Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Farmer's Boots Found, But Where is Dylan Rounds?

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

Dylan Rounds, 19, has been missing from his Utah farm since May 28. That morning, Rounds spoke with his grandmother, 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 are 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.  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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Think about it. What if your teen boy simply disappeared? Just seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. And then you find his boots. What does it mean and why are we not getting any support from law enforcement? You know, when I call 911, I expect somebody to answer and do something about it. That's why we pay taxes, right?

We pin our hopes on law enforcement. And listen to me, law enforcement in these two jurisdictions, we need your help, not your resistance. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. I'm talking about teen boy Dylan Rounds. 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.

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 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, Candice Cooley. Miss Cooley, thank you for being with us. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Miss Cooley, before I get into the entire story about what you've been through and what your family's discovered so far in the search you did just about 48 hours ago. 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. And especially where he had been planting, he was just trying to finish up before the rain

because there was rain in Lucerne 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. Yep. Okay. And what does that phone record reveal? So he called, he talked to his grandmother, actually, and 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 because, you know, the rain will ruin the seed. He had a tarp on it, 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 28. Correct. And 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. 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 five 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 it'd be if he was up baling hay all night. He doesn't go to bed until four in the morning, five in the morning, so he'll sleep until eight. 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 is 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 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 of years, you know, he hauls beets in a semi, a full semi. In Idaho, you don't have to have a CDL or B21. He's done that for two years. So he's been constantly saving money, you know, 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 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 a 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 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 boardman 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 money for the whole next year is that crop and people will bring this 19 year old boy in to do a man's work that's very reliable tell you what tell me candace he started so when dylan was 14 15 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 yesterday. 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 this kid has it that was at 16. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Some people are just born to do a certain thing. And this is what Dylan was born to do.

It's in his blood. And he's really good at it. So Dr. Jory, that's telling me a lot about where is Dylan? 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 Dylan'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% 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 we got to find this boy this is such a good good boy uh 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, he never did any of that. He wasn't the football game kid. 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 to stop him from going to farm. That's all he wanted to do. 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 DaveMacCrimeOnline.com. Dylan lives by himself in a camper trailer on a remote piece of land in Lucent. 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 seat 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. And we are begging you for help finding Dylan. 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. 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's missing, I was talking to her mother about it, was that her seat position was not where she would have had it. It was way back. Like when I'm 5'1", when I get in the car, my husband, who is 6'3",

has been 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. And we were told the two gentlemen that worked with Dylan were, well, the one that 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 kirk nurmy joining me uh as you know him a 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 nur, I'm not holding that against you. Isn't it true, Kirk Nurmi, 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 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 it appears, from what my understanding is is none of these people have been questioned 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 it pressure wash is there a car wash somewhere

did somebody have no hang on all these things let me tell you no there's 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. Guys, we're talking about the disappearance of a teen boy, Dylan Rounds. 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, Investigators' 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, 528? So police are 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.

All right. So he was 30 miles away in Nevada 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 a.m. Saturday morning, 5.28. He's working. Okay, Justin, jump in. Yes, ma'am. So, you know know one of the things that i certainly would have focused on would have been some of the forensics of course um swabbing the the gears that would certainly have been something that still could be done um why uh box elder has not um done a lot of that let me let me tell you real quick box elder let us take the pickup home 250 miles away they allowed us to take the pickup home sunday um without processing

it they they never touched the pickup and i've got that message from the detective saying can we take the pickup home do you you need it? It's yours. Do whatever you want with it. They processed 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 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 detective. Nothing got processed. Some stuff could still be possibly found. You know, another thing that thought that I had as far as search and rescue is concerned, I also was in a police department that searched that area on a case, a missing victim, Susan Powell. And we have GPS coordinates of every hole in the ground out there. We have detectives that were out there for two and a half years, full-time mapping that area. And so they would have, and since that's an open case now,

you should be able to get that information for a search and rescue as well. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You were hearing from Justin Boardman that there is a chance to still properly process the items that have not been processed by law enforcement. I'm talking specifically about the vehicle. 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 but 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 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 four hundred people crawl all over that, a bloodhound is going to find Dillon's scent and follow it somewhere. It's not going to happen. Too much time has passed, too many people have been there, and it poured rain again yesterday. Curt and Ermi, you're hearing what is being said about bloodhounds and the ability to

track ascent, 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. And it had 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 and Ermi, 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's 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 there. This desert's pretty much all the same. Yeah. So that way we'll find basically just a trailer?

