Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 3-year-old Dylan Ehler Missing From Grandma's, Boots Found in Nearby Waterway

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

Three-year-old Dylan Ehler vanished from his grandmother’s backyard on May 6, 2020.  His grandmother says she turned her back for a few seconds to deal with the family dog. When she turned back around, Dylan was gone.  Dylan’s rubber boots were discovered six hours after his disappearance, submerged in a creek nearby. Despite a six-day official search and hundreds of volunteer searchers, that's the only evidence found.  The family, in the meantime, began receiving ransom demands. A photoshopped photo of Dylan looking beaten and bruised was sent with a demand for money. Others followed.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jason Ehler - Victim's Father Ashley Brown - Victim's Mother  James Shelnutt - 27 years Atlanta Metro Area Major Case Detective, Former S.W.A.T. officer, Attorney, The Shelnutt Law Firm, P.C., www.ShelnuttLawFirm.com, Twitter: @ShelnuttLawFirm Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Irv Brandt - Former US Marshals Service International Investigations Branch, Author: "FLYING SOLO: Top of the World" available on Amazon www.irvbrandt.com @JackSoloAuthor Dave Mack - Crime Online Investigative Journalist See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A three-year-old little boy is missing. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to our friend at the Truro Police Department, Chief Dave McNeil. The facts of this are yesterday afternoon, about 1.20 in the afternoon, the Truro Police Service received a call to the area of Queen Street and Elizabeth Street

regarding a missing three-year-old boy who was later confirmed to be Dylan Eller. Dylan was at his grandmother's residence on Queen Street playing outside. His grandmother became briefly distracted and turned around for a moment and when she turned back Dylan was no longer in the yard. Patrol officers arrived within four minutes of the first call. We began to gather information and evidence, a photo of Dylan, description, area of where he was. Officers did a quick neighborhood canvas. We called our canine unit to respond. He was there very quickly and began to track in the area.

Where is this baby boy? Again, thank you for being with us. With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. Dave Mack joining me. CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Irv Brandt. Formerly with the U.S. Marshal Service, International Investigations Brandt.

You can find him at IrvBrandt.com. Karen Stark, renowned psychologist, joining us from New York at KarenStark.com. Karen with a C. James Shelnut, 27 years, Metro Major Case. Now lawyer at the ShelnutLawFirm.com. And two very special guests joining us. Jason and Ashley.

This is Baby Dylan's parents. To both of you, thank you for being with us. First to you, Jason, tell me about the circumstances of Dylan going missing. The day Dylan went missing, I showed up at around three o'clock and I walked right into it and the cop told me my son was missing. And Dylan had went missing at 124 so at that point K-9 was just getting there so they took 40 minutes or longer to get there with K-9 unit and it took a little over three hours for boots in the

ground. It was chaos. I remember chaos. What could you discern had happened? I didn't know what happened at that time. Well, I mean, certainly you said, hey, what happened? Where did he go? How did he go missing? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, that wasn't really my concern. I knew he was missing at that time so the first

thing came out of my mouth um was uh has anyone been near the brook or the river um i didn't have time to talk to dorothy or anything you weren't told whether he had been playing in a car whether they think someone sped away with him whether he you didn't ask any question about how did he go missing? What happened? The cops said that she turned her back and Dylan got away. So as soon as I heard that, I just, I wanted to go search, but I wasn't allowed. Gotcha. Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter.

Tell me the facts surrounding the disappearance of baby Dylan. All right. Dylan was dropped off with his grandmother and she. Dropped off by who and which grandmother actually dropped Dylan off with her mother, Dorothy Parsons at Dorothy's house around 11 o'clock in the morning. Dorothy said, I'm probably going to take him outside with the new puppy. She had a new puppy that was about the only thing that could keep up with Dylan because Dylan was a runner. He liked to run. He was all all boy and so he and this little puppy would just play now at around 115 uh we we get this from dorothy parsons she said she turned around for about

18 seconds to put the dog the puppy on a lead When she turned back, Dylan was gone. We're talking, according to her, 18 seconds, he was gone. Dorothy then starts screaming for help. She's screaming for Dylan. She's screaming for neighbors. Neighbors actually hear her screaming. She's screaming, call 911. One of the neighbors does that at about 1.24 p.m. The officers arrive four minutes later. Okay, so they're playing out. Are they at their yard? They're still in the yard of the home?

