Mark Redwine: Dad killed 13-yr-old son after boy found pics of him in women's underwear eating feces
COLORADO: A 13-year-old was reportedly killed by his father after he found 'compromising' photos of him eating feces from a diaper while wearing women’s underwear. The murder trial of Mark Redwine, 59 began on June 21. Prosecutors claimed in the opening statement that Mark 'flew into a rage' on the night of November 18, 2012, when his teenage son Dylan might have mentioned or shown him his 'compromising pictures'.
Mark Redwine is charged with second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of Dylan. In similar incidents of child abuse and murder, an Arkansas father was convicted of murdering his six-year-old son by sexually assaulting him with a stick. He was sentenced to death in November 2016. In June 2021, a Tennessee father was found guilty of murdering his autistic, nonverbal toddler son in 2018. A Florida father and son were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on May 21, after the child's mother had alerted authorities requesting the child be removed from the father's care.
RELATED ARTICLES
Ronnie Oneal: Man accused of killing girlfriend, daughter, grills son in court
Unstable father who killed five-year-old son thinking he was 'the devil' charged with murder
Prosecutor Fred Johnson said in his opening statement, "A damaged relationship, exposed with compromising photographs, photographs in the hands of a 13-year-old who is disgusted by it, which triggered a violent rage in the defendant." During Thanksgiving 2012, Dylan disappeared from Redwine’s Vallecito home during a court-ordered visit. According to the Denver Post, the boy’s remains were found by 2013 and 2014. Johnson further mentioned that prosecutors intend to prove that Redwine killed Dylan in his living room and then dumped his body off a trail near his home. Afterwards, he misled the investigators for months to cover up his crime. Traces of Dylan's blood were found in Redwine’s living room and his body was found without his wallet or backpack.
Redwine’s public defender, John Moran, argued that Dylan had no interest in visiting his father and suggested he could have been attacked by a bear or mountain lion after running away, claiming a tooth mark was found on his skull. He further said that Dylan had previously confronted him (Redwine) about the fetish photos during a cross-country trip. There was no way the prosecutors will be able to prove a connection between Dylan's death and the photos. Moran said that the photos "come from deep within Mark’s private life." "If the prosecution could find an expert to say people who do that are more likely to kill their child, that information would be given to you … Mr Redwine did not kill his child," he added. Moran also noted that no evidence tied his client to the boy’s death.
"Mr Redwine, in addition to being innocent, lost everything. He lost it all, and now he sits here with this demand for wrongful conviction, " Moran said. According to KUSA, Redwine worked as a trucker in Washington when he was arrested. Dylan’s older brother, Cory, who previously claimed he saw the sordid images of his father as well, called for 'justice' in his brother’s death in November 2020. Cory wrote on Facebook, "Dylan needs strength from more than just us and I can’t begin to explain how much every single person that knows his story is a part of that! Every day a kid is forgotten by the legal system and that is not ok!!"
The trial was postponed after multiple delays in the case. It is expected to last until mid-July, with testimonies to start on June 22.