Four years after 13-year-old Dylan Redwine disappeared, his father is charged with murder

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Kristine Phillips

Dylan Redwine had no interest in going to Bayfield, Colorado, for a court-ordered Thanksgiving holiday visit to see his father.

When the 13-year-old's parents divorced, the ensuing custody battle was contentious, according to a grand jury indictment. Dylan may have seen court papers that said unsavory things about his dad. He'd confronted the man about "compromising" photos he'd discovered. On a previous visit, father and son had fought.

For months Dylan said "he was upset with Mark Redwine, that he did not want to visit and was uncomfortable with Mark Redwine," the indictment says.

Dylan went missing on a Thanksgiving visit to his father's house.

Still, the teen got on the plane and was picked up by his dad. They stopped at Walmart and McDonald's, and ended the night at Redwine's house.

Then Dylan disappeared.

On Saturday, following years of speculation that he had killed his son, Mark Redwine was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. The arrest followed a grand jury indictment on the charges.

Redwine was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, and was being held in lieu of US$1 million bail, according to the Associated Press. He could not immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear if he had hired a lawyer.

Investigators have not said what led them to make an arrest after nearly five years.

Redwine previously denied any involvement in his son's death. He said Dylan went missing while walking to a friend's house six miles away. The claim was backed up by Redwine's mail carrier, according to New Mexcio CBS-affiliate KRQE. The woman said she saw two boys walking on the road.

But the indictment details evidence that suggested a violent death in Redwine's living room.

Dylan's blood was found on the couch, on the floor in front of the couch, on the corner of a coffee table, on the floor beneath a rug and on a love seat, the court document says. A cadaver-sniffing dog detected evidence of human remains near Redwine's washing machine, on the clothes he wore the last night Dylan was seen alive and in the bed of the man's pickup truck.

The next year, some of Dylan's remains were found on a road near an ATV trail that closes in the winter, the indictment says. Two years later, hikers on the same road found Dylan's skull. Investigators determined it had evidence of blunt force trauma and "two small marking consistent with too marks from a knife."

Mark Redwine's booking photo. He has denied any involvement in his son's death for four years.

And relatives told investigators that they had suspicions.

According to the indictment, Dylan's half brother had relayed an odd conversation he had with Dylan's dad: "Mark Redwine had mentioned blunt force trauma several times and discussed how investigators would have to find the rest of the body, including the skull, before they could determine if this was the cause of death."

Redwine's other ex-wife, Betsy Horvath, was more explicit, the court document says. She "voiced concern that Mark Redwine may have hurt Dylan Redwine" and told investigators that her ex-husband told her if he ever had to get rid of a body, he'd leave it in the mountains near his house.

Most troubling, she said, were his threats about the custody battle, the indictment said. He told her he would "kill the kids before he let her have them."

Dylan's mom aired her concerns on national television. In 2013, a year after Dylan went missing, his parents went on Dr. Phil.

Dyan Redwine's family have been searching for answers for four years. There has finally been an arrest.

It was the first time they had talked outside of text messages in years and Elaine Hall confronted her former husband about their son's disappearance.

"I really have a concern that you hurt him, and his bones are out there just laying, and you don't even care," Hall said. "Did you hurt him?

"No, Elaine, I wouldn't hurt him," Redwine responded. "What kind of mother are you to even think that I was capable of doing something like that."

"When you're mad at somebody, your main focus is to get even or get back at them and hurt them," she responded. "That's how your mind works."