Going West: True Crime - Dylan Rounds // 291

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

In 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

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.

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