Small Town Murder - #574 - Murder Selfies - Lucin, Utah
Episode Date: March 1, 2025This week, in Lucin, Utah, a genuine mystery grips this extremely rural area, when a young man, trying to farm some remote land, disappears into thin air. There are a few suspects, including ...a local criminal, who walks the area with no shoes, and a big gun. There's also the local squatter, who seems to have had trouble with everyone. Eventually, some very incriminating pictures, from a retrieved cell phone solve the whole thing!!Along the way, we find out that land in ghost towns is super affordable, that rumors & gossip seem to be more ridiculous & spread faster, the smaller the town, and that you should never take a picture of yourself, with the victim's phone, while covered in blood!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.comGo to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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In the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in
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So that said, I think it's time, speaking of our credo, here's our credo.
I think it's time everybody to sit back, clear the lungs.
Let's all arms to the sky.
Let's all arms to the sky. Let's all shout
Let's do it everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip. Shall we we are going to Utah this week
We're going this place is really some kind of place. Yeah is Lucin, Utah. L-U-C-I-N. And if people have never
heard of it, it's because it's a ghost town at this point. Especially after what happened
here, it's even more of a ghost town now. So yeah, we'll talk a little bit about it.
Not a lot of stats, but a little bit of some weird shit here. It's in Northwest Utah, out
over there, about three hours to Salt Lake City about
three and a half hours to Pleasant Grove Utah or Utah our last Utah episode
which was Dr. Serial Killer that was a good one this is in Box Elder County
Box Elder Box Elder two separate words I don't know elder has something to do
with Mormonism I'm sure because they call each other elder I don't know. So a little bit of history this town was
founded in the late 1800s originally about 10 miles north of its current
location and it was only here to provide water it's a water stop for railroads to
replenish their steam locomotives that's the only reason why it's here. Then in the 1903, the town
moved. They moved it to its site now to serve as a stop for the Lucent Cut-Off, which was
another railroad thing there. The town's population consisted mainly of employees of the Central
and Southern Pacific Railroads back in the day. In 1936 the town was completely abandoned and then resettled
by a group of four retired railroad workers and their children. They decided
we're gonna start a town again here. We like it. We're not gonna stop it. They came back
about 37 so the next year then there was people there until 1972 and then no one lived there anymore
Then in
1997 a guy named Ivo Zdarsky
Who was an aviation engineer or entrepreneur and manufacturer?
Of the Ivo prop which is a prop plane propeller. He invented it. He bought it and moved there
He bought the airport
He bought like the whole town not the whole town but like the airport and a bunch of land basically
so he did that as of 2016 except for
Intermittent people stopping people we're gonna talk about in this show because they were there and all of that kind of thing and Zdarsky
There really wasn't anybody there like it was just maybe five people this
Zdarsky lived alone in an airplane hangar that's it that's what he did when
they asked him why he moved to the desert he said quote I escaped from
Czechoslovakia then I was in California and then I moved here okay in broken
English I'm sure.
In check, yeah, it is too.
It doesn't talk very much here.
Why are you here?
I escape.
I escape and come.
And then I'm out here.
He bought 400 acres for $99,000 that included.
That's why he moved here.
Yeah, that included the Lucent Airport as well.
Yeah, I would too if I had a little bit of cash.
No need to do anything, that's awesome. Problem was the airport was Airport as well. Yeah, I would too if I had a little bit of cash and no need to do anything, that's awesome.
Problem was the airport was just a runway.
It wasn't even, there wasn't even a building.
There's no like Cinnabon in there or anything.
None of that shit, it's just a runway, that's it.
So he made a hanger, he built the hanger,
a 50 foot steel hanger, no windows, no anything like that.
He just lives in a metal box in the middle of the desert.
It's cold and summer's hot.
Absolutely.
So he says some people drop by and they're exploring
because they don't know, they're like,
oh, someone lives here.
They don't believe it.
What is this?
He says, you always run into people.
And they said, well, how often is always out here?
And he says, if you define seeing people
by seeing a car driving by maybe once a week.
So once a week he sees a car drive by and he says that's always seeing people.
You always run into people, you know, as they week, there's a person as they fly by at 75
miles an hour.
I consider that a relationship.
I assume society is going because I saw a car
last week. It's so wild. He said that the post office won't deliver there but UPS and
FedEx will deliver there so he can get shit delivered. Stamps are useless. He used to
get delivery from the Schwann's food truck. Oh yeah, those truck dealers. Which makes those little frozen pizzas.
Yeah.
And they'd bring him prepared meals,
but he canceled it because he gained too much weight, he said.
He was gaining too much weight, couldn't do it.
He says he's got great internet speed out there.
He said, so I'm on Amazon ordering stuff,
and then UPS will bring it to me in the middle of nowhere.
Wow.
That's gotta be a driver's nightmare, seeing that address.
Amazing.
Very quickly, I have to talk about it.
They call it, there's an oasis in the desert.
Because approaching there, you said you can see
a clump of lush green trees about three miles
to the south and southwest.
And apparently, a small four inch pipe
originating in the pilot mountain range to the southwest supplies water there
So there was ponds. There's ponds here, too. There's the loose and pond and everything else. So yeah, there's also some
Telephone booths there really that are like old old abandoned telephone
You can get land there Jimmy look at the pictures of this land
Show me this oh
It is nothing that one's cool. That's got a mountain in it at least you can get rest of it's just desert
I've 80 80 acres for forty six thousand dollars
80 80 acres 500 bucks an acre basically oh my god 10 acres 10 grand and then here's one
640 acres 320 grand
That's unbelievable. It's so cheap. There's nothing there obviously
Speaking of that thing art assault lake three hours. Okay. Yeah, not commutable at all now
Things to do here well not much honestly
popular stop for people that look for rocks
Rock people
Apparently there's an apple green chert like phosphate mineral
Varisite that's in this area
They look for that apple green. There's no apples. No apples the color. It's just the color of the rock. If you see that, it's not an apple.
And there is a large artwork here
that actually plays into our story a little bit here.
It's mentioned called the Sun Tunnels,
which was created by an artist named Nancy Holt in 1976.
Look at, it's just concrete tubes in the desert.
Yeah.
Sun Tunnels, look at this.
Remember those things in school?
Did they ever have those on your playground?
They had those on our playground.
They were buried, half buried.
It's just like a big water pipe.
There was a kid that ran into one of those
and fucking capped herself.
She peeled the top of her fucking head off.
They look like things that people would hide in
from like prison dogs that are chasing them,
except these are just out in the deserts.
They're not underground. Or the cheap school are just out in the deserts they're not underground school district or in the playground yeah
hiding those you fuckers it is fucking wild man so that said let's talk about a
murder here this is May 31st 2022 we're talking so recently it just happened
830 a.m. here. Okay, a detective is called
To about a missing person reported in this area in the lucerne, Utah area
So they have to drive all the way the fuck out here. There's no police station in Lucerne
So police station shows I believe it's the county the box elder County
sheriffs or whatever
So the box elder County search and rescue
had already responded to the area
and they were requesting police assistance.
So this detective arrived and talked to some people
and found out who was missing and what was going on here
and found out that it is a 19 year old young man
who's missing named Dylan Rounds.
He was 19 years old and he's got a weird story that he seems like a kind of a
cool kid. Um, he's from Rigby, Idaho originally.
And at this point in 2022,
he's living by himself in a camp trailer where he farms
grain out there. How old is he? 19, 19, 19.
