Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Dylan Round's Body Found, Squatter Charged

Episode Date: January 5, 2025

Dylan Rounds, 19,   spoke with his grandmother early Saturday morning, 2022, and that was the last time anyone spoke to the farmer. His pickup truck and other equipment remain on the property, but his wallet and phone gone. Rounds' boots were found discarded on the farm, but mother Candice Cooley, says Dylan was particular about his footwear and only wore the one pair. Those boots were found near a property where James Brenner, age 60, was squatting.  Now Brenner has pleaded guilty to second-degree felony murder in the death.  Police say Rounds died from a gunshot wound to the head.    Joining Nancy Grace Today: Candice Cooley - Victim's Mother Kirk Nurmi - Legal Commentator and Cast Member: "Radical Body Transformation Season 3 on Amazon Prime", Author: "Trapped with Ms. Arias" KirkNurmi.com @nurmiunchained Dr. Jorey Krawczyn  - Psychologist (Panama City Beach, FL), Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: "Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide”, bw-institute.com Justin Boardman - Former Special Victim's Unit Detective, West Valley City (Utah), Author: "I Was Wrong: An Investigator's Battle-cry for Change Within the Special Victims Unit", JustinBoardman.com, Twitter: @boardman_train John Elwood Deputy Chief, Manatee County Search and Rescue, www.manateecountysar.org, Twitter: @KarmatheSARdog, Principal Evaluator for the National Search Dog Alliance and Instructor/Evaluator for the National Association of Search and Rescue, 35 Years Sarasota County Fire Department Nate Eaton - News Director, EastIdahoNews.com Twitter: @NateNewsNow, Instagram: @n.eaton See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last weeks, a major break in the case of a teen boy farmer who goes missing. That's right. Dylan Rounds goes missing, just 19 years old. He wanted to start his own farm in Idaho, and he had just planted the first crop on his land in Utah and then vanishes. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. We learn that a Utah squatter is taking a plea deal in the murder of a teen boy farmer. This This as he leads detectives to skeletal remains. His mom explaining how her missing son's cell phone helped crack the case and lead to the squatter's arrest. Young Dylan just scrubbed in sunshine, never had a bad word for or to anyone. His last known contact was with his grandmother, telling her over the phone he had to put his grain truck in the shed because it was

about to rain. So how did this wonderful boy end up dead? Well, the case began to unravel when his remains are found. Who is the so-called squatter? It is a violent ex-con who had been squatting on property next to the land owned by the 19-year-old boy. The con's name? James Brenner. What do we know? Take a listen to our friends at FOX 13. This land in Lucerne, Utah might not look like much, but to 19-year-old Dylan Rounds, it was everything.

This is the pond he dug out. He talked to me about planting trees around it and stalking fish in it and just it was just one of his little dreams. Now it's been almost a week and a half since Dylan last returned to his camper. His dad Justin says his son was last seen Memorial Day weekend at the Saddlesore Saloon, a bar 30 miles west in Montello, Nevada. I'm convinced that it's foul play. Every vehicle he has, a retractor, everything is accounted for and in place. One of the last conversations Dylan had with his dad

was about his excitement for the crop he had just planted. He wanted to see it grow. He wasn't going to leave. There was nothing that was going to take him away from here. You know, think of the thing you love the most in the world. I know what it is. It's my children, John, David, and Lucy. Nothing within my power could separate me from them. Now, I grew up in farmland,

and a farmer loves his or her land. It's, it's a love I can't even describe. And this teen boy, Dylan Rounds, loved his land, his hopes, his dreams, his plans, his futures, all wrapped up in that land. So why would he leave it? He wouldn't. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now about the disappearance of this teen boy, Dylan Rounds. But before I introduce them, I want to go to a very special guest joining us. This is Dylan's mother, Candace Cooley.

Ms. Cooley, thank you for being with us. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Ms. Cooley, before I get into the entire story about what you've been through and what your family's discovered so far and the search you did, I want you to tell me about the moment you realized Dylan is missing. So it was Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th. And Dylan's friend JD called me around 11 o'clock. I was working in my office and asked if I had heard from Dylan. And I said, no. And he said, well, Karen called and said they haven't heard from him from Saturday.

