A Colorado dad convicted of murdering his son after the 13-year-old discovered photos of him in women’s underwear eating feces from a diaper has been sentenced to 48 years in prison.
Mark Redwine, 59, was found guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse in July after he killed his son, Dylan, inside his Durango, Colorado, home on Nov. 18, 2012. The teen was on a court-ordered visit for Thanksgiving when Redwine snapped after him and his older brother—after the pair confronted him about the lewd photos of him in a red bra and eating feces from a diaper.
The lengthy sentence marks the end of a nearly nine-year saga that garnered national attention. During Friday’s sentencing hearing, several of Dylan’s family and friends spoke about the teenager’s “bright” personality and urged a judge to issue a hefty sentence for a father who “knowingly murdered his own son” and “stole” his young life.
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“You never had remorse. What were you thinking when you were looking into his blue eyes?” Elaine Hall, the teenager’s mother said, while her ex-husband sat across the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit. “You robbed him of his youth. You robbed him of what he would have been. You never take accountability.”
Prosecutors also argued for the maximum penalty, calling Redwine a “cold blooded killer” who actively “misled” authorities for years in an effort to shift blame. Judge Jeffrey Wilson seemed to agree, slamming Redwine for his “utter lack of remorse” before giving him 48 years in prison on both counts to run concurrently.
During the five-week trial, prosecutors said Dylan was last seen the night of Nov. 18, 2012 just before he went to visit his father. Friends and family testified that he was not looking forward to the trip.
“He did not want to see his father,” Cristen Baird, who dated Dylan at the time, testified during the trial. “He was mandated by the court order to come to see his dad... He was not excited.”
The next day, Redwine reported his son missing, stating Dylan was not there when he got home from work. Redwine’s defense team contended that Dylan was likely attacked by a bear or a mountain lion after running away from his dad’s house.
Hall told jurors that her son wouldn’t just leave without a word. She said she texted Redwine hours after learning Dylan had disappeared, saying: “I am so suspicious of you right now.”
About seven months later, authorities found Dylan’s partial remains miles from Redwine’s home. Two years after that, hikers found the teenager’s skull, which would later be key evidence in Redwine’s trial. A forensic examination found blunt-force trauma to the skull, as well as a fracture above the boy’s left eye—injuries experts testified likely were inflicted by another human, not an animal.
Redwine, a former truck driver, was not arrested until July 2017—after he appeared on the Dr. Phil show in 2013 to deny any involvement in Dylan’s death.
“The past nine years without Dylan have been nothing short of misery,” Cory Redwine, Dylan’s older brother, said Friday.
