Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2: In the last weeks, a major break in the case
Speaker 2: of a teen boy farmer who goes missing. That's right,
Speaker 2: Dylan Rownds goes missing, just nineteen years old. He wanted
Speaker 2: to start his own farm in Idaho, and he had
Speaker 2: just planted the first crop on his land in Utah
Speaker 2: and then vanishes. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories,
Speaker 2: Thank you for.
Speaker 1: Being with us.
Speaker 2: We learn that a Utah squatter is taking a plea
Speaker 2: deal in the murder of a teen boy farmer.
Speaker 1: This as he.
Speaker 2: Leads detectives to skeleton remains his mom explaining how her
Speaker 2: missing son's cell phone helped crack the case and lead
Speaker 2: to the squatter's arrest. Young Dylan just scrubbed in sunshine,
Speaker 2: never had a bad word four.
Speaker 1: Or two anyone.
Speaker 2: His last known contact was with his grandmother, telling her
Speaker 2: over the phone he had to put his grain truck
Speaker 2: in the shed because it was about drain. So how
Speaker 2: did this wonderful boy end up dead? Well, the case
Speaker 2: began to unravel when his remains are found. Who is
Speaker 2: the so called squatter? It is a violent ex con
Speaker 2: who had been squatting on property next to the land
Speaker 2: owned by the nineteen year old bul the Cohn's name
Speaker 2: James Brenner.
Speaker 1: What do we know?
Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friends at Fox thirteen. This
Speaker 2: land in Lucien, Utah might not look like much, but
Speaker 2: to nineteen year old Dylan Rounds.
Speaker 1: It was everything.
Speaker 3: This is the pond he dug out. He'd talked to
Speaker 3: me about planting trees around it and stocking fish in it,
Speaker 3: and just it was just one of his little dreams.
Speaker 4: Now it's been almost a week and a half since
Speaker 4: dill In last returned to his camper. His dad, Justin
Speaker 4: says his son was last seen Memorial Day weekend at
Speaker 4: the Saddlesore Saloon, a bar thirty miles west of Montello, Nevada.
Speaker 3: I'm convinced that it's foul play. Every vehicle he has
Speaker 3: a retractor. Everything is accounted for and in place.
Speaker 4: One of the last conversations Dylan had with his dad
Speaker 4: was about his excitement for the crop he had just planted.
Speaker 3: He wanted to see it grow. He wasn't gonna leave.
Speaker 3: There was nothing that was going to take him away
Speaker 3: from here.
Speaker 1: You know, think of the thing you love them in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: I know what it is. It's my children, John, David
Speaker 2: and Lucy. Nothing within my power could separate me from them.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I grew up in farmland, and a farmer loves his
Speaker 2: or her land. It's a love I can't even describe.
Speaker 2: And this teen boy, Dylan Rounds loved his land. His hopes,
Speaker 2: his dreams, his plans, his futures all.
Speaker 1: Wrapped up in that land. So why would he leave it?
Speaker 1: He wouldn't.
Speaker 2: With me an all star panel to make sense of
Speaker 2: what we know right now about the disappearance of this
Speaker 2: teen boy, Dylan Rounds. But before I introduce them, I
Speaker 2: want to go to a very special guest joining us.
Speaker 2: This is Dylan's mother, Candice Cooley. Miss Kelly, thank you
Speaker 2: for being with us.
Speaker 5: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Miss Coolly.
Speaker 2: Before I get into the entire story about what you've
Speaker 2: been through and what your family's discovered so far in
Speaker 2: the search you did, I want you to tell me
Speaker 2: about the moment you realize Dylan is missing.
Speaker 5: So it was Memorial Day, Monday, May thirtieth, and Dylan's
Speaker 5: friend JD called me around eleven o'clock. I was working
Speaker 5: in my office and asked if I had heard from Dylan.
Speaker 5: And I said no, and he said, well, Karen called
Speaker 5: and said they haven't heard from him from Saturday. Now,
Speaker 5: it is not typical for Dylan to go two or
Speaker 5: three days without talking to him, but he always talks
Speaker 5: to either myself, his father, Justin, or his grandparents. So
Speaker 5: when we put together that he had not talked to
Speaker 5: any of us, that's when I instantly knew, because he's
Speaker 5: always in contact with one of the three. And my
Speaker 5: husband and I packed up and headed down because I
Speaker 5: knew they just and especially where he had been planting.
Speaker 5: He was just trying to finish up before the rain
Speaker 5: because there was rain, and we send that weekend to
Speaker 5: make sure his crop was in. And I knew because
Speaker 5: he should have called us all and been like I finished,
Speaker 5: it's done, I got it in, you know, and the
Speaker 5: rain's going to get on it. This is great. And
Speaker 5: nobody had heard anything since Saturday morning, May twenty eighth,
Speaker 5: at six fifty one. Am.
Speaker 2: Okay, how are you pinpointing that time? Saturday morning at
Speaker 2: six fifty one?
Speaker 1: Phone record of phone records yep, okay, And what does
Speaker 1: that fine record reveal?
Speaker 5: So he'd called he was talked to his grandmother actually,
Speaker 5: and she called him and he said, I can't talk.
Speaker 5: You know, I got to get my seed truck, my
Speaker 5: grain truck. He has a ten wheeler full of his
Speaker 5: trio to Kaylee seed. I got to get it.
