Going West: True Crime - Dylan Rounds // 291
Episode Date: March 29, 2023In May of 2022, a 19-year-old farmer in Utah went missing. With bizarre evidence at his home suggesting foul play, his family raced there from Idaho, and got to work to figure out what had happened to... him. As of this month, someone has been arrested in connection to his possible murder, with DNA evidence and a shocking video from the morning of the disappearance. This is the story of Dylan Rounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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What is going on to crime fans?
I'm your host Tee.
And I'm your host Daphne.
And you're listening to Going Less.
Hello everybody.
We wanted to cover this case back when the story broke last May of 2022. A lot
of you guys might be familiar with this one, but sadly at that time there was just not enough
information to release a whole episode on it. Because originally there was just no trace of Dylan
at all, but recently some information has become available, so we are finally able to share his
story. And let me just say, I mean, the details are truly baffling.
Yes, and somebody has been arrested in connection to this crime.
And over the last 10 or so months, we've got this case recommended to us by many of you.
So thank you so much to Abby, Jennifer, Eloy, Kenzie, Jocelyn, Jan, Kirstie, Michelle, and Melissa.
All right, guys, without further ado, let's talk about this case.
This is episode 291 of Going West, so let's get into it. Thank you. In May of 2022, a 19 yearold farmer in Utah went missing.
With bizarre evidence on his property suggesting foul play, his family raised there from Idaho
and got to work to figure out what happened to him.
As of this month, someone has been arrested in connection to his possible murder, with DNA evidence and
a shocking video from the morning of the disappearance. Music Dylan Rounds was born on August 1st, 2002 in Idaho to Candace Cooley and Justin Rounds.
And being the oldest of three, he was later joined by a brother named Colton and a sister
named Brooklyn.
When Dylan was about four years old,
his parents did divorce,
so the kids kinda went back and forth
between the twin falls Idaho area
where their mother lived,
and about two and a half hours northeast
to the Idaho Falls area where their father lived.
Dylan's family describes him as hardworking,
passionate, and strong headed,
and even as a child,
Dylan's dream was to own a farm,
like this was a lifelong thing for him. He really enjoyed spending time outdoors above everything else
and had a big fascination with farming and farming equipment. As a pastime, he would actually grow
pumpkins and sweet corn and sell them on the side of the road in his hometown.
Dylan was kind of something of a farming prodigy, his family remembers him just tinkering
with and fixing tractors when he was young.
And along with a video of Dylan riding a tractor, his mom Candace wrote on Facebook,
quote,
Now I know who got that old tractor stuck in reverse.
I yelled at Colton for it and finally found out today that it was Dylan. You would be hard
Press to find any two brothers who would break things down while having fun more than Dylan and Colton.
Dylan was just better at hiding it.
At least they could and would fix what they broke.
Colton was always good at keeping secrets for Dylan even if he got in trouble for what Dylan did.
And Dylan, even if he got in trouble for what Dylan did. And their dad just remembered fondly that almost every conversation he had with his son
Dylan was about farming, saying quote, he's just done that all his life.
That's all he thought about.
And Candice echoed this saying quote, he's one of those people that was born to be a farmer.
The kid could drive a tractor before most kids knew how to ride a bike.
So, in addition to his farming endeavors, Dylan really loved to fish and ride his dirt bikes, and he also really enjoyed riding on snowmobiles. His family jokes that Dylan really hated
pictures being taken of him, but that he had a goofy side that they were able to capture when
he let them. Candace said that he was an old soul with interest shared by few people his age.
She said, quote,
this kid doesn't know how to play video games.
He's not in his generation.
He was born in the wrong generation.
He's completely different than what most kids are these days.
And everybody who comes to us, everybody who talks,
the more it gets spread around, they're like,
oh yeah, I know this kid, he did this for me, and he's the hardest working kid I've ever met. That's
everybody. It's not just his parents saying this, it's everybody who knew the kid.
