Crime Weekly - S3 Ep201: Crime Weekly News: Dylan Rounds Remains Found

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

In 2019, 19-year-old Dylan Rounds and his grandfather purchased land together in Lucin, Utah, marking the beginning of Dylan’s lifelong dream to own and operate his own farm. Dylan spent two Summers getting the land ready to farm, and by the Spring of 2022, it was finally ready for the first crop. On the evening of May 27th Dylan worked later than usual, trying to get the seed planted before it rained and then on the morning of May 28th Dylan spoke to his grandmother, but this would be the last person to ever hear from Dylan. An arrest was made in March of 2024 and In April, skeletal remains found in a remote part of western Utah were identified as Dylan Rounds. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. CozyEarth.com - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 35% off your order! And don't forget to select our podcast in the survey after placing your order, so they know we sent you!

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. Anything you want to say before we dive into it, usually throw that at me. Anything you want to add to the conversation before we get into it? Oh, anything I want to add to the conversation or anything I want to say? Anything you want to say, because usually you hit it for me first before we dive into our episode. So I'm throwing it back at you this week. Anything you'd like to say? And usually I'll say

no, and then I have a bunch of things to say. I have so much to say, but not about the episode. So we'll keep it strictly business. I love that. I love that. Okay. So we're going to get into it. A lot of you, especially if you're someone who follows the true crime news, you've probably already heard about this, but let's give you a little backstory before we get into it, because this is a really big story in the true crime space right now. In 2019, 19 year old Dylan rounds and his grandfather purchased land together in Lucerne, Utah, marking the beginning of Dylan's lifelong dream to own and operate his own farm. Dylan spent two summers getting the land ready to farm, and by spring of 2022, it was finally ready for the first crop. On the evening of May 27th, Dylan worked later than usual, trying to get seeds planted before it rained, and then the next morning, on May 28th,

Dylan spoke to his grandmother, but this is the last person to ever hear from Dylan. An arrest was made in March of 2024, which a lot of us heard about then. And then in April, just in the last couple of weeks, skeletal remains were found in a remote part of Western Utah, which were then identified as Dylan around. So sad ending to a story that many of us have known about since 2019. We talk about this all the time where what's better, like the unknown or knowing what happened so you can process it. I think we both kind of agree. Having the remains of Dylan found, I think for the family, not great, but better than not knowing where he is. Could he still be alive, et cetera. So sad ending to a story, but I do think overall, most people, this is what they would want. They would want to know.

Yeah. This is a very sad story because I did cover this on YouTube, which is crazy that it happened in 2019. Time flies. But I covered it on YouTube and I learned a lot about Dylan. He was so young, but kind of always knew what he wanted to do, even from when he was a kid. He just wanted to be a farmer. He wanted to be a farmer. He wanted to live a good, simple life. He wanted to plant things, have them grow. That was his dream. And at 19, he was out there in the desert of Utah, making it come true. And then all of a sudden, he's gone. So on that morning of May 28th, Dylan had told his grandmother while they were talking on the phone, he's like, oh, listen, I got to get off the phone.

I think it's about to rain. And he wanted to put his grain truck in the shed. The shed was about five miles west of his farm. So he obviously didn't want the grain to get wet. And he was like, hey, I got to go move this grain truck. I'll call you back. But Dylan didn't call his grandmother back on May 28th. And then she couldn't reach him. He wasn't answering when she was calling him. So she actually called a guy named Don, who's a family friend that worked on the farm sometimes. And Don went over and checked Dylan's farm but couldn't find him anywhere. This caused Dylan's parents to drive out to the farm. And when they arrived, they found his grain truck parked in the shed as it was supposed to be. And Dylan's parents to drive out to the farm. And when they arrived, they found his grain truck parked in the shed, as it was supposed to be. And Dylan's truck was parked at

his trailer where he'd been living. The truck looked as if it had been freshly cleaned, power washed specifically. And the driver's seat was in a position that was far closer to the steering wheel than Dylan would have set it. Basically, the seat would have accommodated a much shorter person than Dylan was. Law enforcement was called and they located Dylan's boots behind a pile of dirt about 100 yards away from the grain truck. And there was a stain on one of the boots that nobody really knew what it was right away. They thought maybe it was hydraulic fluid. It turned out to be blood. But, you know, there's so much going on with this case that we can't even get into because it's Crime Weekly News and it's shorter. But basically, it took forever for the forensics to be run on much of this evidence that they collected. Kurt lived in nearby Montello. So for context, Lucin is basically like an oasis. I don't know, even an oasis. It's the desert. There's really nothing going on there. So if you wanted to go

grab something to eat or go to the grocery store or stock up on supplies, Montello would usually be where you'd go. And Kurt told Dylan's parents that their son was being held in montello by two men and so police were sent to check this tip out and dylan's family members followed them to montello reportedly while no one was at dylan's farm an unknown person returned the key fob to dylan's truck and then the following morning dylan's missing gun was also returned to his trailer by someone. The weapon was found on the bathroom counter with the clip removed, and that bathroom had been cleaned the day before, so everyone knew that the gun hadn't been there previously. While police were looking

for Dylan, they conducted air searches. They searched on foot. They used ATVs, horses. They used cadaver dogs. They drained the pond on Dylan's property. They even searched about 18 mines and caves in the desert, but no sign of Dylan Rounds could be found. Brenner was squatting on property near Dillon's trailer, and he also had a violent criminal history. During the investigation, it was discovered that the blood that had been found on one of Dillon's boots was DNA tested, and it showed that it was Dillon's blood. Dillon's phone records were also obtained, and they showed that Dylan's last known location was by the pond. And this was not far from where James Brenner was squatting. But the police went to the pond where the last known ping of Dylan's cell phone was, and they recovered Dylan's missing cell phone. A digital forensic download of the phone led to a discovery of a time-lapse video with a time stamp that showed it was taken around the time

that Dylan disappeared. And this video reportedly showed James Brenner cleaning a gun with blood stains on his arms and blood stains on the shirt he was wearing. So obviously law enforcement collected this shirt, it was analyzed, and they found Dylan Round's DNA on it. Brenner's DNA was also found on Dylan's boots, and when he was questioned about this, he claimed he had found the boots near the shed and he threw them behind the dirt pile. On June 2nd, the Box Elder County Sheriff's deputies watched as Brenner conducted some spring cleaning in a shed, and he removed four to five garbage bags of potential evidence. Evidence was also present that showed James Brenner had walked his horse from the shed

property to the railroad tracks during the same time period in which Dylan went missing. In March of 2023, James Brenner was charged with aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a human body, and he led investigators to the location of Dylan's body as part of a plea agreement. And at this time, we really don't know what James Brenner's motive may have been. And authorities have announced they will not be providing further details on this case. Although I feel like there's a lot of details already. That whole time-lapsed video discovery on Dylan's phone was crazy to me because what's going on with that? Was it taken accidentally? Did it get taken on purpose? And if so, why? Who took it? Or did it get set up as sort of like a selfie thing and James Brenner intentionally recorded himself cleaning a gun with Dylan's blood on him? I don't really know what's going on here. But what's your take? I do have some thoughts, but let's take a break first. Yeah, to me, it sounds like maybe Dylan was down by the pond and some of us have done it where it's like a cool scene and you set up a time-lapse video on a tripod or on a rock or something nearby just to kind of capture it in

real time. And what probably happened was the phone was set up prior to this assault. And then James was unaware of it and probably walked into frame, not knowing that he was being recorded because let's be honest, if he knew that there was a phone there more than likely he would have taken the phone and destroyed it or, or, or did something with it. He wouldn't have left it there. So the fact that the phone last pinged there and then was found there, more than likely that's where the battery died because it just kept running and running until the charge was empty. So-

