By Alec Gearty and Nicholas McEntyre
he presumed skeletal remains of a 19-year-old farmer who vanished over Memorial Day weekend in 2022 were discovered in a remote area in Utah on Tuesday.
Dylan Rounds was allegedly murdered by his neighbor James Brenner, 60, who had been squatting in a trailer on the land next to the teen’s property in a small desert community near the Utah-Nevada border.
“On April 9, 2024, skeletal remains presumed to belong to Dylan Rounds were recovered in the remote western Box Elder County area of Lucin,” the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Brenner had led investigators to Rounds’ burial site as part of a plea deal, according to the East Idaho News.
Lucin is approximately 200 miles northwest of Salt Lake City.
“We thank everyone for their support and love,” Rounds’ mother, Candice Cooley, told the outlet. “We are grateful we now have Dylan’s body and can bring him home as we continue our fight for justice.”
The suspected murderer has been in jail since June 2022 after he was arrested for firearms violations and was charged with Rounds’ death last year.
Brenner was slapped with aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a human body, both felonies, in March 2023, the sheriff’s office announced.
Brenner and another area resident were considered “family friends” of Rounds. They were squatting on land approximately 5 miles from the teen’s farm, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.
Rounds was last heard from on May 30 when he talked to his grandmother over the phone, telling her he was “putting the grain truck into shelter,” the outlet said.
The shelter was on a section of land owned by Box Elder Land and Livestock, and was adjacent to the property Brenner was squatting on.
Brenner’s arrest on March 3, 2023, came after what the sheriff’s office called a “difficult and extensive nine-month investigation.”
The missing grain truck and a pair of bloody boots were found during the initial search for the missing teen, and a DNA analysis matched Rounds to the shoes, according to KSL.com.
During the investigation, county officials and the FBI recovered several guns from Brenner’s property, of which he was in illegal possession because of his criminal history.
It was also discovered Brenner had asked the second resident to hold on to the weapons “for his own safety” and that “the last time he had trouble with the law, they took everything from him, and he did not want the things he had left to be taken again.”
Investigators had interviewed both men and later executed several search warrants on Brenner’s trailer.
A muzzleloader, several boxes of lead ball ammunition of varying sizes, ignition caps, 4 pounds of Hornady black powder, speed loads, and a .22-caliber Winchester Model 69 rifle were confiscated from Brenner.
Investigators also obtained Rounds’ phone records, which captured movement on the land near where Brenner was squatting.
Rounds’ phone was later traced to the area near a Lucin pond, and a time-lapse video was found on the device, which captured Brenner with bloodstains on his arms and shirt as he was cleaning his gun, KSL.com previously reported, citing Brenner’s charges.
Investigators found Rounds’ DNA on Brenner’s bloody shirt, linking him to the teen’s disappearance, according to the outlet.
“Brenner was interviewed and made several claims that corroborated forensic evidence in addition to making numerous demonstrably false statements,” court documents obtained by KSL.com stated before Rounds’ body was discovered.
“Our hearts go out to the family of Dylan Rounds,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“We offer our sincerest condolences for the loss of their family member. We understand that the pain of their loss is immeasurable, and we want to express our deepest sympathies to them. It is our hope that they can find peace moving forward.”