Speaker 1: In the shed.
Speaker 5: It's raining because you know the rain, well, we're in
Speaker 5: the seed. He had a tarp on it, but it
Speaker 5: wasn't the best tart there was hole. So he was
Speaker 5: just trying to protect his feed and take it to
Speaker 5: the shop, the little shed that's five miles away to
Speaker 5: protect it. And then he said, I'll call you back,
Speaker 5: and nobody has heard from him, Sam.
Speaker 2: And that was six point fifty one am on May
Speaker 2: twenty eight, correct. And May twenty eight was what day
Speaker 2: of the week, Saturday, So he was working on Saturday
Speaker 2: morning before seven am.
Speaker 5: Correct. Always I get up, breathing and get going. A
Speaker 5: lot of.
Speaker 2: People don't can't connect with farmers hours. We grew up
Speaker 2: on farmers hours, so I'm up every day at least
Speaker 2: at five. But most people are on you know, they
Speaker 2: were revolve it around going to school and work. Correct,
Speaker 2: But it's not typical. It is typical for him to
Speaker 2: be up very early in the morning. So speaking to
Speaker 2: his grandmother at six fifty one am would have been normal.
Speaker 5: Correct, And the only time you know he sleep in
Speaker 5: and beat if he was up bail and hair, all right,
Speaker 5: you know, he won't doesn't go to bed till four
Speaker 5: in the morning, five in the morning, you know, so
Speaker 5: he'll sleep till eight.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a pretty big endeavor for a nineteen
Speaker 2: year old boy to be running his own farm.
Speaker 1: How did that happen?
Speaker 5: So his grandfather and him partnered on this farm where
Speaker 5: the family farm is with his fathers up in eastern Idaho,
Speaker 5: the Idol Falls area, and ground is just too expensive.
Speaker 5: So Dylan's always done custom work since he was sixteen,
Speaker 5: you know, working for farmers. He got a tractor, he
Speaker 5: got a baylor, he go do custom work, and he's
Speaker 5: been saving and saving, and so him and his grandfather
Speaker 5: partnered on this farm so that he could start doing
Speaker 5: his own the last couple of years, you know, he
Speaker 5: hauls beats in a semi, a full semi in Idaho
Speaker 5: you don't have to have a CEO or be twenty one.
Speaker 5: He's done that for two years. So he's been constantly
Speaker 5: saving money, you know, so that he can work towards putting.
Speaker 1: His crop in what is custom work, So.
Speaker 5: That's bailing somebody else's hey, hauling somebody else's product, swathing
Speaker 5: somebody else's hey. Also just doing the same exact work,
Speaker 5: but doing it with your equipment. But it's somebody else's crop, gotcha.
Speaker 2: But now he's doing his own thing on that landy
Speaker 2: and his grandfather partnered on, right, He.
Speaker 1: Still does both.
Speaker 5: So he spent half of the spring helping the wine
Speaker 5: Cup Gamble tear out some ground. He drilled all of
Speaker 5: their grain to make money to be able to purchase
Speaker 5: the seat and do everything on his own farm. So
Speaker 5: he still does both. I mean the kid works all
Speaker 5: the time. The only time he gets a little bit
Speaker 5: of free times a winner when you can't farm.
Speaker 2: To doctor Jory Crawls and joining me, psychologist faculty Saint
Speaker 2: Leo University and author of Operation Soos, Doctor Jory.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with me. I'm listening to Kennie Coolly.
Speaker 2: This is Dylan's mom, and I'm learning something about him.
Speaker 2: And this is very important to the investigation. And I'll
Speaker 2: ask Deputy Chief Elwood and Justin Borman to jump in
Speaker 2: on this. But if you trust somebody to come on
Speaker 2: your farm and harvest your crop, tear up your ground
Speaker 2: air eight. Tear up your ground, prepare your ground, bring
Speaker 2: in the crop. That is a very trustworthy, reliable person.
Speaker 2: Somebody that's up at four and five in the morning,
Speaker 2: works till four am bringing in a crop. That tells me,
Speaker 2: this is not like a lot of people that go missing.
Speaker 2: They're out on the street, they're doing drugs, they're in
Speaker 2: crack houses, they're at a bar till three o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning. You don't know who they're coming in contact with.
Speaker 2: You see what I mean. This is not a high
Speaker 2: risk life. It's a hard working life. Somebody trustworthy that
Speaker 2: people want on their farm. I mean, you got to
Speaker 2: really trust somebody to have them on your farm, possibly
Speaker 2: with your equipment and your land and your crop. That's
Speaker 2: your future, that's your money for the whole next year
Speaker 2: is that crop.
Speaker 1: And people would bring this nineteen year old boy in
Speaker 1: to do a man's work. That's very un I tell
Speaker 1: you what tail me, Candice.
Speaker 5: He started so when Dylan was fourteen fifty thirteen fourteen fifteen,
Speaker 5: he was so frustrated because no farmer could hire him
Speaker 5: because of workman's comp issues in Idaho. So when he
Speaker 5: turned sixteen, he was so happy. We have a huge
Speaker 5: potato farmer here named Albert Lockwood, and they hired Dylan
Speaker 5: at sixteen to come drive a crossover. So your crossover
Speaker 5: digs a whole bunch of rows of potatoes, puts them
Speaker 5: into one single road so that the main harvester can
Speaker 5: come over. You know, you don't have to do so
Speaker 5: much work. It just cuts down some of the work.
