The fate of a Stillman Valley man charged with killing his ex-wife and 3-year-old son remained in the hands of an Ogle County jury late Thursday evening following four days of deliberations.

Jurors resumed deliberating at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, but had yet to decide by 6:30 p.m. despite deliberating 30 hours over four days. Those deliberations followed eight days of testimony and five days of jury selection.

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 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 on 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 on 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 was really 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.

Around 5 p.m. Thursday, jurors notified Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe that they had a question.

Outside the presence of the jury, Roe said jurors were asking about jury instructions referencing counts one and two and whether they could find the defendant “guilty of one and innocent of another … meaning you have to have the same binding on those counts” and if those counts were similar to the arson charges. Or if the judge could come in and “explain to us to help clarify.”

Counts one and two pertain to the first-degree murder charges.

Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said the answer should simply be “yes” that they can do that.

Defense attorney Christopher DeRango said the jury needed to be instructed that the wording of the instruction was not “innocent” but rather “not guilty.”

Rock agreed and Roe said he would instruct the jury as to that clarification.

At 5:15 p.m., the jury returned to deliberations while Roe, prosecutors and other court officials left the courtroom. Defense attorneys and DC’s family and friends remained in the courtroom, while Maggie’s family and friends also left the courtroom, waiting outside in the corridor until Roe returned.

A few minutes later, Roe returned to the courtroom and told attorneys that he had received another note from jurors that said deliberations had “reached a point” where it was “no longer productive without a break,” and jurors requested they be released until Friday morning, adding: “Each day, we continue to make progress.”

Roe asked DeRango and Rock for their input.

“I don’t know judge,” Rock said. “I defer to you.”

DeRango agreed.

“I am going to request that they continue to deliberate, and we’ll take it from there,” Roe said.