Neighbor Charged With Murder In The Disappearance Of 19-Year-Old Utah Farmer

Ten months after 19-year-old farmer Dylan Rounds disappeared from a Lucin, Utah farm, his neighbor was charged with murder in connection with his disappearance. Dylan's body has still not been found.

On March 3, 2023, James Brenner was charged with “criminal homicide, aggravated murder” and “abuse or desecration of a human body” in Dylan's case.

According to the probable cause statement, during their search authorities discovered a pair of Dylan's boots which had his blood on them along with Brenner's DNA. The statement also mentions a video that investigators discovered which showed Brenner with “blood stains on his arms and shirt as he is cleaning a gun.” The shirt Brenner was wearing in the video was analyzed and Dylan's DNA was found on it.

In a press release, the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office said that they are hopeful that Dylan's body “will be found in the future.”

ORIGINAL: 07/11/22

Neighbor Considered A Suspect In The Disappearance Of 19-Year-Old Utah Farmer

The Box Elder County Sheriff's Office named James Brenner, 58, a suspect in the disappearance of 19-year-old farmer Dylan Rounds. According to a press release from the Sheriff’s office, they came to this conclusion “after many interviews and searches, along with the analysis of both physical evidence and forensic data”.

Although Brenner hasn’t been charged with any crime in connection with the disappearance, he is currently in the Weber County Jail on unrelated federal firearm charges, reported PEOPLE.

Dylan Rounds was last heard from on May 28, 2022, when he spoke with his grandmother, and no one has seen or talked to him since then. On May 30, 2022, Candice Cooley, Dylan’s mother, immediately went to search his Lucin, Utah farm after she realized that others hadn’t heard from him either. When she found no sign of him at his farm, she reported him missing.

According to NBC News, Cooley found it suspicious that Dylan’s truck had been power-washed, and the seats appeared to have been recently moved. There were also no tire tracks on the ground despite the fact that it had been raining that weekend. Furthermore, Cooley knew her son only had one pair of boots, and he always wore them. However, those boots were found left outside beyond his truck far from his camper, near where Brenner was staying.

Brenner was squatting on the property where Dylan kept his grain truck at the time of the young man’s disappearance, reported PEOPLE. According to the East Idaho News, Dylan’s mother said Brenner often helped her son at his farm.

During the last conversation he had with his grandmother, he told her that he was going to move his grain truck in the shed to protect the seed it held because it was raining.

Cooley said that her son always dreamed of owning a farm. Although he grew up in Idaho, he bought some land for a farm with his grandfather in Lucin, Utah, which is a small railroad community in Box Elder County, in 2019. The teenager then set out to work the land and make his dream come true. Rounds had been living on the farm and working on it at the time of his disappearance.

Law enforcement investigators are continuing to search for answers to find out what happened to Dylan Rounds. They encourage anyone with knowledge of the situation to come forward. If you have any information about this case, you can send private messages through the Box Elder County Sheriff's Department’s Facebook page. You are also encouraged to call the Missing in America Network at (844) 642-5678, the Anonymous Tip Line at (844) 642-5678, or the Box Elder County Sheriff at (435) 723-5227, (435) 734-3894, and (435) 257-3131.

*This article was originally published on 07/11/22 and updated on 05/25/23.