It's his dream to have a farm in the middle of nowhere
where he makes grain or grows grain.
Tough kid.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
That's an interesting dream for a, and he owns land.
Wow.
Like he and his father and grandfather chipped in
and bought this piece of land so he could like farm it
and all this type of thing.
It's pretty interesting, honestly. Very interesting honestly his mother said Dylan was out building
his life his lifelong dream was to have his own farm he spent the last two
summers ripping out and redeveloping that ground on his own he got his water
rights he did everything and this year his grain was finally coming up he
finally got a crop he got his up. It was a fully functional farm
Okay, so
Cranking Dylan doing great now. He's missing
Not good. Yeah, I mean it seems like he could have just wandered off
But you could see people for like eight miles in every direction
Land if you got 688 yeah, you can see it all. So apparently the original This Is The Cop gets here, the detective, he gets filled in
and he's told that Dylan spoke with his grandmother on the phone on the morning of May 28th, this
day that they were called out here, and he was told that he told his grandmother he was
going to be parking his seed truck.
He was on the phone and he said, Oh no, it started raining.
So he had to take his truck to park it in the, in the, like the,
in a shed, basically a grain shed, the worry kept his shit there. Okay.
It's a, which is a couple miles away on this area.
So he's got to go park it there. So, um,
he said he was had to stop working and go do that on the property.
Now where the shed is where a guy is squatting by the way. There's a guy named James Brenner
who squats in the shed and like squats. Oh man. He's got an interesting story. He needed
to come out here because he was not doing well in regular society.
Too many people, not good for him.
This guy shouldn't be around many people here. So I guess then he said, I'm going to go put
the truck away and then I'll call you back, is what he said. So that's on his cell phone
here. But he never called back. And then nobody could get in contact with him in any way.
So people came out to look for him. He wasn't there. They called the cops and this is
what happens now. So this detective was told by the police station here that
that his Dylan's phone had been pinged and the last location was returned to a
little over a 15 mile radius because there's not a lot of cell towers out there.
Holy shit, that's a big radius.
If you're in a concentrated area,
there's cell towers everywhere, they can coordinate it more.
But if you're out there where there's one cell tower,
anywhere in this-
Services 15 miles.
That's it.
So they were trying to figure it out,
the distance of the radius,
they were like, there was no direction in which to search a 15 mile radius is huge
That yeah pick a spot go 15 miles away from it and then do a circle. That's great. It's so big
It's so big. It's such a big area
So it's not a good if you have like three cops
It's gonna take you a month to search a 15 mile radius for sure. It's gonna take forever. So they can't really do that.
So they said there was a shelter on a section of land
owned by Box Elder Land and Livestock
that was adjacent to this property here.
I guess so.
Dylan was doing all this.
I guess this James Brenner was using the storage shed
to sleep in, hang out in and to store stuff.
Both of them lived in off the grid trailers. I guess he had a little trailer to James Brenner,
but he was also sleeping in the shed sometimes for some reason. Doesn't make any sense. So
this guy doesn't make a lot of sense. James Adrian Brenner, who was 58 at the time in 2022.
So way different than Dylan.
I mean, totally three generations away.
This guy's just starting and like,
this is a 19 year old's lifestyle,
not a 58 year old's lifestyle.
Yeah, to me, this is like a 41 year old's lifestyle.
For me, look, I'll be 44 in a second.
A 19 year old with a-
I can't do this for more than two days. No, no, no, but a 19 year old running his own farm seems odd also
Parts nuts, but it's weird small
Small operation so bad now this Brenner is a considered a family friend of the rounds is here
They know him. He's considered just a guy of the area. Yeah, one of those guys
He's got a decent little criminal record on him
He's got a record that includes malicious wounding malicious malicious shooting
multiple convictions of being a felon in possession of a firearm
He had a shooting charge from 1986 and at another separate occasion
He was charged with and accused of beating a
70 year old man with an aluminum chair. Oh
He went full fucking wwf fucking extreme. He went full ECW on a
70 year old man when he was like 40
Worked him over with a chair
Worked him over with a chair. So a man born in the 60s, like he was a teenager in the 70s and he's going to have some criminal
shit but that's heavy.
This is a lot.
I have the arrest report for his 1986 shooting arrest.
Okay.
And it is real fucking interesting.
First of all it says no fixed address on there for him which says a lot.
So even as 1986 he was a drifter.
It was that long ago, back there.
It was 510-160.
He is listed as, under employment,
unemployed aluminum siding hanger.
So.
I hang aluminum siding where?
Well, not right now.
Currently. I've hanged aluminum siding,? Well not right now. Currently I've I've hanged aluminum siding say how's that?
And if more pops up I'll hang it. I will hang it again.
So this took place at a 7-eleven store all right which makes the whole thing way trashier
immediately. So it says the above defendant was arrested after he was involved in a shooting at the Costa Regional Park at approximately 1,750 hours.
The defendant was sitting in his truck at campsite number four, I guess it's near a
7-Eleven, at Costco Regional Park.
He was visited by Mr. Danny Weir and Mr. Michael Spro, who had stopped to discuss a new job
offer for him.
Hey, there we go.
Get some siding up.
The defendant had been laid off earlier in the day by Mr. Weir. Okay.
Now they're back. He was laid off. We've got work for you.
And now we're back with work.
The defendant allegedly uncovered a handgun from under a blanket in the truck and reached for the gun.
As he did, Mr. Weir reached for his arm.
Meaning this guy's arm.
Mr. Weir stated that as he reached for the defendant's arm to push the gun away from
his chest area, the two struggled, the gun discharged and the bullet shot him in the
right thigh.
The bullet then passed through the right calf of Michael Spro who was standing behind him who were trying to fucking get him a new job.
He then stated to Mr. Weir quote, I'm going to kill you, you motherfucker.
You cost me my job.
As the two struggled for the gun, the defendant attempt to cock the gun for another shot.
Holy shit at this time, Mr. Weir was able to gain control of the gun and give
it to Dwight Casta border. The defendant then ordered his dog, a German Shepherd, to attack
Mr. Weir, which it did. That's a good puppy. Mr. Weir received several bites to the leg
and numerous scratches to his chest hair. What a bad day With the help of witnesses at the scene
Mr. Weir got the defendant off of him at the time the defendant approached mr
Casta border and demanded his gun back when he did not receive it. He fled in his truck a
Lookout was issued by officer right to all area police agencies. The defendant was stopped at the 7-eleven. That's where that comes in
This is in Maryland by Prince George's County.
He was transported to Clinton Station,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
The defendant was processed and interviewed.
He stated that he did not remember any of the incident
and that he did not own a gun.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Certainly, I don't have a gun.
I don't know what you're talking about.
The gun described as a 44 caliber Ruger six inch barrel
Shot him with a fucking dirty harry gun
Holy shit wider piece. Keep this thigh. Yeah revolver black powder model. Yeah, holy shit
That's a real ass gun
This is fucking crazy then later on he said stated that he does keep the weapon in his
truck. He admitted to it. In a box. Wow. It has like a seal on it that says peacekeeper. The peacekeeper
with a picture of a mustache on it. Yeah it's fucking crazy. Big mustache. So in 2012 he served
two and a half years
in federal prison after a conviction
for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Another gun.
And that happened all the time from the 80s on.
So this guy is a fuckin' trip.
He's a party.
He lives in the wind on the land.
He needs a weapon for nature.
He does.
The cops don't want him to have one.