A camp 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? His boots were

just tossed out right behind that. And there was nothing else around him, no, I mean, nothing. Yeah. 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 730. Then they bailed, and then they came back maybe six hours that day, and then they said, we're calling it, and they went. 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 this camper was, where the booths 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. You know talking we're talking two weeks now today two weeks 14 days we've been out there searching they've had one two three and then said

four or four or five of those days they've had people out there searching is all what can you tell me nate eat 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, Nevada, that someone was being held hostage.

And, you know, in the beginning, there 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 finger pointing that maybe this guy might know something, but Candace has actually spoken with this man. He's in custody in Utah in a facility, and they believe that he probably doesn't have anything to do with Dylan's disappearance,

but fingers were pointed at him from the from the beginning sounds like that's not so much anymore okay 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 this guy three times so we all hauled butt into Montello not Elko it was in Montello so Justin calls Utah Utah detectives and they say well that's in Nevada we're not it's not us you need to call Nevada so Justin told them 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 9-1-1 into Elko I tell them what's going on so Elko sends out six deputies. We're furious. We're frustrated. We think our son's right down the block. These local people are telling us they got him. They got him. They're chasing this other guy.

They got him. They're holding him hostage. They're beating him. They're telling us all this stuff. 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 through 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 my got a call saying Dylan was being held hostage. Right. Who told you that? The ransom never came out of my mouth. 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, Kirk 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 him 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 they did send they 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. Okay, stop right there. Right there. Deputy Chief, Manatee County Search and Rescue, John Elwood, right there. 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 that's who we need to key in on 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 after it 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 Okay, 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 Dylan R, 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 AM. 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, Kirk Nermey. 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 this Kirk Nurmi 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 Lewiston, 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 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 you can still go to the state police. You can do a lot of different things like that. So when you say the state police,

are you talking about, for instance, the Utah AGs, Attorney General? 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 to pressure some things they also have their own crime lab, 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. Of course, it was on a Saturday. So but after the coverage and seeing what's going on, he did personally reach out to us. The governor of Utah told him to. We really need your help because nobody seemingly is helping this mother find her boy. Please do what you can to help find him. For instance, calling the Public Safety Commissioner Anderson at 801-580-5928. Repeat, 801-580-5928.

Or the Governor of Utah. You can call him toll free at 800-705-2464. Repeat, 800-705-2464. Let your voice be heard. Don't make Candace Cooley go through this by herself. Help her. I don't know where Dylan is, but I know this. I want action. I want to see something happening. I want that truck processed. I want scent dogs, tracker dogs out at the scene. I want his camper processed. His phone hasn't been found. Has it

been pinged? Don't know. That's what we need to be doing now. Has his ATM or credit cards been used? Did somebody take his wallet for that reason? Who are his closest friends? Who works for him? Who would have been around him out in that remote area where he farms? We need help in finding this teen boy who loves the land, who is in touch with his mother, his grandparents, or his father every single day. One of them would hear from him, but the scent has gone cold. We can't find him. We don't know where he is. Nate Eaton, I understand that there was a search just in the last 48 hours. Let me go to Candace Cooley on that.

I know she was there working. Candace, where did you search and what, if anything, did you find? So we focused on the Nevada side this time. And Elko County Sheriff's was great. The actual sheriff was out with us, the lieutenant. They helped us organize. Everything was mapped. It was a very

good search um we were we were looking for a particular bunker we did find that so that was really good we found that we were able to clear that um there was a couple other areas that a bunker what do you mean by a bunker so these people out there are the anti-government prepping for the end of the world they they have bunkers so this particular one is a cenex you know shipping container into the side of a mountain okay so you search that area including this bunker to no avail. Guys, there is a $20,000 reward. $20,000 if you have information on Dylan Rounds, 19-year-old boy. We are joining his mother today begging for your help. The tip line, 435-734-3800.

Repeat, 435-734-3800. Repeat. 435-734-3800. Help us bring Dylan home. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.