Speaker 5: That's the pictures of him on the tractor I put
Speaker 5: on Facebook. Sixteen years old, and you have Albertson OLDI
Speaker 5: gentleman in late seventies. I'm not exactly sure you have
Speaker 5: him who's done potatoes his whole life, saying this is
Speaker 5: one of the best operators I've ever had.
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2: Dylan Round's a teen boy farmer from Idaho, set out
Speaker 2: on his own in Utah and was expecting his very
Speaker 2: first harvest when he vanishes seemingly into thin air. Then
Speaker 2: we hear a fifty nine year old James Brenner, who
Speaker 2: once shot a man at a Maryland campground in the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties over a work dispute. He's out walking free.
Speaker 2: He was squatting on the land next to Dylan's property,
Speaker 2: and it was there authorities found Dylan's boots and farm truck.
Speaker 2: We learned this from court documents. They then found blood
Speaker 2: on one of the boots, including Brenner's DNA. Now this
Speaker 2: is according to the criminal complaint. Dylan's mother has been
Speaker 2: through pure hell. Renner's past criminal history also includes malicious wounding,
Speaker 2: malicious shooting, and three prior convictions for fell in a
Speaker 2: possession of a firearm.
Speaker 1: He had no work.
Speaker 2: History, was unemployed, and had no verifiable residence. He was
Speaker 2: trespassing and squatting on property near Dylan's.
Speaker 1: What more do we know?
Speaker 2: You got to really trust somebody to have them on
Speaker 2: your farm, possibly with your equipment and your land and
Speaker 2: your crop. So, doctor Jory, that's telling me a lot
Speaker 2: about where is Dylan. It's not that he's out in
Speaker 2: some bar, getting beaten up in a parking lot or
Speaker 2: overdosing in drugs and on drugs and an alley.
Speaker 1: That's not what has happened.
Speaker 6: No, not at all. You know, I'm a behaviorist and
Speaker 6: we always say if you want to predict future behavior,
Speaker 6: you have to know past behavior. And look at his
Speaker 6: last three years. I mean, he is a very diligent
Speaker 6: dedicated worker. He's very organized. He's got a schedule, he
Speaker 6: sticks to it, even the time his free time he's
Speaker 6: gone to visit friends, and he's back to be able
Speaker 6: to work that that's right in the morning. So you know,
Speaker 6: for him all of a sudden to be removed from
Speaker 6: that schedule, there had to be an outside forced to
Speaker 6: remove him.
Speaker 2: You're hearing the voice of doctor Jory Crawsin and Dylan's mother,
Speaker 2: Candace Cooley. Now take a listen to Emily Tensor.
Speaker 4: The Box Elder County Sheriff's Department and Weber County Fire
Speaker 4: and Rescue searched the area last week, along with helicopters,
Speaker 4: a plane, and search parties on foot, ATVs and horses.
Speaker 3: They call off the search Box Elder because they were
Speaker 3: ninety five percent sure there's nothing, no sign of Dylan
Speaker 3: out in the three by five mile area.
Speaker 4: His boots were found five miles west of his camper.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget the look on Kndas's face, but I
Speaker 3: could only imagine what I looked like when we saw
Speaker 3: those boots.
Speaker 4: Each day is agony for his family who live all
Speaker 4: the way up in Idaho. They're offering a twenty thousand
Speaker 4: dollars reward to bring Dylan home.
Speaker 3: I just came back today just to kind of poke
Speaker 3: around because I can't hardly leave here at twenty thousand
Speaker 3: is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to
Speaker 3: spend today.
Speaker 4: If you know anything about Dylan's disappearance, his family is
Speaker 4: begging you to call police. He's five to ten, weighs
Speaker 4: around one hundred and sixty pounds, with brown hair and
Speaker 4: brown eyes.
Speaker 2: This is such a good, good boy, you know, willieve me?
Speaker 2: Take a listen to Dave mac crime online.
Speaker 7: Dylan Rownds has been a farmer since he was a
Speaker 7: little boy. From the time he could walk, he would
Speaker 7: try to keep up with his dad and grandpa as
Speaker 7: they worked downside. Dylan could drive a tractor by himself
Speaker 7: before most kids his age could ride a bike. When
Speaker 7: he was ten years old, Dylan was growing pumpkin patches
Speaker 7: and sweetcorn to sell. Citizens of the Rigby community knew
Speaker 7: every summer there would be Dylan sweetcorn for sale under
Speaker 7: the County Line overpass. Dylan attended Brigby High School and
Speaker 7: began farming grain a few years ago in the desert
Speaker 7: town of Loos in Utah near the Utah Nevada border.
Speaker 2: And you know a lot of people Dylan's age, so
Speaker 2: I will get excited about the game that Friday night
Speaker 2: or or something happening in their social.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Dylan go ahead. He never did any that.
Speaker 5: He wasn't the football game kid. He wasn't. He didn't
Speaker 5: socialize in any of that. I mean, Dylan. It worked
Speaker 5: out perfect for Dylan because he was doing online school
Speaker 5: so he could farm, and then COVID hit and he
Speaker 5: was the right age that he could drop out because
Speaker 5: he was working. So Dylan, I mean, and yes, his
Speaker 5: father and I didn't like the fact that he dropped out,
Speaker 5: but the fact of the matter is there was no
Speaker 5: stopping a kid. There was no stopping him. There was
Speaker 5: nothing we could do to stop him from going to farm.