They shouldn't know. He needs to not have a gun for any nature. He does. The cops don't want him to have one. They should know, he needs to not have a gun
for any nature or anything else.
So now there's a little background here.
Apparently Dylan James Brenner and a guy named Don Hately,
who is a next door neighbor to this whole event,
he has the property next door,
he works the property next door,
I'm not sure of the ownership status. They were in Idaho approximately June 20th, 2020. So
two years earlier related to the purchase of several hundred pigs. Now people involved
in the deal with the pigs were Brenner, Dylan, Ed Harshberger, and a guy named Larry. So
Jim, Dylan, Ed, and Larry are going to go in on some pigs here.
Larry explained that the pigs were part of a venture where Dylan was attempting to make a profit
from the slaughter of pigs purchased from the Midwest during the COVID epidemic. So that's what
he's doing. The pigs were purchased for pennies on the dollar. The deal resulted in approximately
500 pigs being delivered to Larry's property in Idaho with an eventual plan to move the pigs
to loose in Utah
Now initially Larry estimated there were only to receive approximately a hundred pigs
However, 500 were initial or eventually delivered. That's way more pigs. That's so many pigs
I went to a place they gave me an extra pizza and they were like, well, we made an extra one
You can keep it. That's fine. 400 pigs I'd be like I don't have what?
Many made 400 pizzas James, please. Yeah
Accidentally made 399 extra pizzas. I don't know if you want these or not
So moving the pigs from Idaho to Utah required approval
Required approval by a vet in Idaho Larry Larry indicated that the veterinary clinic was upset
with the number of pigs requiring approval.
Yeah, they didn't want to look at them all.
Yeah, I'd be upset.
That's gonna take us so long.
You said 100.
This is way more than that.
This is five times the work.
Holy shit.
It was at this vet clinic where Dylan was seeking approval
to move the pigs where the initial altercation
between Brennan, or Brenner, Brenner James Brenner and Justin who is
Justin is Dylan's father Justin shouldn't be anybody's father. No one's father should be named Justin number one. It just doesn't work
It's weird that there are people named Justin that are old enough to have kids. Yeah
That's just true. Somebody's gonna be grandpa Justin. We can't have that. It's just weird
We're going to grandpa Justin's is a strange thing.
There's a professional football player named Aiden right now,
and it drives me nuts every time they say his name.
I bet, yeah.
You sound like a tiny white child.
Why are you in the NFL?
With like a hemophiliac with all sorts of allergies.
So you should be sick somewhere.
Yeah, you should be like staying away from pets
because they make you break out in hives
He's like one of the best players on the Lions too and every time they say his name like no just call him
Deal with it
So job so Dylan's father and Brenner got in an argument here
Yeah at the time of this incident instead incident Justin mistakenly believed that James Brenner was harsh burger a totally different guy
He had him confused. that's why they were arguing.
Justin was angry with Harshberger, believing that Harshberger was responsible for Dylan
having an interest in farming in the Lucerne area, which they didn't want him to do.
Justin angrily confronted Brenner at the veterinary clinic and told Brenner to get off Larry's
property where the pigs were being kept.
Despite Justin mistaking Brenner for Harshberger,
Brenner told Justin to meet on the lane outside the property
adjacent to the house of Larry's father.
This was a residence where Brenner was staying
while he was working with Dylan.
Okay, Brenner arrived, Brenner arrived,
he's like show up for a fucking throw down basically.
Yeah, yeah.
So Brenner arrived at the lane with quote,
his six gun on his hip and
his holster. That's from a police report. An actual revolver. It's 2020 fucking 2020. COVID is
going on. This isn't the why fucking dodge city. This is wandering for a fucking shootout. This is
not doom stone. This is crazy. Larry believed that Brenner retrieved his gun from Larry's father's house.
Justin arrived at the lane.
He apparently knew it was up.
He showed up with an AR-15, so he wasn't fucking around either.
This is crazy.
There's like four people in the whole town, hundreds of miles.
Get away from each other.
What are you doing?
And they're all strapped and hate each other.
This is crazy.
Fuck.
So Larry somehow was able to deescalate this situation
so that no one shot each other.
I don't know how you deescalate this situation,
but he did it.
So Brenner and Justin were approximately 100 feet apart
and were pretty angry.
Brenner was walking up the lane with his gun.
Brenner was angry with Justin and told Larry that.
Brenner stated something to the effect of,
I hate that son of a bitch,
which Larry described Brenner as having a short temper which it sounds like
While Brenner was on the lane waiting for Justin Justin went to his house got the AR-15 Larry explained that Justin can get pretty loud
When angry and was either pointing his finger at Brenner or had poked Brenner in the chest prior to that's what caused the showdown
He poked him chest poke so chest prior to that's what caused the showdown he poked him
Chest poke so we're showing up with our guns neither pointed their gun at the other
Larry believed that if either would have pointed their gun at the other someone would have gotten shot. I think so too
Brenner relied on the good nature of Dylan and Larry sir for survival during the winter
Because during the winter it's harsh out there. Oh, yeah
I mean yeah Larry pointed out that Dylan drove to Idaho from Lucerne in order to
collect firewood from Larry so that Brenner would be able to stay warm
during the winter. So Dylan's doing him favors. Yeah. Rounds also believe that
it's likely that Brenner's temper played a part in the disappearance of Dylan
that's what Justin said to dad and indicated that if Brenner were to provide information of the
location of Dylan's body, Larry would be interested in Brenner receiving a break in any potential charge or sentence.
So they already have him. He did it and he took him somewhere and did something.
Yeah, they got him assumed as the bad guy.
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Now from all we can assume here,
it seemed like Dylan and James Brenner got along though,
so that makes, it's interesting.
So the family, Dylan's family hires a private investigator.
Which.
We're already there.
They did it right away,
because I'm not sure,
I don't think they have a lot of confidence
in this police department going out in the middle of the desert and really following through on this shit
Even though they do like they're yeah doesn't seem like they're doing much out there anyway, so I don't yeah
Burst and how to do this. That's the thing and I read I'm telling you this like I said
There was a Freedom of Information Act release of all the files in this case
Yeah, so I've read I read 30 police reports,
I read all this shit, so I saw everything they were doing
and they were following up on things.
They had to drive out to the desert a lot.
Trying their best.
A fucking lot here.
So this guy went on a YouTube channel to talk publicly,
the private investigator, he did all of that.
He reported that Rounds has been farming
in the desert town of Luce in Utah during the summer months over the
past few years and
You know all that sort of thing so rounds Dylan reportedly told his grandmother that he was doing the seed truck
And that's how that goes so
Now he was last seen on May 26 2002 people talked to him on the 28th
seen on May 26 2002 people talk to him on the 28th he was last seen in a cafe in Montello Nevada which is close by on the other side of the border there where
he ate before going back to Utah so they found out that that's a thing so they're
gonna figure that out on May 30th now this is his mom and Dylan's mom and
Dylan's stepfather here apparently traveled out to
loosen from their residence in Ohio in Idaho because Dylan hadn't been heard from.
So on the way to loosen Candace is his mom and his stepdad stopped in Park Valley, Utah,
where they were able to get cell service and called Don Haley, the neighbor there, and
then call the box Elder County Sheriff's Office
to report that Dylan was missing.
During the call to Hately, or Hately,
Candace asked Hately if she should call the police
to make a missing persons report,
and Hately told her, yes,
I think that that would be okay to do now.
