Family of Lenawee County murder victim Dee Warner files lawsuit over access to estate's finances
An attorney for the children of Dee Ann Warner, a murder victim in Lenawee County whose case got national attention and was featured on "48 Hours," announced Wednesday they had filed a civil lawsuit over access to her financial estate under Michigan's Wrongful Death Act.
Attorney Todd Flood, managing partner of Flood Law PLLC, was accompanied by other attorneys in a Zoom-based press conference. Her family was not on camera during the conference. The lawsuit seeks damages "in a minimum amount" of $100 million. A jury trial is requested.
Dee Warner was reported missing in April 2021 after she was last seen at her home in Tecumseh.
Flood said the case was filed Wednesday morning in Lenawee County 39th Circuit Court. The children do not know how much money would be considered in Warner's estate, but their stance is that any such funds belong to her children and not to her husband, Dale Warner. Dee Warner was the mother of four adult children from a previous marriage and one minor child that she had with Dale Warner at the time of her death.
The estate is represented by one of her daughters, Rikkell Bock.
The lawsuit mentions about 4,000 acres of land in Lenawee County and multiple businesses including a farm in Lenawee County that is potentially part of the estate.
"This is going to be an ongoing process," Flood said. "This money is to be inherited, and properly so, to the estate and to the children."
He explained there were significant legal expenses in the March 2024 trial that declared Dee Warner dead before her remains were discovered and identified. Her remains were found on her husband, Dale Warner's, property in August 2024.
In the meantime, Dale Warner was arrested in November 2023 and charged with homicide and tampering with evidence. He was arraigned in June 2024 and bound over for trial. He is currently in jail and will stand trial in September.
The case has received national attention and was featured by "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty in the episode "The 'No Body' Case of Dee Warner."
In a recent development, charges against her stepson, Jaron Warner, accused of tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact, were dropped in early May.
