VALLECITO — Dylan Redwine’s father said he was “blindsided” Thursday by the news that his 13-year-old son’s remains were found about 10 miles from his home north of Vallecito Lake.

“I cannot wrap my head around it. You can never be prepared for something like this,” Mark Redwine said after the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office announced that remains found during a search this week were positively identified as Dylan’s.

The boy disappeared while spending a court-ordered, Thanksgiving-week visit with his father last year.

Mark Redwine, who fought a long, contentious divorce and custody battle with Dylan’s mother, Elaine Redwine, said his focus now is on trying to contact her to make arrangements for the burial of their child.

“I am reaching out to his mom so he can have a proper burial. Making sure he gets a proper burial and the respect he deserves is what I have to focus on,” he said.

The recovery of their son’s remains has not eased either parent’s suspicion or animosity. They have blamed each other for Dylan’s disappearance, even exchanging accusations on the “Dr. Phil Show.”

Mark Redwine said that after Thursday’s announcement, his ex-wife was driving on a street in Durango when she spotted him, rolled down her window and shouted, “Murderer!”

The community had held out hope for Dylan’s return. The sandy-haired boy’s image still peers from fliers and posters taped up in shop windows and stapled to tree trunks and fence posts in the region.

At Vallecito Country Market, near Mark Redwine’s home, a cashier broke down at the news.

“She (the cashier) had been holding out hope. There’s a lot of people who had been holding out hope,” said store owner Rolland Healy, who kept a flier in the window.

As the news spread, customers milled about the grocery, asking him questions in hushed tones. “There’s a lot of sadness,” he said. “This is the last thing anyone up here wanted to happen.”

About 45 law enforcement and search and rescue workers discovered Dylan’s remains and other items while searching along 12 miles of Middle Mountain Road, said sheriff’s department spokesman Dan Bender.

They worked more than 1,600 man-hours during the five-day search on the rugged, unpaved road, which runs parallel to the road Mark Redwine lives on.

Mark Redwine said investigators told him they had found only four or five of his son’s bones and that they would continue searching. He said authorities told him his son was ravaged by wildlife.

Investigators also found a piece of the boy’s shirt, one sock and his shoestrings but not the backpack or other items he had when he went missing, Redwine said.

“Ninety-eight percent of Dylan is scattered about the countryside,” said Redwine, his voice trembling in an interview Thursday night.

Bender said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation positively identified bones as Dylan’s on Thursday and notified Dylan’s family.

Bender said Dylan’s disappearance is being treated as a criminal matter, and he said the boy’s parents are cooperating in the investigation.

Searches for the boy, which had been called off during the winter months, resumed in the spring.

The latest searches, through deep canyons, dense forest and extensive ground cover, were not the result of new information, Bender said. They were part of a series of follow-up searches conducted after the snow melted.

Dylan disappeared while spending a visit with his father in Vallecito, which is near Durango. He lived near Colorado Springs with his mother and her boyfriend.

Mark Redwine said he left Dylan at home alone while he was out running errands, and when he returned, his son was gone.

Although tears were shed in Vallecito and nearby communities on Thursday, the news wasn’t entirely a shock. Those who work at the Schank House restaurant had been watching search crews in hiking gear venture in and out of the mountain all week. When sheriff’s cars — but no firetrucks — came down the road late Wednesday, they sensed a grim development.

“Everyone was in anticipation and hoping they’d find something,” said Lisa Crombie, who works at the restaurant where Dylan’s mother and brother, Cory, dined earlier in the week. Their body language told her something was wrong, Crombie said.

Crombie remembered the quiet but troubled Dylan coming through her lunch line when she worked for Bayfield School District.

“It stares you in the face,” Crombie said. “By putting up posters and keeping his face around, it very well made it to the point that no one ever did give up hope. I don’t think anyone really ever stopped thinking of him.

“Being a mom myself, at least you have closure. You’ve found him, you can lay him to rest. There are a lot of parents that don’t get that.”

But for others, the discovery only prompted more questions.

“Everyone is curious to know if they can figure out what happened,” said Kaitlyn Vervaet, who works at Pura Vida cafe, where tourists for months have asked questions about what happened to the missing boy. “Living in the mountains, there’s so many things that could have happened. We were all hoping (he had) run away and maybe we’d see him again.”

Residents plan a candlelight memorial for Dylan at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in nearby Bayfield.

Sadie Gurman: 303-954-1661, sgurman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/sgurman