So, Candace and the stepfather drove from Park Valley to Lucerne and met Hately on the
road into Lucerne where Hately's turn off into his property was. Hately told the mom
that James Brenner was waiting for him there, waiting for them to talk to them. So Candace
and the stepmom continued to the property where James Brenner lived. Hately Haley waited near his turnoff so that Haley could direct others arriving to look
for Dylan as to where to go. Cause there's people showing up, looking for him.
They pull their truck into the property.
Candace and the stepdad are met by James Brenner.
They park by the grain truck, which was parked in the grain shed.
So they parked back over there where, where he was last going.
So after their arrival James Brenner mentioned that Dylan needed to learn how to use a gun. He said
that he kept the gun on one side of Dylan's truck and the ammo on the other side and that
Dylan would be better off learning to throw a gun as opposed to shooting it as a means
of self-defense. Because he's got the gun and ammo separate.
Exactly.
So he had them separate.
So they said that's interesting and they reported that to the sheriff's department that he said
that.
He also repeatedly, James did, made mention that Brenner had been in the grain truck in
order to reposition the truck because the truck had been backed in too far.
He said I had to move this truck
because he backed it in way too far,
like frustrated though.
So he also told them that whatever happened to Dylan,
Dylan likely left out of the front gate of the property
because there were small dually tire tracks
leaving out of the front gate.
Okay.
So they're searching all over the place.
Within the first few days, volunteer teams
logged over 300 hours searching,
covering over 3,000 miles.
Wow.
Yeah, they said they'd been searching
around the clock every day.
Detectives have already 6,000 miles.
I don't know how to even do that.
Yeah.
That's a lot.
That's a lot.
They spent over 650 man hours investigating the case.
They've got canines, drones. They've been on horseback
They've flew planes over this thing
I mean everywhere they said the surrounding areas on the Utah and Nevada border is full of old mine shafts caves and tunnels
That's what the mother said
So she said a professional cave diver
Volunteered to help search some of those spaces for them.
Because you got to know how to do that shit.
So you can't just go fucking walking into a cave.
Parents also offer a $20,000 reward as well.
And they told they also said there's a number of false rumors and fake fundraisers circulating
on social media.
Oh, isn't that fun?
Isn't that great.
So on the initial day of May 30th
when they're looking around and searching,
they found a pair of Georgia work boots.
That's the brand that belonged to Dylan.
And they're on the property behind the grain shed
where the truck was backed in.
The boots were being described as located directly south,
directly west of James Brenner's trailer,
and they looked like they were just thrown into the brush.
Like they weren't lined up next to each other,
sitting there like someone took them off.
Now, James Brenner claimed that Dylan must have thrown them
away out there in the trash pile.
So Brenner asked the police officer
if he had found any blood on the boots,
which the cop was like, pardon? What? That's a weird question. You didn't find any blood
on those boots, did you? What now? Thought you didn't even know they were there. What's
up with that? One of the boots appeared to have a dark spot on them consistent with some
type of blood. And speaking with the sergeant that was there,
Brenner detailed to him that on the 28th day of May,
when he arrived home, he noticed Dylan had parked
his grain truck in the shed, and James said that he went
to the shed where he had pens set up for his chickens
and horse, and that he was mad that Dylan had knocked over
all the pens in parking his grain truck.
It's hard backing trucks in, you know?
Anytime anybody's missing and somebody goes,
I was mad at that guy.
I was mad at him.
By the way, did he have blood on his shoes?
He just choked some.
Yeah, how about that?
I got bracelets for you you might like.
So it's real interesting here.
They said the original meeting place
was at the location where Dylan parks his grain truck.
The land on the location is being occupied by James Brenner
They made contact with Brenner and talked to him about this shit now his original statement
He spoke with multiple individuals Brenner did and had been making the statement that he knew that someone had driven up and taken Dylan
He's been telling everybody
And that Dylan wasn't just simply missing he was taken
telling everybody and that Dylan wasn't just simply missing he was taken he was kidnapped kidnapped so Brenner said he believed that this is what happened
because his gate was open and Dylan never leaves Brenner's gate open Brenner
also stated that when he noticed the gate he saw there were tracks at the
gate and also he identified the tracks that were there in a way that they
appeared to stop and that's where Dylan was taken. He figured right here
He did he detected it all up. Yeah
I've already found the the Dooley tracks it
So he left I just fucking Jerry or bucked the shit out of this thing. It's good
We're done out of here guys. This is my land take off. Yep
The cop said as he spoke with Brenner the cop learned that he what he was reporting to everyone was simply
Speculation and he had no actual knowledge of Dylan being taken. Is it you're just this is just your like theory
Your amateur detective guess and he was like, well, yeah, they were like, okay, so that's useless. Great. Thanks
but just cuz
Just as I'm not wearing a badge. Don't mean it didn't happen. I
Guess not. No But but just cuz just cuz I'm not wearing a badge don't mean it didn't happen I guess not no
So the boots that they found turned out to be a big deal because the mother
Said those are the only pair of boots he has Dylan
Yeah, and a farmer's not getting rid of his boots now
He said his mom said 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. Yeah, we knew
the first day we got out there when we saw Dylan's boots. What happened to him? That's
what the mother says. He's the new already mother said that his boots are there. He's
gone. This is he's dead. He's dead. Yeah. that he just died with his boots off. That's all
So they follow the trail here. They go to the
They go to Montello, which is the town over the Nevada state line where he was last seen and
They said they went to the cowboy bar is what it's called big surprise there
Fuck yeah Well, I guess you can eat there too. And they spoke with two Montello citizens
to see if they knew anything about Dylan.
They asked the bar owner if she had seen Dylan recently.
The bar owner said that Dylan had not been in
for about a week, so they spoke with the bar patrons
and they were told that Dylan was staying out in Lucerne,
which they already knew, and that there were locals
out looking for him as well.
They're like, oh there's people here out looking for him.
So they asked the bar owner who Dylan spends time with
and she replied that he spends time with her son
and that her son was out there
looking for Dylan right now.
Now the daughter of the bar owner said
that she heard Dylan had a confrontation
with a man named Chase Venstra.
Okay, now Chase Venstra is a local drifter with a long criminal record and he's a mess basically
So this the daughter said she was worried about this confrontation
she said that if Dylan walked back from where he left his grain truck and
This chase Vestra got a hold of them something
bad could have happened in that time in that space between those two places she explained
that another individual in montello had his face smashed in by the butt of a gun and his
whole camper shell was destroyed and the people at the bar said that chase that lives out
in a motor home out on Church Street,
and that's where quote, all the drug users live.
Chase is a bad guy.
Yeah, he's not a good cat in this town anyway,
he's not considered one.
So this young lady went on to reply
that she'd heard it said that Chase was out there
in a ghillie suit?
Yeah.
What's that? It's one of those like a
camouflage suit oh okay like there's like a combat suit some kind of okay
worse it's like yeah it's got I mean Schwarzenegger would have worn it and
fucking predator yeah I don't know you've done that several watch different
movie yeah but I would like to see Charlie Sheen fight the Predator though. That would be great that I'll watch
Fucking Willem Dafoe going after the Predator that would be fun Predator starring Tom Berenger. That's good stuff
It's a it's a it's a swamp suit essentially. It's like trying to
Keep yourself hidden camoflaut. Okay
Well, she said he's out there in one of these suits and would attempt suicide by law enforcement if they came for him
Oh, he might be just hiding amongst the yeah, just ready to throw down
Ready to start a firefight with somebody
Yeah
So it was then stated that dylan was driving down the road and chase had stopped and asked dylan for water
Chase then asked dylan if he knew kurt which is another guy we'll talk about, and they
got into an altercation somehow.