Speaker 5: That's all he wanted to do. He also, you take
Speaker 5: a kid who doesn't even know how to play video
Speaker 5: games in his generation, and that summed it all up.
Speaker 2: Wow, doesn't know how to play video games? That really
Speaker 2: does sum it up? What would make Dylan Rounds happy?
Speaker 2: This team boy take a listen to Dave mattcrimeonline dot com.
Speaker 7: Dylan lives by himself in a camper trailer on a
Speaker 7: remote piece of land in Lusen. Family members last heard
Speaker 7: from him when he called his grandmother the morning of Saturday,
Speaker 7: May twenty eighth. Dylan had been busy getting his crops
Speaker 7: in and was really excited about recent rain, but a
Speaker 7: little down because the rain prevented him from getting all
Speaker 7: of the planting done. With the rain putting a damper
Speaker 7: on his farming activity, Dylan drove thirty miles to the
Speaker 7: town of Montello, Nevada, where he was seen on a
Speaker 7: Moyal Day weekend. When family members realized Dylan had not
Speaker 7: been in contact since he spoke to his grandmother, they
Speaker 7: began trying to get in touch with him. Failing that,
Speaker 7: the family went to the farm and immediately called law
Speaker 7: enforcement for help.
Speaker 2: Joining you right now special guests Nate Eaton, our friend,
Speaker 2: the colleague and news director of East Idaho News dot com.
Speaker 2: You can find them on Twitter at Nate news Now. Nate,
Speaker 2: start at the beginning, don't leave anything out.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 9: As Candace said, this all started when Dylan spoke with
Speaker 9: his grandmother that Saturday morning. He said, I gotta get
Speaker 9: got to get off the phone so that I can
Speaker 9: get this seed in. And then by Monday morning, when
Speaker 9: the family had not heard anything from him. They drove
Speaker 9: to the farm. What's interesting is when I spoke with
Speaker 9: kandas the other day Nancy, Dylan's pickup truck was still there,
Speaker 9: but it appeared as if it had been pressure washed.
Speaker 9: It was clean, but it had been raining and it
Speaker 9: was muddy in that area. So somehow that truck got
Speaker 9: clean and was left there right outside of Dylan's camp
Speaker 9: camp or where he was sleeping.
Speaker 5: I don't like that.
Speaker 2: And Candace Coolly, I hear you jumping in, guys, this
Speaker 2: is Dylan's mother.
Speaker 1: She's saying that the.
Speaker 2: Truck looked pressure washed. And I just heard Candace say
Speaker 2: that there were no tracks, and you think there would
Speaker 2: have been since it had been raining.
Speaker 1: But also, so tell me about the seat position.
Speaker 2: A lot of you may remember the Tara Grinstead cases,
Speaker 2: gorgeous teacher down in South Georgia who goes missing. Well,
Speaker 2: one thing that jumped out at me when we first
Speaker 2: learned Tara was missing. I was talking to her mother
Speaker 2: about it was that her seat position was not where
Speaker 2: she would have had. It was way back like when
Speaker 2: I'm five to one, when I get in the car.
Speaker 2: My husband, who was six ' three has been in
Speaker 2: the car. In the car, I have to push it
Speaker 2: up right, same thing here, right, Cannae.
Speaker 5: Cooley, Yes, exact, same thing. And I am forur eleven
Speaker 5: and Dylan is between five ten and five eleven, and
Speaker 5: he is all late. His seat is all the way back,
Speaker 5: his steering was up, and it was I could drive it.
Speaker 5: I could have comfortably drive it without movies the seat.
Speaker 1: So that's not right at all.
Speaker 5: And there were no tracks behind the pickup. It was
Speaker 5: muddy when myself and my husband and his father and
Speaker 5: our daughter Brooklyn pulled in. We left tracks on Monday. Still,
Speaker 5: if that pickup would have moved Saturday, there would have
Speaker 5: been tracks. Also, there's no footprint anywhere around that camper.
Speaker 5: And we were told the two gentlemen that worked with
Speaker 5: Dylan were well. The one helped him off and on
Speaker 5: went out to the farm to find Dylan, walked around
Speaker 5: the pickup, walked around the camper, tried to you know,
Speaker 5: what's going on. Why didn't they leave footprints? We were
Speaker 5: leaving footprints on Monday.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Kurt Nurmi joining me as you know him, renowned defense attorney,
Speaker 2: cast member wrought Radical Body Transformation Season three, Amazon Prime
Speaker 2: and author of trapped with miss Arias. You will remember
Speaker 2: him from defending Jody Arias. Kurt Neerm, I'm not holding
Speaker 2: that against you, isn't it true?
Speaker 1: Kurt Nurmy?
Speaker 2: How one detail we're talking about his truck learned so
Speaker 2: much from one piece of evidence?
Speaker 1: Kirtin Army.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, Nancy. When I think about this truck
Speaker 8: and the possible pressure washing and the movement of the seat,
Speaker 8: I wonder about how far it travels. Did somebody have
Speaker 8: to buy gas in order to get this vehicle around?
