FBI now involved in Dylan Rounds case as his parents plead for help in first joint interview

i'm nate eaton and today i am talking with candace cooley and justin rounds these are dylan brown's parents who of course this is a story we've been covering almost a month now which is hard to believe candace was here a few weeks ago we wanted to an update on on any potential new developments and really get the word out there that dylan is still missing that's the whole purpose that you know here's this 19 year old kid whose birthday is coming up in august and and we need to find him first of all thank you both for coming here i know you're you're probably exhausted and every sort of emotion has gone through your mind over the past few weeks let's backtrack a little though and set up the the situation for those people that are just tuning in or don't know what the story is about um your son is dylan rounds tell me where he was when he disappeared kind of set the stage okay so when we first heard about it justin and i well when we first knew something was wrong was monday may 30th justin and our other daughter brooklyn were coming back from vegas and i was at home and we got a call from dylan's friend jd saying nobody had heard from dylan so i got that call i immediately called brooklyn and justin and said have you guys heard from dylan and it was no so the last time he was heard from was saturday may 28th at approximately 6 51 in the morning he talked to grandma so we immediately knew something was wrong and we all headed to lucin at that time and justin would you talk to dylan frequently quite regularly not not every day but i talked to him thursday thursday on her way to vegas and he was talking about his tractors and what he was going to do that weekend and then his service got bad and then i didn't talk to him again so it was basically kind of like i am with my dad every couple days i'll text or call on the phone it's not a regular daily thing but frequent so but it was abnormal the fact that monday came around and nobody had heard from them correct yep so you had to loosen which lusin is a very remote part of utah by the idaho or by the nevada utah border what did you find when you got there so when we got there it was like nothing was out of place nothing was suspicious we figured dylan put his grain truck in the shed like he told his grandma he was gonna do and took off walking to his camper and was out there with a broken leg or bit by a snake you know it's a five and a half mile stretch so that's what we were thinking we were gonna find was a hospital trip and you know a quick heart attack for everybody but bring him home and doctor him up and good to go so about 90 minutes into the search is when they found dylan's boots behind the dirt mound and they took justin and i out there and we we both instantly knew um we just didn't know the extent of what it was going to turn into because we were following law enforcement and search and rescue leads like you know their way of doing things if they weren't panicked if they weren't making a big deal out of it why should we you know we don't know we've never been in this situation um so we find the boots um and how far were the boots from this camp trailer about 300 yards 300 yards from not from the camp trailer from his green truck oh from the ground truck yes so you've got the camp trailer you've got his pickup truck the red pickup and then you've got the grain truck correct and then 300 yards from the grain truck behind a pile of dirt is the boots correct and there's blood on the boots well so they have now confirmed that we've both seen the dark spot you saw a spot we weren't sure if it was hydraulic oil like i said we were following law enforcement's lead if they're not panicked we're not going to panic um so yeah but they have but they haven't confirmed it's human okay but there was there was and how much blood are we talking like if you had a bloody nose and a drop okay so they weren't soaked in blood but there's a little bit of blood on there you find his boots and and justin when they find his boots what goes through your mind at that point i just the this is real and then they tried talking to us well maybe he bought some new boots and threw them out and these boots right here are the exact same kind of boots they were and these are a lot worse shape than those so i knew something was not right so they were newer boots well yeah a year older so okay so they find the boots and then the truck is parked there the grain truck is dylan gonna go on a walk without us how is he gonna get anywhere with that well not only that but the boots were found in the opposite direction of if he would have been walking to his camper yeah were the boots near potential crops i mean seed i mean they were by an old junk hole where they'd burn trash and stuff kind of okay so you're worried you're saying this is real something's not right here and then what so that search and rescue left that night they were out until after dark so we all went to the camper to where dylan's camper and pickup was and and you know we're looking through his camper we're looking for anything you know can't get in the pickup can't find the keys so justin broke the back window out of it yeah don't try to find it to try to find any yeah um and box elder we did have a deputy out with us at that time and and asked him about breaking out the back window and it was basically yeah it's your pickup you can do