Everybody fights over nothing in this town.
There's two people around.
There's nobody and they're all mad at each other.
Two people in five square miles and they want to fight.
Like wouldn't you just want to talk to somebody?
You'd be so lonely.
Wow.
Jesus Christ.
So they got into an altercation and Chase said Kurt was an asshole to which Dylan said he wasn't
Dylan said no, he's not he's a good guy. Yeah throw down boy
So then they spoke with a more bar patrons and didn't receive any new information about Dylan and chase
It was stated at the bar that Dylan was a good kid and didn't do drugs
They were told that chase does Doug do drugs quite often and outside of multiple rumors and second
to third hand information they found nothing further.
So they drove back to Lucin to talk to some other people here.
They talked to a guy named Kevin Bibbins and they talked to him about half hour.
He said his property was burned down at one point this place is
Great. Yeah, this is the craziest place ever dude. There's a lot of fire. This is wild
Wow and detailed the time when he was assaulted by Brenner as well James Brenner
When the talk turned to Dylan Kevin didn't have any information about what may have happened to him
But he did say that Brenner is kind of a nut and attacked him one time to Dylan, Kevin didn't have any information about what may have happened to him, but he
did say that Brenner is kind of a nut and attacked him one time.
So then he went out to the bar, this cop went out to the property where Brenner was and
where Dylan parked the grain truck.
The cop searched inside of the drink grain truck to see if maybe Dylan's phone or wallet
may have been left inside.
And the cop said he was informed that Dylan's family had already gone through the truck,
but he said he searched it again and didn't find anything
except a phone charging cord.
So there's about that.
Now, this is when the cops find out
that the family's not only put up a $20,000 reward,
it also had an old picture of Chase Venstra
and stated that they were offering a $5,000 reward for
information on locating Chase.
What they-
Stock this guy for five grand.
Yeah.
That's, he's not even like a technically a suspect yet.
Like this is-
He's not missing nor a suspect.
What the fuck?
Can you do that?
Fucking wild, man.
That is crazy shit.
So then they talk about that they they found there's a guy I
swear to God his name is Joe Glasscock. Perfect. He's the wine cup ranch manager Joey Glasscock.
Wine. Wine cup ranch. It's just called wine cup. But the word wine is in glass. It's just too much.
wine cup. But the word wine is in glass. It's just too much. So he's talked about an incident with Chase Venstra. He said about a week ago he was driving on the highway toward the wine
cup ranch. We saw Chase lying on the side of the highway dressed in camouflage in a
ghillie suit, in a ghillie suit. Joe said he recognized chase from prior employment.
So he stopped to check on him. According to Joe, chase started to approach the vehicle while carrying a rifle. You're
not good camouflage. I can see you. I saw, hey buddy what's going on? While I was
driving I saw you. And he's stopping to go are you okay and this guy's
approaching him with a rifle. Jesus. So according to Joe, he said that the
glasscocks that he was concerned enough for his safety that he had a gun out
on his vehicle seat, but Chase didn't continue all the way to the vehicle.
Joe said that after his interaction with Chase, Chase walked east on the railroad tracks where
Joe believed that he would come across Dylan.
According to that's when Dylan ran into him, Chase was barefoot and needed water and his
phone charged.
And that's when Dylan let him charge his phone and gave him water
So there's a thing that happens there
According to Joe chase appeared to be under the influence of some type of narcotic based on his odd behavior and mannerisms
He said that he would that he saw him
He said after the pickup left chase got up and I could see he was wearing camouflage
Clothing and a tan military style backpack. He was carrying a tan assault rifle with a scope
He crossed the highway and started walking toward lucerne
I asked him what he was doing and he said quote just trying to stay out of trouble
I said with an assault rifle. Yeah, and he said it's just a pea shooter and that was the last he saw of him
Okay. All right so more on Chase. Later on that day they talked to Candace, Dylan's mom and
Dylan said or Dylan's mom said that Dylan had told her he was
driving on Tacoma Road when Chase ran out of the bushes bloody and high on
drugs. According to Candace, Chase did not have any shoes on and wanted a ride
from Dylan. Dylan didn't feel comfortable giving him a ride due to his erratic behavior,
so Dylan reportedly left Chase with water and contacted Chase's father to inform him
about Chase so he could pick him up. So that's another incident he's had with him. So that's
interesting. Now, very, very interesting.
Now, they talk a little bit about Dylan.
They said he had purchased his own land, and they're talking about all this.
They talked about, they talked to the parents more about Chase to see if maybe there was
some other stuff with Chase that happened.
You know what I mean?
What, did he threaten your son?
Did your son say anything about that?
And all that shit. So after they interview the family family they went back to the property that the grain truck was parked on
at that time they had another sergeant there they took a bunch of pictures and
Brenner was there the entire time and
Walked around with the cops while they tried to separate from him while he was they said they couldn't get away from him
Where are you going guys? He wouldn't leave them the fuck alone
He wanted to see exactly what they were doing, which is odd when you add that with is there any blood on that boot?
Yeah, and I've already found the truck those truck tracks. Yeah, this is weird. So June 3rd
2022 they think chase is on the run here
They tried to cops are trying trying to interview Chase but they
were unsuccessful getting in contact with him. They couldn't find him but they
they were left a voicemail. They were advised though that by friends that
Chase had been making posts on Facebook about Dylan's disappearance saying
that he wasn't involved in any way. Which is super weird when you're posting on
Facebook that you weren't involved.
He posted that we would have not been in contact with him, but at one point he said he wasn't
even out there at the time and that he already had spoken to Candace about it and was cleared
by her and the private investigator.
Oh, if you're cleared by the mom, tell the cops that, but the FBI is involved in this
and shit like this.
There's a 19 year old missing
So it's pretty fucking interesting. Um, so they said the deputy said that he was uh,
Deputies told the detective that he was chase's neighbor growing up and that chase had been sending him text messages about dylan
Chase told this deputy that he had no involvement in the disappearance and he wasn't even out there after the 25th of may
At one point he stated that he did talk to a private disappearance and he wasn't even out there after the 25th of May.
At one point he stated that he did talk
to a private investigator and was cleared
of any involvement, you know, and he said
that the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office
just wants to arrest him and leave him in jail
while they continue the investigation.
So that's why he's hiding.
He also said everything that anybody said about him
was total bullshit, quote unquote.
So then they found out though that Chase had a $75,000
arrest warrant out of Montana for a domestic incident.
So they got in contact with other sheriffs
to try to find him and all that kind of thing.
They finally get Chase in there.
Good.
They get him here.
And he said the last time he talked to Dylan
was when he drove him to the Tacoma Crossroads.
So they talked to him.
He said that, I don't know anything about it.
That's just all he did.
He said he gave the exactly where he was.
I mean, everything.
He said on the 28th of May at six o'clock,
he was at Little Caesar's Pizza. Then he bought beer and went home. Like, oh that is a rough night. That's a rough gastrointestinal
night. Pizza and Little Caesar's. Or Little Caesar's and beer.
Little Caesar's and beer.
Oh boy.
I can't imagine it's any higher grade beer than Little Caesar's kind of beer.
No shit man.
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What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood soaked battle for succession.
Welcome to Blood Vines.