Dylan attended Rigby High School in Rigby, Idaho, but was hyper focused on his future farming
career. So by the age of 17 and 2019,
with the help of his grandfather,
he purchased a large plot of land in Lusin, Utah
near the border of Utah in Nevada.
Lusin is referred to as a railroad community,
settled as a pit stop for train lines
to replenish their fuel,
and only a short few hours drive from his family.
Candace described, quote,
it's sandy desert.
It's literally people who just want to be off the grid.
Yeah, like even if you Google
loosen Utah population,
no number comes up because it really seems like I get it's truly
not middle of nowhere because there are other towns
somewhat nearby, I guess, but it's definitely remote.
Yeah. Like it doesn't as I'm going but it's definitely remote.
Yeah, like it doesn't as I'm gonna get into as well.
It doesn't have a grocery store, it doesn't have a gas station,
it doesn't have a restaurant, a post office, none of that.
So it's like, if you wanna do anything or get anything,
you have to leave Lucin, right?
And yeah, it was mostly abandoned by the 1930s
and now houses just a handful of residents,
one of whom was Dylan. In the off season, Kansas
explained that Dylan was taking contract positions at other farms, and then he would return
to Lucent to plant his own crops. In May of 2022, 19-year-old Dylan had just returned
to the property from working at two other farms, and he was preparing to lay seed for the
season. And while he was staying to lay seed for the season.
And while he was staying on the property on his farm, he would stay in a camper trailer
by himself, so he didn't have a house on the property, at least not yet, so this camper
was his home.
On Wednesday, May 25, 2022, Dylan called his mom Candace to relay an odd run-in that
he had with another man.
So while driving his maroon Ford pickup truck back to his farm, a man approached Dillon
in his car and asked for a ride.
Now this man had emerged from the desert, bloodied and scratched up, and Dillon told his mom
Candace that he just didn't feel comfortable picking this man up.
The following day, which was Thursday, May 26, 2022, was the last day that his parents spoke with Dylan
when each of them had a conversation with him over the phone.
Candace remembers, quote, he was so excited.
He said, Mom, I'm getting my first crop this year.
And his dad just in remembered him talking about
just the different types of tractors that he was using.
So everything seemed great.
Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary here.
Except for this weird run-in the day before,
but that didn't seem like a big deal.
He was carrying on.
It was a weird run-in.
Yeah.
So Dylan was also seen that day in a nearby town.
So just across the border from Utah is Montelo Nevada, which is about a 30 minute drive from
where his farm was in Lucin.
Montelo was a tiny, census designated place with a population of only about 35 people.
However, unlike Lucin, it does have two bars and a gas station and also a grocery store.
So Dylan was able to
get a hot meal if he felt like it.
So that evening, he went to the Saddle Store bar in Grill on Front Street in Montelo for
Dinner, which is one of the two bars in town and the other bar is called Cowboy Bar in
Cafe.
And that was the last time that Dylan was spotted in public. Now two days later, on Saturday, May 28, 2022,
at 6.51am, Dylan spoke very briefly
with his grandmother on the phone,
but he said that it had started to rain
and that he needed to pull his pickup truck
into the shed, which was an off-property shed
a little ways down the road.
And I think that is an important detail to remember
that this shed that he needed to go to was not on his property and it was up the road. And I think that is an important detail to remember that this shed that he needed to
go to was not on his property and it was up the road.
Yeah, exactly.
And the reason why he had to pull his truck into the shed was because the back of the truck
was actually holding seeds that he was getting ready to plant.
So he wanted to shelter them from the rain so that they wouldn't spoil.
Now Candace recalled, quote, he said he couldn't talk.
He had to get his grain truck in the shed
because he had seed in it.
He was planting and he couldn't get the seed wet.
Now telling his grandmother that he would call her back
later that day, Dylan hopped into his truck
and drove it down to the shed, which was down the road.
And he never called her back.
