After three days of deliberations, an Ogle County jury will return for a fourth day Thursday as jurors decide the fate of a Stillman Valley man charged with killing his ex-wife and their 3-year-old son in 2016 in Byron.

Duane “DC” Meyer, 43, of Stillman Valley is accused of killing his ex-wife, Maggie (Rosko) Meyer, 31, and then setting her Byron home on fire with their 3-year-old son, Amos, asleep in his upstairs bedroom Oct. 19, 2016.

Meyer, known as DC, was charged in 2019 with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with the deaths.

He has been held in the Ogle County Jail since his arrest Oct. 9, 2019.

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 Oct. 19, 2016. Pathologists determined that her death was “highly suspicious for homicide,” testifying for the prosecution that she was strangled to death before the fire spread upstairs and killed 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 that 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 forensic case challenging.

Prosecutors argued that DC strangled Maggie to death and set her on fire in her home to clear the way for him to pursue a new life with his girlfriend. They told jurors that Amos – who was asleep in his upstairs bedroom – was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the smoldering early-morning fire.

Prosecutors claimed that text message exchanges between DC and his girlfriend, Catherine Mearns – extracted from their phones by investigators and analyzed by FBI agents – showed that DC was “obsessed” with Mearns, “hated” Maggie, and promised to “eliminate” Maggie and Amos from his life.

Defense attorneys argued that DC was innocent and police unfairly targeted him instead of trying to find out who really was responsible for the deaths of Maggie and Amos. They said text messages between DC and Mearns about Maggie and her family that were sent before their deaths were “cherry-picked” by prosecutors and taken out of context.

After eight days of testimony, jurors began their deliberations at about 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26.

Deliberations continued all day Tuesday before Ogle County Judge John “Ben” released jurors after they requested to leave for the day because they had not reached an agreement on the verdict.

The jury deliberated for seven hours Wednesday before sending a note to Roe at 4 p.m. that read: “As of right now, with the good and progressive conversations we’ve had as a jury, we are asking to be released until tomorrow.”

Outside the presence of the jury, Roe asked prosecution and defense attorneys about that request.

Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock suggested that the jury continue deliberating based on their note that said good, progressive conversations were occurring.

“I would ask them to keep working,” Rock said.

Defense attorney Christopher DeRango agreed.

“I think we’re in a different position than yesterday because they are noting good and progressive conversations and simply asking whether they can be released to come back tomorrow,” Roe said. “It’s a little bit after 4 o’clock. At least at this point, I’m gonna request that they continue to deliberate at this time.”

At 5:12 p.m., Roe called attorneys back into the courtroom and said he had received another note from the jury asking that they be released for the night.

Roe said that note read: “Can we be released till tomorrow morning? Jury believes it would be beneficial to take the night for reflection. We don’t see any more beneficial conversations tonight.”

Roe granted that request. He released the jurors and instructed them to be back at the Ogle County Judicial Center at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, with deliberations beginning at 9 a.m.

Before releasing them, Roe again admonished jurors not to discuss the case with anyone and to form no opinion until deliberations begin Thursday.

He again requested they stay off any social networking platforms.