warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

this is  Jim Brenner ,a f farmer  living in a remote Utah desert.

police don’t know it yet,but he’s showing them the exact building  where  a missing  teenager was murdered just days  earlier.

19-year-old Dylan Rounds left his family to go work on his farm… But after being spotted buying supplies at a local shop, he would vanish without a trace.

Strangely, no one in the small, quiet town seemed surprised… Apparently, this was not uncommon.

As days stretched into weeks, detectives chased a mounting list of suspects  Thieves, violent criminals, drug dealers…. Yet from the very beginning, the truth was there… hidden in plain sight, by someone no one suspected….

682 days  before Dylan’s found

it all began on a quiet evening when police received  calls from a concerned family member reporting their son Dylan  rounds missing from his farm in Utah.

they hadn’t heard from him in over 2 days and when they went to his property to check,there was no sign of him anywhere.

a deputy was dispatches to Dylan’s farm to meat with his family but on his way there ,he was stopped by a neighbor of Dylan claiming he might know what happened to him.

as the conversation ended , Jim Brenner’s  strange  remark about a crime scene left deputy curious ,since no was yet confirmed.

it was an unsettling  comment that would soon becom a disturbing reality.

for now though , the deputy  took note of this information and contiuned toward’s Dylan’s farm to speak with his family.

at first gllance, Dylan’s red Ford truck appeared oddly  abandoned,bearing signs of minor  damage, but what concerned his father the most was that Dylan’s guns had mysteriously vanished from the trailer. a detail that was strange on its own.

wanting to learn more about Dylan,the deputy turn to speak with his mother, she had her own troubling information to share about Dylan’s recent runin with a local criminal.

Dylan’s mother confirmed  her son had  in fact encountered Chase Venstra recently, the  same person Dylan’s neighbor had earlier  described as a local thief and criminal.

given what the deputy learned so far, it seemed like Dylan might have unknowingly place himself in danger.

at just 19 , he purchased 640 acres of land with his grandfather for an estimated 200 to $300,000  and built a reputation for his ambitious dreams of running a huge farm.

but according to his  neighbor, Dylan’s confidence may have made him a target, as he often frequented rough local bars and talked openly about his financial success.

after  rehashing  som more details with Dylan’s parents, the neighbor Jim Brenner and his close friend Donald Hately arrived to help.

both men knew Dylan well .Jim was living in a trailer near Dylan’s farm and  occasionally  helped him with chores.

and Donald was a longtime friend of the family and a supportive mentor to  Dylan’s farming  ambitions.

but  unbeknownst to everyone at the time, both men knew something more about Dylan’s disappearance.something they weren’t ready to share yet.

following these lead, they quickly headed to the shed area to investigate.

when  they discovered  the first troubling sign of foul play.

Dylan’s boots were found stained with blood discarded about  100 yards south of the shed.

the deputy immediately secured the boots to send them off for DNA testing .

and called another deputy to help search the shed. and the surrounding property.

however, they had no way of knowing that the biggest clue they were looking forwas  submerged…

…20 ft deep in a pond nearby.

based  on Jim Brenner’s timeline,whatever happened to Dylan

likely occured between 1:30 pm and 9 :00 pm. the hours when Jim left the shed to visit his friend Donald Hately.

police quickly verified Brenner’s timeline with his friend Donald ,who confirms that they had dinner together  during that time.

with Dylan’s exact movements still unclear deputies were requested a helicopter to scout the area from abov looking for any trace of Dylan.

after a full  sweep of the surrounding area,no sign of Dylan or any  indication of where  he might have gone was found.

679 days before Dylan’s found

in the following days, the search efforts continued and Dylan’s family alongside  local volonteers joined in.but despite their best efforts combing through the area.

they too came up empty.

attention soon turned to the local criminal Chase Venstra both Dylan’s mother and his neighbor Jim mentioned a recent  encounter between the two.

making Chase one of the last people to see Dylan alive.additionally ,Chase already had a history of violent  run-ins with the law.

including a 10 hours armed  standoff with police in 2016 and  was well known in the area for all the wrong reasons.

luckily for police ,Chase had an active warrant related  to domestic  violence . it was their perfect chance to bring him in for questioning.

but when officers  arrived  at the  house to arrest him,Chase was nowhere to be found. potentially already on  the run from the police.

officers quickly  began searching the town,and asking if anyone had seen Chase recently.

locals directed them to the Montello Cowboy Bar, a place known to be frequented by Chase.

following this lead,officers headed to check the bar.

where they  would soon learn that  Dylan and Chase’s encounter may have been more dangerous then anyone realzied.

the bar owner’s  recap  only further implicated chase Venstra, suggesting that  a violent confrontation between  Chase and Dylan was more likely than ever.

but something else caught the officer’s attention when one of the bar owners briefly mentioned another recent incident involving Chase.

sensing there might be more to this ,the officer decided to pull her aside for a privat  conversation.

at this point, police still considered Dylan’s case a missing person.

but what the bar  owner  detailed next would  soon shift this case  to one of  potential homicide.

but what no one had realized yet, was that police were looking in the wrong direction the whole time.

while someone far more dangerous and  guilty was hiding  right under their noses.

678 days before Dylan’s found.

the next day, while the search for chase continued,  Dylan’s family reached out to the police. they were  conducting their own  investigation and wanted to share new information they’d  uncovered.information suggesting Chase may have not acted alone.

the man  Dylan’s mother mentioned would turn out to be Robert  Aviles. he had an active arrest warrant and reportedly gave  Chase Venstra a ride to Dylan’s place on the day he disappeared.

the family also suspected that Chase could be at Robert’s house so finding him became a prority in locating  their prime suspect and hopefully Dylan himself.

officers quickly moved to track down Robert Aviles and their first stop was Robert residence  where they came into contact  with his mother.

after speaking  with Robert’s mother ,officers conducted a thorough search of the property  but found no sign of Dylan or Chase.

but they soon located Robert inside his  trailer, and he was quickly arrested and  transported to the police station for questioning.

when  detectives place Robert in the interrogation room, they  expected  resistance and lies but instead,Robert didn’t hold back.

although  Robert admitted giving Chase  Venstra a ride, he couldn’t provide any clear information on Chase’s current whereabouts and maintained his innocence throughout the rest of  his  interview.

however ,Robert made one thing clear. he believed  Chase was involved and might have even killed Dylan.

677 days before dylan’s found.

the following night, something strange happened  at Dylan’s trailer in the Lucin Desert.it seemed someone had quietly returned and tampered with items inside.

an officer  was quickly sent out to photograph and document the scene.accompanied by Dylan’s father, who’d share more details about the troubling discovery.

this discovery was an alarming indication that  someone was actively trying to cover up their involvement in Dylan’s disappearance.

but his father had one more thing to share. something about an old confontation with someone police hadn’t yet fully considered in their investigation.

according  to Dylan’s father , there were no further escalation after his confrontation with Jim  Brenner at the time. at this point  no one had any real reason to suspect  Jim Brenner or Donald  Hatley . after all, they’d been actively helping the family . joining in search and rescue efforts,  and fully  cooperating with police.

however, the confrontation, described by Dylan’s father was serious enough for the officer to take note of it. after  leaving the scene, he passed this information to detectives.

promting a deeper  look into Jim Brenner’s past and what detective’s uncovered wasn’t entirely unexpected.

a criminal past , including convictions for aggravated  assaults and multiple weapons charges,  as well as a pre-existing federal active warrant for being a restricted person in possession of a firearm.

Brenner’s violent history and his close proximity to Dylan’s farm were enough for detectives to flag him as a person of interest, alongside their primary suspect ,Chase Venstra.

676 days  before Dylan’s found

the following day,moved quickly  to serve Brenner’s arrest warrant and bring him in for questioning.they soon spotted him casually heading back towards  the grain shed with his close friend, Donald  Hatley.

Jim pointing fingers at Robert and Chase was understandable,given witness statements and allegations.but Jim’s own criminal past and proximity to Dylan made him equally suspicious.

detectives transported him to the police station,planning  to use the unrelated warrant charges as an  opportunity to question him further about  Dylan.

though they didn’t expect much new information from Jim, this routine questioning was about to lead to an unexpected breakthrough.

as expected , Jim Brenner’s statements remained mostly  consistent, and he appeared  genuinely convinced Chase  and Robert had something to do with Dylan’s disappearance.

Brenner’ had more details to share. details about Dylan himself and the dangerous individuals he was attracting.

Brenner would go on to mention several other people , mostly  convicted criminals from the area who could have  had  strong motives to rob or even kill Dylan.

clearly ,he wasn’t exactly narrowing things down for detectives ,but at least he appeared fully cooperative .however,in just moments,Brenner would  let somethng slip,something that would unintentionally place him right at the center of the suspect pool.

needless to say,jim’s choice of  words wasn’t  ideal.and this wasn’t the first time his statements had raised eyebrows, as he’d previously made a similar remark when Dylan first went missing, speaking about him as if he was already dead.

although several days had passed and the possibility of foul play was growing,detectives still found his comments odd.

but with the rest of Brenner’s interview he yielding nothing new,investigators  booked him into jail on his unrelated firearm possession warrant ,giving them time to further investigate any possible involvement.

663 days before Dylan’s found.

shortly after Jim Brenner was taken into custody,officers finally located Chase and arrested him on his unrelated warrant out of Montana.

detectives wasted no time bringing him in for questioning .

but in this first interview,Chase flately denied any involvement,insisting locals were spreading fals rumors to frame him.

with no hard evidence,investigators booked him into jail, but with a strategy in mind. they placed him in a cell directly above Jim, quietly hoping they would interact .

and at one point, one of them might talk or slip up.

pretty quickly,this tactic  paid off,when Chase reached out to detectives for another interview,claiming he knew exactly what happened to Dylan and could solve the entire case

unfortunately  for detectives, their  strategy backfired.

now,Chase wanted to  bargain his freedom in exchange for information he claimed to have. but investigators had little reason to trust Chase and without an agreement to drop his gun charges. the interview ended without providing any new leads.

655 days before Dylan’s found.

on june 28th, exactly  a months  since Dylan went missing,police were called out after a witness reported finding something suspicious in the desert.

a burial site with clear signs of something dead inside.

the burial site contained dead dogs buried beneath.not exactly what police were expecting though it meant there still might be hope for Dylan.

just as  the investigation began to settle back into a frustrating standstill,police received a call from someone they knew well.

Jim Brenner’s close friend Donald Hately.he’d been around  since the early days of the search,helping the family and cooperating with officers.

but now weeks into the investigation, he wanted to speak with  investigators,claiming he had important information to share, something he’d kept hidden ever since Dylan vanished.

detectives  immediately arranged to meet with donald, where they would finally uncover one of the first truly damning clues in the case.

Donald’s admission couldn’t  have come at a worse time for Jim brenner.although Donald explained that Jim hid the guns at his place of fear of losing them,the timing was deeply suspicious.

and for detectives,this was enough to place  Brenner at the center of suspicion alongside Chase.following this discover,the firearms were seized and Jim picked up an additional firearm possession charge,keeping  him in jail as the investigation continued.

but detective still lacked concrete evidence against anyone. and crucial DNA result from the bloody  boots found near the shed where yet to return.

it seemed like the case might stall for a while.

119 days before Dylan’s found

over a year would pass with  detectives quietly making progress,including crucial DNA results,but still no sign of Dylan himself and no one held responsible.

that is until december 2023  when investigators got a call that would change everything.

Jim Brenner’s cellmate,who’d spent months  locked up alongside him  claimed to know exactly what had happened to Dylan.

detectives quickly  arranged an  interview, expecting another bargaining  scenario similar to Chase’s .but what the cellmate would reveal instead was a chilling murder confession.

the revelations from Brenner’s  cellmate were chilling to say the least.

according to him, the argument that ended Dylan’s life…

stemmed from Brenner being irritated with Dylan for repeatedly using the she he considered  his own workspace.

after killing Dylan ,Brenner atempted to cover up his crime by loading  Dylan’s body onto a backhoe,burying him deep in a remote stretch of the desert nearby.

he then concealed the guns at Donald’s  place and discarded Dylan’s phone  in a nearby pond ,unaware it had recorded a damning, irrefutable proof of  his crime.

in addition to this confession, detectives turned back to the bloody boot  DNA evidence they received  a few months earlier.

the  state lab report confirms the blood belonged to Dylan,but they also found touch DNA  matching Jim Brenner. on the boots.

using this evidence,investigators then secured a search warrant for Brenner’s phone and by analyzing its data,they  confirmed his device had traveled  toward a nearby pond the  day Dylan vanished.

after searching the pond,they  retrieved Dylan’s phone ,containing  crucial evidence.

a video clearly showing Jim Brenner in a bloodstained  shirt cleaning a gun.

there  was no  longer any doubt. Jim Brenner killed Dylan Rounds and had been hiding in plain sight all along.

OOO days  before Dylan’s found

despite the overhelming evidence, Brenner still sought to  negotiate.

prosecutors were preparing for an  aggravated murder trial,but still lacked Dylans body.

so , Brenner offered prosecutors a deal.he would  reveal the location of Dylan’s body in exchange for reduced charges.

in spring of 2024 , Brenner guided law enforcement to Dylan’s remains in the Lucin  Desert.

the burial site was several miles from the grain shed property and was so well hidden

that  investigators had driven over the spot during earlier searches without noticing it.

inside the grave, they located Dylan’s  skeletal remains.

only bones and fragments of his clothing survived.

on may 15 that same year, Brenner plead guilty to second degree murder and two counts of firearm possession in exchange for dropping charges of desecrating  remains and an unrelated aggravated assault case.

on july 1st,Brenner was sentenced to 1 to 15  years  for second degree murder and two additonal 1 to 15 year sentences for the firearms.