‘Killer squatter’ leads police to skeletal remains of farmer Dylan Rounds who vanished in 2022
Dylan Rounds was allegedly murdered by his neighbour 60-year-old James Brenner, who had been squatting in a trailer next to the victim’s Utah home
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The skeletal remains of a teenage farmer who went missing back in 2022 have finally been found in a remote area of Utah after the man accused of his murder led authorities to the site.
Dylan Rounds, 19, vanished on Memorial Day weekend two years ago.
Before his disappearance, the teenager had made a final phone call to his grandmother – then was never seen or heard from again.
The FBI and the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office announced in a statement on Tuesday that remains presumed to belong to the missing teenager had been recovered from the remote western Box Elder County area of Lucin.
They have been handed over to the medical examiner’s office to confirm the identity.
Investigators have alleged that Rounds was murdered by his neighbour 60-year-old James Brenner, who had been reportedly squatting in a trailer next to the property where the victim lived.
Mr Brenner was charged in 2023 with aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a human body for allegedly killing Rounds and then disposing of his body.
As part of a plea deal, Mr Brenner reportedly led authorities to the location of Rounds’ burial site on Tuesday morning, Candice Cooley, the teen victim’s mother, told East Idaho News.
“We thank everyone for their support and love,” Ms 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.”
Early on in the investigation into his disappearance, authorities had found a pair of boots belonging to the teen, with one having a blood stain splattered on it, according to charging documents obtained by ABC4.
After DNA analysis, the boots were confirmed to belong to Rounds. Mr Brenner’s DNA was also found on them, the outlet reported.
Authorities also tracked down Rounds’ phone, which sent its final signal at the Lucin pond.
After a search of the pond, the phone was discovered, the charging documents state.
A digital forensic download was carried out, leading to the discovery of a harrowing time-lapse video taken at the time of Rounds’ disappearance.
The video showed Mr Brenner cleaning a gun while blood stains were visible on his arms and shirt, ABC4 reported.
The shirt Mr Brenner was wearing in the video was later analysed by authorities and the missing teen’s DNA was foundd on it.
Mr Brenner, described by court documents obtained by Fox News as a “family friend” of Rounds, was initially arrested in July 2022 on federal firearms charges, before being charged with murder in March 2023.
The sheriff’s office offered its condolences to Rounds’s family now that his presumptive skeletal remains have been discovered.
“We understand that the pain of their loss is immeasurable, and we want to express our deepest sympathies to them,” the office said. “It is our hope that they can find peace moving forward.”
The sheriff’s office said it is releasing no further information at this time.