Speaker 8: How many gas stations are there in town? Have they
Speaker 8: been looking really one? Have these workers been questioned? So
Speaker 8: there's not too many people in this circle. You know,
Speaker 8: this is an industrious young man, passionate about his farming.
Speaker 8: He's not going to be distracted by too much. And
Speaker 8: we know that he had these two workers. And I
Speaker 8: don't know if the gas station, if there's footage, what
Speaker 8: have you, But there should be some follow up on
Speaker 8: those things because those practical things that stem from the truck.
Speaker 8: Where was a pressure wash? Is there a car wash somewhere?
Speaker 8: Did somebody have? All these things need to be looked at.
Speaker 5: No, there's no car washing. Montella was a count of
Speaker 5: two hundred people in the middle of nowhere. Dylan has
Speaker 5: a pressure washer on his farm for his equipment.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it could have been that Crime Stories with
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2: The case of the disappearance of Dylan arounds a teen
Speaker 2: boy from Idaho who struck out on his own to
Speaker 2: be a farmer in Utah. It's all unraveling. According to
Speaker 2: a neighbor identified in court documents. At some point after
Speaker 2: Dylan goes missing, the perp Brenner asks the neighbor to
Speaker 2: conceal three black powder guns and a twenty two caliber
Speaker 2: rifle that did not have a serial number. When contacted
Speaker 2: by the FBI, the neighbor handed over the weapons. With
Speaker 2: that Brennan was charged with felon in possession of a firearm.
Speaker 2: You know, compare him to Dylan Rounds, who struck out
Speaker 2: on his own as a teen to build his own
Speaker 2: farm in Utah. He loved working the land. He spent
Speaker 2: zero time with video game james, zero time on social media,
Speaker 2: and he never used drugs. I mean, talk about scrubbed
Speaker 2: in sunshine.
Speaker 1: What more do we know? Now?
Speaker 2: The first thing I would be considering, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to go out to you Justin Boorman, former Special Victims
Speaker 2: Unit detective, author of I Was Wrong, Investigator's battle cry
Speaker 2: for change within the Special Victims Unit. Justin, I want
Speaker 2: to look at his circle, who knows him, who would
Speaker 2: he be with? And let me understand something Nate eaton
Speaker 2: Eastsidaho News dot com. Was he seen by anyone after
Speaker 2: he spoke to the grandmother at six point fifty one
Speaker 2: a m.
Speaker 1: Saturday five twenty eight?
Speaker 9: So please are saying that the cell phone from that
Speaker 9: phone call was pinging on his farm, but he actually
Speaker 9: his last visible scene, last time somebody physically saw him
Speaker 9: was in the bat about thirty miles.
Speaker 1: Away before or after the phone call.
Speaker 9: That was before the phone call was okay, Canada, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So he was thirty miles away in Nevada before
Speaker 2: the phone call said the last positive location is on
Speaker 2: his farm based on the ping to his grandma six
Speaker 2: fifty one a m. Saturday morning, five twenty eight, he's working, okay,
Speaker 2: Justin jump in, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 10: So you know, one of the things that I certainly
Speaker 10: would have focused on would have been some of the forensics,
Speaker 10: of course, swabbing the gear with the temp right, let.
Speaker 5: Me tell you real quick box elder let us take
Speaker 5: the pickup home two hundred and fifty miles away. They
Speaker 5: allowed us to take the pickup home Sunday.
Speaker 1: Without processing it fits.
Speaker 5: They never touched the pickup. And I've got that message
Speaker 5: from the detective saying, can we take the pickup home?
Speaker 5: Do you need it? It's yours, do whatever you want
Speaker 5: with it. They process nothing, guys, not the pickup, not
Speaker 5: the green trus, not the camper. Nothing. The boots didn't
Speaker 5: even make it to the lab. We found them Monday,
Speaker 5: May thirties. The boots did not even make it to
Speaker 5: a lab until Monday, May sixth when I was told
Speaker 5: on Thursday, June second they were at the lab. I
Speaker 5: would like to by the detectives. Nothing got processed, but.
Speaker 1: What about the boots. Take a listen to our cut eight.
Speaker 11: And then we were since told by detectives that there
Speaker 11: was a spot of blood on the boots and they
Speaker 11: were being sent to the lab. And this was on Wednesday,
Speaker 11: Wednesday or Thursday.
Speaker 1: But after that, after that.
Speaker 5: Saturday, so the boots were found Monday, then we were
Speaker 5: told this. Then we found out from detectives the boots
Speaker 5: had not been sent to the lab. And this was
Speaker 5: on Saturday when they came back out that they were
Speaker 5: being held in case the cadaver dogs needed in which
Speaker 5: cadaver dogs do not need a cent They searched for
Speaker 5: human remains, so the boots just didn't get sent in.
Speaker 2: Okay to John Elwood, Deputy Chief Manateee County Search and Rescue,
Speaker 2: and you can find them at Manchee County sar dot org.
Speaker 1: John Elwood, what should we be doing right now?
