Crime scene investigators took to the witness stand on day two of the jury trial for a Stillman Valley man charged with killing his ex-wife, Margaret “Maggie” (Rosko) Meyer, and then setting her home on fire with their 3-year-old son inside.

Duane Meyer, referred to as DC during the trial, is charged 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 Oct. 19, 2016, Byron house fire in which Maggie, 31, was found dead.

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

DC Meyer has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and has been held in the Ogle County Jail since his arrest Oct. 9, 2019.

On Wednesday, crime scene investigators testified to the evidence that they had gathered and secured, as well as photos that they had taken at the home after the incident.

Sgt. Tad Nelson, a crime scene investigator with the Illinois State Police, testified to the photos that he had taken at the scene and the evidence he gathered and transported to the Rockford crime lab.

Nelson’s photos showed extensive damage to the sofa where Maggie was found, as well as damage in the home’s basement below where the sofa was located.

Photos of Amos’s upstairs bedroom showed his crib and the outline of where his body had been lying. Photos of the master bedroom showed Maggie’s cellphone on a nightstand along with nail polish and a prescription bottle.

Other photos showed a blood stain on a brick paver and landscape rock near the entry to the home, packed lunches sitting in the kitchen, a copy of the custody agreement in the basement, and a flashlight lying in the sink.

Nelson said that due to soot from the fire, some items were difficult to sample for evidentiary purposes in 2016.

“We could collect, but as far as getting a result from a lab, [chances] were slim to none,” Nelson said. “Things have changed a lot since 2016. Heat did a number on DNA. We didn’t have the technology back then to test.”

Nelson said a sample of the blood that was taken from the paver and rock was sent to the crime lab for analysis along with some other items.

Under cross-examination, Nelson said he didn’t recall seeing any scratches or other marks on DC. He also agreed that evidence not secured at the scene was now unrecoverable.

Clinton Smith, another Illinois State Police crime scene investigator, testified that he noticed an earring alongside the threshold of the passenger side entry of DC’s 1997 Ford pickup truck that was parked in the home’s driveway.

He said the earring was not touched, and the truck was towed to the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office garage, where the earring and other items from inside the truck were secured.

ISP crime scene investigator Angela Mathews testified that she secured the earring with sterile tweezers and placed it an evidence bag to be taken to the crime lab.

Mathews referred to the earring as a pearl stud. The title for the truck, held by a relative of DC’s, also was secured along other items that Mathews said were turned over to the Ogle County investigators.

Lt. Jason Plumb, a detective with the sheriff’s office who is now retired, said he was assigned to the investigation division in October 2016. He testified that police interviewed the woman with whom DC was involved in 2016, and she agreed to talk with detectives at the sheriff’s office in Oregon.

The woman complied with a search order for her cellphone and provided its passcode.

Prosecutors have argued that their evidence will show DC planned to end Maggie’s life.

The defense has argued that text messages sent by DC before the deaths were only part of a “contentious” divorce and not indicative of anything nefarious.

Plumb’s testimony ended Wednesday afternoon. More state witnesses are scheduled to testify this week and next week, with the trial expected to take up to three weeks.

Tuesday testimony

On Tuesday, Ogle County Detective Chad Gallick testified that DC told him he texted Maggie at 5:15 a.m. the morning of Oct. 19 regarding plans to pick up Amos and take him to his family’s farm near Chana to see his grandfather and watch farming operations.

When Maggie did not respond to his text message, DC told Gallick that he drove to the home, where he found the front door unlocked.

Gallick testified that DC told him that when he arrived at the Byron home about 6:30 a.m., he entered the smoke-filled home, called out for Amos, and after two attempts was able to get upstairs and carry Amos outside.

“[DC] tried to get to the bedroom, but there was too much smoke. He tried a second time, called 911, then went back to his truck and put a T-shirt around his face and went up to the bedroom,” Gallick said.

Gallick said he and another police officer went to DC’s parents’ home later that day and asked for the clothes DC had been wearing that morning.

“He indicated they were in the washing machine at his home in Stillman Valley,” Gallick said.

When asked by defense attorney Christopher DeRango if DC had been read his Miranda rights, Gallick said he had not: “At that point he was the person reporting the incident, and we wanted to talk with him.”

Gallick said police did not tell DC not to put his clothes in a washing machine when they initially talked with him at Rockford Memorial Hospital, where Amos had been taken.

Byron Fire Chief Andrew Politsch said he was one of the first firefighters to report to the 6:30 a.m. fire, where multiple victims were reported to be inside the two-story home in the rural subdivision north of Byron.

Politsch said he saw two other first responders performing CPR on someone in the front yard before he and another firefighter entered the home, where they encountered “heavy smoke conditions.”

He said they were dressed in full gear – including oxygen tanks – to search the upstairs bedroom, where reports had indicated a victim may be.

No one was found upstairs, but the charred body of Maggie was found on a sofa on the first floor, Politsch said.

Politsch said Maggie’s body was burnt beyond recognition. He said firefighters could see the outline of Amos’s body on his mattress after smoke had cleared.

Three residents who lived near the Meyer home at the time of the fire testified that they had never seen DC pick up Amos in the morning on weekdays. Two said they saw DC’s truck in the driveway that morning.

One said she smelled smoke about 3 a.m. that morning when her husband left for work, but she thought it was just someone burning leaves.

In her opening statement to jurors Tuesday, Assistant Ogle County State’s Attorney Allison Huntley said prosecutors would prove that DC “attacked and murdered” Maggie while Amos was sleeping in his upstairs bedroom.

DeRango told jurors that although the deaths were a “heartbreaking tragedy,” DC was not responsible, and the state’s case is based solely on circumstantial evidence.

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.