Dave Mack? Yes, ma'am. They're in Dorothy Parsons' backyard. Okay. Karen Stark joining me. Karen, do you recall the case of Samantha and Aaron Runyon? You and I were together on several occasions when I spoke with Aaron. Aaron's baby girl, Samantha, who was around three, was at the grandmother's house where Aaron had taken her. The grandma was inside in the kitchen looking out the window straight at Samantha in

the front yard. She was playing with other children and just like that a car came up. A guy got Samantha and took off just like that. The grandmother runs out. She's out the house in 10 seconds. Never got Samantha back alive. It can happen just that fast. Do you remember that case, Karen Stark? I was thinking about that, Nancy, because it takes no time at all to abduct a child. All you have to do, and it's not the grandmother's fault. It's something you would never believe, but it can happen that quickly, especially when you hear that it's a little boy who likes to run. Right? So you take your eyes off of him.

He runs. And if somebody is there planning to take this little boy, it takes no time. Just no time. So I was thinking about that very case. Now, in that case, Samantha was just a little bit older than Dylan. She was approaching five, as I recall, but it was right there in a residential area playing in the front yard. Let me go to Dylan's mom joining us, Ashley Brown, to you and Jason. Thank you for being with us. And I know this is painful to go back over, but thank you for being with us and going through it with us.

For those of you just joining us, we were talking about the disappearance of a beautiful little boy, three years old when he goes missing, Dylan Ehlers, tip line 902-895-5351. Repeat, 902-895-5351. Ashley, tell me about your mother's yard and her home. Was it enclosed? Was it a single dwelling?

Did she live in an apartment? Was it rural, suburban, urban? Tell me about her home. Well, she lives on the corner of Queen Street and Alyssa Street. It's a rather large house. It's kind of a duplex, one on top of the other situation. Her parents-in-law live downstairs and her husband lives upstairs. Okay, wait, who lives downstairs and who lives upstairs? Downstairs is her in-laws, her husband's parents. They own the house. So they live in the downstairs half of the home, and there's an upstairs half.

Dorothy and her husband, Jeff, they live in the upstairs half of the home, and they rent. So was the yard enclosed ashley it's harsh it's partially enclosed um so there's a a partial fence um there's a partial fence by the road and then there's bushes on the other side um separating her house and her neighbor's home. So it's partially enclosed and it opens up to the driveway. How far away is the home from the next door neighbors? I don't know, 10 or 15 feet. They're pretty close together. Is it heavily traveled? Is there a lot of traffic? Is it suburban? What is it? Queen Street, the main street, is pretty heavily traveled. There's a lot of traffic in the area. There's a big train station

or a train yard on the other side of the road, so there's trains going all the time. It's a busy area. Okay, that's telling me a lot. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to you, Irv Brandt joining us, former U.S. Marshal Service. Irv, what do you make of that? Because think back to Samantha Runyon, who was five when she goes missing, and it happened just like that. Given the layout, what we know, a neighbor, somebody across the street, somebody that knew the neighbor, somebody going by in a car. I mean, 18 seconds when you're right there with the child, that's kind of hard.

But she could be wrong about 18 seconds. Where do you get 18 seconds from? Where do you come up with that number? I mean, she may have had to chase the dog to put the lead on him. And when you're bent over and you're putting a lead on a dog, and if it's jumping or playing, it's a puppy, it might take one or two minutes. Every time our dog, Fat Boy, sees me get the leash to take him on a walk, he goes crazy, so excited. Sometimes I have to hold him between my legs to put the lead on it. So it can take a minute if you have to grab the dog and hold the dog.

It could have been up to two or three minutes. That's true. It sounds like she gave the best approximate that she could. And it's hard to judge time when you're under stress. And it's critical in a case like this, because like you said, it can happen so fast that the person or persons can be gone, you know, within a few seconds. And so the very initial response is the most critical. When you start the search, if you're going to do an alert or things like that for a missing person, it's critical that it's done immediately, which doesn't seem to be done in this case. Well, I mean, 911 was called nine minutes after the grandma started screaming. That, according to what we've just been told, was at 115.