Speaker 12: That's agreeable question and listening to missus Cooley and again,
Speaker 12: my family's prayers to you and your family that once
Speaker 12: where the pickup truck was. If they were able to
Speaker 12: obtain a scent article, something that Dylan had worn, you
Speaker 12: could use a tracking dog to see if you could
Speaker 12: determine the direction of travel. If you could at least
Speaker 12: get a direction of travel, then you might have an
Speaker 12: area of where you would be inclined to search. Somebody
Speaker 12: mentioned earlier about cadaver dogs. Cadaver dogs don't work off
Speaker 12: of a scent article like tracking dogs do. Go ahead, Nancy, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I believe that was Kennus Cooley. Miss Cooley, are
Speaker 1: you jumping in?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So I agree with that we needed a scent dog
Speaker 5: I actually breed bloodhounds for part of my living, and
Speaker 5: I called in to talk to people I knew with
Speaker 5: them to bring them in.
Speaker 1: Here is the problem.
Speaker 5: Now, by time we could have got dogs there, they
Speaker 5: had no interest in having the bloodhounds there. They said
Speaker 5: there was too much rain. Blah blah blah. Now it's gone.
Speaker 5: There is absolutely no chance after having over three to
Speaker 5: four hundred people crawl all over that a bloodhound is
Speaker 5: going to find Dylan sent and follow it somewhere. It's
Speaker 5: not going to happen.
Speaker 1: Too much time is less, Kurry.
Speaker 2: Nerman, you're hearing what is being said about bloodhounds and
Speaker 2: the ability to track a cent. But as you will recall,
Speaker 2: in the Scott Peterson case, a tracker dog tracked Lacy
Speaker 2: Peterson from her home on Cavena all the way to
Speaker 2: the San Francisco Bay, and it had been raining, and
Speaker 2: there had been cars over where, many many cars between
Speaker 2: the time Lacey was taken, her body was taken, and
Speaker 2: the time the tracker dog got going.
Speaker 1: I mean, it can be done. I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's rained.
Speaker 2: I have had accelerant dogs find accelerant underwater, okay, So
Speaker 2: I would not rule out using a tracker dog now,
Speaker 2: Kurt and Army, because I've seen it done.
Speaker 8: No, I wouldn't roll out anything at all. Going back
Speaker 8: to what was said about the pickup truck, I'd be
Speaker 8: trying to pull everything I could off that pickup truck
Speaker 8: and using the dogs as best I could, because it's
Speaker 8: worth a shot. Every effort should be extended, no matter
Speaker 8: how improbable.
Speaker 2: Yes, And speaking of the search from an unlikely source,
Speaker 2: the Diesel brothers, I'm sure you've seen them on Discovery
Speaker 2: have joined the search for Dylan.
Speaker 1: Listen kind of.
Speaker 11: With you guys's eyes and sky, you know, watch freshly
Speaker 11: turned up dirt. I mean, you guys know what to
Speaker 11: look for, just any disturbance that shouldn't be there. This
Speaker 11: desert's pretty much all the same.
Speaker 12: Yeah, So that way we'll find Yeah, basically just a
Speaker 12: trailer at cam trailer.
Speaker 1: You'll see the pivot his pickup.
Speaker 5: There's all kinds of equipment. Yeah you can't.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, it's all of his stuff's out there straight
Speaker 11: through see that dirt, Kyle. Yeh.
Speaker 5: His boots were just tossed out right behind that.
Speaker 11: And there was nothing else around them, know nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, were they on the far side of the way
Speaker 8: on the road, so you wouldn't see them from the road.
Speaker 1: And that's all you guys have found so far.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I have nothing else.
Speaker 1: And they, like said, search and rescue.
Speaker 11: They were out here the first night they got here
Speaker 11: what maybe five They didn't even take off and looking
Speaker 11: until pay seven point thirty. Then they build and then
Speaker 11: they came back maybe six hours that day. And then
Speaker 11: they said, we're calling it nail it.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something.
Speaker 2: They and you're hearing the Diesel brothers talking to Dylan's mom,
Speaker 2: But is that correct? After six hours on the scene,
Speaker 2: law enforcement just left. They didn't process the vehicle, we
Speaker 2: don't know about the boots, and they haven't called in
Speaker 2: search or cadaver dogs.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the family's continually run into these issues with law enforcement.
Speaker 9: The fact that that we're talking about two jurisdictions here,
Speaker 9: one in Utah, one in Nevada with a border down
Speaker 9: the middle, and of course there's jurisdictional issues over who
Speaker 9: has the rights to this and that, and from candas
Speaker 9: it sounds like you're getting helped from the Nevada side,
Speaker 9: but the Utah side where Dylan actually lived, where this
Speaker 9: camper was, where the booths were found, where the truck was,
Speaker 9: where all of his property was. It sounds like they're
Speaker 9: just hitting wall after wall.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 5: So Utah has told me multiple times that Nevada will
Speaker 5: do what if Nevada wants to come to Like basically,
Speaker 5: we're not you know, we're not reaching out to Nevada.
Speaker 5: What I since found out is I met on Friday.
Speaker 5: I sat with first some Nevada detectives, the sergeant, and
Speaker 5: even the sheriff himself for almost five hours and I
Speaker 5: went through the case from top to bottom. We started
Speaker 5: with everything. They have reached out to Utah multiple times.
Speaker 5: Where do you want to deploy? Where do you want search?
Speaker 5: And izeky, we're in this with you. Utah has been
Speaker 5: the one that has declined the help. Utah has not
Speaker 5: accepted and say, hey, come help us find this kid.
