DENVER – Dylan Redwine would have turned 17 on Saturday.
It’s been more than three years since the teen’s disappearance.
He was on a court-ordered visit with his father, Mark Redwine, on Nov. 18, 2012, when he disappeared. Dylan was 13 at the time.
In June 2013, some of Dylan’s remains were found about three miles from his father’s home in Vallecito. The case remains unsolved.
The Dylan Redwine story is rare, but not unique. Other families across the state have been forced to deal with the killing of a loved one, and the subsequent lack of justice that can sometimes follow. In an effort to help address this failure, state lawmakers are debating a proposal that supporters hope will offer prosecutors an additional tool to resolve difficult cases.
“Many do not understand the horrific nightmare of hearing that your child is missing. You never expect it will happen to you,” Elaine Hatfield Hall, Dylan’s mother and Mark Redwine’s ex-wife, told state lawmakers Wednesday.
She testified in support of the bill that would make tampering with a body a felony.
In August, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office announced it had identified Mark Redwine as a person of interest in the case and that Dylan’s cause of death had been changed from “unknown” to “homicide.”
Hall, in late June, had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her ex-husband.
The emotional scars from Dylan’s disappearance linger, only exacerbated by a lack of justice, Hall said.
She believes lawmakers should do everything they can to add a layer of justice and closure for victims’ families. Hall pointed to the state’s Amber Alert, which allows law enforcement to use the Emergency Alert System so residents may assist in the search for an abducted child. Though that system doesn’t always work, it offers another tool.
“This is essential so there is accountability,” Hall said of the legislation.
The bill predominantly targets someone who assists a killer with moving or disposing of a body after a crime. Such involvement is currently a misdemeanor in the state.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, believes the legislation would provide a felony “hammer” for prosecutors to get people talking.
“If you helped move a body, we’re going to have a conversation, because we can say ... we have the evidence that you probably had something to do with that body, now you can either help us, or you can go to jail,” Sonnenberg said.
The bill passed its first test after the Senate Judiciary Committee backed the bill on a party-line 3-2 vote. Democrats opposed the legislation.
Carrie Thompson, representing the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, testified that the bill is unnecessary, pointing out that felonies exist for such crimes as tampering with physical evidence and being an accessory to a crime. In both cases, disposing of a body to cover up a crime would fit, she said.
“We understand what Senator Sonnenberg has to say is the intent of the bill, which is to be helpful to law enforcement, and we acknowledge that we are certainly sympathetic to the families of victims who lose loved ones to violence. But current law already addresses these concerns,” Thompson said.
Sonnenberg, however, said human remains should be treated differently.
“The simple question is: Should the penalty for messing with a bloodstain on a piece of furniture, or a fingerprint on a glass, be the same as tampering with a human body?” he asked. “I think not.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com