Father charged with murder 4.5 years after 13-year-old son goes missing

ALERT: This report includes details that may not be appropriate for all readers. Discretion is advised.

ST. GEORGE — The father of 13-year-old Dylan Redwine has been arrested on a second-degree felony murder warrant for the death of his son in a case that has been unfolding for nearly five years.

At the time of his disappearance, LaVerkin resident Jason Howard, Dylan’s cousin, and his then wife brought the issue to the attention of St. George News, requesting the public’s help in finding his cousin, who went missing during a visit to his father’s home in Bayfield, Colorado. The search for Dylan was widespread allowing for the possibility he could be anywhere.

Mark Redwine, of Colorado, booking photo posted July 22, 2017 | Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The investigation into Dylan’s disappearance culminated Saturday in the arrest of his father, Mark Allen Redwine, 55, in Washington state. He is being held on $1 million cash-only bail pending extradition back to Colorado.

Dylan went missing in November 2012, and his partial remains were found in June 2013, about 8 miles from his father’s southwestern Colorado home. His skull was found 1 1/2 miles away by hikers in November 2015.

Investigators said evidence in the case pointed to one person.

After reviewing the evidence, a La Plata County grand jury returned an indictment Thursday for Redwine’s arrest with the underlying charges of second-degree felony murder and child abuse resulting in death.

Family contention  

Dylan Redwine, 13, of Bayfield, Colorado | Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The investigation started when Dylan, who was living in Colorado Springs with his mother, Elaine Hall, had flown to La Plata County on Nov. 18, 2012, for a court-ordered visit with his father for the Thanksgiving holiday. When Dylan’s parents divorced, the ensuing custody battle was contentious, according to the grand jury indictment.

Redwine picked his son up at the airport, took him to Walmart and then bought fast food, which he and Dylan ate in the car on their way to Redwine’s house. That night, Redwine said Dylan slept on the couch and that he was still asleep when Redwine left to run errands at around 7:30 the next morning. He said when he returned home four hours later, Dylan was gone.

“Surveillance video from the airport and Walmart show little to no personal interaction between Mark Redwine and his 13-year-old (son),” the indictment stated. “Dylan Redwine was never seen or heard from again after that evening.”

Redwine and Dylan had argued during a previous visit and were not getting along leading up to the court-ordered visit. According to the indictment, Dylan said he was upset with his father, that he didn’t want to visit him and that he was uncomfortable with him.

Authorities search the home of Mark Redwine for signs of his missing son, Dylan Redwine, Bayfield, Colorado, Nov. 30, 2012 | Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, St. George News

Earlier in the year, Dylan and his older brother, Cory Redwine, had seen “compromising” pictures of Mark Redwine, according to the indictment, and Dylan planned to confront his father about them. At a press conference held Tuesday, prosecutors declined to comment on the details of the photos.

However, in an interview with Denver7 news, Cory Redwine said the photos were of their father in lewd situations.

“I have seen the photos,” Cory Redwine told Denver7. “It shows him wearing women’s clothes and makeup and a diaper and then eating his feces from the diaper. It was disgusting. We couldn’t believe it.”

Family members said they believe this may have been what set off Mark Redwine’s temper and Dylan’s subsequent disappearance, according to the report.

The disappearance

During the past four and a half years, Mark Redwine has maintained his innocence, but the indictment details evidence suggesting a violent death in his living room.

DNA testing showed Dylan’s blood was found on the couch, the floor in front of the couch, the corner of a coffee table, the floor beneath a rug and on a love seat, the indictment stated. A cadaver-sniffing dog detected evidence of human remains near Mark Redwine’s washing machine, on the clothes he wore the last night Dylan was seen alive and in the bed of Redwine’s pickup truck.

“These are indications of the presence of a large source of human remains,” according to the indictment.

Dylan’s remains

In June 2013, some of Dylan’s remains were found about 8 miles from Mark Redwine’s house on a road with a gate that closes for the winter, according to the indictment.

Authorities search the home of Mark Redwine for signs of his missing son, Dylan Redwine, Bayfield, Colorado, Nov. 30, 2012 | Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, St. George News

A witness saw Mark Redwine driving down from the gate alone in April 2013.

