Dylan Rounds' parents release new details about their missing son's boots, phone, pistol and more

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IDAHO FALLS — The parents of a missing man from eastern Idaho are releasing new details about their son’s disappearance and what they’ve learned since he vanished in May.

Dylan Rounds, who turned 20 on Aug. 1, was farming in the desert town of Lucin, Utah. His grandmother spoke with him on May 28 and nobody has heard from him since. There has been no sign of Dylan anywhere and no activity on his cell phone or bank account, according to his parents.

Chase Venstra, 41, and James Brenner, 59, two men who interacted with Dylan in the days before he vanished, were arrested in July for felony gun crimes in Utah. They have not been charged in connection to Dylan’s disappearance but Dylan’s parents now believe Brenner, who was squatting on nearby property, did something to their son.

They say boots belonging to Dylan that were found behind a dirt pile on his property with blood on them were put there by Brenner.

“Brenner has admitted he’s the one who took the boots out there,” Candice Cooley, Dylan’s mom, says in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com. “He said he found them by the shed (on the property), picked them up, moved them by his camper somewhere and then decided Dylan wasn’t coming back for them.”

Cooley and Justin Rounds, Dylan’s dad, say law enforcement told them this information and argue Brenner’s story doesn’t make sense.

“Those boots were not in that desert during a rainstorm on Friday (the day before Dylan disappeared). Those boots didn’t even have dust or mud on them,” Cooley explains. “I bet you Brenner put them there on Monday (two days after Dylan vanished) when he knew we were coming out and he had to get rid of them.”

In addition to learning about the boots, Dylan’s parents say pings on their son’s cell phone show it never left his property on the day he vanished and the phone was found at the bottom of the Lucin Pond on June 18.

“Right after that last phone call to my mother (on May 28), Dylan called Jim Brenner,” Rounds says. “Then he went up to Jim Brenner’s – the phone did – and was around there for a while. Then it went back to Dylan’s place and then back to Jim Brenner’s.”

Then, according to Rounds and Cooley, Brenner stopped by the pond on his way to a friend’s for lunch.

“He placed himself at the pond the day Dylan disappeared and Dylan’s phone was found in the pond,” Cooley explains.

No unusual information or evidence of where Dylan could be was found on the phone, according to the parents.

Cooley and Rounds say they’re also worried about someone entering Dylan’s trailer after he disappeared and placing one of his guns, along with a key fob to his truck, inside.

When his parents visited the property the Monday after Dylan disappeared, they searched his camp trailer looking for his pistol.

“Justin and I both walked in the camper and went through it all. On his bathroom sink was his gun case. There was no gun in it,” Cooley says. “We opened the medicine cabinet. Nothing. The next day, Justin’s sister cleaned out the bathroom for Dylan’s grandma to use. No gun. The next day, the pistol was laying there with the clip out of it in broad daylight where we had all looked.”

The following day, Dylan’s parents say they returned to the trailer and the truck key fob was placed in the same location as the gun.

“That key fob and gun were not there originally. They came back and there were really only two people out there with access to put those back underneath our noses,” Cooley explains. She says one of the men was Brenner and the other was a friend who has not been arrested or charged.

The key fob and gun were “wiped down” and police were unable to get any fingerprints off of them, according to Cooley.

Read the entire story at eastidahonews.com.

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