The father of Dylan Redwine says he might be the one a former FBI profiler recently called a “person of interest” in his son’s death, but he doesn’t know because authorities have rebuffed his efforts to speak with them.
“I’ve been in communication with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, and they have no interest in communicating with me right now,” Mark Redwine, the father of deceased 13-year-old Dylan Redwine, said Saturday morning. “I may or may not be that person of interest. Right now there are more questions than answers.”
The Redwine case jumped back into the headlines this week after former FBI profiler Pete Klismet made statements implying that he knows who is responsible for Dylan Redwine’s death.
Klismet said Saturday that Redwine is not being completely forthcoming about his characterization.
“I’d be more than happy to speak with Mr. Redwine whenever and wherever. But he wants to do it on his terms. He wants to speak on the phone. If he wants to talk, we’re going to sit down face to face or we’re not going to do it,” Klismet said.
He said items discovered a week ago near the location where Redwine’s remains were found were very promising in terms of evidence.
“We do expect to be saying more in the next couple of weeks,” Klismet said. “We’re getting close.”
Sheriff’s investigators also revealed that they conducted other searches on Middle Mountain Road, where Dylan’s body was discovered in the vicinity of his father’s house near Vallecito Reservoir in the summer of 2013, and found “items of interest,” according to the Durango Herald report.
“He’s not made any contact with me,” Redwine said Saturday morning, referring to Klismet. “I think people are reading a lot more into this than is warranted.”
Klismet has not identified the person of interest, but Redwine said it would be fair to say that authorities have previously indicated that they were primarily focusing their investigation on him.
“Everything that has been said is being implied,” Redwine said.
When first called Saturday morning for comment, Redwine brusquely stated, “At this point I’m not talking,” and hung up the phone.
A half hour later, he called back, apologized over and over for “being rude” and answered numerous questions about his life following his son Dylan’s death.
Dylan was an eighth-grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School in Colorado Springs, where he lived with his mother, Elaine Redwine, and older brother Cory, when he vanished shortly after his father had picked him up at the Durango airport.
“I’ve lost my best friend. Dylan was my best friend,” he said. “I’ve chosen to honor my son’s life by living in such a way that my son would be proud of.”
What has added to his grief are accusations hanging over him including a wrongful death claim filed by his ex-wife, Elaine Redwine, against him last week, accusing him of killing their son.
“I don’t begrudge her at all in trying to find the truth about what happened to our son. I don’t agree with how she is going about doing it,” he said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell
