A Colorado father was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse, which the jury said resulted in the death of his 13-year-old son, who disappeared on Nov. 19, 2012. After years of delays, two mistrials, and more than four weeks of trial arguments, a La Plata County jury reached its verdict that Mark Redwine, 59, was guilty of killing his son Dylan Redwine, who had found embarrassing photos of his father.
“This has been an extremely difficult case for everybody involved,” Judge Jeffrey Wilson said before the verdict was read. “It’s been difficult for the parties, for the attorneys, for their staff. It’s been difficult for the families, the entire community.”
Redwine, with his hands clasped, did not show any reaction when the verdict was read, which elicited a gasp from people in the courtroom.
The moment the guilty verdict was delivered in the Mark Redwine trial. @KRDONC13 https://t.co/DJaZ0kZO4v
— Spencer Soicher KRDO (@Spencer Soicher KRDO)1626470990.0
In 2012, Dylan was ordered by the courts to make a Thanksgiving visit to his father’s home in Durango, Colorado. Prosecutors presented a case that during that visit, Dylan and his older brother Cory found sordid photos on a laptop in the home of their father wearing women’s lingerie and eating feces. Cory testified that Dylan discovered the photos before he went missing. Cory also testified to taking photos of the disturbing images from their father’s laptop, and those were shown in court. Prosecutors claimed that the embarrassing photos launched Redwine into a fit of rage, which ultimately resulted in the death of his son.
Redwine, who didn’t testify at the trial, told investigators he left Dylan alone at home to run errands, and his son was gone when he returned.
When Dylan’s mother, Elaine Hall, found out about her son’s disappearance, she was immediately suspicious of the story given by her ex-husband Mark Redwine.
“He wouldn’t just leave,” Hall wrote in a text to her ex-husband two hours after Dylan was reported missing. “He would have called me. I am so suspect of you right now. How could he just disappear?”
The case gained nationwide publicity in 2013 when Mark Redwine and Elaine Hall appeared on the “Dr. Phil” show.
The Disappearance of Dylan Redwine Clip 1
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Defense attorneys argued that the lewd photos have no connection to Dylan Redwine’s death, and argued instead that the boy ran away and may have been killed by a wild animal, such as a bear or a mountain lion.
Dylan Redwine’s partial remains were found in 2013 off an ATV trail less than 10 miles from Mark’s home. A witness claimed that he saw Mark Redwine “hurtling down Middle Mountain Road one morning in April of 2013, days before the area was to be searched for the first time (once the snow cleared) since Dylan’s disappearance in November of 2012.”
Two years later, the boy’s skull was discovered about 1.5 miles from where the rest of his remains were found, according to the Daily Beast.
Dylan’s skull had two marks on it, which public defender John Moran suggested were tooth marks from an animal. Forensic anthropologist Diane France testified that Dylan suffered a fracture above his left eye, and said the injuries were likely caused by a knife or sharp tool at or near the time of death, Fox News reported.
Fred Johnson, special deputy district attorney, told jurors that a cadaver-sniffing dog alerted them to the smell of human remains in the back of Redwine’s truck and on his clothing. He said investigators found traces of Dylan’s blood in Redwine’s living room.
“Dylan Redwine’s blood was found in multiple locations of Mark Redwine’s living room, including on the couch, the floor in front of the couch, the corner of the coffee table, on the floor beneath a rug, and a love seat,” the indictment stated. “DNA testing showed that Dylan Redwine was the source of the blood on the love seat, and could not be eliminated as a contributor to the mixture found in the blood found on the couch, floor in front of the couch, the corner of the coffee table, and the blood found beneath the rug.”
Redwine was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, following a grand jury indictment in 2017.
After being convicted, Redwine will next appear at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for October.