“Yet he left town,” the indictment read, “and did not attend the search for Dylan Redwine in June of 2013 when the gate opened.”

Two years later, hikers on the same road found Dylan’s skull approximately 1 1/2 miles from the first discovery.

The indictment cited Lyle Wilmarth, a wildlife officer with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division, as saying that no animal common to the area would transport a body up the mountain from Redwine’s residence to the first recovery site.

“Furthermore,” the indictment stated,”no animal known to the area would transport the skull an additional 1.5 miles through the terrain to where the skull was found.”

Forensic anthropologists determined Dylan’s skull had evidence of blunt force trauma and “two small marking consistent with tool marks from a knife, not caused by an animal or natural cause.”

“These defects in Dylan’s skull were perimortem,” the indictment stated, “indicating that the bone still had characteristics of wet bone similar to a recently deceased person.”

Family suspicions

The indictment also mentions conversations Mark Redwine had with family members that raised concerns.

La Plata Search and Rescue member operates boat while SAR K-9 “SAYLA” (female 6-yr-old German Shepherd) and handler, Rae Dreves, search Vallecito Lake for 13-year-old Dylan Redwine, Vallecito Lake, Colorado, Nov. 25, 2012 | Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, St. George News

Dylan’s half-brother Brandon Redwine reported an odd conversation he had with Dylan’s dad on June 27, 2013, immediately after Mark Redwine was notified that some of Dylan’s remains had been found.

“Mark Redwine had mentioned blunt force trauma several times,” the indictment said, “and discussed how investigators would have to find the rest of the body, including the skull, before they could determine if this was the cause of death.”

The other conversations that raised concern were between Mark Redwine and his first ex-wife, Betsy Horvath. According to the indictment, within days of Dylan’s disappearance but months before his remains were found, investigators interviewed Horvath and she expressed concern Mark Redwine may have hurt Dylan, adding that Redwine had previously said if he ever had to get rid of a body, he would leave it out in the mountains.

In addition, the indictment stated that during Redwine and Horvath’s divorce and custody proceedings, Redwine repeatedly told Horvath he would “kill the kids before he let her have them.”

Dr. Phil

Dylan’s mother, Elaine Hall, aired her own concerns regarding Redwine on national television. Three months after Dylan went missing, the boy’s parents went on the “Dr. Phil” show with their oldest son, Cory.

Cory Redwine told Dr. Phil that he believed Mark Redwine — whom he refused to call “Dad” — had something to do with Dylan’s disappearance.

I do believe that Mark took Dylan to punish my mom and essentially, hurt her,” he told Dr. Phil. “I think Mark has been lying from the start.”

Hall said that since the beginning, she’s always felt that her ex-husband was hiding something about what happened to Dylan.

Dr. Phil urged Mark Redwine to take a polygraph test with a polygraph expert hired by the show.

“If you’ve got nothing to do with this, it will clear you,” he told Mark Redwine. Dr. Phil said:

If you have your son stashed somewhere, or if, God forbid, you flew into a rage, and you hurt him accidentally, and he’s dead, if something has happened, I will help you deal with it now; and we will go recover that young man. If you are involved, it’s just a matter of time.

Mark Redwine initially agreed to take a polygraph, but later declined.

“I’m not afraid of the truth,” he said. “I’m not trying to get away with anything. I’m not involved in this.”

In August 2015, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office announced that Dylan’s manner of death had been updated to “homicide” and Mark Redwine was officially the person of interest.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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3 Comments

  • Foxyheart July 26, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    Good. It’s about time that monster is on his way to paying for what he did. I also believe that the court has a bit to do with all this. Dylan did not want to go but as forced to do so. If a child does not want to go there must be a reason for it and that should be investigated before he is forced.

  • Real Life July 26, 2017 at 2:40 pm

    So the court forced him to go? They have blood on their hands as well.

  • comments July 26, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    “I have seen the photos,” Cory Redwine told Denver7. “It shows him wearing women’s clothes and makeup and a diaper and then eating his feces from the diaper. It was disgusting. We couldn’t believe it.”

    Things that make you go “wth”…..

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