Killer Accidentally Filmed Himself | Killers Caught On Camera | Forensic Files

[pounding music] Narrator: This time on "Killers Caught on Camera," in Utah, a mother searches for her missing 19-year-old son.
Narrator: A digital error provides a breakthrough. Blair Wardle: The chances of him accidentally
turning on the phone, let alone placing it perfectly to capture this video, is truly incredible.
Narrator: And in Minnesota, a woman finds the love of her life online. Luna Bloomer: Very quickly, they would be talking
all the time, all night. There was lots of I love yous, even though they didn't even know each other.
Narrator: But she disappears under suspicious circumstances. Brandon Kuske: The search warrant
revealed a bloody handprint in the carpet. [theme music] Man: It just sounds like something
bad is happening to her. Officer: We know what happened because the video tells us what happened.
Witness: I heard some gunshots. [gunshots] - I need to get rid of the gun. - Man, that's bullet.
Investigator: The camera doesn't lie. [static noise, electronic beeping] [soft music]
Narrator: In the US, in Utah, Lucin, a remote desert area 200 miles west of Salt Lake City.
In May 2022, a young farmer was missing. Narrator: Candice Cooley joined police to help look for her
19-year-old son, Dylan Rounds. Narrator: Candice had no idea what happened to her son.
[somber music] Candice Cooley: Dylan was a unique kid from day one. He was supposed to be a girl when he was born.
We were told up until the day before, so he kind of came into the world surprising us, wrapped
in a little pink blanket. But it was a boy. And he was born during grain harvest, August 1.
In his first early months, he was in a combine and a tractor. And it just kind of caught from there.
Besides being from a farming family, he just-- he grew up in them. So when kids would get out of school
and go play their video games, Dylan would be building on his chicken coop or his pigpen.
Farming with his dad or his grandpa-- that was just his passion. ♪ ♪ [tractor whirs]
narrator: When Dylan was 17, he bought a patch of land in Lucin, Utah, with the help of his grandfather.
Candice Cooley: Dylan loved Lucin. It was his happy place. There wasn't very many people out there,
which is what he wanted. He was in his comfort zone. He was always excited for farming season
to get to go back out there and work on his farm. narrator: Dylan worked alone but stayed in regular contact
with his family. Candice Cooley: Dylan had a very particular pattern. If it was one certain day, he was gonna call me 10 times.
That was my day. The next day it might be his dad 10 times. And it might be his best friend.
But he always had a particular way about communicating with one person for the full day
to tell his stories, and then he'd move on to the next. narrator: Dylan always kept his family
aware of his detailed schedule. Candice Cooley: Dylan called me, and he says, well, I'm gonna be out in Lucin
planting on Friday, and I'll call you after my crops planted. And that's the last I heard from him.
[light music] narrator: On the last Saturday in May, Dylan made a phone call to his grandmother.
But by Monday, nobody had seen or heard from him. - I got-- [sniffles] I got the phone
call from his best friend saying he hadn't heard from him either. So we all went.
All of us headed. We knew something was wrong. [pounding music] So I called it in because I knew
it was so out of character. [sniffles] ♪ ♪ [helicopter blades whirring] narrator: In the air and on the ground,
a huge search operation was launched to find Dylan. Zachary Moore: In an area like this, if you're not prepared,
if you don't have food or especially water, things can get dangerous and bad really quick.
You could only survive a couple of days. narrator: The Box Elder district attorney's
office was quickly involved. - It's pretty inhospitable territory out there. - We will pass him this way. We've met.
We're going this way. My buddy goes and follows him. Blair Wardle: It's possible that he was just
maybe injured, maybe lost. [radio chatter] - There's a kid named Dylan Rounds. Blair Wardle: At this point, it's mostly getting
search and rescue out there. Our goal is to see if we can just locate him. [unsettling music]
officer: So was the gun in the key? man: No. Narrator: A search of Dylan's trailer
reveals his guns were missing. officer: The 40 is not in here. We looked in his camper and all the cupboards
and stuff, looked in the bathroom. Nothing. [knocks] narrator: As time passed, the likelihood of finding
Dylan alive diminished. man: There's nothing back here. Zachary Moore: They had searched a pretty good area and
just not-- have not had any success of finding him or any trace of him. man: We're just trying to find out where this kid at.
- No, no, one came home with him. officer: Nobody came home with him? - No. man: OK.
- You know, as time goes on, it just becomes more and more likely that we're not going to find Dylan alive.
Julia Shaw: It's not uncommon for a 19-year-old boy to go missing in the sense that there are around half a million
people reported missing to the police every year in the United States. It's been called a silent mass disaster.
And of that half a million people, about half that number are boys and men. And of those, most of them are young.
But-- and this is really important-- most people are found. And so it's rare for a person to go missing for a really
long period of time. [pounding music] [radio chatter] narrator: The sheriff's office couldn't find
Dylan anywhere near his farm. Extra help was needed to broaden the search. man: Are you guys from Montello?
Zachary Moore: I went to a little town called Montello, which is just on the Nevada side
of the state-- - What cell phone provider? - Who? - Dylan? - Oh, Verizon. Zachary Moore: --see when he was last seen
and if anybody had heard from him at that point. - We walked through the barn. I looked in the truck.
man: There's nothing inside the house. - But nothing inside the house. - Nothing inside the campers here.
man: OK. Thank you. narrator: Detectives needed to track Dylan's digital footprint.
Zachary Moore: We started looking more at his phone records for GPS coordinates.
Unfortunately, with this area, because there's only one cell tower, there's not really any way
to triangulate the GPS. So we ended up with a really, really broad area. [steady music]
narrator: Investigators spoke to Dylan's closest neighbors. - Hello. What can I do for you?
Blair Wardle: James Brenner lived close to Dylan. And when I say close, we're talking five miles.
He is squatting on a piece of property out there. He has this grain shed that Dylan is known to use.
James Brenner was the last person to have seen Dylan alive because his grain truck
had gone over there that day. officer: Well, I was just wondering if you could walk me through where his truck was,
the grain truck. Blair Wardle: He seemed to want to be helpful. He wanted to assist in the search and provide information.
man: So this is it? James Brenner: This is it. When Dylan backed in, he must have been in a hurry.
He knocked my stall. This was the gate, and he backed into it and busted out. I was building a chicken coop right here.
He was in a hurry. And I guess it was raining, and he wanted to get this under cover.
officer: If it was raining, he'd be in a hurry. - Yeah. I was building a chicken coop right here.
He was in a hurry. Julia Shaw: James Brenner is very open about the fact that when Dylan backed his truck into the grain shed
and he destroyed his things and moved away his chicken coop, that that was, well, upsetting.
And you can see the police are reacting to this as well. officer: Oh, I see the broken wood, yeah.
- Yeah, I'd post right here. Julia Shaw: They're immediately going, oh, wow. Yeah, I can see that he's destroyed some things as well.
And there's this whole conversation about, well, he needed to move it really quickly.
And he's almost giving him an excuse, but at the same time, you can see he's really annoyed.
- I guess it was raining, and he wanted to get this under cover. Blair Wardle: He started talking
about the unsavory people out there. - I think somebody tried to rob him. Dylan never carries any money on him.
He always carries credit cards because he's always borrowing money off of me. He had too many freaking irons in the fire.
Julia Shaw: What does stand out to me is that he starts talking about all the things
he doesn't like about Dylan, and that is a weird thing to say about someone who is obviously missing.
- He was just a thickheaded kid. - He's saying that he's a thickheaded kid, that maybe somebody tried to rob him,
that he was always bragging about how much money he was making. - Shooting his mouth off about how much money he's making.
Julia Shaw: That's the kind of thing that can really get under people's skin. Blair Wardle: At this point, we don't really
know where Dylan is or if there's even anything nefarious going on. There's a lot of unsavory characters out there.
So certainly, that is a possibility, but it's also a very inhospitable landscape.
- I told him to stay the hell out of Montello. Blair Wardle: He had a relationship with the family,
and so it seemed like he wanted to help them. - He would have walked that way. officer: Mm-hmm.
- He had a relationship with Dylan in that he had worked for Dylan in the past. officer: Well, appreciate you letting us look around.
James Brenner: Yeah, anything to help. officer: I appreciate it. [eerie music] agent: There's nobody over there?
