Dylan Round's Body Found, Squatter Charged

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime, News

3.9 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dylan Rounds, 19, spoke with his grandmother early Saturday morning, 2022, and that was the last time anyone spoke to the farmer. His pickup truck and other equipment remain on the property, but his wallet and phone gone.

Rounds' boots were found discarded on the farm, but mother Candice Cooley, says Dylan was particular about his footwear and only wore the one pair. Those boots were found near a property where James Brenner, age 60, was squatting.

Now Brenner has pleaded guilty to second-degree felony murder in the death. Police say Rounds died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Joining Nancy Grace Today:

Candice Cooley - Victim's Mother
Kirk Nurmi - Legal Commentator and Cast Member: "Radical Body Transformation Season 3 on Amazon Prime", Author: "Trapped with Ms. Arias" KirkNurmi.com @nurmiunchained
Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Psychologist (Panama City Beach, FL), Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: "Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide”, bw-institute.com
Justin Boardman - Former Special Victim's Unit Detective, West Valley City (Utah), Author: "I Was Wrong: An Investigator's Battle-cry for Change Within the Special Victims Unit", JustinBoardman.com, Twitter: @boardman_train
John Elwood Deputy Chief, Manatee County Search and Rescue, www.manateecountysar.org, Twitter: @KarmatheSARdog, Principal Evaluator for the National Search Dog Alliance and Instructor/Evaluator for the National Association of Search and Rescue, 35 Years Sarasota County Fire Department
Nate Eaton - News Director, EastIdahoNews.com Twitter: @NateNewsNow, Instagram: @n.eaton

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:03.0	In the last weeks, a major break in the case of a teen boy farmer who goes missing.
0:17.0	That's right, Dylan Rounds goes missing, just 19 years old. He wanted to start his own farm in Idaho,
0:28.6	and he had just planted the first crop on his land in Utah and then vanishes. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. Thank you for being with us.
0:43.9	We learn that a Utah squatter is taking a plea deal in the murder of a teen boy farmer. This, as he leads detectives to skeletal remains. His mom,
1:03.5	explaining how her missing son's cell phone helped crack the case and lead to the squatters arrest.
1:13.6	Young Dylan just scrubbed in sunshine.
1:16.6	Never had a bad word for or two anyone.
1:21.6	His last known contact was with his grandmother telling her over the phone he had to put his grain truck in
1:28.8	the shed because it was about to rain. So how did this wonderful boy end up dead? Well, the case
1:38.9	began to unravel when his remains are found.
1:47.1	Who is the so-called squatter?
1:49.7	It is a violent ex-con who had been squatting on property next to the land owned by the 19-year-old boy.
2:00.1	The con's name James Brenner. What do we know? Take a listen to
2:06.5	our friends at Fox 13. This land in Lucin, Utah might not look like much, but to 19-year-old
2:13.3	Dylan Rounds, it was everything. This is the pond he dug out.
2:24.8	He'd talked to me about planting trees around it and stocking fish in it and just, it was just one of his little dreams.
2:28.7	Now it's been almost a week and a half since Dylan last returned to his camper.
2:37.5	His dad, Justin, says his son was last seen Memorial Day weekend at the Saddlesaw Saloon, a bar 30 miles west in Montello, Nevada.
2:45.3	I'm convinced that it's foul play. Every vehicle he has a retractor, everything is accounted for and in place.
2:51.6	One of the last conversations Dylan had with his dad was about his excitement for the crop he had just planted. He wanted to see a grow. He wasn't going to leave. There was nothing that was going to take him away from here.
2:56.6	You know, think of the thing you love the most in the world. I know what it is. It's my children, John David and Lucy.
	...

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