Now, it is not typical for Dylan to go two or three days without talking to him. But he always talks to either myself, his father, Justin, or his grandparents. So when we put together that he had not talked to any of us, that's when I instantly knew. Because he's always in contact with one of the three. And my husband and i packed up and headed down because i knew they just and especially where he had been planting uh he was just trying to finish up before the rain because there was rain and loosen that weekend to make sure his crop was in and i knew because he should have called us all and been like i finished it's done i got it in, you know,

and the rain's going to get on it. This is great. And nobody had heard anything since Saturday morning, May 28th at 651 a.m. Okay. How are you pinpointing that time Saturday morning at 651? Phone records. Phone records. Yep. Okay. And what does that phone record reveal? So he called, he talked to his grandmother actually. And, um, she called him and he said, I can't talk. You know, I got to get my seed truck, my grain truck. He has a 10 wheeler full of his Triticale seed. I got to get it in the shed. It's raining. Cause you know, the rain will ruin the seed. He had a tarp on it, but it wasn't the best tarp there was hold.

So he was just trying to protect his seed and take it to the shop, the little shed that's five miles away, to protect it. And then he said, I'll call you back, and nobody has heard from him since. And that was 6.51 a.m. on May 28th? Correct. And May 28th was what day of the week? Saturday. So he was working on Saturday morning before 7 a.m.? Correct. And May 28th was what day of the week? Saturday. So he was working on Saturday morning before 7 a.m.?

Correct. Always. Got to get up early and get going. A lot of people can't connect with Farmers Hours. We grew up on Farmers Hours, so I'm up every day at least at 5. But most people are on, you know, they revolve it around going to school and work. Correct. But it's not typical.

It is typical for him to be up very early in the morning. So speaking to his grandmother at 6.51 a.m. would have been normal. Correct. And the only time, you know, he'd sleep in would be if he was up bailing hair all night. You know, he doesn't go to bed until 4 in the morning, five in the morning, you know, so he'll sleep till eight. You know, that's a pretty big endeavor for a 19 year old boy to be running his own farm. How did that happen? So his grandfather and him partnered on this farm where the family farm is with his father's up in Eastern Idaho, the Idle Falls area and ground is just too expensive. So Dylan's always done custom work since he was 16, you know, working for farmers.

He got a tractor. He got a baler. He'd go do custom work, and he's been saving and saving. And so him and his grandfather partnered on this farm so that he could start doing his own. The last couple years, you know, he hauls beaks in a semi, a full semi. In Idaho, you don't have to have a CDL. It'd be 21. He's done that for two years.

So he's been constantly saving money so that he can work towards putting his crop in. What is custom work? So that's baling somebody else's hay, hauling somebody else's product, swathing somebody else's hay also. Just doing the same exact work, but doing it with your equipment, but it's somebody else's hay also just doing the same exact work but doing it with your equipment but it's somebody else's crop gotcha but now he's doing his own thing on that land he and his grandfather partnered on right he still does both so he spent half of the spring helping the wine cup gamble tear out some ground he drilled all of their grain to make money to

be able to purchase the seed and do everything on his own farm. So he still does both. I mean, the kid works all the time. The only time he gets a little bit of free time is winter when you can't farm. To Dr. Jory Crawson, joining me, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University and author of Operation SOS. Dr. Jory, thank you for being with me. I'm listening to Candace Cooley. This is Dylan's mom. And I'm learning something about him. And this is very important to the investigation.

And I'll ask Deputy Chief Elwood and Justin Borman to jump in on this. But if you trust somebody to come on your farm and harvest your crop and tear up your ground, aerate, tear up your ground, prepare your ground, bring in the crop. That is a very trustworthy, reliable person. Somebody that's up at four and five in the morning, works till 4am bringing in a crop. That tells me this is not like a lot of people that go missing. They're out on the street. They're doing drugs. They're in crack houses.

They're at a bar till three o'clock in the morning. You don't know who they're coming in contact with. You see what I mean? This is not a high risk life. It's a hard working life. Somebody trustworthy that people want on their farm. I mean, you got to really trust somebody to have them on your farm, possibly with your equipment and your land and your crop. That's your future. That's your, your money for the whole next year

is that crop. And people will bring this 19 yearyear-old boy in to do a man's work. That's very reliable. Let me tell you. What? Tell me, Candace. He started, so when Dylan was 13, 14, 15, he was so frustrated because no farmer could hire him because of workman's comp issues in Idaho. So when he turned 16, he was so happy. We have a huge potato farmer here named Albert Lockwood, and they hired Dylan at 16 to come drive a crossover. So your crossover digs a whole bunch of rows of potatoes, puts them into one single row so that the main harvester can come over.