And that would be the last time that he would
speak to anyone.
So his mother Candace said later that this wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary, and that
he wouldn't speak to his parents every single day.
But he would check in at least a few times a week.
And he and his best friend, whose name is JD, would also speak quite frequently, but again
not necessarily on a daily basis.
So while it was odd that he had neglected to call his grandma back after promising that
he would, his loved ones didn't yet jump to the worst-case scenario, and after all he
was busy getting his first crop ready.
But when the next day, which was Sunday, passed without hearing from him at all, and repeated
calls and texts just went unanswered, his parents started to become alarmed.
Now, luckily, since his family all lived at least two and a half hours drive away, his
grandma did know a few people in the vicinity of Lucin and asked that they stop by and check
on Dylan, but his property was static and there was no sign of him.
Then on Monday, May 30, 2022, two days after he was last heard from, Dylan's family had
it to loosen to check on him themselves.
And when they arrived, the scene of his farm looked as though he had vanished in the middle
of a workday.
His pickup truck was parked out front and his camper was unlocked, but it was empty,
and there was no sign of his car keys or his phone.
So that's when the family phoned the Box Elder County Sheriff's Department and filed
a missing persons report.
An immediate search of his property commenced, with his family looking right alongside law
enforcement.
When Dylan's mom Candace was asked if he had perhaps run away from his responsibilities
on the farm, she said, quote, there's no realm that he's running away from us.
I know there are situations like that where you plead and then sometimes the kids come
out, but that's not him.
She also added that she did not believe him to have been struggling with his mental health
at this time, and that he seemed to be happy with the direction in which his life was
going, especially where his life on the farm was concerned.
She said, quote, he did not walk away from his lifelong dream.
Dylan has no drug abuse, no substance abuse, no mental issues, no depression, no suicidal
thoughts, nothing.
I mean, everybody loved him.
When asked if he had been dating
and whether there could have been a romance
or a love triangle involved in his disappearance,
she said absolutely not.
Noting quote,
Dylan was pretty much all about farming.
Dylan's bank account was also untouched
and the cell phone activity was non-existent,
which looked even more suspicious.
And the last time his phone had pinged was at 3.41 pm on Saturday, May 28.
So about 9 hours after he hung up with his grandma, and it appeared to have been on his property,
although that doesn't mean that Dylan himself had been using it.
Within an hour and a half of the search, the search
for Dylan revealed a pair of his boots discarded behind a dirt pile. Now Candace was very alarmed
immediately, saying, quote, at that point, it should have been treated as foul play. You just
don't see someone's boots in the desert that's missing. Law enforcement estimated the boots had been there between 48 and 72 hours by that time.
And remember this is a couple days after he was last heard from.
And Candace recalled, quote, within the first hour and a half they found his boots.
From where his grain truck was parked, his boots were about 100 yards south behind a dirt pile, just casually tossed out.
He was very particular about his boots, he wears a pair and it's always the same pair.
When they wear out, he goes and buys exactly the same boots.
So the boots were found near the shed in which Dylan had parked his truck. And based on this, his family surmised that he had driven his truck containing the seeds
to his shed, which was about 5 miles from the camper that he lived in.
So that's not close.
And then after this, he headed back to his camper on foot.
Candice continued saying, quote, so our first assumption was he took his
graintruck, he parked it, he didn't have a ride, and he took off walking back to
his camper, which was five miles. But then we found his boots. Obviously that's
not the case because he wouldn't go 100 yards in one direction and throw his
boots to walk five miles in the other direction. Yeah, I mean, that just doesn't make any sense. Plus, you're not going to walk back to your
camper with no boots on. Well, right. Why would, why would anybody ever do that?
Yeah. But also it is weird to me that, I mean, maybe this was normal for him to make this
five mile walk. Obviously, that is, that's pretty long, you know, that's not like around the corner.
And possibly, you know, he, maybe he wasn't anticipating this rain coming and it just happened
and he was like, I need to salvage this seed so this has to be done.
Right. But then, yeah, of course, with the boots that really just paints a weird picture
because there's no reason he would toss his boots off and walk without them.
Yeah. So, so then what happened?
And also remember that he doesn't have any
friends or family that live anywhere close to him so it's basically just him
on this big farming property. Exactly. And also his mom Candace noted that he had
been very particular about his boots for as long as he'd been wearing shoes and
that he wouldn't wear anything but this one particular brand of boots and only one pair at a time like he didn't have multiple pairs of shoes.
So with only one pair of boots, there was just no reason for him to discard them and walk had happened to him. So, before that quick break, we discussed the fact that Dylan's boots were found casually
tossed in a random spot behind a dirt pile about 100 yards from his grain truck.
As police looked at the boots, they appeared to have blood on them, so they were sent
to a lab for testing.
And this is where Candace remembers the investigators really beginning to drop the ball.
After they were taken for evidence, Dylan's parents were informed that they were holding
off on testing the boots in case cadaver dogs needed them to pick up a scent.
Now Candace found this odd telling a reporter quote, anyway and as we know there's a very small window of time in which a dog could pick up a person sent
anyway but in the rain like that's a totally different story. Yeah and also it just gets washed away.
They're not they're not really looking for a scent here they're looking for remains because
obviously they notice blood on the boots but why were they not tested? Yeah just ridiculous.
Yeah so essentially this was just the beginning
of the shortcomings that Candace felt the investigation
had suffered.
Shortly after arriving at Dylan's farm,
law enforcement, search and rescue,
and Dylan's family and friends swarmed the area to search.
But because the area, as well as his camper and truck,
were not secured, the crime scene
and also most of the evidence
was basically compromised here.
Which is also really frustrating.
And I remember when this, like I had said
in the beginning of this episode,
we wanted to cover this case back in May.
And I remember reading all about this
as the news was coming out,
that just like how disappointed
the family was in law enforcement
because they weren't doing anything properly.
And it's probably because they're kind of like small-town cops
They they probably never see cases like this with disappearances and potential murders
Yeah, and I hate to go there and be like oh, it's just a small town thing and that's why you know
That's why they did everything wrong, but it's like truly things were done wrong
like
The the scene was not secured properly,
evidence was not taken properly.
So yeah, I mean, it just-
So what else do you have at that point?
Yeah, it just was botched.
Yeah, and it's just how do you follow up on an investigation
and continue searching for somebody
when everything that you do have is not able
to really be used?
So also, strangely, Dylan's pickup truck
appeared to have been pressure wash.
Like, it wasn't just rinse clean from the rain,
like it looked like it was pressure washed.
So basically, the wheel wells of the tires were caked in mud,
but the tires in the car itself were clean.
And this was really weird to Dylan's family,
because basically, Dylan did not wash his truck very often, especially knowing that it was raining and
The fact that he lived and worked on a farm like he was not the kind of guy who really ever washed his car because
It was just gonna get dirty again because he drove in the mud
Especially at this time of year when they're getting these light rain showers
So his parents were like, why would he have pressure washed his car on a day that it rained?
Yeah, I mean, that definitely seems suspicious.
Candace also noted that the front seat had been moved very far forward, which was odd.
So Candace, who stands at 4 feet 11, could sit comfortably and drive in the position that
she found the seat in.
But Dylan was a whole foot taller than his mom was, and thus could not have had the seat
scooted that far forward, like he just would not have been able to drive comfortably.
She also noted that the drive settings had been changed.
It's unclear how she determined this while the car had been in park,
but Candice claimed that the gear had been set to 4L
or 4WD low range.
But everyone close to Dylan knew
that the 4WD of his truck hadn't been working,
so he would have known not to drive in that gear.
And unfortunately by that point,
Candice estimated that about 200 people had been in or around
the car, so any hope of gleaming touch DNA or evidence was just lost.
Volunteer search teams reportedly logged over 300 hours and detectives over 600.
One volunteer remembered searching in mine shafts, caves, and ghost town relics such as abandoned
buildings and trailers.
Dylan did know some people in Montelo, remember that town that's in Nevada, and he had
some friends back home in Idaho, but there wasn't much human contact in Lucin.
So his parents desperately tried to figure out who could have possibly been in the vicinity
to abduct or harm their son with such a small community.
Candace remembered Dylan telling her about the bloody hitchhiker who had asked him for a
ride and been denied, and wondered if maybe that had been the motivation for a hitchhiker
to come after Dylan.
So his family started asking around for the whereabouts of the man, and
eventually, they reached him. 41-year-old Chase Vencestra called into the sheriff's office
and said that he had not been in the area at the time of Dylan's disappearance. He even
called Candace directly to tell her that he didn't have anything to do with her son's
disappearance. However, there was a detail that Candace hadn't known prior.
Dylan actually had given Chase a ride that day, but he had left out that part of the story
because he basically just didn't want to scare his mom.
Candace said that the family cleared him from the list of suspects, but that, according
to Chase himself, the Sheriff's office was slow in returning his calls.
So, ultimately, Candace does not believe that he's involved because the timeline just
doesn't match up.
But Chase actually is in police custody on unrelated gun charges, but it's not believed
that he was involved in the disappearance of Dylan at all.
So Justin had another person in mind.
Remember Justin is Dylan's dad.
So the first time that he had ever visited his son in Lucen,
a neighbor had been irritated at Dylan
for a very minor accident.
Apparently, while backing his pickup truck out of his farm
one day, Dylan had backed into his neighbor's horse gate,
and Justin remembered the neighbor being
frustrated and coming to Dylan's trailer to complain about it.
And this wasn't like a huge deal, but it was a possible motive where they seemed to really
have nothing to go off of.
So Dylan's neighbor's name is James Brenner, and he had already had some run-ins with the
police.
So back in 2012, James had been sentenced to almost three years in prison for a felony
firearms charge, and that hadn't been his first time being convicted of a felony.
Prosecutors now label him as dangerous, especially since he has served time for attempted murder and beat
up a man with a lawn chair once.
I just want to say, who the hell beats up a person with a fucking lawn chair?
I don't know.
It's, I mean, so we're told to use maybe they were just in the yard and there it was.
But, but that happened.
And one attorney commented saying, quote, oh, he has a lengthy history of violence.
He had a shootout before.
He has a history of shooting at people
and despite that, he's a convicted felon.
He continues to carry firearms.
Now outside of the confrontation about the horsegate,
James and Dylan were familiar with each other
as James would sometimes help Dylan out on his farm.
So now armed with this information, authorities obtained a search warrant for James' trailer,
wondering if he could have taken his violent temper out on 19-year-old Dylan.
But get this!
Police discovered that the trailer was not even James' trailer, nor did he own the property
on which it was located.
James had actually just been squatting in an abandoned trailer about five miles from Dylan's farm,
which made the complain about Dylan's accident with the horse gate even more strange,
because it's not even your gate.
Yeah, like you're mad that he is slightly backed up into the horse gate of the property that you live on,
but you actually, it's not your property, you're just squatting there.
Weird. So on June 16th, 2022, authorities searched James' trailer. Now, no gun was recovered,
but there was an excessive amount of bullets in gun paraphernalia, including ammunition for a
muzzle loader rifle, which is a type of gun which, you know, the bullet in the powder are loaded
into the muzzle of the gun. And then authorities again searched this property on June 21st, 2022, and at this time, they
did actually recover a gun.
Now suspiciously, the gun had no serial number.
It only said that it had been manufactured in New Haven, Connecticut, so the gun was confiscated
and James was taken into custody for this, because remember,
he's a felon and he can't have guns.
So while they couldn't really pin Dylan's disappearance or potential murder on James
just yet, they could at least arrest him for possessing a firearm.
But then, in July of 2022, James Brenner was officially announced as the only suspect
in the disappearance of Dylan
Rounds.
Meanwhile, the family was doing everything they could to locate what they were coming to
fear would be the remains of Dylan.
His mom Candace even flew over a ravine in a helicopter just kind of hoping to spot something
out of the ordinary, and because she and the rest of the family just did absolutely everything they could.
But the reason that she had gone over this particular ravine
was because she was told by locals, quote,
if you ever wanna get rid of anybody in this area,
you just wait until it rains and you take him to the wash.
In the ravine was a single set of pick up truck tire tracks,
but they were not verified to belong to Dylan's truck.
Unfortunately, Dylan's family have felt from the beginning that the search conducted by local law enforcement agencies was lacking as we've been discussing.
Candice explained, quote, We have been run through the ringer with law enforcement and every time we turn around, something that's supposed to happen doesn't happen. And it's just been this rollercoaster of,
this is going to happen in two weeks, and two months later, it hasn't happened.
She remained very thankful for the help that they were getting, but also expressed her
frustration, saying, quote, we have not fought against law enforcement by any means.
We have had every right to stand
up and scream and demand the help that they're supposed to give us. People saying we harmed
the investigation, that is not the case. There would not have been a case had we not
screamed.
Despite the short coverings of the early days of the investigation, the canine task force
was deployed to search with dogs
as was EquaSarch Midwest, which is a specialized search and rescue team.
Yeah, and we've talked about them many times on the show.
And we've also said we've talked about them many times on the show.
We've also said that too, yes. Sorry, we're idiots.
Well, it's just, I mean, they don't come up that often, but they do come up.
Yeah.
So in December of 2022, Candace posted on the Justice for Dylan Rounds Facebook group
saying, quote, we are still fighting for Dylan every day.
There are a lot of things moving forward, and we will release them as soon as we can, but
no, that things are happening.
Please have now released a probable cause, Affidavit filed in Utah that was employed in an attempt
to convince a judge
to issue an arrest warrant for James Brenner.
The affidavit reads, quote, on June 20, 2022, a friend and neighbor of Brenner, D.H.,
was interviewed by the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.
During that interview, D.H. advised that after Dylan Rounds went missing and sometime after
Brenner's initial June 7th, 2022 interview with the Boxelder County Sheriff's Office, Brenner
brought three black powder guns over to D.H.S. residents and asked him to quote,
safe keep them.
When D.H. asked why, Brenner stated that he needed to do this for his own safety, and that
the last time he had trouble with the law, they took everything from him, and he did not
want the things that he had left to be taken again.
D.H. agreed to store the muzzleloaders for him.
At the time of the interview, D.H. turned over the three muzzleloaders to the Boxelder
County Sheriff's Office who booked them into evidence.
The affidavit continued on to say that on June 21, 2022, DH was interviewed again by the
FBI, and explained that James had also brought him a 22 caliber rifle in addition to the
muzzleloader, although DH declined to mention the rifle in his first interview.
DH said that he knew James was not supposed to be in the possession of firearms.
He wanted to aid in the investigation and turned over the firearms of James' that he was
holding on to.
That same day, when police searched James' trailer for a second time, they found the muzzle loader,
ignition caps, three different sizes of bullets, four pounds of ammunition powder and speed
loads, all of which were then taken into evidence.
And then came the most startling discovery of all.
Dylan's phone.
It was discovered in a nearby pond in Lusin.
But get this, this part is absolutely insane.
Yeah, because somehow, Dylan's phone had begun recording posthumously and showed James
Brenner wearing a blood-soaked t-shirt and cleaning a gun.
This is a video that is on Dylan's phone.
And as his mom Candace described, quote, how did that phone start recording?
It has driven us crazy.
