He estimated the total weld length was one hundred and twenty eight inches, which at six to ten inches per minute, would take roughly twenty one to thirty six minutes to complete. Cutting the tank open with a grinder would take approximately fifty minutes and six to eight grinder wheels one person could do it with the right tools. On the tank itself, forensic analysts found a latent fingerprint Dale Warner's left middle finger. They also found paint samples consistent with materials found elsewhere on the property and on Dale's phone. Searches that speak for themselves. Chemical cremation, What is liquid cremation and why is it illegal? What to do with a one thousand gallon propane tank? Widower's dating site? Ten Widower dating sites dating page. These were found on his device. Several were dated in May twenty twenty one, just weeks after D disappeared.

18:09 Investigators also found screenshots on Dale's phone of text messages between D and another man, suggesting Dale had been reading her private conversations. These personal assistant testified she had an affair for at least a year before her death, a man listed as Michael in her phone. Dale knew the day D was reported missing. The surveillance video showed Dale moving the JCB the front loader around the property. Farm employees were there that day. One, Jason Gravell, testified Dale asked for the tank to be moved to the spray barn, possibly to clean it up. Gravell has since dealt with a serious medical issue affecting his memory. Another employee, Parker Hardy, D's nephew, testified that when he arrived at the farm looking for D, he noticed that JCB had no reverse tracks in the gravel, and he noticed a rusty tank in the spray barn that had never been there before.

19:04 One detail that stayed with me from the trial. Dale told family members later that night that he had been out in the spray barn painting tanks because he couldn't sleep after D went missing. Of course he did. The defense pushed back hard. They argued the prosecution's case was built on speculation, not proof. Multiple people were on the property that day. No blood was found anywhere, not in the house, not in the vehicles, not in the JCB bucket. The defense challenged the timeline, the cell tower data, and the reliability of witness memories. They argued Dale had cooperated with authorities, had consented to most searches, and that assuming he was responsible because he didn't look guilty enough was not justice. They also raised this large scale cadaver dog searches found nothing the prosecution couldn't definitively explain how Dale moved D's by without leaving a single trace. They noted the missing items her shoes, her phone, her purse were never located. But here's what the defense couldn't explain away Dale Warner's fingerprint on a welded tank, Dale Warner's phone, searches for chemical cremation and widower dating sites. Within weeks of his wife's disappearance, Dale Warner checking his wife's GPS location over two thousand, one hundred times, Dale Warner asking to have other people removed from the surveillance camera access the day she went missing, and Dale Warner telling people

20:36 he was up painting tanks in the middle of the night on a property where his wife's body would eventually be found sealed inside one. The jury deliberated for several hours on March tenth, twenty twenty six, before returning their verdict guilty of second degree murder, guilty of tampering with evidence. He rejected the plea deal for second degree murder, the exact charge he was ultimately convicted on. Someone should ask him how that feels. Dale Warner will be sentenced on May seventh, twenty twenty six. He faces life in prison. D Warner was last seen alive the morning of April twenty fifth, twenty twenty one. She was a businesswoman, a mother, a grandmother. She ran companies, She managed employees. She helped her daughter remodel her house. She had a lash technician she visited regularly, a massage therapist she trusted enough to show her bruises. She had children who called and texted constantly, and who knew something was terribly wrong the first moment she didn't respond. She was fifty four years old, and she'd spent years trying to find the exit from a marriage that was slowly crushing her. The night before she died, she finally set out loud to people she loved, I'm done, I'm leaving I'm selling everything. She didn't make it to morning.

21:54 Someone has to say her name, Dee Warner. Remember her two verdicts today, two women who told the people closest to them that something was wrong. D Warner told anyone who would listen she wanted out of her marriage. Corey Richards told friends that in many ways it would be better if Eric were dead. In both cases, someone died, and in both cases the jury came back with the same answer. Coory Richards is sentence May thirteenth, what would have been Eric's forty fourth birthday. Dale Warner is sentenced May seventh. He is sixty five years old. Sentencing coverage as it happens, New episodes every day. If today's show mattered to you, leave a review, share it, tell someone.

22:38 Every listen is a vote for keeping these stories alive. I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This is Daily Crime and Justice. Daily Crime and Justice is an entertainment podcast. We research our stories using publicly available sources, news outlets, court records, tabloids, and, yes, the Internet, which is occasionally wrong. We also use AI assisted research tools, which means we work fast, but we are not infallible. We try hard to get things right. Sometimes we won't. If we make an error, we'll correct it. We are not lawyers, investigators, or the court of record.

23:22 We're storytellers covering cases that matter. Nothing on this show should be taken as legal fact or used in your own legal proceedings. Treat it like what it is. Quality entertainment about real events, consumed responsibly.