You know, you don't have to do so much work. It just cuts down some of the work. That's the pictures of him on the tractor I put on Facebook. 16 years old, and you have Albertson, older gentleman, late 70s, I'm not exactly sure. You have him who's done potatoes his whole life saying, this is one of the best operators I've ever had. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Dylan Rounds, a teen boy farmer from Idaho, set out on his own in Utah and was expecting his very first harvest when he vanishes seemingly into thin air. Then we hear of 59-year-old James Brenner, who once shot a man at a Maryland campground in the 1980s over a work dispute. He's out walking free.

He was squatting on the land next to Dylan's property, and it was there authorities found Dylan's boots and farm truck. We learned this from court documents. They then found blood on one of the boots, including Brenner's DNA. Now, this is according to the criminal complaint. Dylan's mother has been through pure hell. Brenner's past criminal history also includes malicious wounding, malicious shooting, and three prior convictions for felon in possession of a firearm. He had no work history, was unemployed, and had no verifiable residence. He was trespassing and squatting on property near Dillon's. What more do we know? You got to really trust somebody to have them on your farm, possibly with your equipment and your land and your crop. So Dr. Jory, that's telling me a lot

about where is Dillon? It's not that he's out in some bar getting beaten up in a parking lot or overdosing on drugs in an alley. That's not what has happened. No, not at all. You know, I'm a behaviorist, and we always say if you want to predict future behavior, you have to know past behavior. And look at his last three years. I mean, he is a very diligent, dedicated worker.

He's very organized. He's got a schedule. He sticks to it. Even the time, his free time, he's gone to visit friends and he's back to be able to work that shift in the morning. So, you know, for him all of a sudden to be removed from that schedule, there had to be an outside force to remove him. You're hearing the voice of Dr. Jory Croson and Dillon's mother, Candace Cooley. Now, take a listen to Emily Tenser. The Box Elder County Sheriff's Department and Weber County Fire and Rescue searched the area last week, along with helicopters, a plane, and search parties on foot,

ATVs, and horses. They called off the search box elder because they were 95 percent sure there's nothing, no sign of Dylan out in the three by five mile area. His boots were found five miles west of his camper. I'll never forget the look on Candace's face. I can only imagine what I looked like when we saw those boots. Each day is agony for his family, who live all the way up in Idaho. They're offering a $20,000 reward to bring Dylan home. I just came back today just to kind of poke around, because I can't hardly leave here. A $20,000 is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to spend it today. If you know anything about Dylan's disappearance, his family is begging you to call police. He's 5'10", weighs around 160 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. This is such a good, good boy. You don't believe me? Take a listen to Dave Mack, Crime Online.

Dylan Rounds has been a farmer since he was a little boy. From the time he could walk, he would try to keep up with his dad and grandpa as they worked outside. Dylan could drive a tractor by himself before most kids his age could ride a bike. When he was 10 years old, Dylan was growing pumpkin patches and sweet corn to sell. Citizens of the Rigby community knew every summer there would be Dylan sweet corn for sale under the county line overpass. Dylan attended Rigby High School and began farming grain a few years ago in the desert town of Lucin, Utah, near the Utah-Nevada border. And you know, a lot of people Dylan's age will get excited about

the game that Friday night or something happening in their social. Yeah. And Dylan. Go ahead. He never did any of that. He wasn't he wasn't the football game kid. He wasn't he didn't socialize in any of that. I mean, Dylan, it worked out perfect for Dylan because he was doing online school so he could farm. And then COVID hit and he was the right age that he could drop out because he was working. So Dylan, I mean, and, and yes, his father and I didn't like the fact that he dropped out, but the fact of the matter is there was no stopping the kid. There was no stopping him. There was nothing we could do, um, to stop him from going to farm. That's all he wanted to do. Um, he also, you take a kid who doesn't even know how to play video games in his generation, and that sums it all up.

Wow. Doesn't know how to play video games. That really does sum it up. What would make Dylan Rounds happy? This teen boy? Take a listen to DaveMattCrimeOnline.com. Dylan lives by himself in a camper trailer on a remote piece of land in Lucerne. Family members last heard from him when he called his grandmother the morning of Saturday, May 28th. Dylan had been busy getting his crops in and was really excited about recent rain, but a little down because the rain prevented him from getting all of the planting done. With the rain putting a damper on his farming activity, Dylan drove 30 miles to the town of Montello, Nevada, where he was seen on Memorial Day weekend.