OK. narrator: When the police searched around the grain shed, they made a disturbing discovery.
Blair Wardle: As they're looking in the area, they find this garbage piled. And near the garbage pile, they find
a couple of boots that matched what Dylan would always wear. And as they got those boots, they look a little closer.
And lo and behold, there's a couple of red blotches on them. We start to realize there's probably
more going on here than a kid that got lost or got injured. Inside the barn, they do find a paper towel with a small amount
of blood on it. [somber music] Candice Cooley: Justin, his father, was with me, and we both looked at each other.
And we just knew that the boots were everything. We just knew. And we just looked at each other and deflation.
Like, something bad has happened. His boots said it all. We knew that we probably weren't gonna get our son back.
narrator: The family returned to Dylan's trailer looking for clues and discovered his handgun
had mysteriously reappeared. [frantic music] ♪ ♪ While the search on the ground continued--
- It's the first one right there. - Yeah. Narrator: Digital expert Kelly Gibson
volunteered to examine Dylan's cell phone data and look for clues. Kelly Gibson: As an analyst, we're looking for patterns
and behaviors in data. So this is the Lucin area. And this is what it looks like when we turn on the phone
data and the distances between the tower and where the phone was in space. We immediately started to plot it onto a map.
[techno music] narrator: The data revealed Dylan's movements on the day he disappeared.
- We can take his movements and start to plot them along the roads. If we follow that, it shows him at the barn.
He was gonna park the grain truck in the shed. And then we noticed that it goes from the shed to Lucin pond.
And that's where it stops. And so we were able to say, wow, the phone's at the pond.
[eerie music] ♪ ♪ We immediately started organizing the trip for the scuba team to Lucin pond.
We didn't know if the phone would be alone or if it would be with Dylan or anything else.
Search and rescue scuba team was canvassing out the pond. After about two hours, I was nervous because we
had gone through most of the pond at this point and hadn't found anything. And then my colleague said, we found the phone.
I was floored that we actually found it. [soothing music] narrator: It was almost four weeks after Dylan went missing.
[thumping music] The phone was badly damaged. The only chance of unlocking the device
was at the FBI's forensic lab 200 miles away in Salt Lake City. Matthew Anderson: When the phone came in,
it was heavily oxidized. It was very damaged. And it was just a big pile of rust in phone.
They asked me to try to rebuild the phone if possible, see if anything could be done with this phone.
And I had told the case agent the chances of me rebuilding this are slim to none.
[deep rhythmic bass] When rebuilding a phone, there's always concern of destroying the phone.
In fact, oftentimes when we're pulling them apart, we don't always get them back together again.
But if you don't try, you don't get anything. I was able to get the data off of the SIM card.
And so we knew that this was Dylan's phone. Once we had determined this was Dylan's phone,
yeah, the pressure did go up a little bit. Now, I've got to find another phone that I
can move the pertinent parts from one phone to another phone, kind of a donor phone,
and trying to get all the parts to line up and reconnect and do all the cleaning and everything else.
I took them apart, piece by piece, one at a time. It's kind of a painstaking process with Q-tips.
And I use little flossers here and rubbing alcohol. And it was about a three-day ordeal on all of that.
I put the screen back on and plugged it in. And the battery light came on immediately.
[cell phone vibrates, light music] I looked through the internet histories. Nothing really pertinent there.
Getting into the call logs, there was an incoming call from grandma. And then digging further down, I found three videos.
[pounding music] ♪ ♪ The last video-- it was the last real file saved on that phone.
So I know it was pretty much the last thing this phone saw before it ended up in the pond.
♪ ♪ I immediately called the case agent. He showed up within minutes. And I had paused the video with the person's head
looking straight down. And yeah, when he walked in, he said, I know exactly who that is.
narrator: It was Dylan's neighbor, James Brenner. [melodic music] ♪ ♪ Blair Wardle: You can see James Brenner, the neighbor.
He comes in and out of frame. We can see blood on his elbow and his wrist. As he continues to move, he suddenly is holding on to a gun
that Brenner's clearly cleaning. And he seems a little bit almost frantic as he's trying to do it as well,
like he's trying to hurry. But you can clearly see him wearing that camo shirt, what appears to be red stains on it.
