The last person who spoke to Dylan Rounds was his grandmother in 2022 on May 28. Per PEOPLE, Rounds told her he was moving his grain truck from his camper in Lucin -- in northwest Utah -- to his shed about five miles away due to rain.
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Rounds was only 19 at the time of his disappearance. According to his mother, Candice Cooley, Rounds was well on his way to establishing a good, purposeful life.
"Dylan was out building his life," Cooley said. "His lifelong dream was to have his own farm. [Dylan] has spent the last two summers ripping out and redeveloping that ground on his own. He got his water rights. He did everything. And this year his grain was finally coming up. He finally got a crop. He got his pivot up. It was a fully functional farm."
That life was taken from Rounds by James Brenner. Per the New York Post, Brenner had been squatting in a trailer on farmland near Rounds' property in the small desert community of Lucin near the Utah-Nevada border. During the initial search for Rounds, law enforcement found the missing grain truck, and a pair of bloody boots, alongside a DNA analysis that matched Rounds to the shoes.
The Cause Of Death In James Brenner's Murder Of Dylan Rounds
Rounds' cause of death was ultimately revealed as a gunshot wound to the head. James Brenner appeared in Utah's First District Court for a preliminary hearing. There, he pled guilty to a felony murder charge and two counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person related to Rounds' disappearance in 2022.
As part of a plea deal, Brenner's first-degree felony aggravated murder charge was reduced to second-degree felony murder, and a second charge of desecration of human remains was ultimately dropped, as stated by the Box Elder County Attorney's Office. In accordance with the plea deal, Brenner was required to disclose the burial site of Rounds' body.
On April 9, 2024, skeletal remains presumed to belong to Dylan Rounds were recovered. They were found in the remote western Box Elder County area of Lucin.
The Rounds family was grateful to finally receive answers. "This recent development means the investigation has gone full circle, and now we can finally bring Dylan home and close this chapter."
