Would Michigan investigators be able to prove murder in a case without a body?

It was Sunday April 25, 2021, a spring morning in the farmland of Lenawee County, Michigan. Rikkell Bock drove the short distance from her house to her childhood home for her weekly breakfast with her mother, Dee Warner.

Rikkell Bock: Sundays … we would … go up to my mom’s first thing. 

Rikkell says that when her mom was not there, and not answering calls or texts, it just didn’t feel right.

Rikkell Bock: If my mom could glue her phone to her hand, she would … If I didn’t respond to a text message in five minutes, I was getting another one, “Hello?”

One of Dee’s cars, a Hummer, was parked at the farm office, just down the road.

Erin Moriarty: What about your mother’s car that you drove all the time, the Cadillac?

Rikkell Bock: It was parked in the garage.

Erin Moriarty: So, all your mother’s cars are there?

Rikkell Bock: Yes.

Erin Moriarty: And she’s not responding to any kind of calls or texts?

Rikkell Bock: No.

The fertilizer sprayer, usually parked in a barn, was gone, and Rikkell’s stepfather, Dale Warner, was out on it — working.

Erin Moriarty: Was that normal?

Rikkell Bock: Yeah. … it was pretty normal for him to work any day, any time of day.

Rikkell went down the road to the home of Gregg and Shelley Hardy — Dee’s brother and sister-in-law.

Shelley Hardy: She said, “We can’t find her.” And I’m like, “what do you mean you can’t find her?” They said, “Her car is here. We have called everybody. We don’t know where she’s at.”

Gregg Hardy: The first thing I did was call her number … If she was somewhere, she would answer my phone call … and then I text her.

Erin Moriarty: And did you —

Gregg Hardy: And nothing.

Erin Moriarty: And she’s not responding to any kind of calls or texts?

Rikkell and her Aunt Shelley went driving to look for Dee. They returned to her house with only more questions.

Shelley Hardy: There were blankets … laying on the couch and tissues, tissues everywhere … Everywhere. There were these tissues. 

They looked upstairs in the bedroom and bathroom for clues.

Rikkell Bock: Her make-up bag was gone. Her curling iron, and all of that stuff was gone.

Later they learned Dee’s phone and passport were missing, too.