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Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify.
In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel.
Well good, good. Now put it down. I'm gonna try another one.
White Zin became America's top-selling wine.
But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history.
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And murder.
With a.22 caliber bullet to the head.
What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood soaked battle for succession.
Welcome to Blood Vines.
You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad free on Wondery Plus.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify.
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So Chase said some more information about things that were occurring in the desert here.
He said that Dylan and Kurt Wadsworth might be in a relationship with one another.
Kurt is the bar owner's kid, I believe.
Said that he thought they might be in a relationship with one another and he described that he
has seen Kurt dress up in dresses.
Okay.
He told the cops that he believes that Kurt could be attempting to quote,
set him up, meaning me setting me up chase.
He also said that when he was out in that area,
he had his boys SKS rifle shotgun and pistol stated that the pistol was stolen
and he informed the cops that he thinks Kurt's place would be a good place to
look for Dylan and that he hopes Kurt hasn't hurt Dylan
Wow interesting
They're in a homosexual relationship, and I'm hoping that Kurt didn't hurt. Yeah, that's what he's that's what he's claiming
No one else is saying this by the way. That's a wild accusation. It's a lot. Yeah
It's a that's a mean all we've heard are crazy rumors and innuendos and yeah, you know, this is small-town gossip
That's all this is nothing's checking out. Yeah. Nope. So they interview Brenner again. They keep talking to him
they talked to him on the seventh they talked to him June 7th and then June 11th and
They serve a search warrant on his trailer during that search
They found ball ammunition ignition caps caps, black powder, speed
loads, all related to muzzle loading, which were photographed in the trailer. They didn't seize
them at the time, but they're going to go back and he's going to get arrested for weapons charges
again, because he's not allowed to have that. June 8th, 2022, there's a tip that comes in here.
They spoke with an individual who remained anonymous and they said that, okay,
Dylan Rounds and Kurt Wadsworth lived inside the Saddle Sore bar together, which sounds
like a, that sounds like a gay bar. I know it's not, but that sounds like your butthole
sore because you've been getting it pounded all night. That's what that sounds like.
That's the whole point of it. Yeah. That's what Saddle Sores are.
If you were in a city and you saw the
Saddlesaur bar you'd go that's a gay bar. Yeah for sure. Absolutely. So this guy
stated that Wadsworth and potentially Dylan were running around with loaded
guns and wondered if there was a potentially an accident. It was reported
that multiple multiple individuals had been running around Montello, Nevada
area with loaded guns trying to catch people committing thefts
By some crazy
Price and we pried some YouTube bullshit where they're trying to yeah
They were previously referred to being vigilantes, but I was unable to actually obtain information confirming that this was actually transpiring
This is the cop talking this is from his report in the Montello, Nevada
cop talking. This is from his report. In the Montello, Nevada relation to Dylan rounds, the vast majority of these statements were third person and could
not be verified or confirmed at all. Um, the, uh,
this person also stated that the Wadsworth family that's in Montello,
Nevada was Barbara, Troy, Kurt, and Scott.
And he said they ran a lot of things in town,
including the saddle sore and cowboy bars.
They also said that Troy Wadsworth had been seen with multiple scratches on his forearm
and he had stated he crashed a three wheeler.
But this guy said I went and looked at his three wheeler and it didn't have any scratches
on it.
So, you know, those things will throw you.
That's a machine.
And he said that it happened yesterday, but his scratches were already scabbed over so he didn't believe him
So and then this guy's there
Whoever this is this anonymous person said that Kurt has a backhoe that was out and loosen and explained that Kurt knows the mines
And other areas that could be used to hide a body
So they're trying to put this on on big time. So anyway, Brenner's arrested
for all the weapons violations here. Yeah. They also go out to Dylan's property. They
talked to Dylan's grandfather, Larry, and he told the cops that Brenner and Don Hatley
had gone into town grocery shopping and that they recently spoke with Don Hattley
And they were almost on their way back to Lucent. So they're waiting to arrest Brenner here
so they're gonna do that they get Brenner in cuffs and
This cop approached Don Hattley and inquired if the gate access to Brenner's trailer was secured or not
Don said it was open but he could go and close it.
Don't leave his gate open, which is a nice gesture by the cops.
So the cop asked Don about Brenner's horse on the property that he needed to keep in
the fenced area.
Don said that he does have a horse and stated that he needed Brenner's keys.
Brenner said that Don would secure and lock the gate.
I told him that Don was about to get the keys.
Brenner started to get upset and saying that he doesn't want anyone in there. I don't want anyone in there,
which is weird. Don said if he didn't want to give him the keys that's fine and asked
if his trailer is locked I'll lock it for you. Brenner said that it was locked and he
asked Don to close the gate and get the cooler that has meat in it from earlier when they
got groceries.
Brenner angrily said he doesn't want anyone in there.
He was irate and said that people go in and out of there and they don't close the gate
and he has to go and look for his horse and it gets out of the gate and he says that he
has to go up to the mountains to find his horse which is bullshit.
It's enough with the horse.
Yeah, so this is fucking amazing.
So Don said that Brenner had been living on his own property
in the Nevada side of the state line
before his trailer burned down, and that's
why he went to live on Dylan's property.
Don continued to explain that one day Brenner looked out
his window and there were two people stealing
a winch off his truck.
He explained that Brenner hollered at them,
but they just flipped him off.
I'd expect. Fuck you, but they just flipped him off. I'd expect...
Ah, fuck you, it's our winch now.
I'd expect some desert trailer hermit to come out bucking shots, wouldn't you?
Yeah, I'm not taking any... especially a winch, that probably saves his life in some situations.
Yeah, not only that, just if I see that, I expect the guy on the old Mountain Dew can to come out.
Like a long beard and a hat
Fire and a fucking shotgun in the air and talking about my property Tennessee Valley Authority
Don't fuck with a man's winch no
At this point according to Don Brenner had a black powdered pistol and shot at the individuals
Which will happen Don did state that he does think
that Dylan went and parked the grain truck on the property that Brenner was living on
without calling Brenner to come and open the gate for him. So, okay, now Brenner's statement,
he said that Don Hattley, they're talking about what happened the day that he was gone,
that Dylan disappeared. He said at approximately 1300 to 1400 hours,
he left the farm where the trailer's located.
He said that Don Hattley was cooking ribs
and they were gonna watch Yellowstone.
This is it.
Wow.
I'm gonna go watch some Cosner, is what I'm gonna do.
So.
Living life on the range, watching shows about life
on the range. Watching shows about living,
going these people are full of shit.
Are they doing it just to call out
how full of shit they are?
That ain't right right there.
That ain't how you hook up a horse trailer.
Like TV's a break from reality
so you don't have to think about day to day shit.
They're watching shows about their day to day shit.
All I do is watch police interrogations and shit
so I guess it's the same thing. But like Yellowstone is about conference.
Everybody's mad.
It makes sense why they're all mad.
Yeah, they get it.
Apparently that's...
When you move out to the middle of nowhere, you just want to kill all your neighbors apparently.
Fuck.
So Brenner stated that before he went to Don's residence, he went to Lucent Pond
to gather wood and water because it's on the way to Don's. Brenner said that he arrived
home about 2100 hours and when he came over the hill he saw Dylan's grain truck. He told
the cops that Dylan was the kind of kid who does whatever the hell he wants and doesn't
tell you anything. Brenner said that Dylan backed the grain truck in the shed and moved
Brenner's stuff out of the way.
