The disappearance more than three weeks ago of a teenager living alone on a remote Utah farm has sparked a criminal investigation.
Dylan Rounds, 19, has not been heard from since he called his grandmother on May 28, a Saturday. His phone data indicates that he was on the plot of land in northwestern Utah where he was living and farming grain.
His family, in Idaho, became worried when he couldn’t be contacted and wasn’t found at the farm the following day, and they filed a missing-person report May 30 with the Box Elder County sheriff. His wallet and phone were gone from the trailer where he lived, but his trucks were at the site.
Since then, search teams of volunteers and law enforcement officers from Utah, Nevada and Idaho have logged hundreds of hours looking for Rounds. Last week, the Texas-based Equusearch joined the effort. The sheriff describes the investigation as “missing person/criminal.”
The family has stated they believe foul play is involved. His mother, Candice Cooley, has told reporters that her son was devoted to his farm and would not have voluntarily left it during a crucial time for his first crop. She says he rarely ventured farther than Montello, Nevada, a small community 25 miles away.
On a tip reportedly passed along by the family, sheriff’s deputies searched a home in Montello on May 31, but found no evidence of anyone being held captive.
Rounds’ family is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to his return and is posting frequent updates on a Facebook page. The Box Elder County sheriff’s office can be reached at 435-734-3800.