When family members realized Dylan had not been in contact since he spoke to his grandmother, they began trying to get in touch with him. Failing that, the family went to the farm and immediately called law enforcement for help. Joining me right now, special guest Nate Eaton, our friendly colleague and news director of EastIdahoNews.com. You can find him on Twitter at Nate News Now. Nate, start at the beginning. Don't leave anything out. Well, as Candace said, this all started when Dylan spoke with his grandmother that Saturday morning. He said, I got to get off the phone so that I can get this seed in. And then by Monday morning, when the family had not heard anything from him, they drove to the farm. What's interesting is when I spoke with Candace the other day, Nancy, Dylan's pickup truck was still there, but it appeared as if it had been pressure washed.

It was clean, but it had been raining and it was muddy in that area. So somehow that truck got clean and was left there right outside of Dylan's camper where he was sleeping. I don't like that at all. And Candace Cooley, I hear you jumping in. Guys, this is Dylan's mother. She's saying that the truck looked pressure washed. And I just heard Candace say that there were no tracks. And you'd think there would have been since it had been raining.

But also tell me about the seat position. say that there were no tracks and you think there would have been since it had been raining. But also tell me about the seat position. A lot of you may remember the Tara Grinstead case, this gorgeous teacher down in South Georgia who goes missing. Well, one thing that jumped out at me when we first learned Tara was missing, I was talking to her mother about it was that her seat position was not where she would have had it was way back like when I'm 5 1 when I get in the car my husband he was 6 3 has been in the car in the car I have to push it up right same thing here right Candace Cooley yes exact same thing and I am 4 11 and Dylan is between 5 10 and 5 11 and he is all late his seat is all the way back his steering wheel is up and it was i could drive it i could have

comfortably drove it without moving the seat so that's not right at all no and there were no tracks behind the pickup it was muddy when when myself and my husband, Justin, his father, and our daughter, Brooklyn, pulled in, we left tracks on Monday still. If that pickup would have moved Saturday, there would have been tracks. Also, there's no footprint anywhere around that camper. camper and we were told the two gentlemen that worked with dylan were well the one helped him off and on went out to the farm to find dylan walked around the pickup walked around the camper tried to you know what's going on why didn't they leave footprints we were leaving footprints on monday you know kurt nurmy joining me, as you know him, renowned defense attorney, cast member, Radical Body Transformation, season three, Amazon Prime, and author of

Trapped with Miss Arias. You will remember him from defending Jody Arias. Kirk Nermy, I'm not holding that against you. Isn't it true, Kirk Nermy, how one detail, like we're talking about his truck, You can learn so much from one piece of evidence, Kirk Nurmi. Yeah, you know, Nancy, when I think about this truck and the possible pressure washer ring and the movement of the seat, I wonder about how far it traveled. Did somebody have to buy gas in order to get this vehicle around? How many gas stations are there in town? Have they been looked at? There's only one. Have these workers been questioned? So there's not too many people in this circle. You know, this is an industrious young man, passionate about his farming. He's

not going to be distracted by too much. And we know that he had these two workers. And I don't know if the gas station, if there's footage, what have you, but there should be some follow up on those things because those practical things that stem from the truck. Where was the pressure wash? Is there a car wash somewhere? Did somebody have equipment? All these things need to be looked at.

No, there's no car wash. Montello is a town of 200 people in the middle of nowhere. Dylan has a pressure washer on his farm for his equipment. Okay, so it could have been that. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The case of the disappearance of Dylan Rounds, a teen boy from Idaho who struck out on his own to be a farmer in Utah, it's all unraveling. According to a neighbor identified in court documents, at some point after Dylan goes missing,

the perp, Brenner, asked the neighbor to conceal three black powder guns and a.22 caliber rifle that did not have a serial number. When contacted by the FBI, the neighbor handed over the weapons. With that, Brenner was charged with felon in possession of a firearm. You know, compare him to Dylan Rounds, who struck out on his own as a teen to build his own farm in Utah. He loved working the land.