whatever you want to it um and then nothing in the pickup nothing in the camper nothing i mean like i said it was like everything was left perfect and dylan was just gone no phone no wallet correct but he did make a call from that phone to grandma on the saturday morning correct and was anything unusual about the call just that it was raining and he had to get his grain truck in so he protected his seed and they've been able to ping from what i understand that call came from the farm from the area yeah from the area do we know where he went after the call that's that's where it goes blank but we do know the day before he was in nevada we know for sure on on the 26th on thursday the 26th he was in nevada the 27th um we know for sure because of hearsay for yeah exactly we we know for sure because of credit card transactions but on friday it's uh some say yes some say no the stories have changed we do know with what they're doing now they'll dig more into dylan's phone and they're doing that so whether or not they've confirmed if he was there um but we do know the phone call the grandma came from the farm area so we know he was in that area so regardless of where he was friday he did make it back to the farm or was still on the farm saturday yes and was okay based on the call seemed okay yes since we last talked the box of the sheriffs has said this is now a criminal investigation correct what does that mean to you all uh it's it's terrible it's terrifying but it's also got us help we need yeah finally we got the fbi's got involved it feels like something's gonna happen now with box elder it didn't feel like anything was happening i don't know what they were doing but yeah it's because because it was considered a missing person right which is a different status right which that's why we discussed about getting into the media yeah people know who dylan was you know because that's that's why we got into the media and to get the fbi involved and to let people know who he was and he wasn't the kid that just took off for a week to do dumb stuff i've told people in recent interviews that it would almost be comforting if we had that thought like hey dylan's mad at us or dylan doesn't want to farm anymore dylan had a breakdown and we're going to find him but we don't even have that and this kid based on talking with you guys going through facebook seeing his photos it seems like his passion was that farm was farming being outside and as you mentioned last time candace he wasn't into video games i mean he wasn't into partying he wasn't into any of that stuff so what's what's happened since we last talked we spoke you guys were going to do a big search out there the weekend a weekend or two ago no no hints no clues no no we had elco came out and helped us organize that search did the grid search they assigned everybody areas um there was a few suspicious things they went and looked at that didn't turn up into anything and then it was that sunday that um i was told the fbi had reached out and that was all the information i'd gotten was the fbi's reached out and then by wednesday it was that wednesday we were in touch with an agent and things finally started happening so the 15th is when box elder came out it was criminal and that was after the fbi got involved but they they lost 17 days at that point with the same evidence they had three days into it so you know they they did take dylan's campers finally finally the fbi came when the update i arrived they took the campers and what about his trucks and i reached out to bonneville county and they reached into isp and they have the truck the pickup and then the tractor he was driving i don't know if they i've reached out to isp and stuff to go check the ecm on that to just get an idea of when that tractor was running i don't haven't heard anything about that yet it's in rupert that might give you give you a clue there give an idea of when the tractor was actually running you think about something like this and i'm sure it's gone through your mind was it an accident was there some sort of accident there's also the possibility of suicide and i mean it's it's out there you look at all the options there could be that and then there's criminal right homicide or something nefarious so um i'm have all those situations gone through your mind everything everything except accept suicide suicide suicide just kidnapping he's in a building somewhere i keep getting texts and calls he's in a building in tana i mean in montello and which is suicide suicide right and never across my mind what not one time no never any sign of mental illness never no no so that leaves the accident or the criminal which now that they're saying it's criminal i mean what what do you think happened somebody did something i mean and we we kind of got to keep some of our what we think to ourselves we got to keep some of this because we know a little bit more about some of the stuff then we can't release everything my my main goal is to just find out who did what and make sure they get what they got coming to them with the law if or whatever yeah good i mean the main goal is to find dylan don't get me wrong that's the first and only priority and i when somebody tells me he's in the shed or something that i wish it was true but i don't know if that's well we haven't received any ransom or any we're no ransom people wanting to help and yeah you know so it wouldn't make sense that somebody's just holding them to hold them