Lenawee County sheriff says he's asked state police to take over Dee Warner investigation

ADRIAN — Lenawee County Sheriff Troy Bevier dropped a bombshell on the crowd that gathered in front of the old courthouse in Adrian Monday afternoon for a rally in the Dee Warner missing person case.

Bevier told the crowd, many of whom were holding "Justice for Dee" signs, that he has asked the Michigan State Police to take over the case. Bevier said he does care about the case and does care about Warner. Several in the crowd said, “Prove it,” until he made the statement about asking the state police to take over. He spoke for two to three minutes.

The state police and FBI are part of a task force with the sheriff's office that was formed earlier this year to aid in the investigation.

After the rally, during which private detective Billy Little and Warner’s brother Gregg Hardy spoke, Bevier would not comment on an allegation that the Lenawee County Sheriff Office's lead detective in the case, Kevin Greca, had a romantic relationship with a first cousin of Todd Neyrinck, whom Little considers an accomplice in the case. Neyrinck was a dispatcher and driver for Warner’s trucking company.

More: Lenawee County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police, FBI form Dee Warner task force

Little said it is becoming increasingly clear to him that the crime was financially motivated.

Little said Dee Warner's trucking company, DDW Investments LLC, had financed $1 million in losses on her husband Dale Warner's agricultural businesses and that Dee owned 100% of the trucking company. It was a very successful business, Little said.

More: Private investigator in Dee Warner case says money was a motive

More: Private investigator on Dee Warner case says arrest forthcoming

More: Investigator gives details of his work on Dee Warner case on YouTube show

Dee had been discussing the sale of DDW Investments in 2020. Dale, Little said, used a forged power of attorney from 2014 to transfer the assets of DDW Investments into a new trucking company, DDW Transportation LLC, in August 2021 and left the bad debt behind and in the process committed tax evasion. Dale owned all of DDW Transportation when he did this. Just last month, Dale sold the trucking business to Laidlaw Carriers Bulk.

Neyrinck benefitted from the sale by being hired by Laidlaw just after the sale as a finance employee.

During a recent episode of “The Interview Room” with Chris McDonough, which ran on YouTube, Little played a recording of Neyrinck talking to a massage therapist in which he said he was “up to his eyeballs” involved in the case.

Neyrinck can also be heard talking about how Greca was romantically involved with his first cousin and that Greca should have recused himself.

Little said that at 3:30 a.m. April 25, 2021, the morning Dee went missing, Neyrinck logged in under a false name and picked up lime from the Warner’s farm and drove it to Burns Harbor, Indiana. He then went another 50 miles to a wastewater plant in Chicago to pick up compost.

“It’s becoming obvious to everyone including Dale’s inner circle that this case, the motivation behind the death in this case, is in large part financial. So it’s financial, of course there’s the anger, the ego, the fear, the reputation, but it seems like the largest part of this is financial and that is becoming more and more clear with the trucking company the way that it was transferred, almost the exact same name from Dee’s 100% owned LLC to Dale’s 100% LLC,” Little said in a telephone interview last week.

Just after Dee went missing, Dale took out a $200,000 operating loan to keep the businesses afloat, Little said.

“That LLC, the cash cow would have been taken by her and he would have been flat broke. In Dale’s own words the next day, everything he worked for would have been lost. That’s what Dale said the day she went missing; everything he worked for would be gone,” Little said.

Little said that Dale has hired an accountant that was convicted of embezzlement about a decade ago.

Little said the argument Dale and Dee were engaged in Saturday, April 24, 2021, was about Neyrinck, a person with whom Dee had also had an argument that day.

More: Vigil marks one-year anniversary of Dee Warner's disappearance

More: Brother of missing Dee Warner criticizes investigation into Tipton woman's disappearance

More: Dee Ann Warner still missing after law enforcement searches her Franklin Township home

Friends of Dee said she had been crying and throwing up all day long. According to Little, Dale arrived home at 7 p.m. that Saturday; at 7:42 p.m. their child was picked up by a friend; at 8:34 p.m. Dale cleared the property of the last remaining person, his son; at 10:25 p.m. Dee received at text from a friend asking how she was; at 10:52 p.m. there was a text back from Dee's iPhone of "K" and the phone switched from Wi-Fi to cellular service, and at 2:30 a.m. Dee's iPhone and Apple Watch went dead.

Dee told people close to her that she would be asking Dale for a divorce that Saturday night.

The Daily Telegram reached out to Neyrinck, Dale Warner, and Dale Warner’s attorney. Neyrinck said he had no comment. Neither Dale Warner nor his attorney returned phone calls.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Dee Warner case: Sheriff asks state police to take over