Brenner also said that Dylan had broken some of his property.
So according to Brenner, he didn't think anything of it until Don called him the next day and asked if he'd seen Dylan.
Brenner stated that he was looking around outside.
He found what he stated were two tracks of 10-wheelers going one in and one out.
Brenner stated that he didn't use the front gate there
and that he noticed Dylan had unhooked the wires to the gate because it was locked and
he wanted access. Brenner further said that Dylan or somebody had wired the gate back
up and he felt that Dylan had left the grain truck and exited the property. So as he continued,
he named Chase Venstra and explained how Chase had been a problem in both Montello and Lucin
He said that he knew who quote who quote over there uses methamphetamine
And he continued explaining that the different items and places he felt chase had stolen from both him and other victims in the area
He said that Brenner said he saw a black truck on Chase's property that he knew was responsible for blowing up his trailer
So he's this guy says that Chase blew up his trailer. Okay, he relayed frustrations that the
Elko County Sheriff's Department won't go and investigate the incidents. Wow, they said they let
him speak without too much interruption, even though he was trying to move the conversation
away from Dylan's disappearance. So but that's what he wants to talk about.
Basically, he said that Dylan drinks beer.
And one time around the 4th of July, Dylan arrived back to loosen from Twin Falls,
Idaho, and had the entire back of his truck loaded with beer.
He stated that Dylan stored the beer in one of the trailers he had on his farm property.
He also said that Dylan borrowed money from him to purchase that trailer,
borrowed money from a desert squatter.
Right.
Brenner also said that Dylan was in the bar in Montello
bragging about how much money he had.
Right, Brenner continued to make allegations
and name individuals that he stated
were into drugs and stealing things.
He also made allegations about crimes
he stated he knew as a fact,
but ultimately was being told this information. He wasn't present to any of these described.
He just described every bit of gossip of every crime that he's heard about in the last five
years to these people. So Brenner told us he believes that Dylan was involved in a strong
arm robbery and he believes it was Chase Venstra and Robert Avila's and Brenner reported that he believes
Dylan wouldn't give them money and it escalated
Chase sounds pretty pretty dangerous
He does when asked about the bar Brenner stated that he did not think that Kurt or Troy
Wadsworth would have anything to do with this incident
He explained that Kurt was too good to Dylan and allowed him to sleep in the bar when Dylan had had too much alcohol and couldn't
Drive home. That's what this doesn't live there with him. He sleeps in
the bar when he's too drunk. They let him fucking put a cot on a table in the fucking
back.
Yeah. Why does he care if Dylan is the kind of kid that just does whatever he wants? Doesn't
he own this shit?
Yeah, it's his land. So Brenner told the cops that Dylan had a shotgun he would keep in
the backseat of his truck and they found that in Rigby, Idaho with his family. Brenner told the cops that Dillon had a shotgun he would keep in the back seat of his truck and they found that in Rigby, Idaho with his family.
Brenner stated that Dillon also had a handgun that he had already found.
Brenner commented that Dillon would often keep the handgun in his truck's console but
did not keep it loaded all the time.
Remember, he'd be better off throwing it.
Brenner said he told Dillon that he either needs to learn how to use the pistol or put
it somewhere because it would end up getting him killed.
And then he commented that it was a little late for that,
referring to the pistol,
and said that he was telling Dylan's dad
just in that as well.
He just had him killed off already.
So he went back to stating he believes Chase
and the drug users were the ones responsible
for the disappearance.
He went off about Kevin Bibbins saying that
he would be the only one going around out
and loose in a Montello carrying a gun.
This is a mess.
So they explained to him that Dylan's boots were out where they were located there and
they had to be taken out there by someone.
Brenner talked about Dylan telling his grandmother or somebody on the phone and he said that
Chase didn't have boots remember
So he probably did well then what he would have probably warned them then not left him in a fucking field
So they said that I told this guy said I told Brenner that it was odd that there didn't appear to be any vehicle tracks
Out to the location of the boots and he explained that someone had to have taken the boots out there as it's too far for the
Boots to just be thrown out there by someone. They then asked him,
is there any reason that your DNA would be found on these boots?
Oh, that's a good question. Brenner said that if he picked them up,
if he picked them up,
there might be some fingerprints on him and that his fingerprints are on
everything out there. Everything in the vast desert, his fingerprints.
I touch ever. That's the thing about me and six year olds,
I touch everything.
We hang out all the time.
My fingerprints are on none of your shoes.
None of them, and you have multiple pairs.
This is this guy's only pair of shoes,
they're always on his feet.
This guy's, was he going down checking his toe
to see if he's growing out of them?
I give him a lot of foot massages through his shoes.
Do that all the time.
So Brenner stated that he did pick up a boot out there and threw it.
Before he said he doesn't know how they got out there.
Now he goes, oh yeah, I did pick it up and throw it.
Yeah, that's how that happened.
So they're like, interesting.
He told us that he never saw the boots we recovered and didn't know if it was one of those boots,
but he's touched some of Dylan's something.
He described that he was walking out
to catch his horse on a path and came across a boot
that he threw out of the way.
That might have been the same boot.
So they search his area, Brenner's area here,
and now they have some phone activity.
So they have phone activity between him
and Brennan basically.
And the way it ends up happening is their phones
line up perfectly at some point to where all of their
movements are together.
Together.
And then Dylan's phone doesn't have anymore movements
and Brenner's goes about its day.
Keeps moving.
Keeps moving.
So they said that Dylan's phone appeared to move
around the property until 1101 hours where it goes stationary on the property for three hours and 36 minutes.
So 1101 AM it goes stationary, which he's on a property doing things.
It wouldn't be stationary. Then the phone moves again at 1437,
where it travels from the barn to loosen pond member.
That's the same exact time Brenner said he was at loosen pond. and by the way his phone is also at Lucent pond at this time. The route that Dylan's phone takes
is on the road that Brenner refers to as the back way and Brenner has stated on multiple
occasions he doesn't use the little pigeon mountain road to go to the main entrance,
he uses the back way. The phone arrives at the pond at 1452 hours and is that's the last movement of the phone. The final timestamp on his phone is 1453 55.
Okay.
Also they, so they analyzed all of Brenner's everything mirrors everything until
the pond. And then Brenner goes on with his day. So they went, huh,
that, that pretty much says it all. We just watched. Yeah.
We just watched what happened so they find
it in the water in the pond they find his phone the phone is in the water yeah
they find the phone the polygraph now they bring him in they tell him he's
gonna do a polygraph Brenner he does it they tell him you didn't do well on that
at all you did very poorly so they end up there. He's in there anyway for the for the guns
So after the polygraph they interviewed him again and told him they asked him if there's anything other than Dylan's boots and inside Dylan's truck
That could have his DNA on it. He told investigators that Dylan's trailer is another item that would have DNA on it
He also included the tractor and they said have you ever ever asked to handle his cell phone? And he said, no, absolutely not. So they find out that he did
obviously. So that's a problem. June 20th, 2022, there's a neighbor here, Donald Hatley.
They talked to him a little bit more and they talk about that Brenner. Okay. They said on
June 7th, Brenner brought three black powder guns to his house
and asked him to quote, safe keep them.
Hang on to these.
Hang on, like Godfather 2 when he passes him the thing.
Hang on to this for me through the window.
So when the, just in case you didn't realize,
I watched Godfather 2 recently,
because I made two references in an hour.
Yeah.
It's the better one, right?
