A retired Colorado of Bureau of Investigation (CBI) agent testified Thursday that investigators found blood in numerous areas of murder suspect Mark Redwine’s home. Redwine is on trial for the murder of his 13-year-old son, Dylan Redwine.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Dylan Redwine was last seen alive on November 18, 2012, after his father picked him up from an airport during a court-mandated visitation. Security footage showed Dylan and his father at a Walmart and McDonald’s before the pair headed to Mark Redwine’s home in Durango. Redwine was reportedly the last person to have contact with Dylan, according to prosecutors.
In November 2012, volunteer search teams and authorities began scouring the area around Redwine’s home for months. The search proved to be difficult since Durango is at an elevation of 6,512 feet with steep canyons and mountains.
In June 2013, searchers found a few of Dylan’s bones, a part of his shirt, a sock, and his shoestring, in Vallecito, which is around five miles away from Durango. Searchers found his remains in an area difficult to get to, especially for a young boy or for someone who doesn’t know the area well.
On Thursday morning, former CBI agent Joe Clayton, who worked the case before retirement, testified that six samples collected at Mark Redwine’s residence tested positive for blood after mixed with luminol and phenolphthalein. The agent said samples inside Redwine’s home were collected from the couch, coffee table, loveseat, and flooring.
“First and foremost was the blood under the carpet. If blood had been deposited on the carpet and soaked through, the carpet should have given me a positive reaction, but it didn’t,” Clayton said.
“The blood on the couch and love seat, of course, they were dark brown leather to begin with, very difficult to see, not a lot of blood there, but it looked like it had been cleaned up, something had to happen there to make it that dilute.”
“It was not just centralized in one place. If I had found stains in one area I would think you had a localized bloodletting event, but this indicates movement, you have it on various pieces of furniture and under a rug.”
Clayton testified that when he first walked through Redwine’s house, it didn’t appear as if a crime had happened and he couldn’t determine exactly how the bloodstains ended up where they did.
Meanwhile, Dylan’s older brother Corey took the stand on Thursday. He primarily testified about “nasty” photos of Redwine that greatly upset Dylan.
According to testimony, Corey said he found disturbing images on his father’s laptop and took photos of the images with his phone. One of the photos shows Mark Redwine wearing makeup, dressed in women’s clothing with a feces-filled diaper in his mouth.
According to the defense, Dylan previously asked his dad about the photos when they were on a road trip together in Boston, months before the child’s death. Prosecutors allege that Redwine killed Dylan after the boy confronted him about the photos while inside the Durango home, but the defense argued that Redwine had already been confronted by Dylan on a prior occasion and nothing happened.
The defense referred to the photos as a “made-up motive.”
Previous video coverage of the case
Another witness, Kathi Barry, who didn’t initially know the Redwine family but got involved in the search efforts, testified that Redwine became berserk when she mentioned the photos to him.
“All of the sudden, he picked up this log, off like, a stove or an oven or something,” she said. “He picked up that log and he went ‘aggh!’ and all I remember was, I don’t know if you’ve seen the cartoons where the eyes bulge out and all you can see is the whites of the eyes, but that’s all I saw. It scared the [expletive] out of me.”
Barry testified that she and a friend, Diane Hess, who was a close friend of Dylan’s mother, confronted Redwine about the photos after he sent a text message to Hess when Dylan’s remains were found. Hess, who had cancer, has since passed away.
“He hoped that her colon cancer-riddled BFF died and that she did too. That’s what he said,” Barry testified. “I mean, she [Hess] knew Mark, and she was upset about the text.”
“Because he said something to her about cancer and the last breath, and he was laughing, she said, ‘Well, it will be my last breath and I will make you pay for what you did to Dylan.”
The trial resumes Friday. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Dylan Redwine/Handout]
