Dylan Rounds.Photo: Box Elder County Sheriff’s Department
Ever since Dylan Rounds was very young, he dreamed of one day owning his own farm.
About three years ago, the teen purchased hundreds of acres of land in the remote Utah desert and began making his dream a reality.
“Dylan was out building his life,” his mom Candice Cooley tells PEOPLE. “His lifelong dream was to have his own farm. He 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.”
And then he disappeared.
Cooley says her 19-year-old son last spoke to his grandmother on May 28 and told her he was moving his grain truck from his camper in Lucin — in northwest Utah near the Nevada border — to his shed about five miles away because it started to rain.
“He just had to get his grain truck in the shed because it was raining and he didn’t want his seed to get ruined,” she says.
Cooley, who lives in Idaho, found out on May 30 that nobody in the family had spoken to him since then.
“I would go three or four days without talking to him and then I’d talk to him five days in a row,” she says. “But he was always in contact with somebody. So, when we all put together that nobody talked to him, that’s when we all headed down to the farm.”
Missing in America Network
Once there, Cooley says they found his grain truck in the shed. A search and rescue team later discovered his boots behind a pile of dirt.
Those were his only pair of boots, she says.
His camper was also searched. “There was no wallet, no phone,” says Cooley.
Cooley adds that the key fob to his pickup was also missing and the truck was locked. “Dylan never locks anything,” she says. “And his pistol’s gone. As hard as it is, and as much as I hate to say it, I’m about 99 percent sure somebody murdered my son.”
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“If somebody is involved with Dylan’s disappearance, they need to know we’re not going to go away,” Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Cade Palmertold Fox News Digital. “If this takes months, if it takes years, we’ll keep knocking on doors.”
Dylan’s truck was also power washed and the driver’s seat was moved forward, his mother tells PEOPLE.
“I’m four foot 11 [inches tall]. Dylan’s between five 10 and five 11 [inches tall],” she says. “The pickup seat was all the way forward to the point, I didn’t even have to move it to drive it. And he was in four-wheel drive, and Dylan’s four wheel drive has been busted since this winter. He would never put it in four wheel. Somebody else drove his pickup.”
Cooley says her son would never just run off.
“That kid was so dedicated,” she says. “That farm was his life. You’re talking about a kid who’s got access to $60,000 for tractor parts and all kinds of stuff. And nothing, no money has been spent. Nothing’s been touched, nothing like that.”
“I wish I had the comfort of saying, yeah, he’s out gambling,” she adds. “I don’t even have the comfort to say that because it wouldn’t happen.”
Both the FBI and the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Department are now involved in the investigation. The family has offered a $100,000 reward for information.
Cooley hopes she will get answers soon.
“From the time he was little, he just wanted to farm,” she says. “He was your true American farmer. Dylan would’ve been one of those good old boys in his overalls, in the coffee shop, chewing straw, drinking coffee. That’s what he was. That’s what he was born to be.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Missing in America Network at (844) 642-5678, the Anonymous Tip Line at (844) 642-5678, or the Box Elder County Sheriff at (435) 723-5227, (435) 734-3894 and (435) 257-3131. You can also leave a message on the Elder County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
source: people.com
