Posted For: Rotorblade
A Colorado father was sentenced to 48 years in prison for the brutal murder of his 13-year-old son, Dylan Redwine — a crime prosecutors say was driven by rage after the boy confronted him over disturbing photos discovered on his laptop.
A Court-Ordered Visit Turns Tragic
In November 2012, Dylan Redwine reluctantly traveled from his mother’s home to visit his father, Mark Redwine, in Durango, Colorado, as required by a custody agreement. His mother, Elaine Hall, had no choice but to comply with the court order, despite Dylan’s deep reluctance to go.
On November 18, 2012, Mark picked up Dylan from the airport. Surveillance footage captured only brief exchanges between them — a strained dynamic that continued during a stop at Walmart. That evening, Dylan texted a friend saying he planned to visit the next morning around 6:30 a.m. When he never arrived, friends and family began to worry.
Mark claimed he had left home early on November 19 to run errands and returned to find Dylan missing. Hall immediately doubted his story, suspecting her son had met with foul play.
A Disturbing Motive Emerges
According to Dylan’s older brother, Cory, the boys had previously found explicit photos of their father — images showing Mark wearing women’s lingerie and engaging in deeply disturbing acts. Cory said Dylan intended to confront his father about the photos during the visit, feeling old enough to finally “speak his mind.”
Prosecutors believe that confrontation turned violent. Evidence later revealed that Dylan was killed in the living room of Mark’s home. Investigators found traces of Dylan’s blood there, and cadaver dogs detected the scent of a corpse both inside the house and in the bed of Mark’s pickup truck.
The Grisly Discovery
Months later, in June 2013, partial remains of Dylan’s body were found eight miles away along Middle Mountain Road. Three years later, hikers discovered his skull more than a mile farther up the same route. Forensic experts concluded Dylan died from sharp-force trauma, and testified that animals could not have moved his skull such a distance — contradicting Mark’s claim that his son wandered off and was attacked by wildlife.
Conviction and Sentencing
Mark Redwine was charged in 2017 and convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. In October 2021, 6th Judicial District Court Judge Jeffery Wilson sentenced him to the maximum penalty — 48 years in prison.
“The evidence against you is overwhelming,” Judge Wilson said during sentencing. “You killed your son — a 13-year-old boy — in your own living room. Instead of protecting him, you ended his life, hid his body, and desecrated his remains.”
District Attorney Christian Champagne echoed the court’s condemnation, telling jurors that Redwine’s lack of remorse reflected “the same, cold-hearted murderer’s heart that killed Dylan Redwine.”
To this day, Dylan’s phone and iPod — last used at 9:37 p.m. on November 18, 2012 — have never been recovered.
A Family Still Seeking Peace
Throughout the trial, Mark Redwine maintained his innocence, calling the proceedings “fake justice.” Judge Wilson rejected that claim outright, concluding, “After all this time, you still take absolutely no responsibility for what you did to Dylan.”
For Dylan’s mother and brother, the sentence marked the end of a long and painful search for truth — and the beginning of a lifetime without the boy they fought so hard to protect.