[surging music] Every time I watch this video, it strikes me about how incredibly improbable this is.
The fact that we even have this video that was taken moments after his death, showing him with the murder weapon,
with blood, everything that's going to incriminate Brennan in his trailer-- it's just astonishing that we even have this.
The chances of him turning on the phone and let alone placing it perfectly to capture this video
is truly incredible. Julia Shaw: It's a total fluke that James Brenner is caught
on camera on this phone. This clip is really quite remarkable, both in terms of his technological ineptitude and
the hurry that he must have been in or felt to be in to not check that there's nothing around him that's incriminating
himself on camera. You'd think, in those moments, that is going to be one of the most important moments of your life
to do properly and to focus and to make sure that you're meticulous, checking every single detail.
But I think more often than not, that's not what happens because people are in such
a high emotional state. Blair Wardle: Up until this point, there's just no real way to prove
beyond reasonable doubt of Brenner's involvement in the case. This piece of evidence is truly the only reason
I'm able to bring charges. [somber music] narrator: Almost a year after Dylan Rounds disappeared,
investigators were finally able to charge James Brenner with his murder in March 2023.
But he refused to reveal the location of Dylan's body. Then in 2024, as part of a plea deal for a lighter sentence,
Brenner finally led investigators to the area where he'd buried Dylan's body. After nearly two years, Dylan was brought home.
Candice Cooley: They put Dylan's bones in a box and shipped him back to Idaho. There was no autopsy.
When he was recovered, finally, you could take that breath. I could. I think the whole family was that way.
Like, we got him. ♪ We made him a promise, and we followed through. ♪ It forever changes everything.
It just leaves you with so many unanswered what should have beens, what would have been,
and what could have been that never go away. We're not supposed to bury our kids.
♪ ♪ narrator: But the biggest question remained-- why did James Brenner kill Dylan Rounds?
- Shooting his mouth off about how much money he's making. Blair Wardle: He seemed to have a little bit of jealousy
for Dylan because here's this, you know, young, ambitious, motivated 19-year-old kid wanting to, you know,
find a plot of ground and make a living for himself in farming. And you contrast that with James Brenner,
who's a older gentleman in his 60s, squatting on a piece of property with not really
anything to show for it. And I think it really did kind of bother Brenner that Dylan was almost the antithesis of who he was.
- This was the gate. And he backed into it and busted out. Julia Shaw: Looking at this footage
and knowing that he is the killer makes me think that he kind of puts out his motives right
from the beginning. He says, he destroyed my stuff in the garage. He's this guy I don't really like.
And I think, to me, as much as that feels like it's not enough of a reason to kill somebody,
it is exactly the kind of trajectory that we often see when we look at murder. Murder often isn't this really long, premeditated thing.
It's small pettiness that gets out of control. It's a dislike of somebody that grows
and has this breaking point. And that is exactly what we see here. narrator: James Brenner was sentenced to up to 30 years
in prison. In court, the judge said the punishment didn't fit the crime. He recommended the parole board keep him in jail
as long as they legally can. [instrumental music] Candice Cooley: For me, Dylan's death
has to count for a reason. I couldn't have stopped it, but maybe I can for somebody else.
narrator: Dylan's mom has channeled her grief into a charity called Dylan's Legacy.
Candice Cooley: We offer canine assistance, drone assistance, liaison with police departments.
We victim advocate. So we're just out there to help try to recover loved ones and find out what happened in a case.
narrator: And from beyond the grave, Dylan is helping to train dogs to find human remains.
Candice Cooley: I still have Dylan with me, literally. We kept some of his remains to help train canines.
And I know that sounds weird, but, you know, I grab Dylan out of my freezer. And I tell him, let's go to work, son.
We're gonna go help this family, and we're gonna go vet these canines. So for me, that piece of Dylan always stays with me.
[somber music] ♪ ♪ narrator: For Candice, while there's no closure, there is some peace to be found.
♪ ♪ Candice Cooley: Watching the crops grow, watching the sunflowers all over the road--
you know, because that was a big thing to Dylan. He loved his sunflowers. I think what he would have accomplished.