911 was called by neighbors at 124. The cops got there. What took so long, according to Jason Eller, this is Dylan's dad, is to get what? The dogs there? Yes, the canine unit. So our first meeting with the police they said 20 minutes the dog arrived but then w5 news he said 40 minutes so there's a lot of confusion so when i got there it was three o'clock and um the lady officer said the canine unit just got there so we're talking at least an hour.

They said that the dog was on another scene, but we have our C&P just a few minutes away from us, literally. So I don't quite understand either. Okay, so the cops got there. It sounds like the cops got there pretty quickly. Oh, search and rescue took about three hours to get called in. Okay, so it sounds to me like the cops got there pretty quickly. It took a while to get the canines and search and rescue assembled, but the cops arrived pretty quickly. Guys, take a listen to our friend Avery Haynes at W5. We've had about seven or eight ransoms.

Were people actually trying to connect with you and say, we have your son? Well, they're gonna kill my son if we don't give them so much money. A guy sent a picture of, I think it was a picture of maybe Dylan, but it was all Photoshopped and looked like he had bruises on his face and stuff. And he wanted three Bitcoin, which is worth $47,000, untraceable money.

There was another one where he said he had Dylan in the truck and he tossed him out the window doing 100 kilometers if I didn't send him a couple thousand dollars. Ransom. Ransom threats is the only way I can put that to James Shelnut. 27 years, Metro, a major case. What do you make of that? Truthfully, I can't say exactly what I think about that on air, but I will tell you this, it's not common for somebody to do that. There are some sick people in this world.

And I will tell you, I have worked missing persons cases. I don't know that I've had any where someone truly called and asked for a ransom. You see that a lot more on movies. In the United States, you see it a lot more when it comes to immigrants who come here from across the border. You see it in other countries. In the U.S., that's not common. I saw it in the case of a missing Alaskan barista. Her name was Samantha Koenig, as I recall.

And a ransom note was put in a public park with a photo of her, and she had her hair done differently. She wore long hair. In this photo, and this is significant, she had it in braids, and they wanted money for her safe return. As it turned out, we later learned she was already dead and they had stitched her eyes open and they had braided her hair, not knowing that she would never have worn it that way. But that and a few others, you know, Frank Sinatra Jr. I mean, I can think of some. We just had a billionaire on the West Coast. His domestic help was kidnapped. It was a thought that the kidnappers wanted his adult daughter. So it does happen, but it's few and far between.

But it does happen. To Jason Eller, this is baby Dylan's father. Tell me about those ransom threats. Yes. So the one with the Bitcoin, that was pretty hard to take. I remember calling my lead investigator about it. And he actually told me to get off Facebook and Messenger. And he's like, this is bulls**t.

And he hummed and hawed and told me to come down. So I guess, you know, with some others, I've had ones where they would send a murdered, well, it was probably fake, but I showed the cops. It'd be a woman all beat up and shot. And then they said, your son would be next if I didn't send a few hundred dollars. I mean, they got pretty crazy. Just for little amounts of money to large amounts of money. Was there one that had a photo ostensibly of Dylan except all bruised up?

Yeah, it was a picture of Dylan I shared online. It took me a while to figure it out, but they must have photoshopped it and had bruises put on his face or something like that. Who are these people that would do such a thing? Karen Stark to take a photo that Dylan's dad had shared online trying to find his son and then Photoshop it to make it look like he was all bruised and beaten and trying to get money?

Who would do something like that? Well, somebody, Nancy, who could care less about the feelings of the parents or the fact that this is a real, live little boy. Someone who decides that this is a great opportunity for them to make some money and Photoshop a picture. And that is not, if you listen to what they're saying, and we both know, it's not the least bit unusual for people to take advantage of someone else's tragedy and try and make money and see if they can find a way to gain an advantage for them and not care. And that's the key point here. No conscience, no caring about what these parents are going through.

None whatsoever. Guys, the description of this little boy is something that no one will ever forget. He is rosy-cheeked, dark brown hair, big, beautiful brown eyes. I'm looking at him right now. To Ashley Brown, his mother, I'm looking at the photo of him wearing the little, it looks like a space jacket, the little black space jacket like an astronaut would wear with black pants and black shoes. He's outdoors on a front yard. How tall would you say that Dylan was? Approximately three feet. About three feet. He's certainly not overweight, but he is well nourished and precious.