He spent zero time with video games, zero time on social media, and he never used drugs. I mean, talk about scrubbed in sunshine. What more do we know? Now, the first thing I would be considering, and I'm going to go out to you, Justin Boardman, former Special Victims Unit detective, author of I Was Wrong, Investigator's Battle Cry for Change within the Special Victims Unit. Justin, I want to look at his circle. Who knows him? Who would he be with?

And let me understand something. Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com. Was he seen by anyone after he spoke to the grandmother at 651 a.m saturday 5 28 so police were saying that the cell phone from that phone call was pinging on his farm but he actually his last visible scene last time somebody physically saw him was in nevada about 30 miles away before or after the phone call that was before the phone call okay all right so he was 30 miles away. Before or after the phone call? That was before the phone call. Okay. All right. So he was 30 miles away in Nevada before the phone call. So the last positive location is on his farm based on the ping to his grandma, 6 51 AM, Saturday morning, 5 28. He's working. Okay. Justin, jump in.

Yes, ma'am. So, you know, one of the things that I certainly would have focused on would have been some of the forensics, of course, swabbing the gears. Let me tell you real quick. Fox Elder let us take the pickup home 250 miles away. They allowed us to take the pickup home Sunday. Without processing it? They never touched the pickup. And I've got that message from the detective saying, can we take the pickup home? Do you need it?

It's yours. Do whatever you want with it. They process nothing, guys. Not the pickup, not the grain truck, not the camper, nothing. The boots didn't even make it to the lab. We found them Monday, May 30th. The boots didn't even make it to the lab. We found them Monday, May 30th. The boots did not even make it to the lab until Monday, May 6th. When I was told on Thursday, June 2nd, they were at the lab.

I was lied to by the detectives. Nothing got processed. But what about the boots? Take a listen to our cut eight. And then we were since told by detectives that there was a spot of blood on the boots and they were being sent to the lab. And this was on Wednesday, Wednesday or Thursday, but after that, after that Saturday. So the boots were found Monday. Then we were told this. Then we found out from detectives, the boots had not been sent to the lab. And this was on Saturday when they

came back out that they were being held in case the cadaver dogs needed them, which cadaver dogs do not need a scent. They search for human remains, so the boots just didn't get sent in. Okay, to John Elwood, Deputy Chief, Manatee County Search and Rescue, and you can find him at manateecountysar.org. John Elwood, what should we be doing right now? That's a great question. And listening to Mrs. Cooley and again, my family's prayers to you and your family that once where the pickup truck was, if they were able to obtain a sense article, something that Dylan had worn, you could use a tracking dog to see if you could determine a direction of travel. If you could at least get a direction of travel, then you might have an area of where you would be inclined to search. Somebody mentioned earlier about cadaver dogs. Cadaver dogs don't work off of a scent

article like tracking dogs do. Go ahead, Nancy. I'm sorry. I believe that was Candace Cooley. Miss Cooley, are you jumping in? Yeah. so I agree with that. We needed a scent dog. I actually breed bloodhounds for part of my living, and I called in to talk to people I knew with them to bring them in. Here is the problem now. By time we could have got dogs there, they had no interest in having the bloodhounds there. They said there was too much rain, blah, blah, blah. Now it's gone. There is absolutely no chance after having over three to 400 people crawl all over

that, a bloodhound is going to find Dylan's scent and follow it somewhere. It's not going to happen. Too much time is lost. Kurt and Ermi, you're hearing what is being said about bloodhounds and the ability to track a scent. But as you will recall, in the Scott Peterson case, a tracker dog tracked Lacey Peterson from her home on Covina all the way to the San Francisco Bay. been raining and there had been cars over where many many cars between the time Lacey was taken her body was taken and the time the tracker dog got going. I mean it can be done. I don't care if it's rained. I have had accelerant dogs find accelerant underwater. Okay, so I would not rule out using a tracker dog now, Kirk Nermy, because I've seen it done. No, I wouldn't rule out anything at all.

Going back to what was said about the pickup truck, I'd be trying to pull everything I could off that pickup truck and using the dogs as best I could because it's worth a shot. Every effort should be extended, no matter how improbable. Yes. And speaking of the search from an unlikely source, the Diesel brothers, I'm sure you've seen them on Discovery, have joined the search for Dylan. Listen. It's kind of with your guys' eyes in the sky, you know, watch freshly turned up dirt. I mean, you guys know what to look for. Just any disturbance that shouldn't be be there this desert's pretty much all the same so yeah so that way we'll find basically just a trailer a cam trailer you'll see the pivot his pickup there's all kinds of equipment yeah you can't yeah yeah it's all of his stuff's out there straight through see that dirt pile oh yeah his boots were just tossed out right behind that.