I'm pretty sure when Brenner took the phone, he had just hit the wrong button or had a
wrong swipe and had no clue that
it started recording.
So the time lapse video was taken just 30 minutes after Dylan had spoken on the phone with
his grandmother.
Candice explained the timeline of what they now believe the morning's events to be.
She said said quote, we know Dylan was at the gate to enter the shed around 6.57
a.m. which is like six minutes after he got off the phone with his grandma. By the way,
if you give it another five minutes, he's up at the shed around 7.02.703.am. So everything
happened within like 32 minutes. While this greatly aided law enforcement's case against James Brenner, it was obviously
a little comfort to the family who were still unsure about Dylan's whereabouts and what
even exactly happened to him.
His dad Justin recalled, quote, his hands and the gun, it just hit me hard. I was so angry and I wasn't supposed
to tell anybody about it.
It was just hard.
This, I mean, it's just incredible
that that video was even taken because-
And that it was recovered.
Yeah, because I mean, as we're gonna talk about
there were other connections to James Brenner,
but just the fact that Dylan's phone
had somehow recorded this of him like, washing blood off of himself like in a blood
soaked t-shirt. I mean you couldn't get more on point here. And this video has not been released so we haven't seen it.
We're assuming at some point it should probably be released and if and when it is we will post it.
But yeah, I mean just so crazy to see this and know that this was recorded
on Dylan's phone and then his phone was found in the lake. So you think about he's washing,
here's James washing his hands, he's covered in blood and then the phones found in the lake.
What other possible conclusion could you come to other than James murdered Dylan?
Yeah, and I'm actually surprised that they found it.
I don't know how they did.
Like, maybe they were able to like use some ping locations
or something like that.
Or they just searched, you know, bodies of water as they do?
Yeah, or maybe it was just a body of water
that was close to Dylan's property.
I mean, who knows?
Yeah, we're not sure what exact body of water it was,
but considering it was in the loose and area,
then it must have been
pretty close because loosen is so small.
Sure.
Yeah and obviously when there's a person that's missing in an area like that they're
they're going to search probably every single body water that they can.
Yeah and it's I mean it's so amazing that they were able to discover the phone at all
let alone like I said recover video footage from it because that video made such an impact and really just showed us a small little glimpse
into what happened that morning.
So in addition to the video, James's DNA was tested against male DNA found on Dylan's
boots alongside Dylan's blood.
And it was a match. The shirt James had been
wearing also contained Dylan's DNA. So after almost a year of agonizing over
Dylan's fate, his family finally had some answers. Because on March 3rd, 2023,
59-year-old James Brenner was arrested for the murder of 19-year-old Dylan
Rounds.
Yeah, so this literally just happened.
Yeah, just a few weeks ago from when we're recording this.
So he was charged with aggravated murder, abuse, and desecration of a human body.
Upon James' arrest, the family issued the following statement, quote,
The family of Dylan Rounds is announcing the withdrawal of the $200,000 reward associated with the safe return of,
or information directly leading to, the arrest and conviction of the person or person's responsible for his disappearance.
With the recent charges filed in Utah, they believe they have the answers
they need. The family plans to use specialized equipment to continue the search for Dylan
until they are able to bring him home. Thank you to every member of the public who has reached
out and supported the family from day one. Please continue to support them with your words of encouragement as the legal process
moves forward towards a conviction.
So Candace has been a very outspoken advocate of her sons, just making sure that his case,
despite potential investigation setbacks, remains in the public eye. She will forever be
incredibly proud of what he accomplished in his short life, saying
quote, that farm was his life.
People told him he couldn't, everybody told him, it's like, why is he out there?
There's no way he's going to get a crop that's insane.
Well he did.
And that was his drive.
He's like, I'll prove you wrong.
You're going to tell me I can't grow this crop out here?
Watch me go.
So he's not going to walk away from it.
When asked by an interviewer what she would tell her son if she could pass along a message to him, Candace said quote,
just come home.