Guys, I want you to take a listen now to our cut number four. This is Sarah Plowman at CTV. We're circling back to the moment this baby disappears out of the front yard with grandma. Three-year-old was last seen by his grandmother in Truro, here in her backyard. For the first time today, she spoke with CTV News. I went to tie the dog on her lead, and I turn around and Dylan is just, it's gone. He's just gone. I have no explanation.

Parsons says it all happened in about 18 to 20 seconds. She doesn't recall anyone nearby who looked suspicious, but... I don't think he went near the water. I think somebody has him. To not be able to have him, hear him laughing, playing.

I'm just destroyed. Now take a listen to our cut 19. Avery Haynes, W5. Put your dog inside. You make a mistake and you're just not saying it i just know something's wrong i've felt it since day one jason and ashley both feel as though there's just something missing and that you're not sharing it because you're scared of getting charged criminally with neglect? There's nothing that's a secret. Even I know there's something not right.

There's a puzzle piece missing. And you don't have the piece of that puzzle? And I don't have it. I don't have that piece. Are you responsible for your grandson's disappearance? In my mind, yes. Are you responsible for your grandson's disappearance? In my mind, yes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Jason and Ashley both feel as though there's just something missing and that you're not sharing it because you're scared of getting charged criminally with neglect. There's nothing that's a secret. Even I know there's something not right. There's a puzzle piece missing. And you don't have the piece of that puzzle? And I don't have it. I don't have that piece. Are you responsible for your grandson's disappearance?

In my mind, yes. Reality? Probably yes. You call your mom Dorothy I do why after my son went missing I can't look at her I can't speak to her I don't want her in my life I just I don't consider her a mother anymore. You're hearing the voice of Dylan's mother, Ashley Brown, referring to her own mother, Dorothy, Dorothy Parsons. Ashley, why do you say that? Well, my kids are everything.

Dylan, everything. And the fact that he's gone, it just destroyed our entire family. I think I'm always going to hold him responsible. What do you feel is missing? Because to me, it doesn't sound right either. I feel like there's at least some time missing. 18 seconds? I don't necessarily feel like she's at least some time missing. 18 seconds. I don't necessarily feel like she was malicious

and intent or anything, but I feel like there is a keep missing, whether it's time, whether she did something else. They all went back inside for some reason. There's some time missing. It's more than 18 to 20 seconds. Something is missing. You're right.

Because Jason, let me tell you a story i took i have twins they're now 14 but when they were just i'd say they're about three they're walking really well they could run we went to one of those giant baby super stores and i was looking for organic sunscreen and i found that in those super stores they have floor way I almost to the ceiling shelves so I was all the way down on my knees looking on the bottom shelf trying to find this for my children and the twins were right behind me and they both were wearing those little Crocs. So I look and look and look. I'm talking to them and my daughter's answering me back. Finally, I get up and I said, well,

I guess they don't have it. I turned around and there was Lucy, but no John David. I had probably been down there all in maybe three minutes, not looking at them. They were right there with me and I didn't hear him leave. And, you know, I picked up my daughter like a football and started running and screaming to lock the doors in case someone, I thought maybe somebody got him and was leaving. And I was running full speed like a quarterback down the main aisle, didn't see him, screaming, screaming at the top of my lungs, turning around, coming back. He had been playing and had snuck away and was running. And like when I would run, he would be going back and forth between the aisles and I didn't see him. So it can happen just like that. but 18 seconds from a front yard. And I'm looking at photos right now, the pictures, and

there's not a lot of houses out there. It's a paved road with homes, but I think it'll be really hard for just 18 seconds to pass, and you don't see him running up and down that street. I mean, you can see, I would say, at least a quarter of a mile down the street. Unobscured vision. So something isn't right. Can I mention something? He also had a pair of boots on that were a size too big. So that would have made him a little slower.

Wow. pair of boots on that were a size too big so that would have made him a little slower wow now you're saying and the sound i just played that something is not right tell me what you think happened because a parent's gut is usually correct in my experience go ahead what do you think so what i think is um well it started when i first showed up. The officer pulled my mom and my sister to the side. And the officer did say that there's two different stories. One that she ran upstairs to put the dog in, ran back down, Dylan was gone. And then one where she went downstairs to tie the dog. And then that was the last time we've seen that officer.

