Utah man charged with murder amid search for missing 19-year-old farmer Dylan Rounds
03/10/2023 3:36 pm PST
BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah (TCD) -- A 59-year-old man is being charged with murder in connection with the disappearance and death of a missing 19-year-old farmer.
Dylan Rounds was last seen May 26 in Lucin, Utah, near the Nevada-Utah border, and spoke with a family member on the phone May 28. The Elko County Sheriff’s Office said Rounds made the phone call from his farm, and he disappeared soon after that.
In July, the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the FBI publicly named James Brenner as a suspect in Rounds' disappearance. Law enforcement officials arrested Brenner on July 5 on unrelated firearm charges and booked him into the Weber County Jail, where he remains in custody.
On March 3, the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office announced the Box Elder County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Brenner for aggravated murder and abuse or desecration of a human body. Rounds' remains have not yet been found, but the Sheriff’s Office said they are "hopeful they will be found in the future."
The Sheriff’s Office also said Brenner is the sole suspect in the case. They called the investigation "difficult and extensive."
According to KSTU-TV, detectives found a video on Rounds' phone that shows Brenner cleaning a gun, and he appears to have bloodstains on his shirt and arm. Not long after he disappeared, deputies located Rounds' boots, which reportedly had the teen’s blood and Brenner’s DNA on them.
Brenner was reportedly "squatting" on land close to Rounds' farm at the time the 19-year-old vanished.
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