um but i'm with justin i mean i wish that was the case and we'd find him somewhere and once again tripped to the hospital you know some counseling and whatever and bring them home well the fact his wallet's gone and have his bank accounts been touched so that if someone did have his wallet they could you know go use his cards or whatever let's clear up some rumors you hate to do this because the last thing parents in this situation need is for people to speculate online and right call people names and do not do things like that there is no gofundme correct absolutely none so you're not raising money no you're not anything like that dylan may have been in a horrible relationship with a man or a woman yeah not true not true no no basis no ev just speculations and rumors once again what are the other things you want to clear up um that we're working with law enforcement and law enforcement only whatever else is put out there if it is not justin or myself that is speaking they are not on behalf of us and they are not gathering they can show clips of interviews but it's not with us um so we've we're really trying to stay focused on the good media the media is going to report dylan's story truthfully and keep it out there so that we can find him so all the other stuff's just here say he also only has one facebook page and that's the fine dylan rounds the missing in america one there's six or seven of them now and they're all just speculation and robbing off of other stuff so we're trying to really keep our bases covered and the truth and the facts and only the facts out there because that's the only way we're going to find them and bring them home what can you say about the two men that were working with them on the farm so you know we we all know it's been out there that dylan and don parted ways and but that's what it was that's i mean we weren't there we don't know i know the story dylan told me about it was about hooking up his washing machine but it's not like it was a knock down drag out you know bitter party bitter part yeah yeah so and and once again that's something that law enforcement has to decide because we're not investigators and we're not the ones that can you know look into backgrounds and past other things to say hey we need to look at this um so you know they've been mentioned names have been thrown out names have been thrown out by a lot of people who shouldn't have been throwing out names so we are just clearing and clarifying and we have no fact to point a finger either one of those two we have no facts and that's like i said that's what we have to stick with do you know how uh far before dylan vanished that they had this that he separated it was like six weeks six seven weeks so it was some time yeah and as far as the other uh farm worker were they on good terms i so he just helped him off and on it wasn't wasn't like he was there full time yeah no he was just kind of when they needed when they yeah yeah so um it's it's turned into like it was this huge farm that dylan needed all this help running and that that wasn't the case dylan could do most all the work on his own he needed some help mechanicing and like putting together mainline that's more than a one-person job but other than that you know it's one pivot dylan could handle it he was doing it most of most of the time he was there by himself correct yeah and what about people that he may have had interactions with in nevada or there in lusin so in lucid there isn't anything nobody's no it's girls too yeah it's like the osgoode area only no gas station there's nothing out there nothing um and then as far as as montello i mean you're talking in itty bitty town you're you're gonna go into town for lunch and you're gonna socialize with whoever's in that bar restaurant because that's your only option you know it's there the gas station yeah they're the gas station that's doesn't matter who's there you're going to talk to them because there's nowhere else to go so you know it's hard to pinpoint and say you know who else could he known in montello well whoever went in and ate lunch and on the day he was in there a guy in montello was helping him dig his main line last fall and his backhoe was out there and they were he helped him fill it in and a few things so i mean there was a guy in montel that was doing some stuff with dylan as well but i had never heard anything ill i mean i had a little run-in with one of the guys that worked for dylan two years ago and i was looking through my text and dylan defended him pretty good and was pretty upset with me but so i mean i don't know what that's worth but so he never called you guys and said oh this guy's giving me problems never never explained about any run-ins with anybody out there i've never heard nothing why do you think anyone would target or or you know go after your son i don't know that's what makes it so bizarre never there was never any he loved it out there he was you know we talk about all the people that squat out there and all the people that want to get away from society and the government and all that in dylan's own little way he was one of those people because he wanted to get away from where houses could be built on the farm ground and he would be basically driven out of the occupation he wanted for his lifelong dream so he was one of those people in in a different sense you know he wasn't anti-social or anti-government but he needed to be out where he wasn't going to have people