So I thought, you know, something's odd. And I never, I don't know, just the way she acted, the way her stories changed. And I owned a full-grown dog that was very, very hyper. He was a King Shepherd Collie. And to tie a dog for a minute two minutes five minutes you know where that child's at i mean it was a puppy that puppy should have been triggered by him running he was only a five to six month old puppy just a lot of little things that don't make sense in that uh that short amount of time how has she the mother Dorothy Parsons the grandmother of Dylan how has she acted

since he went missing let me ask you Ashley Brown um I I find that she's she's just trying to to push off blame um i i don't see her doing a lot like in the type of things like doing posters doing searching uh rallying for dylan um i don't see any of that was her home searched carefully at the time jason eller um they said they checked her home three times. And no, nothing unusual there? Nothing unusual there, as far as we know. Let me ask you this, to you, Ashley and Jason, both of you, who saw Dylan last that day? Did any neighbors see him outside? Anybody other than the grandmother? This was during COVID lockdown. There were no witnesses that saw Dylan out in the yard that day. Who else was at home when he went missing other than his grandma?

As far as we know, nobody. Dorothy's husband comes home for lunch every day from work. So he was at home approximately 12 o'clock and it's stated that he left to go back to work about 10 to 1. Did he see Dylan? He saw Dylan when he came home from lunch, yes. They were still inside. So Dylan was inside until 10 to 1, 12.50, is that correct? Is her husband Dylan's biological grandfather? No. Had there ever been any incidents with Dylan while he was in the care of your mother and her husband? Not to my knowledge. He never came home with bruises? He never complained. No, no, nothing like that. We have heard rumors that Dylan had.

So we know he was alive and well at 1250. By 115, the neighbors were hearing screams. Is that correct, Jason? That is 100% correct. The neighbor across from her stated that she wasn't acting erratic like a grandmother that lost a child. The neighbor down the street seen her looking around and asked what happened. They think that's how it went. Okay. I don't understand what you're saying. Tell me from the beginning first of all my first question was dylan's alive at 12 58 12 50 p.m alive and well when the husband leaves to go back to work at 115 neighbors hear screams is that part

right i'm our pi says differently the timeline is from the police department nancy where they the we know that true police at 124 that's when they say the call was made to the police, to 911 at 124. The claim, that was after he went missing at approximately 115. And that's from the reports from the police department. So, Jason Eller, we have established with Dave Mack that the screams were heard at 115,

the call was made by neighbors at 124 to 911. But you're telling me that there was some inconsistency in the story. What inconsistency? Jason Eller.

There's some inconsistencies because when our PI went and canvassed the area, the witnesses were not talking like she was screaming. It was completely different. Actually, their stories don't actually compel with the grandmother's stories. So that's one of his big concerns, you know, that they weren't properly questioned. So let me ask you, what did the neighbor say happened? She, apparently the neighbor right across from her said that Dorothy wasn't acting erratic,

like, like, you know, being, she figured she would be more loud and scared but she looked more calm than she should be another neighbor said that she was seen at 12 30 looking another neighbor said that he noticed something maybe there was a her yelling for doing maybe once i know the neighbor went down and looked through the brook, and there was nothing. There was no child. I believe you mentioned earlier that a neighbor spotted her looking for Dylan. So apparently this lady was waiting, and Dorothy had came to her door and asked if she had seen Dylan. So, Jason Eller, you're saying that right around the time that the grandma was looking for Dylan, a neighbor went and looked in the creek and there was no child in the water at all?

There was no child in sight anywhere. There were no footprints, no nothing. Straight back out to Irv Brandt joining me, former U.S. Marshal Service and author of Flying Solo, Top of the World, on Amazon. Irv, again, thank you for being with us. If

a neighbor went immediately and checked out the creek, and there was no child in the water, and there was no child anywhere to be seen that quickly remember 18 seconds before the grandma says she realized he was gone that makes it really hard for me to believe that child ended up in any water that's correct um you would it would lead you to believe that the child was taken and probably transported by car at that point and

was probably kidnapped instead of wandered off like you said you could see in both directions up the road if the child was running up and down the road and if someone checked down by the creek and didn't see any footprints didn't see a child, it would be a reasonable assumption to believe that someone picked them up. Ashley Brown, tell me about that creek near Dorothy Parsons' home. How deep is it? Well, on that day, it was deeper than usual. In some spots, it was almost chest deep.

