(WWJ) A Lenawee County man convicted of killing his wife and stuffing her body in a fertilizer tank has been sentenced to prison.
A judge sentenced 58-year-old Dale Warner to 25 to 60 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of second degree murder in the death of his wife, Dee Warner.
He was also sentenced to 17 months to 10 years in prison for tampering with evidence.
Investigators said Dale Warner strangled his 52-year-old wife in April of 2021 at the home they shared in Franklin Township, before hiding her body in an industrial fertilizer tank on the property for years.
She was reported missing, and her body was discovered during the execution of a search warrant in August 2024. The Jackson County Medical Examiner positively identified her via dental records, and her death was ruled a homicide.
Dee's daughter, Rikkell Boch, spoke spoke to the judge before the sentenced was handed down on Wednesday.
"The question that has always stayed with me is: Why?" Boch said. "Unfortunately, I now believe the answer is selfishness and greed. The only thing Dale cared about more than himself was money, and that is why we are here today."
"Dale was nothing without my mom. She was the force behind everything he now was to claim as his own. She was a force that he could not longer control, and because of that he took her life," she said. "He stalked, manipulated, and preyed on the one person he was supposed to live and protect: his wife."
Prosecutors said Warner killed his wife because she wanted a divorce, and was ready to sell the family business.
