Joseph Duncan has formally and vehemently objected to his first piece of prosecution evidence – and it’s the most grisly evidence presented in the case so far, a fair-sized piece of his victim’s skull, with 9-year-old Dylan’s lush, strawberry blond hair. “Objection overruled,” U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge responded, and the evidence was admitted. Jurors had just seen a photo of the piece of the child’s remains, described by FBI Special Agent Mike Sotka as a skullcap. It appeared to be at least three or four inches in diameter; Sotka testified that he found it in heavy foliage about 15 feet from where Duncan’s Jeep was parked at the campsite when he shot Dylan point-blank in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. FBI agents cleared the brush and photographed the item where it was found. When U.S. Attorney Tom Moss moved on from the photo to the physical exhibit itself, a few jurors looked apprehensive, but they all watched quietly. Sotka held it up encased in plastic, now in two pieces, with the hair separated from the skull fragment in a separate package.

Moss read a stipulation in which prosecutors and Duncan agreed that the FBI lab tested the evidence and it was identified as Dylan’s through DNA; Duncan agreed to that, and declined to cross-examine Sotka at the end of his testimony. Duncan sat looking down as the jury was shown the remains; Dylan’s father, Steve, was in the audience.

---

---