move in on him and that's why he loved it so much because he knew he never had to worry about that yeah he had a he had a huge vision of that yeah he's going to develop the whole valley what do you want people to know just to stick with the facts stick with the good media you know keep up on it if you hear something you know call in but we just we don't want this blown up to this crazy insane theories we need to stick with the facts and find dylan somebody out there knows exactly and what would you say to them just come forward i mean we gotta have something we need a direction we need any even if you don't think it's important it's the smallest little piece of something that's actual fact factual you know we don't need to hear for the i don't know millionth time is he in the grain truck or check the silos there are no silos we somebody out there is and you know they're seeing the media and you know they're seeing this and they're holding it in like this is our son come tell us we've had a lot of i've had a lot of people text me just last night i was texting some people and they're trying to help and i think they are but a lot of them out there don't want to talk to the police and i don't know what to follow and back and forth and i mean i've been everywhere out there in places i would never want to go again and i just i wish they would they would reach out to the law enforcement if they really thought they had something um i don't mind them reaching out to me but i can only be so many places that someone solo somewhat so often you know and you you you don't want to use all of your time to chase down all these rabbit holes we have been a lot and i will but i'd like some help with the law enforcement to look into when they hear some things they just it seems like they just think it's nothing that that has been a problem we have had some stuff that actually needed to be looked into that they've called into box elder and they don't get a response yeah we we got something that we know that we don't want to share has been called into box elder and they never responded to the people and they finally reached out to me the people did yeah you had some information and so that that has been an issue are you planning any more search with volunteers searches as soon as we have somewhere to send the volunteers we've got to have a direction we can't we can't people go out yeah yeah that's kind of how it was the first weekend we didn't know what to do and we we just decided to ask people if they were gonna go out for the weekend go come here and go out for the weekend and drive around and let's just look yeah it was terrible we had no idea what to do or where to go we had no we've never done this before yeah and and we didn't have help from law enforcement i mean they it's like we said we are not exaggerating when we say they left us in the desert the literal deserts the literal desert yeah so i said we are getting the help we need now um it's been the media that's got us there um i think it would have been swept under the rug as a simple another 19 year old that walked away had we not pushed the media you guys have helped to get the fbi involved i do believe and and i appreciate that well there's definitely an interest in your story in your son i mean there yeah there is an interest people want to know where he is and if he's okay and here we are nearly a month later can you can you believe it's been a month i know it probably feels like 10 years to you in a way but one day to you i mean what has it been like like i said in waves some days it feels like a year some days it feels like just yesterday we started yeah it's just it's all blur anything else you want people to know no we'll just we'll keep updating and keep moving forward and hopefully we get some more drones out this weekend it sounds like so that'll be good you've had drones you've had dogs atv's helicopters police officers of course nothing nothing not anything and that's one other thing we're waiting on right now for equisearch is the invitation for the new pilots i did get word of that right before i got here that that's what they're that's what echo surge is waiting on is for box elder to say yes for every pilot because they're very echo surge is very particular on how they do everything and these drone pilots are too like they need a yes from law enforcement they need a law enforcement around with them with them so that the evidence can be used yes they find something so we just you know kind of feel like we're running on box elders timeline instead of them running on dillons like let's get these guys out here they're lined up they're ready to go let's go so well we'll put up a picture of dylan this is dylan rounds and if you know anything call police somebody knows something follow the one official facebook page we'll link to that down in the story below that's where you can get the most accurate information everywhere else you'll you'll want to verify yeah because there's there is some crazy stuff out there i hope next time we talk it's on we have some news to report that's positive bring some closure in a way regardless of what it is justin thank you very much and candace thank you yeah thank you we're thinking about your family praying for you and gosh i hope this comes to an end soon thank you thank you

Channel: East Idaho News

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Id: vvaQAAMGwOo

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2022