But normally, it's not an overly deep brook. Now you're saying a brook. I'm trying to get a mental image of what kind. Is it like a river? How wide is it? Is it something that children play in? Had Dylan ever played in it before? Dylan has never played in it before. He's never been down to that brook. And I don't think kids play in it in that area. It flows underneath the train tracks that come from the train yard. And there's quite a bit of debris in it. It's not overly wide. It's a brook. It's a small brook. It's probably a few feet wide i would guess maybe five

six feet wide but you're saying it was six feet deep i mean chest deep that'd be four feet in in some spots yes not all not all areas of it the reason i'm asking if he had ever played in it before jason eller is if he had never played in it then how would he even know to go to it well um I know law enforcement were trying to say he heard it or search and rescue which I didn't believe so that brook um some places were um about waist deep I don't there's not one spot in that brook that's chest deep I know that brook to the back of my head now I've been to it at the highest points I know they did a mannequin test that they had to take the weights out. It completely failed. They had to push the mannequin out of the brook into the river. Then they had to push it down the river. I mean, there's so much debris in that brook. There's

actually a tree that was crossing the brook and all the branches were coming down. I remember when it dried up and we were going through, we to push our way through these branches um to keep going through the brook and there were uh many types of uh um what do they call it fences in the brook so many logs crossing so if he had gone in that brook he would have been found it was pretty full there was a there was a spot actually that swirls in the brook um and it all kind of hits one corner of the brook um and it uh caught it caused some erosion so a hole in the in the corner of the brook um there was a shopping cart in the hole and that's where his first boot was found so to me with the power of the water hitting that corner he should have been

there too what do you make everyone you just heard that dylan's boots were found near the water now i'm i'm curious these boots jason you said they were two sizes too big and then one was in one spot by the water and the other was in another spot by the water so dylan's boots were a size too big and um so one was found in a shopping cart underwater and it was by i wouldn't say it was a beaver dam but there was a buildup of debris from the water swirling into that corner so to me it was almost impossible for him to get out of that spot and then he would have to pass a tree, the one that you would have to dig through to get through. And his boot was through all that and it made it just about to the mouth of the river. But it must have sunk there.

See, when it comes out to the end of the brook, where just before it merges to the river, there's like some backflow. So anything that just about hits the river kind of floats back up the brook a little bit. So it's quite an interesting area. The mannequin did the same thing. It kind of floated back up. It didn't work. That's why they had to push it in. Who bought him the boots? His grandmother did. When? It was either for Easter or for his birthday. The two were pretty close together. Just before he went missing. So the grandma bought him the boots just before he goes missing. Do you believe, Jason and Ashley, that he actually went into the water?

No. I think there's more to the story. And I always have. 100%. Ashley, do you think he went into the water? I definitely think that there's more to the story, but I also think with the time delays with search and rescue, if he was somehow not seen,

he would have had time to make it to the brook. So for me, I'm still 50-50 with it. See, and I'm almost the same, 50-50, because search and rescue did take three hours for boots on the ground. And in fact, they were ready within 15 to 20 minutes. So that's on the police. But the neighbor went and looked at the water immediately and said there was not a child there. When I arrived at three, there was nobody there except for one officer. And the canine just went into the woods. And I know when the canine unit nobody there except for one officer, and the canine just went into the woods. And I know when the canine unit came out, the one officer and the dog,

the dog wasn't wet, the officer wasn't wet, and in fact, the officer told me that this dog's not meant for looking for children, especially after this much loss of time. So that's a true story. I don't make that stuff up. I understand that it took them three hours to get there I understand what you're saying about the dog a neighbor went straight to the creek when the grandma screamed and there was not a child in the water that suggests the child was never at the water. I mean, is any of this making sense,

James Shelnut? No, it doesn't make sense. The neighbor goes straight to the water, doesn't see the child. The search and rescue doesn't find the child in the water. I'm almost wondering if either the boots were staged or if someone just tried to get rid of the boots in the water and the child was somewhere else. I keep hearing that the one where one boot was. Where was the other boot, Ashley Brown? The other boot was found farther down the brook, closer to the opening to Salmon River. And it was found submerged as well. if you have information on the disappearance of this beautiful boy, Dylan Eller, please dial 902-895-5351.

Repeat, 902-895-5351. No one has been named a person of interest or a suspect or a defendant. We don't know where Dylan is or how he went missing, but many people believe he never went in the water. So, where is he? Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.