But then I think what he has accomplished through death. So Dylan was gonna make a legacy.
He still has one. ♪ ♪ [piano melody] narrator: Murder is often triggered by a reaction in the moment, but
sometimes the indicators of homicide can be traced back in time. Julia Shaw: Offenders often display
escalating harmful behaviors before they commit a serious crime. But because these incidents are recorded individually,
it can lead to something called pattern blindness, which is where you can see all the fragmented individual lesser
crimes, but you don't piece it together as a more serious whole. narrator: And sometimes these incidents
can be misinterpreted. Julia Shaw: If you have this pattern blindness, it means that you are maybe perceiving that bad things are
happening, but you don't really understand just how much worse someone has gotten.
And what can start as maybe even desirable behaviors or attention towards somebody can escalate
to violence, to aggression, and can eventually graduate to murder. [static noise, electronic beeping]
[steady music] narrator: In the US, in the state of Minnesota, the city of Edina.
Brandon Kuske: Edina is known as one of the safest communities in Minnesota. We're well-known for our low crime rate
compared to the national average. We have 16 square miles and about 53,000 residents.
narrator: In January 2018, a young woman was missing. Brandon Kuske: A call came into the police department
requesting a welfare check of an individual. Her mom said that she speaks with her daughter every day.
And she had not heard from her in several days, and that was very concerning. [deep rhythmic bass]
narrator: Her name was Cristina Prodan. Patrol officers carried out a welfare check at the address
provided by Cristina's mom. Brandon Kuske: Our officers checked the scene. Most of the apartment was pretty well-kept.
Everything in the condo appeared normal. There was some luggage in the living room,
the kitchen, the bathroom. Everything was very neat and tidy. The master bedroom, on the other hand,
seemed like it was in disarray. [calming music] There was bags of clothing strewed about.
Could have been a burglary. Could have been somebody just leaving in a hurry. It could have been a lot of things.
We weren't really sure. [mellow music] narrator: Luna Bloomer was a close friend of Cristina's when
she was living in Minnesota. Luna Bloomer: When I first met Cristina, we had a connection instantly.
Like, it felt like I'd known her for a really long time. And it's quite a rare thing to experience that with somebody.
And she was just a really, really lovely person. She wore her heart on her sleeve.
She was very easy to talk to. She was always thinking about other people and wanting the best for everybody.
narrator: Then in 2017, Cristina started dating a man called Joseph Porter. [light music]
Luna Bloomer: They met online. And very quickly, they would be talking all the time, all night.
There was lots of I love yous, even though they didn't even know each other. She wasn't in the greatest mental health place
because she didn't have very many friends. She didn't have a job at the time. And she had a tough upbringing.
Shawn Katz: It can be very intoxicating to be on the receiving end of being love bombed.
In this case, Cristina-- she's not working. She's got low self-esteem. She doesn't have a lot of friends.
And so someone giving her a lot of attention and love bombing her that way will be very seductive
and probably be something that will feel very good. It's typical of the early, early stages of a relationship,
but it's something to be wary of because it is a very obsessive kind of behavior.
narrator: Cristina wrote a diary expressing her feelings for Joseph. Cristina: Dear the love of my life, I love you so much.
You're everything I've always wanted. You're so much to me. Luna Bloomer: You could tell that she was fighting
with the feelings of her being infatuated with this new man that's coming to her life has given her all
this attention, but also with the reality of knowing that, you know, it is a risk and there is some danger to it.
[eerie music] Cristina: You're so loving. Sometimes I wonder if I deserve it. I love you more than my brain can comprehend.
Shawn Katz: Cristina's diary entry points to someone who's clearly in that intoxicated chemical soup,
oxytocin-fueled state of in love. And that's gonna feel very, very powerful. The language she's using for someone she barely knows,
for me, would be concerning because it's kind of projecting all this stuff onto someone she doesn't know.
[melancholic music] narrator: Joseph moved in with Cristina in October 2017. But just three months later, they were both missing.
