Colorado father convicted of murder, child abuse in death of son, 13

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A Colorado man was found guilty Friday of second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of his 13-year-old son. 

Mark Redwine, 59, was arrested in 2017, four years after the remains of Dylan Redwine, 13, were found in a wooded area several miles from his father’s house outside Durango, Colorado. The teen's skull was found by hikers in 2015, FOX 31 in Denver reported. 

Dylan had been at his father's house on a court-approved Thanksgiving visit. 

The boy went missing Nov. 19, 2012, and Redwine told investigators he had left him at the house to run errands and returned to find him gone. Redwine didn’t testify at the trial.

Prosecutors argued that Redwine attacked his son after the boy found fetish photos of Redwine wearing women’s lingerie and eating feces from a diaper. 

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The defense claimed the photos had nothing to do with Dylan’s death and suggested the boy ran away and was possibly killed by a bear or mountain lion. 

Defendant Mark Redwine and his lawyer are seen in district court in Durango, Colorado, Aug. 15, 2017. (Associated Press)

Redwine’s lawyer, public defender John Moran, described an injury on Dylan’s skull as a tooth mark.

A forensic anthropologist, Diane France, testified that Dylan suffered a fracture above his left eye. Two marks on the boy’s skull were likely caused by a knife or sharp tool at or near the time of death, France said.

Fred Johnson, special deputy district attorney, told jurors that investigators found traces of Dylan’s blood in Redwine’s living room and that a cadaver-sniffing dog alerted them to the smell of human remains in the back of Redwine’s truck and on his clothing.

Moran claimed it was an "infinitely small" amount of blood that could be found in any home and called the use of a dog "junk science." 

A missing poster of 13-year-old Dylan Redwine hangs on a trail head sign next to Vallecito Reservoir in Vallecito, Colorado, Nov. 26, 2012.

Dylan’s brother testified he didn’t want to go on the visit and his mother, Elaine Hall, said she didn’t want to send him to see his father, FOX 31 reported. 

His brother also testified that Dylan found the photos before his disappearance. 

Hall almost immediately suspected her ex-husband wasn’t telling the full truth about their son’s disappearance, text messages introduced as evidence showed. Two hours after learning Dylan was missing, Hall texted Mark Redwine: "He wouldn’t just leave. He would have called me. I am so suspect of you right now. How could he just disappear?"

Hall and Redwine appeared on an episode of "Dr. Phil" together in 2013, leveling accusations at each other and the defense later claimed that the appearance turned public opinion against him. Moran claimed it also influenced the investigation, which he called "biased" and "sloppy." 

The jury delivered the verdict in less than a day. 

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"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."

The trial had been rescheduled several times after originally being set to start in 2018 because of the pandemic and legal issues for Redwine's lawyer, FOX 31 reported. 

His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 8, the station reported. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.