Duane “DC” Meyer searched on his cellphone for information about tranquilizer guns and darts three months before his ex-wife’s charred body was found in her Byron home in 2016, a digital forensic expert testified Thursday, Jan. 22.

Zeus Flores, a digital forensic expert with the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office, testified during the Ogle County trial that data extracted from DC’s phone showed searches on Amazon, Craigslist and Google for tranquilizer guns and one search on Reddit in a “no stupid questions/comments” thread asking “do tranquilizer darts instantly knock people out”.

Flores took the stand on the last day of testimony in the trial. Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases that day. The jury will return to the Ogle County Judicial Center on Monday morning, when they will hear closing statements and jury instructions and begin deliberating,

DC, 43, is charged with killing Maggie (Rosko) Meyer, 31, and then setting her home on fire with their 3-year-old son inside in October 2016.

He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with the Oct. 19, 2016, house fire in which Maggie was found dead.

The couple’s 3-year-old son, Amos Meyer, who was in an upstairs bedroom at the time of the fire, was later pronounced dead at the former Rockford Memorial Hospital.

Maggie was a teacher at the Chana Education Center at the time of her death. She filed for divorce in 2014 and court records show the divorce was finalized in September 2016.

Her charred body was found on a couch in her living room after fire spread through the two-story home where Maggie lived with Amos in a subdivision northwest of Byron.

Her death was determined to be “highly suspicious for homicide” after forensic pathologists testified she was strangled to death before the fire swept upstairs, killing Amos from carbon monoxide poisoning as evidenced by soot in his airway and lungs.

No soot was found in Maggie’s airway or lungs, but pathologists testified there were signs of strangulation and “some type of blunt force trauma” on other parts of her body. They said they could not determine an exact cause of death because the condition of her severely charred body – with no distinguishing features remaining – could have masked other injuries that made the case challenging.

On Thursday, under questioning by Assistant Ogle County State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten, Flores said he had analyzed the search information from DC’s phone after being provided a thumb drive by an Illinois State Police investigator who had extracted the information after securing DC’s cellphone with a search warrant.

Flores said the information was found in the phone’s deleted space. Slides of those searches were shown to jurors on a large video screen. The slides indicated searches seeking to purchase a tranquilizer gun, one through Amazon and another referring to Craigslist, and a Reddit post/search.

Under questioning by defense attorney Christopher DeRango, Flores said he was not instructed by investigators to look for tranquilizer gun searches.

“Was there anything they told you that tranquilizer guns were involved,” asked DeRango.

“No,” replied Flores. “Not specifically, but those would fall into the realm of incapacitation.”

When DeRango asked Flores if he saw any reference to searches on how a body would burn, Leisten objected. After a sidebar with Roe and the rest of the attorneys, DeRango did not ask the question again, but then questioned Flores on why the slides showed a different phone model than the one owned by DC.

Flores said it was “not uncommon at all” to see a different model listed because phones had similar internal elements and the software used by investigators to extract the information defaulted to the best model to perform the search.

Flores testified he had done nothing to change any information gathered from the phone and used the information that had been extracted by Illinois State Police Lt. and Special Agent Nate Macklin.

The state’s next witness was Christopher Pearce, the man who Maggie had been dating at the time of her death.

Before Pearce was allowed to testify, defense attorney Patrick Moore asked the court – outside the presence of the jury – to limit Pearce’s testimony and not allow anything to be entered about her character because those attributes were not relevant to the trial and could be prejudicial to DC.

Assistant Ogle County State’s Attorney Allison Huntley said Pearce should be able to testify as to their relationship since the defense had “accused” Pearce of murdering Maggie during their cross examination of a witness Wednesday.

“On Wednesday the defense accused him of murdering her,” argued Huntley.

Judge John “Ben” Roe ruled Huntley’s questioning could inquire about the relationship, but not delve into other elements of her attributes as a person.

Pearce said he was Maggie’s boyfriend at the time of her death and had dated her for a year. He said he had moved to Carol Stream from Rockford before the deaths and he and Maggie would text and chat often and get together in person other times when schedules allowed.

“We did things as a family,” Pearce said.

Pearce testified that he and his mom and sister, along with Maggie and Amos, had spent the weekend before their deaths at the Edward’s Apple Orchard in Rockford. He said he returned to Maggie’s Byron home that night and they watched a movie together before he left to spend the night at his mother’s home in Rockford.

He said he and Maggie had planned to celebrate their one-year anniversary on Oct. 19.

“She was going to come and see me in Carol Stream,” Pearce testified.