And there was nothing else around him, no, I mean, nothing. Were they on the far side, away from the road? So you wouldn't see them from the road? And that's all you guys have found so far? Yeah, we have nothing else. And they, like I said, search and rescue, they were out here the first night.

They got here, what, maybe five? They didn't even take off and looking until probably 7.30. Then they bailed, and then they came back maybe six hours that day, and then they said, we're calling it, and they left. Okay, let me understand something, Nate Eaton. You're hearing the Diesel brothers talking to Dylan's mom, but is that correct? After six hours on the scene, law enforcement just left? They didn't process the vehicle.

We don't know about the boots and they haven't called in search or cadaver dogs. Yeah, the families continually run into these issues with law enforcement. The fact that we're talking about two jurisdictions here, one in Utah, one in Nevada with a border down the middle. And of course, there's jurisdictional issues over who has the right to this and that. And from the sounds of it, Candace, it sounds like you're getting help from the Nevada side. But the Utah side, where Dylan actually lived, where the camper was, where the boots were found, where the truck was, where all of his property was, it sounds like they're just hitting wall after wall. Correct. So Utah has told me multiple times that Nevada will do what Nevada is good. If Nevada wants to come like basically

we're not you know we're not reaching out to Nevada what I since found out is I met on Friday I sat with for some Nevada detectives the sergeant and even the sheriff himself for almost five hours and I went through the case from top to bottom. We started with everything. They have reached out to Utah multiple times. Where do you want us to deploy? Where do you want search and rescue? We're in this with you. Utah has been the one that has declined the help. Utah has not accepted and say, hey, come help us find this kid. What can you tell me, Nate Eaton, about the possibility that somebody has him and wants ransom? Well, that was the original call the family made in order to get law enforcement involved. I believe it was Dylan's father who called the sheriff's office and said, this is according to the police too, that they got a call to go to Elko were some thoughts that there was this man that Dylan met in the middle of nowhere who asked him for a ride, who has a suspicious criminal background.

There were some there were some finger pointing that maybe this guy might know something. But Candace has actually spoken with this man. He's in custody in Utah at a facility, and they believe that he probably doesn't have anything to do with Dylan's disappearance. But fingers were pointed at him, you know, from the beginning. Sounds like that's not so much anymore. OK, what can you tell me about the ransom call to Candace? It was not a ransom call. This is what happened. One of the local citizens of Montello called me on Tuesday, the second day in the search, and said they are holding Dylan hostage,

and basically he might still be alive or not, and they give us a specific location. And so that is when Justin called. So I talked to this guy three times. So we all hauled butt into Montello, not Elko. It was in Montello. So Justin calls Utah detectives, and they say, well, that's in Nevada. We're not, it's not us. We need to call Nevada. So Justin told him, if you don't get somebody out here, I'm going to take it into my own hands. So detective from Utah called Nevada.

I called 911 into Elko. I tell them what's going on. So Elko sends out six deputies. We're, we're furious. We're frustrated. We think our son's right down the block. These, these local people are telling us they got him. They got him. They chasing this other guy. They got him. They're holding them hostage. They're beating them. They're, you know, they're telling us all this stuff. And, but what Elko did not know when I called in is that my son was missing because Utah never told them. So let me understand, Ms. Cooley, there was no ransom call. Correct. Then where did that even come from?

I have no clue. If you go back to all my interviews, I never said that. I said we got a call saying Dylan was being held hostage. Right. Who told you that? The ransom never came out of that. That your son is being held. The guy's name is Kurt. Kurt calls me. Kurt did work for Dylan, so we can clarify this and people can understand that is his name. Kurt called me and said, Chase and this other guy have Dylan in this house. Who is Chase? Chase is the guy that Dylan had picked up in the middle of the desert from Wednesday the 25th that we had as a person of interest. The one that is now in the Utah jail on unrelated charges. Okay, got it. So, Kurt tells you Chase and...

