ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) — A man was found guilty Tuesday of killing his wife, whose body was found in a empty farm tank in rural Michigan in 2024, three years after she disappeared.
Jurors heard evidence of a troubled marriage between Dee and Dale Warner, though defense lawyers emphasized that there was no physical evidence linking him to her death. The case was featured on real-crime podcasts and TV shows.
Signs and banners were posted around Lenawee County, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Detroit, declaring, “Justice For Dee.”
Dale Warner was convicted of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Dee Warner, 52, disappeared in April 2021. Dale Warner was charged with murder more than two years later, although investigators still had not found a body. In 2024, her remains were discovered inside a fertilizer tank. A handwritten tag on the side of the tank said, “out of service” and “do not fill.”
An autopsy showed Dee Warner was strangled and had suffered blunt force trauma.
Prosecutor Jackie Wyse told jurors that Dale Warner could have called 911 and said, “I screwed up," when he realized what had happened but instead taped Dee Warner's mouth and nose so she could not breathe.
“Those were all conscious decisions,” Wyse said.
Defense attorney Mary Chartier said there was plenty of reasonable doubt, noting that Dale Warner had regularly talked to investigators during the search and denied hurting his wife. He worked in agriculture and trucking.
“You are not here to judge Mr. Warner as a husband,” Chartier told the jury. ”You may think he was a bad husband, a not-very-attentive husband, whatever you may think of him."
FILE - A banner shows a photo of missing woman Dee Warner in Tipton, Mich., May 9, 2022. (Jacob Hamilton/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential committee asked to find solutions for spiraling costs in college sports recommended creating a task force to look at pooling media rights, limiting coaches salaries, and rewriting eligibility and transfer-portal rules, along with at least a dozen other ideas.
A draft document of the committee's proposals, obtained by Yahoo Sports, wants Congress to quickly pass legislation that would create the task force, which would receive the antitrust exemption and the right to override individual state laws that the NCAA and other collegiate sports leaders are seeking.
The committee is the product of a White House summit called by President Donald Trump in March; Trump warned the “whole educational system” was in peril if the issues dogging sports cannot be resolved.
The document unveils a laundry list of items, all of which have been discussed in the revenue-sharing era, as schools struggle to pay players and maintain full athletic programs.
Among the more divisive ideas is pooling the media rights of the conferences — a move the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences oppose but that a group led by Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell has argued could add some $7 billion in value.
“Important to note that there are currently long-term contracts in place that expire over the next 5-7 years (e.g., ACC expires in 2036), so change will likely be an evolution to a new model,” the paper said in outlining one of the issues that would make that change so difficult.
The paper also called on the task force to create rules for “elimination of salary-cap circumvention,” — in what appears to be a reference to schools' practice of inking third-party NIL deals, often through associated multimedia rights companies, that help schools blow past the current $20.5 million limit they're allowed to pay out directly.
That issue could soon be resolved through an aribtration case brought by Nebraska football players whose NIL deals were rejected by the College Sports Commission, which was placed in charge of analyzing third-party contracts.
The draft paper calls on Congress to implement legislation before its summer break, which traditionally starts in August. Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation that would codify elements of the House settlement that put revenue-sharing into place.
Among the biggest hang-ups are the call for the antitrust exemption for the NCAA, which, under this proposal, would instead belong to a task force and then a permanent governing body that would take its place.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE - South Carolina guard Agot Makeer (44) celebrates cutting the net after South Carolina beats TCU in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament March 30, 2026, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)