They're both great, but I like it better, yeah.
When the neighbor asked why here, Brenner said 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 didn't want his things to be taken again.
So he brought a.22 caliber rifle and some shit like that.
He explained that the
rifle had been left on the trailer on the property where Brenner had been living prior
to Brenner living there by a person who owed Brenner money. So that's what that goes on
here. So yeah, so Donald Hatley talks about a little bit more about Dylan and he said
that Brenner had potential to fly off the handle and get extremely violent when upset.
He talked about several incidents when that happened there.
So they they keep talking to this Donald Hatley because they think that he might have some
info as a neighbor but all he has he has a lot of like innuendo and all that.
So he said that he liked Dylan and that he wanted to help because he believed in villains,
villain villains, Dylan's vision, not villains, dishing to start a farm in Lucerne.
And he felt like a father type to Dylan and he wanted to help him out.
So there's that now.
This guy said he knew Brenner since he lived in Montello and he'd seen Brenner two
to three times a week since Brenner has been in Lucerne and he said if Brenner did kill
Dylan he didn't know where Brenner would hide a body.
He said that he did do some, Dylan did some exploring, he and Dylan did some exploring
together at the Williams place or Hatley described being north between Brenner's place and Dylan's
place on the other side of the mountain he did say that if Brenner did kill Dylan he would not
probably find the body easily out there. So anyway June 25th they get more tips
to police from complete about completely different people. A guy said that they
had a friend near area 51. They said that a female said the guy was named Justin Hayward, but goes by the rap music name Lil Eric
So she's blaming Lil Eric on this. That's what's going on here. Lil Eric killed him
Oh my god, so
When they get the phone out of that's a terrible neck, so when they get the phone out of, that's a terrible rap name, when they get
the phone out of the pond, that's when everything breaks open.
Because the opportunity and the phones being together make Brenner look very guilty.
Right, yeah.
Unless little Eric left a note in this phone.
Little Eric did this, bitch.
Left his calling card. I'm not afraid of calling Eric.
No, no little Eric, it's a bad rap name.
So while they're searching the phone,
they actually recover his phone,
recover data from his phone,
despite it being in a pond.
Oh shit, it didn't ruin it.
Nope.
There was media located that clearly shows
that the phone was in a trailer
and was identified as Brenner's trail. There's a picture of,
this is fucked up. Um,
the timeframe is consistent with Dylan first arriving on the property in the
morning of May 28th.
The media recording was originally moving at a high speed then was converted to
a lower speed recording by the FBI. Now in the video,
the stair railing can be seen as well as the window and the door of
Brenner's place.
Brenner can be seen in the video wiping off a revolver consistent with his black powder
revolver and a red substance consistent with blood appears on his left elbow, wrist and
hand.
How the fuck did that happen?
I don't know.
I don't know if he did it on purpose.
Did it on accident maybe?
But Brenner is seen wearing a camouflage t-shirt
and at multiple points in the recording it appears
he's standing over the phone.
They end up going to his house and finding that
t-shirt with Dylan's blood stains on it.
Oh shit.
Not good.
He got himself caught. Not fucking good at all. Yeah. Very, very bad.
They also found a bunch of other stuff with Dylan's blood on it. Um,
they have Brenner's touch DNA on the boots.
Yeah. It's so recent. There's so much technology.
It's so, so technologically fast. And then the shirt is the big one though.
They find literally find the fucking shirt he was wearing
when he did it.
The video comes right when Dylan went missing.
It is not good at all here.
They also find a hat as well, a John Deere hat
that Dylan's mother said is a rare special edition
John Deere hat that he purchased and worn.
And it was confirmed that that was what he was wearing
and James was wearing the hat
When they arrested him he was wearing Tillen's hat Dylan's hat he took the hat fucked up
So they they're still looking for his body though. They haven't found his body
They look around they find a bag of bones in the desert and they find out that they're not human bones
They thought maybe that was it they find a clump, Justin the dad found a clump of skin and hair.
Turns out not his.
Oh my God!
What is happening out here?
Oh no, I'm telling you this place is wild.
So they charge Brenner with murder anyway, obviously.
Then the parents start sending Brenner emails begging for the body.
Yeah.
Grandpa. Let us bury him. parents start sending Brenner emails begging for the body? Yeah.
Grandpa.
Let us bury him.
Yeah, grandpa sent one that said, Jim, this is Larry.
On May 30th you said Dylan should learn how to use a gun.
A gun can't do you any good if all you know how to do is throw it at someone.
Did Dylan throw his gun at you on May 28th?
What did he do to make you so mad?
I would really like to hear it from you.
I have some questions I hope you can answer.
My phone number is, and he gives it it out and said or you can text me
There is money on this account for either one. In other words, if you call me, I'll give you money
I'll pay you to tell me what the fuck happened. So anyway, he decides to make a plea bargain
Really? Yep. He did mitts it. He said I did it. I killed him fuck it
He does it the prosecutors are working with the parents
of Dylan to come out with different options
and sentencing outcomes to finalize a plea deal here.
So in part of this, he's required to tell all about the case
including the location of the body, that's part of it.
So he leads police to the body, it is way out in the middle
of the desert in Lucerne, just in the middle of the desert,
under a pile of fucking shit,
and he's skeletonized by now.
It's-
Ah, Jesus.
This happens about a year and a half later,
so he's basically a skeleton.
Just last year.
Yeah, it's a skid, 2023 is when they found the body,
so this took this long.
They finally found him, he's been,
gunshot wounds is what did it.
They think they shot him with a 22 rifle
I believe here
Yeah, private investigators. So Dylan's mom said that's it just mad
It was that that he was just mad because he told Brenner told the cops that he was mad that Dylan put his truck in
The shed that day. That's why he killed him
Annoyed by the truck in the shed. It's his property, man.
No, but he knocked his stuff over.
So the mom said, that's it, just mad.
It was absolutely shameful that that's what it was over.
And then probably that's probably all we'll ever get out of him.
There's no legal arrangement that can make him tell us exactly what happened that morning.
Oh my God.
And he said that we're definitely,
he said we've been waiting for it,
it's a giant elephant out of the room,
it's a relief in that sense, the mom said.
Sentencing comes around, the defense and the prosecution
agreed to recommend a minimum of three
and maximum of 30 years in prison at sentencing.
The judge requested that Brenner stand and face the gallery
which was filled with villains
friends and family and he refused.
What?
He said nope not gonna do it.
So the judge said I am going to recommend to the parole board that they keep you as
long as they legally can.
You sir may fuck off one to fifteen years in prison for each of the three counts he pleaded
guilty and he's been given credit for like a year and change time served so
it's three year minimum that's what he's got they'll run consecutive recommend
they hang on to him for 15 years for 45 because consecutive so that's the most
he can possibly get is 45 so that's that's a lot. The mother said it shouldn't have been an option
It should be 25 to life
But the justice system forced us into this type of plea since then they've set up a not a nonprofit to honor Dylan's memory and to
Get resources for families who are searching for missing loved ones, which is very cool. So fucked. It's so fucked
Yeah, that's Dylan's legacy is what it's called. Poor little guy.
That is fucked up man this is all fucked up he went out there he just just wanted to grow some grain.
He just wanted to grow grain he wanted to be fucking just to feed people. He wanted to be an actual farmer. Jesus Christ.
It's hard so there's poor Dylan the most information we've ever had on a case in this. Yeah.
Everybody's interviews it was so much to sift through.
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