Yeah, it does say a time-lapse video. Yeah. So that makes perfect sense because I've only done a time-lapse video a few times, but you do have to set it up and leave it there- Can't touch it. For a few hours, or you're not going to get any good time-lapse videos. So Dylan must have set it up and leave it there for a few hours or you're not going to get any good time lapse

video so dylan must have set it up which is like good luck you know that he did that and brenner never knew it was there at all and he just happened to decide to clean his gun right in view of it which once again good luck yeah and again if it depending on the time lapse how it could have been like a landscape shot where it's capturing almost everything. So he wouldn't even have to walk, right? It could have been a little bit in the distance or whatever, where they just happened to see him and knowing that he's from the area, we're able to identify him. Yeah. This is a case where I always talk about this because obviously this is a critical piece of evidence. This is a huge, this is a smoking gun, having a video where you see a guy come into the video and he's got a gun and he's got blood. I mean, this is like out of a movie, right? It's not, it's not usually this, this strong of a piece of evidence for detectives, but in some cases, and we cover a lot of unsolved cases, this is what happens, right? It's not the immediate family member. It's not the spouse or the significant other or the roommate. It's some squatter or transient or someone who's in the area. Well, they knew each other, knew each other. But again, if you don't have that video, right, if you don't have this, let's say the video is out of it to make that tie to him. Obviously, he did some stupid things the following day by going back to the crime scene and returning the fob and the gun. And he had a bunch of guns and ammo and stuff

in his trailer. Yeah, of course. There's this one. James ain't that bright. Right. Let's just put it that way. But overall, with a lot of these unsolved cases, we always ask ourselves, like, why? Why are we sitting here eight years later or whatever, and it hasn't been solved? This can be the situation where it may just be someone who is just an acquaintance, right? Just a very little connection between the two. So you take out that phone, right? And things get a lot harder for this case, not to only identify the suspect, but more importantly, get an actual judge to sign off

on it with charges and then have it go to trial and have it stick, right? There's a lot of different thresholds it has to pass. The crazy thing is that you say that, in general, to get a conviction for something like this, especially when you didn't have the body until James Brenner led police to the body. It's hard as it is. The police really dropped the ball with this case for multiple reasons. Like I said, the boots weren't tested for a while. Then they let Dylan's family come and take his truck, which completely removed all the data from it

because they only keep the data in the computer for so many miles. They did a bunch of stuff. If you had not had this video basically doing everything for them, if they didn't have this video to give to James Brenner and be like, yo, dude, we got you red handed, literally. And he hadn't been like, all right, you got me. Here's the body. They may not have solved this due to the, in my opinion, and the opinion of others, the really poor police work. But also this is a small sheriff's department.

It's out in the middle of the desert. I'm sure they don't get a ton of cases like this. And we talk about these small police departments not being prepared to handle these homicide cases. And I think that they just hadn't really dealt with a lot of this kind of stuff before. So they didn't know what procedure was or what the right way was to do things. Yeah, there's all of that is true. And I worked for a small department where we didn't have a ton of murder. And it's one of those things where even when you have guys who are trained properly,

if they're not using those tools and those techniques every day, it is a skill set that is diminishing, where if you're not practicing all the time, you lose the ability to use it. And I feel like that's what happens in a lot of cases throughout the country where, yes, small departments who don't necessarily have the resources or the experience, and then there's other police departments where they're doing the right thing. They're going for the trainings. They're going for the updates. They're buying the technology. But again, if they're not using it all the time, they're just not as equipped to handle those situations. And that's why in some cases, you'll have the state police or the FBI step in because the police department where it occurred,

that jurisdiction, they look at it, the crime scene, and they're like, well, what do we do now? the state police or the FBI step in because the police department where it occurred, that jurisdiction, they look at it, the crime scene, and they're like, well, what do we do now? We've never had something like this before. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing if you don't have that type of crime in your jurisdiction all the time. We can't have everyone be this salt of the know, well-trained homicide investigator with 300 solves. It's, you know, it's just not practical. So it does happen. I mean, you know, the resources that are available are limited. There's finances that come into play there as far as what tools

are accessible. And then, like I was saying, when you have a case like this, where, you know, the person was connected to our victim, but not directly, you know, not someone that they were associating with every day, without this critical piece of evidence, this video, I don't know if they solved this case. You know, it's this trickle down effect where they identify James through the video, then they go to him. Now they have his boots, his T-shirt. They find DNA on them that shouldn't be there. And they're able to start connecting the dots. But there was originally this big hole where it's like, who could have done this?