Pearce tearfully testified that on Oct. 18 he had received a photo of Maggie smiling as she drove to work that morning. He said they exchanged text messages that evening between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. When he learned of her death the next morning, he drove directly to her home.

Pearce said he spoke with law enforcement and volunteered his phone for them to search.

“You signed a voluntary consent for a search,” asked Huntley.

“I did,” Pearce replied.

“Did you love Maggie?” asked Huntley, to which Pearce replied “yes”.

“Did you love Amos,” asked Huntley, to which Pearce also replied “yes”.

“Did you kill Maggie and Amos,” Huntley asked.

“No,” Pearce replied.

The state then rested its case.

Defense witnesses

DeRango started the defense’s case with retired forensic scientist Mary Beth Thomas. She testified she had processed latent fingerprints taken at the scene when she worked at the Rockford Crime Lab in 2016. Thomas said she had received five “lifts” – latent fingerprints – but only two were suitable for analysis.

She said they did not match DC’s prints.

Under cross examination, Leisten asked Thomas if the absence of suitable fingerprints could have been because someone was wearing gloves, had used bleach or another cleaning agent to obscure them, or were damaged by environmental factors such as excessive heat from a fire.

Thomas agreed that those factors would make it “less likely to leave a a suitable print”.

DeRango called three Ogle County police officers and a Byron firefighter to the stand.

Ogle County Detective Jason Plumb was the first to be called. Plumb had testified earlier in the trial in the state’s case in chief.

DeRango asked Plumb if he had followed up on a comment from Maggie’s mother that a student of Maggie’s had made a threat on her life.

Plumb said he talked to another teacher at the Chana Education Center and learned that was not a credible threat and the 13-year-old had moved to Missouri and was not living in the area at the time of the deaths.

Detective Chad Gallick, who also testified for the state earlier in the trial, said he had interviewed Pearce, who gave an account of his whereabouts.

DeRango asked Gallick if anyone else was interviewed to verify Pearce’s account.

“Not to my knowledge,” replied Gallick.

During cross examination, Gallick said Pearce was “incredibly distraught” when he arrived at Maggie’s home that morning.

He said Pearce’s phone was given to an FBI investigator, who extracted data and saw nothing to pursue.

On redirect, DeRango asked Gallick if Meyer was also distraught, to which he replied “yes”.

Retired Ogle County Sheriff’s Lt. James Getzelman said he responded to the home the morning of the fire and attempted to enter the home with Byron officer Jeremy Boehle, but was driven back by heavy smoke. Getzelman said he only made it to the kitchen, where he heard smoke alarms going off.

Getzelman said he saw a Byron firefighter performing CPR on Amos in the front yard when he arrived, with another man, whom he later learned was DC, kneeling beside the boy.

“The defendant was right there and he didn’t say ‘hey, my ex-wife is in there, you’d better check on her’,” Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock asked on cross examination. “The defendant never said a word about what was going on in that house?”

“No,” Getzelman said.

During a taped interview with police in 2016, DC told investigators he arrived at Maggie and Amos’s home around 6:30 a.m. after texting Maggie at 5:15 a.m. that he wanted to pick up Amos so he could spend the day on the farm with his grandparents – DC’s mom and dad. He said that when he arrived, he saw that the home was on fire, called out to Amos, and tried twice to run up the stairs to Amos’s bedroom but was turned back by heavy smoke.

He said he reached the toddler on his third attempt and carried him out of the home to the front yard, where another first responder began CPR. He rode in the front seat of the ambulance as Amos was being transported to the hospital where Amos was declared dead.

When asked by investigators if he looked for Maggie or yelled her name, DC replied: “My first thought was the home was on fire and to get my son out.”

Maggie was found dead on the couch on the home’s first floor. DC told investigators his mom and dad arrived at the hospital and drove him to his home in Stillman Valley, where he showered and placed his clothes in the washer.

On Thursday during redirect questioning, Getzelman said DC was also distraught and was trying to talk to Amos.

A retired Byron firefighter, Timothy Salo, testified that he transported Amos in the ambulance, with DC riding in the passenger seat. He said DC was “very distraught” and was sobbing.

“He never asked you about Maggie Meyer,” asked Rock, to which Salo replied “no”.

The defense then rested its case.

Outside the presence of the jury, Roe asked DC if he had talked to his attorneys about testifying in his own defense.

“I have considered it. At this time no,” DC replied.

Roe then excused jurors for the day and told them to report back on Monday at 8:45 a.m. He said closing arguments from the attorneys will be heard beginning at 9 a.m. Following those arguments, the jurors will be given instructions and then begin deliberations.

Meyer was remanded to the Ogle County Jail, where he has been held since his Oct. 9, 2019, arrest.