A southwest Colorado jury on Friday found Mark Redwine guilty of second-degree murder in the 2012 disappearance and death of his 13-year-old son Dylan.
Redwine, who was also convicted of child abuse resulting in death, faces decades in prison at sentencing, which was scheduled for October.
The jury deliberated for about a day before reaching its verdict. Mark Redwine’s trial, during which he opted not to testify, spanned roughly three weeks.
The verdict puts to rest a case that has gripped Colorado and the nation for years. Dylan went missing during a court-ordered Thanksgiving trip to visit his father near Durango. His remains were discovered in the summer of 2013 and Mark was arrested and charged with murder in 2016.
Prosecutors said that Mark Redwine, now 59, killed his son after Dylan found a compromising photo of his father dressed in women’s lingerie and eating what appeared to be feces from a diaper.
“Dylan was no longer simply an adoring young boy who just wanted to be with his parents. He came to recognize that his parents were people and he came to recognize the person that the defendant was in his life,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, who was assisting prosecutors in southwest Colorado on the case, said during closing arguments on Thursday.
Redwine’s attorneys argued that there wasn’t enough evidence to connect their client to Dylan’s death, arguing that it was possible an animal attacked the boy and moved his remains around a remote area in southwest Colorado.
Dylan’s disappearance and death were featured on the Dr. Phil television program. Mark Redwine was interviewed as part of the show, denying that he had anything to do with his son’s death.
“I absolutely had nothing to do with Dylan’s disappearance,” Mark Redwine told the program.
Mark Redwine was divorced from Dylan’s mother, Elaine Hall, at the time their son went missing. Hall claimed for years that Mark had something to do with Dylan’s disappearance.
“This entire process has been surreal,” Hall told 9News on Friday after the verdict was read. “We’ve lived in this world of not knowing what happened to my son. I think it’s pretty clear that the right verdict was given today.”
On June 27, 2013, the day authorities confirmed that partial human remains found near Mark Redwine’s home belonged to Dylan, Mark told The Gazette in Colorado Springs that the news was “crushing.”
“I don’t think any parent wants to see that kind of thing,” he said. “All they have are parts of my son.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.