And without that video, maybe they don't get there. We'll never know. Yeah, they had a bunch of crazy theories initially. There was this story about Dylan running into some like barefoot man on the street, like in the middle of the desert. He gave this guy a ride. And then there was another thing that he might have been killed over water rights because apparently, you know, newsflash, water's hard to come by in the desert if you're a farmer. And so there was all of these, you know, theories and speculations. And to then find out

that the real person is just so close to home. And like I said, we don't know what his motive is, but it doesn't sound to me as if this person, James Brenner, Justin Rounds, he actually visited his son Dylan in Lucerne and he talked to James Brenner briefly. And he said that, you know, he thinks that maybe the conversation could have given him some insight into why Brenner did it, but it's so dumb. So Dylan's father, Justin, says, quote, when I got there, Brenner was talking about how Dylan backed into his horse gate. He was a little frustrated and I didn't think a whole lot about it at the time, but that could have been what set him off. And this was shortly before Dylan went missing. So if somebody is going to murder a 19-year-old kid, who's a good kid, by the way, a good kid, if someone's going to murder a 19-year-old kid because they backed into their horse gate, you're squatting, dude. That's not even your property. You shouldn't even be building

horse gates on this land. It's not yours. But I think that this dude, James Brenner, probably not all there, maybe has some stuff going on. Like we said, violent criminal history has had issues with guns and weapons and things in the past. So clearly this is somebody who, I mean, obviously is better off behind bars at this point. Absolutely. And it's just it's a situation where not only maybe not knowing the suspect, but like you said, they're trying everyone speculating on a potential motive. Right. And it could be as simple as a stupid horse skate. Right. There's a real possibility that because this person's not a rational person, they were stewing over this incident that happened a week prior or whatever, and they just couldn't get over it. And they're sitting wherever they are thinking about it. And then the next time he runs into Dylan, maybe there's a verbal altercation, it becomes violent, and then there's a gun involved, right? And it looks like it could have been Dylan's gun used,

if I followed you correctly. It does seem that way, yeah. Right, because that was. Yeah. Right. Because that was returned to the home. So you're looking at a situation where maybe potentially Dylan's working on a farm out in the middle of nowhere, animals, whatever you have. He's carrying the gun for personal safety. And maybe during a struggle, James got a hold of the gun and that's where it went down. Maybe the motive originally wasn't to kill him. Maybe it was just a fight that escalated and someone ends up dead. So

whatever the case, it doesn't bring Dylan back. I know that people, I think it was a Dylan's mother who recently spoke. Someone recently spoke, I thought in the, in the media, but it sounds to me like they're happy with this deal. Not in the sense of like our son is gone, but more so now his remains have been recovered. They can give him a proper burial, hold a service. And the picture is kind of complete at this point where they'll never accept it. No parent would, but they got something that a lot of parents out there haven't received, which is what happened to my child. Where is my child? Are they still alive or are they out there somewhere in the desert? Nobody knows. Daniel Robinson's father, I'm sure he'd be someone right now.

We're still hoping this isn't the case, right? But if he's out there right now at this point in the desert, let's be honest, looking for remains to try to figure out what happened. Because once you have those remains, you can have answers to get some answers. And maybe the discovery leads to even more answers. So this is something that a lot of parents would absolutely they pray for it every day. So I actually have more information about the video quickly before we wrap up oh i'm all for it the video showed brenner with blood stains on his arms and shirt as he was cleaning the gun and according to justin rounds the video also shows brenner allegedly washing the blood off of his hands and a gun, saying it showed the cold

hardness of the alleged crime. Quote, when I heard about the video of him washing the blood off of his hands and the gun, it hit me hard. I was so angry and I wasn't supposed to tell anybody about it. It was just hard. End quote. And then Dylan's mother, Candace Cooley, she says that the video was recorded in James Brenner's trailer on Saturday, May 28th at 7.27 a.m., which is about 30 minutes after Dylan spoke with his grandmother on the phone. After the call, Dylan went to move his grain truck inside a shed that was near Brenner's trailer before it started to rain. Candace Cooley said, quote, We know Dylan was at the gate to enter the shed around 6.57 a.m. If you give it another five minutes, he's up at the shed around 7.02, 7.03 a.m. So everything happened within 32 minutes, end quote. Candace added that Dylan's phone didn't record anything else and that she and Justin Rounds, Dylan's father, they don't know how he was able to preserve such an important piece of evidence. And Candace Cooley said, quote, how did that phone start recording it has driven us crazy i'm pretty sure when brenner

took the phone he just hit the wrong button or had a wrong swipe and had no clue so it wasn't even a time lapse well i think it was a time maybe it was a time lapse mode i think yeah yeah because interesting dylan wasn't the intention wasn't a time lapse. Right. Of a barn. The intention probably wasn't to do anything. Oh, interesting. If you ask me, probably the phone screen was facing away from him, and it was the back phone camera. Or he would have seen himself on there, right? Right.

