Dylan and Mark Redwine 

Five months after 13-year-old Dylan Redwine disappeared in La Plata County, Mark Redwine went alone up a mountain road to an area close to where Dylan’s bones were later found, a witness testified Tuesday during the second week of Mark Redwine’s murder trial.

The 59-year-old father is accused of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in Dylan’s death. The boy went missing at the start of a court-ordered visit to Redwine’s Vallecito home in November 2012.

Redwine, who has maintained his innocence in the case, has said he returned home from running errands on Nov. 19, 2012, to find Dylan gone and that he may have been attacked by a wild animal after leaving home. Prosecutors argue Redwine killed Dylan on the night of Nov. 18, 2012, in a fit of rage during a confrontation with Dylan over photos that show Redwine eating feces from a diaper.

Some of Dylan’s bones were found in June 2013 in a steep, rugged area several miles away from Redwine’s home, off Middle Mountain Road and an ATV trail, and a few dozen meters from a footpath, La Plata County sheriff’s Sgt. Martin Brenner testified Tuesday.

The area is largely inaccessible by car during the winter months — Middle Mountain Road is blocked by a locked gate during the winter, and the area usually sees heavy snow, so searchers were not able to thoroughly scour the area until the warmer weather in June 2013.

But in April 2013, Michael Hall, Dylan’s stepfather, saw Mark Redwine coming down Middle Mountain Road in his pickup truck, Hall testified. Search efforts for Dylan that day were centered elsewhere — at the Vallecito Reservoir — and Hall had driven a few minutes up Middle Mountain Road in order to relieve himself in what he expected would be a deserted area.

He testified he was surprised to see Redwine, and that it seemed Redwine sped away from him when the two men saw each other. Hall got into his own vehicle and chased Redwine down the mountain, he testified, eventually turning away when they reached paved roads. Hall later installed motion-activated game cameras along Middle Mountain Road to try to spot Redwine there again, he testified.

That April sighting directed law enforcement’s attention to the Middle Mountain Road area — but it wasn’t until the June search two months later that Dylan’s remains were found. Investigators located at least three of his bones in the rugged terrain, testimony revealed, as well as scraps of a T-shirt, earbuds, an elastic underwear band, a shoe and a sock.

One investigator found a tuft of hair; it was unclear from Tuesday’s testimony if the hair belonged to Dylan, whose skull was found in 2015 at least a mile away. Investigators also found what appeared to be either a finger or toe inside animal scat at the site. The items were collected over an area that spanned several feet, between two fallen trees.  Dylan’s cell phone, iPod, backpack and wallet were not found.

Testimony in the case will continue Wednesday.