Dylan Redwine Wiki: Evidence, Trial, Sentence, and Appeal

The Dylan Redwine case ended in 2021 with the conviction of the boy’s father, Mark Redwine, for second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death after Dylan disappeared during a court-ordered visit to his father’s Colorado home in November 2012. A jury found that Mark killed the 13-year-old in the living room of his house near Vallecito, then hid the body on nearby Middle Mountain, where searchers and later hikers recovered Dylan’s partial remains and, nearly three years on, his skull. A judge sentenced Mark to 48 years in prison.

How Dylan Disappeared

Dylan Redwine was born on February 6, 1999, and lived with his mother, Elaine Hatfield Redwine, in the Colorado Springs area after his parents’ 2008 divorce. A court-ordered visitation arrangement required him to spend time with his father, Mark Redwine, who lived near Vallecito, a rural community roughly 22 miles northeast of Durango.¹ On November 18, 2012, Dylan flew from his mother’s home to Durango for a Thanksgiving visit. He texted his mother “yes” followed by a frowning emoji when she asked if he had made it safely.²

Nothing was recorded on Dylan’s phone or social media after 10 p.m. that night. Prosecutors later noted that around 11 p.m., every light in Mark Redwine’s house went dark.³ The next morning, Mark told investigators he left Dylan alone at the house to run errands and returned to find the boy gone. He texted Dylan four times through the day, ending with, “Dylan, you need to call me. Where are you?” He reported his son missing later that day.²

The Search and the Remains on Middle Mountain

La Plata County Search and Rescue began combing the area around Mark Redwine’s home the night Dylan was reported missing. The effort grew to nearly 200 volunteers and personnel from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, the Durango Police Department, the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and dive teams from the New Mexico State Police. Cadaver dogs, helicopters, and sonar-equipped boats worked Vallecito Reservoir after dogs alerted at several spots.⁴

Investigators executed a search warrant at Mark Redwine’s home on November 29, 2012. In June 2013, Dylan’s partial remains were found on Middle Mountain, about eight miles from his father’s residence, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation confirmed the identification on June 27, 2013. In November 2015, hikers found Dylan’s skull about 1.5 miles farther up the same mountain road. Wildlife experts testified that no local animals could have moved the skull that distance from the rest of the remains.⁵

La Plata County District Attorney Christian Champagne called the skull’s discovery a “critical piece” of evidence that helped “turn a corner in the investigation.”⁶ In August 2015, Mark Redwine was formally named a person of interest, and the La Plata County coroner reclassified Dylan’s death as a homicide.⁴

What the Forensic Evidence Showed

Testing found traces of Dylan’s blood in the living room of Mark Redwine’s home: on the couch, on the floor in front of the couch, on a coffee table corner, beneath a rug, and on a love seat.⁷ A cadaver dog detected the scent of human remains in the living room and in the bed of Mark Redwine’s pickup truck.⁵

Forensic pathologist Dr. Robert Kurtzman testified that Dylan’s skull carried two fractures consistent with blunt force trauma and two distinct markings he identified as knife cuts inflicted at or near the time of death. He said he was “very confident” the markings were knife cuts and ruled out animal scavenging as their cause. He concluded that Dylan’s death was a homicide.⁸

The Photographs Prosecutors Called a Motive

At the center of the prosecution’s theory of why Mark Redwine killed his son were photographs recovered from Mark’s computer. The images showed him wearing women’s underwear and a diaper and eating feces. Dylan and his older brother, Cory, had found the pictures on a 2011 trip. Cory testified that Dylan was “pretty disgusted” and lost “any reason to look up to Mark that day.” Cory saved copies to his phone.⁹

In August 2012, Dylan texted Cory: “Hey send me those poop pics of Papa because he gave me a speech about you guys being a bad example and I want to show him who he really is.” Cory testified that Dylan asked seven times, and each time he refused, fearing it would “fuel a bigger fire.”⁹ Prosecutors argued that Dylan confronted his father about the pictures during the November 2012 visit and that the confrontation triggered a violent rage that killed him.¹⁰

Denials, Indictment, and Arrest

For years before charges were filed, Mark Redwine publicly denied involvement. He appeared on Dr. Phil in February 2013 with Elaine and Cory, insisted he did not know what happened to Dylan, and suggested Elaine could have been involved. He agreed to a polygraph, then refused it.¹¹ In a May 2015 return to the show, after the remains had been found, he again denied involvement, said it “was a shock” that the remains were near his home, and refused Elaine’s request that he walk investigators through the house, saying, “I just don’t see the value in doing it.” On that broadcast, Elaine said, “He murdered his son,” and Cory suggested his father had tried to destroy evidence.¹²

In July 2017, after an investigation that spanned more than four and a half years, a La Plata County grand jury indicted Mark Redwine on one count of second-degree murder and one count of child abuse resulting in death.¹³ Officers arrested him on July 22, 2017, in Bellingham, Washington, where he had been working as a semi-truck driver; investigators tracked his truck by GPS and cellphone data and found him inside with a trainee.¹⁴ He was held on a $1 million bond and initially refused to waive extradition, requiring a governor’s warrant to send him back to Colorado.

Delays and a Mistrial

The trial was scheduled for early 2019 and repeatedly postponed. In November 2020, after a week of jury selection, Chief District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson declared a mistrial when members of the defense team reported coronavirus symptoms and had to quarantine. Prosecutors accused the defense of using the pandemic as a pretext, pointing to a recorded jail call in which Redwine discussed seeking a postponement. Judge Wilson ruled he had “no choice but to delay the trial to make sure Redwine has effective legal representation.”¹⁵

Trial and Verdict

The trial took place in Durango in the summer of 2021. Prosecutors put on the blood evidence from the living room, the cadaver dog alerts, the skull fractures and knife marks, and their theory that the confrontation over the photographs set off the killing. Cory Redwine testified for the prosecution, describing the discovery of the images and their effect on Dylan’s view of his father. He also told jurors that in December 2012 he confronted Mark at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio and said he believed Mark had killed Dylan. Cory added that he still loved his father: “I wish we were here under different circumstances.”¹⁶

The defense argued Dylan may have run from the house and been killed by a wild animal such as a mountain lion or bear, and that the photographs were irrelevant to his death and that media coverage had shaped the investigation unfairly.¹⁷ On July 16, 2021, after less than a day of deliberations, the jury convicted Mark Redwine of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.¹⁸

Sentence

On October 8, 2021, Judge Wilson sentenced Redwine to 48 years in prison on both counts, to run concurrently, with credit for more than 1,500 days already served.¹⁹ At sentencing, the judge told Redwine, “As the father, it’s your obligation to protect your son, keep him from harm. Instead of that, you inflicted enough injury on him to kill him in your living room.” He said Redwine then “sanitized the crime scene,” hid Dylan’s body, and “went so far as to remove his head from the rest of his body.” Wilson said he had “trouble remembering a convicted criminal defendant that has shown such an utter lack of remorse” and concluded that Redwine needed to “be removed from society for a very long period of time.”⁵ Redwine did not speak at the hearing.¹⁷

Appeal

In November 2021, attorneys for Mark Redwine filed a formal notice of appeal, indicating they planned to raise objections made during trial, the sufficiency of the evidence, and the sentence.²⁰ No outcome of the appeal has been publicly reported.

The Colorado Law Dylan’s Mother Helped Pass

At the time of Dylan’s death, tampering with a dead body was a misdemeanor in Colorado. Elaine Hatfield, working with Laura Saxton, the mother of another murder victim, lobbied to change that. She told lawmakers, “This has devastated our family, but it also has made us aware of the laws that need to change to protect the victims rather than the criminals.”²¹ Their effort produced Colorado statute § 18-8-610.5, which reclassified tampering with a dead body as a class 3 felony punishable by up to 12 years in prison per charge. The law has since been applied in other high-profile Colorado cases.²²

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CBS News Colorado. Dylan Redwine’s Birthday Passes With No Celebration but a Candlelight Vigil
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9News. Mark Redwine Text Messages
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CBS News Colorado. Mark Redwine Dylan Redwine Murder Trial
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Durango Herald. Timeline in Dylan Redwine Case
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Durango Herald. Colorado Father Sentenced to Prison for Killing 13-Year-Old Son Dylan Redwine
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KOAT. La Plata Sheriff: Dylan Redwine Investigation Is a Journey for Justice
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ABC News. Grim Details Revealed About Father Charged With Murdering 13-Year-Old
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Denver Gazette. Dylan Redwine of Monument Died by Homicide, Expert Testifies
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Durango Herald. Redwine Trial: Disturbing Photos Shatter Dylan’s Image of His Dad
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Colorado Sun. Dylan Redwine Colorado Trial Updates
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Yahoo Entertainment. Dad Murdered Teen Dylan Redwine
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CBS News Colorado. Dylan Redwine Dr. Phil: Elaine Redwine, Mark Redwine
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KOAT. Colorado Father Formally Charged in Dylan Redwine’s Death
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Denver7. Mark Redwine Will Remain Held on $1M Bail Pending August Extradition
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Colorado Sun. Dylan Redwine Murder Trial Delayed
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Durango Herald. Cory Redwine Says He Sent Sordid Photos to His Father During a Dispute
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Colorado Sun. Mark Redwine Sentenced Colorado
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Colorado Sun. Mark Redwine Guilty of Murder
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KOAT. Dylan Redwine Father Sentenced
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9News. Mark Redwine Appeal
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Durango Herald. Bill Would Make Tampering With a Body a Felony
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KRQE. Colorado Law Passed With Help of Dylan Redwine’s Mom Now Used in High-Profile Cases