Speaker 2: Well, can you tell me night eight about the possibility
Speaker 2: that somebody has him and wants ransom.
Speaker 9: Well, that was the original call the family made in
Speaker 9: order to get law enforcement involved. I believe it was
Speaker 9: Dylan's father who called the sheriff'spics and said this. According
Speaker 9: to the police too, that they got a call to
Speaker 9: go to Elko, Nevada. That someone was being held hostage,
Speaker 9: and you know, in the beginning, there were some thoughts
Speaker 9: that there was this man that Dylan met in the
Speaker 9: middle of nowhere who asked him for a ride, who
Speaker 9: has a suspicious criminal background. There was some finger pointing
Speaker 9: that maybe this guy might know something. But Candace has
Speaker 9: actually spoken with this man. He's in custody in Utah
Speaker 9: in a facility, and they believe that he probably doesn't
Speaker 9: have anything to do with Dylan's disappearance. But fingers were
Speaker 9: pointed at him. You know, from the beginning, sounds like
Speaker 9: that's not so much anymore.
Speaker 2: Okay, what can you tell me about the ransom call
Speaker 2: to Candace?
Speaker 5: It was not a ransom call. This is what happened.
Speaker 5: One of the local citizens of Montello called me on Tuesday,
Speaker 5: the second day in the search. Instead, they're holding and
Speaker 5: hostage and basically he might still be alive or not,
Speaker 5: and they give us a specific location. And so that
Speaker 5: is when Justin called. So I talked to this this
Speaker 5: guy three times. So we all hauld butt into Montello.
Speaker 5: Not Elco is in Montello. So Justin calls Utah, Utah
Speaker 5: detective and they say, well, that's in Nevada.
Speaker 9: We're not.
Speaker 5: It's not us. We need to call Nevada. So Justin
Speaker 5: told them, if you don't get somebody out here, I'm
Speaker 5: going to take it into my own hands. So detective
Speaker 5: from Utah called Nevada. I called nine one one into Elko.
Speaker 5: I tell them what's going on. So Elko sends out
Speaker 5: six deputies. We're furious, we're frustrated. We think our son's
Speaker 5: right down the boss. These these local people are telling
Speaker 5: us they got them, they got them. They chasing this
Speaker 5: other guy, they got him. They're holding the hostage, they're
Speaker 5: beating them, they're you know, they're telling us all this stuff.
Speaker 5: And but what Elko did not know when I called
Speaker 5: in is that my son was missing, because Utah never
Speaker 5: told them.
Speaker 2: So let me understand, Ms. Cooley, there was no ransom call. Correct,
Speaker 2: Then where did that even come from?
Speaker 5: I have no clue. If you go back through all
Speaker 5: my interviews, I never said that. I said we got
Speaker 5: a call saying Dylan was being held hostage. Right, ransom
Speaker 5: has never came out of me.
Speaker 1: That your son is being held.
Speaker 5: The guy's name is Kurt.
Speaker 1: Kurt calls me. Kurt did work.
Speaker 5: For Dylan, So we can clarify this and people can
Speaker 5: understand that is his name. Kurt called me and said,
Speaker 5: Chase and this other guy have Dylan. Who is in
Speaker 5: this house.
Speaker 1: Who is Chase case?
Speaker 5: This is the guy that Dylan had picked up in
Speaker 5: the middle of the desert from Wednesday to twenty fifth,
Speaker 5: that we had as a person of interest, the one
Speaker 5: that is now in the Utah jail on unrelated charges.
Speaker 1: Okay, got it. So Kurt tells you, Chase and.
Speaker 5: This other gentleman have Dylan. They're holding them hostage in
Speaker 5: this other gentleman's house. He may or may not be alive,
Speaker 5: and they're beating them.
Speaker 1: He's all over the board.
Speaker 5: But at this point we're still looking for Chase actively,
Speaker 5: you know, trying to find him. So I hang on
Speaker 5: the phone with Kurt. He calls me back ten minutes later.
Speaker 1: He goes through it again.
Speaker 5: He's like, and he may be at this house, or
Speaker 5: he may be at this house, but we're watching this house,
Speaker 5: and we know they have Phils, we know they have Dylan.
Speaker 5: That's what I'm told. So Justin and I get on
Speaker 5: the phone with them. We hit the same story. They
Speaker 5: got Dylan, they took Dyling. So that's when we haul
Speaker 5: but into Montello, and that's when the nine to one
Speaker 5: to one call came in to Elko that I said,
Speaker 5: they have my son. He's being held hostage. We need
Speaker 5: somebody out there now. So when they they did send they,
Speaker 5: like I said, they sent six people. But when they
Speaker 5: got there and they went to this other person's house,
Speaker 5: Chase was nowhere around the other person. The other gentleman
Speaker 5: allowed them to search the vehicles, the house, the property,
Speaker 5: the shift, absolutely everything. There was nothing Kurt lied to us.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 5: I don't know. That's a really good question.
Speaker 2: Stuff right there, right there, Deputy Chief Manage County Search
Speaker 2: and Rescue, John Elwood, Right there, that's the problem. Why
Speaker 2: would you call a missing kids mom and say your
Speaker 2: son's being held over here when he's not right there?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 12: Sure? The question I would ask is when Candace received
Speaker 12: this phone phone call? Was it before the news story
Speaker 12: about her son's disappearance or after?