His family has maintained his phone service and are continuing to monitor all of his social media accounts.
They also maintain a Facebook group with frequent updates
called Justice for Dylan Rounds.
So before we end this episode,
let's kind of talk about this for a minute
because it's definitely difficult to really speculate
or theorize on what could have happened
other than the fact that he was potentially murdered
by James because we know that Dylan is nowhere to be found.
It's almost been a year and the fact that James has been arrested for his murder
and the fact that he's seen on video covered in blood,
we know he's a violent man.
Like, everything unfortunately does lead to him
taking Dylan's life for whatever reason.
But that and how he came upon Dylan that day,
if he went to his property to cause trouble,
if he had some sort of issue with Dylan for whatever reason, we just don't know yet.
Yeah, and hopefully, hopefully there's going to be a trial and we'll get a lot more answers as to
possibly where Dylan may be, and also, you know, just what the motivation was behind this, because, you know,
again, James was a squatter.
He wasn't even, that wasn't his property that he was living on, so, you know, is there
motivation through money?
Is it something else?
Like, is it property?
Is it a truck?
Like, you know, who knows?
Yeah, it's really difficult to kind of pinpoint a particular particular motive especially because James is not taking responsibility yet for this crime
But hopefully he will because it feels like there's just really enough evidence for it to be like dude
You've got like how how can you possibly deny this you know what I mean? Yeah, there just seems to be too much evidence in this case against James Brenner
So today Dylan would be 20 years old.
He was around five feet 11 inches tall.
He weighed about 160 pounds,
and he had brown eyes and brown hair.
His typical daily outfit consisted of a plaid shirt,
jeans, and a baseball cap.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance
or probable murder of Dylan Rounds?
Please contact the Boxelder County Sheriff's Department at 877-390-2326.
Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.
Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West.
It was hoping you wouldn't notice a weird list.
I did. That just came out.
Totally. Yes. Thank you guys so much for listening and on Friday we'll have an only
case for you guys to dive into.
Yes, thank you guys and really this case is so devastating because Dylan obviously he
was only 19 years old. He looked like such a nice kid who wanted to bother nobody.
He just wanted to farm and live off the land.
Like this was the kind of guy who just,
who just truly kept to himself.
And his family loved him so much.
And the fact that something like this happened to him
is so senseless and we're really, really hoping
for answers for his family very soon. Yeah, and we'll try to keep you guys updated because there is inevitably going to be a trial that's going to happen.
And yeah, I'm sure there's going to be a lot more updates about this case.
I mean, like we said, a ton of evidence from that video, from his DNA being on Dylan's boots, from Dylan's DNA being on his shirt.
Like, it's a case closed. Just tell us what you did, right?
So thank you guys again.
If you want bonus episodes, keyword bonus,
we do put them up on our Patreon account.
That's patreon.com slash going west podcast.
They're also on Apple podcasts.
We are not making you pay for the regular show.
It's only if you want bonus episodes,
which by the way, we've been doing for almost four years
on Patreon.
We're just moving it over to Apple as well
for easier access for people.
This is not new.
Yeah, I feel like there's still a lot of confusion.
We still get these random reviews
about people really not understanding how it's working.
But again, nothing is changing.
You're still getting the two episodes a week.
Like you always have been, we've been doing patreon like daffin you said for four years
I feel like I just got to keep repeating this but we've been doing patreon for four years
And we're just moving it over to apples so that it's easier for you guys to get those extra episodes if you want them
Yeah, someone had also said that we like van boozle do you guys thinking we're moving the patreon episodes over for free
But that is absolutely not the case and we never never said that, it's just extra content.
It helps give a kick back to the show if you want,
but no pressure, you know?
Yeah, bonus means bonus.
So anyways, thank you guys so much for listening
to this episode and we'll see you guys on Friday.
So for everybody out there in the world,
don't be a stranger. Thank you.
you