This other gentleman have Dylan. They're holding him hostage in this other gentleman's house. He may or may not be alive. They're beating him. He's all over the board. But at this point, we're still looking for Chase actively you know trying to find him so i hang up the phone with kurt he calls me back 10 minutes later he goes through it again he's like and i he may be at this house or he may be at this house but we're watching this house and we know they

have dylan we know they have dylan that's what i'm told so justin and i get on the phone with them we hit the same story. They got Dylan. They took Dylan. So that's when we hauled into Montello. And that's when the 911 call came in to Elko that I said, they have my son. He's being held hostage. We need somebody out there now. So when they did send, like I said, they sent six people.

But when they got there and they went to this other person's house, Chase was nowhere around. The other person, the other gentleman, allowed them to search the vehicles, the house, the property, the shed, absolutely everything. There was nothing. Kurt lied to us. Why? I don't know. That's a really good question. Stop right there.

Right there. Deputy Chief Manatee County Search and Rescue John Elwood, right there. That's the problem. Why would you call a missing kid's mom and say your son's being held over here when he's not? Right there. Why? Sure. The question I would ask is when Candace received this phone call, was it before the news story about her son's disappearance or after? What about it, Candace, before or after? It was before. It was before. What's your point, John Elwood? Then that to me would add more credence to the claim that Dylan's being held hostage. Am I in crazy land? Because they went to the location

and he was not being held hostage there. There's no credence to the hostage situation because that's not true. Kirk Nurmey with me, high profile lawyer, Kirk, right there. The acquaintance, Kirk, who had worked for Dillon Rounds, calls in with this information. I mean, let's get real, Kirk. We've got to look at his circle of acquaintances. He's there on his

farm at 651 a.m. That's where he calls his grandma. He's not seen or heard from since. This has got to be someone within his circle. The phone pings there. Wasn't the phone found there, Nate Eaton? They have not found his phone or his wallet. No phone, no wallet. Thank you for telling me that. His boots are not far away.

The phone pings from there. Somebody took him from there. Dead or alive. Somebody took him from there, dead or alive. Somebody took him from there, Kirk Nermy, and it's got to be somebody that would be out on the farm in Box Elder. You bet, Nancy. That's why my first stop would be the two people that work for him, as well as this Chase person that's in custody.

He would be being interrogated. But also now we have this tip, even though it's false, this idea that someone called in before the police reports, before it hit the media, to say that he's being held hostage. What is this person doing? What is their true motive? Are they exploring? Are they trying to find out what's going on with the investigation?

So I'd be having to please look at Kurt. What about this, Kirk Nermy? What if cops are not doing, the deputies are not doing what they should be doing? They didn't take in the vehicle, the truck. They didn't process it. They haven't processed his camper. They couldn't find his keys, his key fob. They're not doing what you would normally expect law enforcement to do. So what do we do now? Can she, Candace Cooley, get in touch with the feds or do we have to wait for authorities in Lucerne, Utah to do it? I think she can. I think programs like this help. I think getting people involved that maybe can process the truck,

doing everything that they can to make up for the evidence that was lost needs to be done. Anything possible, any law enforcement agency that can get involved with this Bureau of Land Management, Nevada authorities, what have you, jurisdiction doesn't matter. Humanity matters here and they should be doing everything they can. But Ken, does it actually work that way to you, Justin Boardman? Can you pick up the phone and call the FBI in as a civilian or do

we need local police to do it? You can certainly try and attempt to do that. There's also other means to shake that law enforcement tree, if you will, in Utah, which I've done many times for others. But there's you can still go to the state police. You can do a lot of different things like that. So when you say this, say the state police, are you talking about for instance the utah ag's attorney general um i'm talking more about um the utah department of public safety um and going through them and their investigators they don't have a lot either but um they certainly have more political um clout if you will uh to pressure some. They also have their own crime lab, um, people that will respond out and process. They've got all of the bells and whistles.

You know, what's interesting, Candace Cooley, I want to go back to the boots. Isn't it true? Your son always wears the same kind of boots, the same pair of boots. And when that pair wears out, he gets another pair just like him. It's not like he's out wearing a different pair of shoes. These are his work boots that he had on that day. Yes. And can I just touch on what you were saying about the health and public safety? Yes. So the commissioner actually reached out to Justin and I on Saturday to find out what the heck is going on.

And they have reached out to us. We should know more tomorrow or today. And? In the last days, a Utah squatter takes a plea deal in the murder of a teen farmer's death and leads detectives to Dylan Rounds, just 19 years old, skeletal remains. We may have case resolution, but Dylan's family, especially his mother, is sentenced to life without her boy. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.