Speaker 1: What about it? Candace? Before and after it was bought?
Speaker 1: Before it was before? What's your point? John Elwood?
Speaker 12: Then that to me would add more credence to the
Speaker 12: claim that Dylan's being held hostage.
Speaker 1: Hey, what would say? And I am crazy land because.
Speaker 2: They went to the location and he was not being
Speaker 2: hell hostage there. There's no credence to the hostage situation
Speaker 2: because that's not true. Kirk nurmed me with me, high
Speaker 2: profile lawyer Kirk right there. The acquaintance Kirk who had
Speaker 2: worked for Dylan Rounds calls in with this information. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's get real, Kirk. We've got to look at his
Speaker 2: circle of acquaintances. He's there on his farm at six
Speaker 2: fifty one am. That's where he calls his grandma. He's
Speaker 2: not seen or heard from since. This has got to
Speaker 2: be someone within his circle. The phone pings there, wasn't
Speaker 2: the phone found there, Nate Eaton.
Speaker 10: They have not found his phone or his wallet.
Speaker 2: No phone, No, thank you for telling me that his
Speaker 2: boots are not far away.
Speaker 1: The phone pings from there. Somebody took him from there.
Speaker 1: That are alive.
Speaker 2: Somebody took him from their Kirk Nurmy, and it's got
Speaker 2: to be somebody that would be out on the farm
Speaker 2: in box elder.
Speaker 8: You bet, Nancy. That's why my first my first stop
Speaker 8: would be the two people that work for him, as
Speaker 8: well as this chase person is in custody, he would
Speaker 8: be being interrogated. But Also, now we have this tip,
Speaker 8: even though it's fault, this idea that someone called in
Speaker 8: before the police reports, before it hit the media, to
Speaker 8: say that he's being held hostage. What is this person doing?
Speaker 8: What is their true motive? Are they exploring? Are they
Speaker 8: trying to find out what's going on with the investigation?
Speaker 8: So I'd be having the abilities look at Kirt.
Speaker 1: What about this, Kirk Nurmy?
Speaker 2: What if cops are not doing the deputies are not
Speaker 2: doing what they should be doing.
Speaker 1: They didn't take in.
Speaker 2: The vehicle, the truck, they didn't process it. They haven't
Speaker 2: processed his camper. They couldn't find his keys, his key fob.
Speaker 2: They're not doing what you normally expect law enforcement to do.
Speaker 1: So what do we do now?
Speaker 2: Can she can Ascullie get in touch with the fans
Speaker 2: or do we have to wait for authorities in Loose
Speaker 2: and Utah to do it?
Speaker 8: I think she can. I think programs like this help.
Speaker 8: I think getting people involved that maybe can process the truck,
Speaker 8: doing everything that they can to make up for the
Speaker 8: evidence that was lost needs to be done. Anything possible.
Speaker 8: Any law enforcement agency that can get involved with its
Speaker 8: Bureau of Land Management, Nevada authorities what have you. Jurisdiction
Speaker 8: doesn't matter, humanity matters here and they should be doing
Speaker 8: everything they can.
Speaker 2: But does it actually work that way to you? Justin Boordman,
Speaker 2: can you pick up the.
Speaker 1: Phone and call the FBI in as.
Speaker 2: A civilian or do we need local police to do it?
Speaker 10: You can certainly try an attempt to do that. There's
Speaker 10: also other means to shake that law enforcement tree if
Speaker 10: you will in Utah, which I've done many times for others,
Speaker 10: But there's you can still go to the state police.
Speaker 10: You can do a lot of different things like that.
Speaker 2: So when you say the state police, are you talking about,
Speaker 2: for instance, the Utah AG's Attorney General.
Speaker 10: I'm talking more about the Utah Department of Public Safety
Speaker 10: and going through them and their investigators. They don't have
Speaker 10: a lot either, but they certainly have more political clout
Speaker 10: if you will, to pressure some things. They also have
Speaker 10: their own crime lab people that will respond out and process.
Speaker 10: They've got all of the bells and whistles.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting, ken As Cooley, I want to
Speaker 2: go back to the boots. Isn't it true your son
Speaker 2: always wears the same kind of boots, the same pair
Speaker 2: of boots, and when that pair wears out, he gets
Speaker 2: another pair just like him. It's not like he's out
Speaker 2: wearing a different pair of shoes. These are his work
Speaker 2: based that we had on that day.
Speaker 5: Yes, And can I just touch on what you were
Speaker 5: saying about the health in public safety? Yes, So the
Speaker 5: commissioner actually reached out to Justin and I on Saturday
Speaker 5: to find out what the heck is going on, and
Speaker 5: they have reached out to us. We should know more
Speaker 5: tomorrow or today. Of course it was on a Saturday,
Speaker 5: but after the coverage and seeing what's going on, he
Speaker 5: did personally reach out to us. The governor of Utah
Speaker 5: told him to.
Speaker 2: In the last days, a Utah squad takes a plea
Speaker 2: deal in the murder of a teen farmer's death and
Speaker 2: leads detectives to Dylan Rounds, just nineteen years old, skeletal remains.
Speaker 2: We may have case resolution, but Dylan's family, especially his mother,
Speaker 2: is sentenced to life without her boy. Goodbye, friend to
Speaker 2: bed to be