LENAWEE COUNTY, Mich. — Editor's note: The attached video is from earlier coverage of Dee Warner's case.
A Lenawee County judge is expected to declare missing woman Dee Warner deceased after Dale Warner, her husband, withdrew his objection to Dee's family's efforts to have her legally declared dead during a pretrial hearing Friday.
"Dale is really at a point now where he wants to put this behind him," Dale's attorney, Larry Leib, said Friday. "After two years of looking, searching and hoping, he's comfortable with allowing her to be declared deceased and hopefully can move on."
Dee was 52 when she was last seen in the early morning of April 25, 2021, at her residence on Munger Road in Franklin Township. She has not had any contact with her family or friends since she went missing.
Dee's nephew, Parker Hardy, said Dale's decision shocked the family because Dale's legal representation has argued against efforts by other members of Dee's family to declare her legally dead, instead claiming that she had instead left to start a new life.
But despite withdrawing the petition, Dale had nothing to do with Dee's disappearance and "still believes that she's out there somewhere," Leib said.
Hardy said the family of Dee intends to file a wrongful death suit against Dale after Dee is legally declared deceased.
The trial to declare her deceased was initially scheduled for June 20 and 21 at 9 a.m.
Dale's withdrawal comes a week after Michigan State Police executed a search warrant on approximately 70 properties in Tipton that culminated in excavation equipment digging on a Paragon Road property on May 4. Authorities have not released the results of the search nor the warrants that led them to search the properties.
WTOL 11 submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the search warrants for these properties.
While WTOL 11 has not received those warrants yet, we will share further details about the properties and who they belong to on-air and online as soon as we learn more.
WTOL 11 Reporter Chase Bachman contributed to this report.
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