Yeah, you could. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Could have been during the altercation, where a button got enabled, a quick action button, absolutely. Wow. Could have been during the altercation where a button got enabled, a quick action button. Well, yeah, because they figure by this point Dylan is dead. Yeah. Oh, of course. Yeah, he's definitely no longer with them or severely injured at that point. I mean, he's not in a good position. So we're just hammering home the point here luck right obviously good detective work after i'm

not diminishing what was done after the fact you you kind of dove into i was going to say that there were some missteps in it i'm not that familiar with the case as far as those details but that even drives home my point more where you got this video which was a gift at that point, because without it, are you and I sitting here right now talking about this, saying that Dylan's body's been recovered? Maybe not. Maybe not. All from this video, which then snowball effect, everything kind of fell into place. But without it, it's like the Leah Roberts of the world where you're just waiting for that one piece of information that could connect all the dots. And unfortunately, in some investigations, yes, skill, resources, tools, experience, education, all vitally important.

But sometimes you just need a little luck too. And fortunately, in this case, they got it. And I'm glad to see it come full circle. I'm glad to see the person responsible being held accountable for what they did. I don't know the specifics of the plea deal. I'm sure it involves him never getting out again. Is the death penalty in Utah? I didn't know if there was a death penalty in Utah. Is there? So yes, Dylan's parents wanted him to get the death penalty, but he did make a plea deal

for revealing where Dylan's remains were. So I guarantee you that he did that to take the death penalty off the table. And I don't know, quickly, how would you feel about that? Because I personally would be all for it. Because I think, I know we've talked about it sometimes

and how we feel about it, especially with certain crimes. But, you know, and as far as like paying for someone to just stay alive in prison all this time. But, you know, if it's going on the right way and they're then behind bars in exchange for answers to where your child is and to bring them home. I think I take that deal. What do you what do you say? Of course I would, yeah. I mean, the guy's 60, all right?

Yeah. He's going to be in prison for long enough where if he ever does get out, he's going to be literally an elderly man. So it's not like it's a 20-year-old guy and you're worried that he's going to get out in 30 years and still have life ahead of him. James Brenner's 60.

If he gets 30 years, he's 90. So he's probably just afraid of, you know, the electric chair or lethal injection. Yeah. Let us know what you guys think. Because he's a little bitch. Let us know what you guys think below, obviously about the case. But also, what would you do if you found yourself in a situation where you're confronted with your son's potential killer and you have an opportunity to bring home your son or daughter in exchange for them to live out the rest of their life behind

bars? Would you take that deal or would you say, no, I don't make any deals with a murder, especially the murder of my child. Burn them at the stake. I don't care. What would you do? We want to hear from you guys way down below. If you're listening on audio, please leave a comment. Let us know what you think. As far as the rest of this week, the Menendez Brothers, the series, the first episode came out. You guys had a lot of positive responses, a lot of engagement, a lot of dialogue about episode one. So thank you for that. We will be back with episode two on audio this Friday and the YouTube version will be out on Sunday. Any final words from you, Stephanie Harlow? No, I just, our hearts and our thoughts are with Dylan's family,

19 years old, his whole life ahead of him. He was a good person and, you know, everybody's a good person in their own right, et cetera, et cetera. But I mean, this kid never did anything wrong to anybody. Just a cute, nice kid, wholesome. He had his eye on the prize. He knew what he wanted. He would have gotten married to a nice girl, had some kids. He would have been a great dad. He would have given his family a great life. And he's gone because of some useless, you know, probably off his rocker old dude that was really upset about a horse gate, allegedly. Don't come for me.

That's all. Have a good day. That's it. Everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you later this week. Bye.