Brandon Kuske: Missing persons in their 20s are pretty uncommon. It's usually runaway teenagers or elderly members
of the community. So this was definitely unique. narrator: Just three days before they went missing,
on January 2, 2018, Cristina and Joseph went to Walmart to buy groceries. Brandon Kuske: Joseph and Cristina
seem very relaxed in this video just like any other couple out for a mundane task of shopping together.
narrator: But by January 5, Cristina stopped replying to messages, and Joseph hadn't turned up to work.
Brandon Kuske: Joseph's employer told us that he hadn't been to work in several days.
No one that we had spoken with had seen Joseph. [pounding music] narrator: Investigators began looking
into Joseph's background. Brandon Kuske: What we discovered was Joseph's been in and out of institutions
since he was 10 years old and had very violent tendencies starting at a young age, including
killing his own mother's dog. I mean, this is from a psychological exam, talking about him burying kittens up
to their neck that are 10 weeks old and running over them with a push mower. ♪ ♪
Joseph's own mother told us that he was a very bad person and should be locked up for the rest of his life.
Shawn Katz: When you think about the history that Joseph had of being cruel to animals from a really
young age, killing his mother's dog, it could be about trauma. It could be that he had a really horrible upbringing.
And certainly, being in care and having that kind of disruption to home life, that can certainly contribute on a trauma level.
But often with a profile like that where there's an innate cruelty to animals or innate cruelty
in your behavior, that could indicate that there's really something going on in his brain
that he's born that way. narrator: While Joseph lived with Cristina, Edina PD responded to seven domestic violence incidents
over the course of just three months. And Cristina reported she'd been raped by Joseph in November 2017.
Brandon Kuske: The more we learn about Joseph's past, it becomes very concerning for Cristina.
narrator: Edina Police needed to examine Cristina's apartment to try and find anything
that could help find her. - We obtained a search warrant for the condo and requested assistance from a forensics team.
[rhythmic beat] narrator: They found fresh food in the fridge and a large sum of cash locked in a suitcase.
But the most concerning discovery was in the bedroom. Brandon Kuske: Part of the search warrant
included luminol use in the master bedroom. Luminol attaches to the protein in blood.
And under a special light, it illuminates, which revealed a bloody handprint in the carpet.
We sent that off to the lab to verify the DNA. [frenetic music] narrator: And Cristina's phone was missing.
Brandon Kuske: We had attempted several times to contact Cristina via phone, and it was always turned off.
The phone carrier confirmed that the phone was off. There was no way for us to track its location.
narrator: The police set up an alert on Cristina's phone, which would immediately notify them
if it was ever turned back on. ♪ ♪ Investigators also tracked Joseph Porter's vehicle.
They made a worrying discovery. [tense music] The day before Cristina went missing,
600 miles south of Edina, Joseph had been pulled over in Missouri. The encounter was recorded on camera.
Brandon Kuske: The trooper looks around and asks him to pop the trunk. And the trooper is able to get a clear view
and doesn't see anyone else in the vehicle. The only occupant is Joseph. officer: It's not quite as cool as your ride, but it doesn't--
so do you have insurance of the vehicle there? - No, sir, I do not. officer: What are you gonna do if you crash?
- I got a lot of tools. [chuckles] officer: You've got stuff. - And duct tape. narrator: Alongside the duct tape, a shovel and a pickaxe.
[pounding music] Brandon Kuske: When Joseph was asked about the pickaxe and shovel located in his car, he just
stated it was for his work. officer: All right, man, I'm gonna issue a ticket for the tag being out. - OK.
officer: I don't normally give warnings for no insurance. I mean, if you smash into somebody--
you don't have insurance, obviously-- it ain't going to be a good thing because, you know,
it's expensive if you don't have anything to help you out, OK? - All right. officer: So make sure you're being super cautious, OK?
- Thank you. Shawn Katz: So what I notice is Joseph seems really relaxed. He's polite, doesn't seem distressed in any way.
officer: Have a safe motoring. - You, too. Shawn Katz: At this point, I don't get any alarm bells that Joseph has done anything wrong.
He's honest. No, I don't have insurance. Seems like he's cooperating with the police.
narrator: Six hours after the state troopers stopped him in Missouri, Joseph was found sleeping in his car
200 miles away in Evening Shade, Arkansas. [electronic beeping] Investigators pulled the video footage
from cameras along the route. Brandon Kuske: We even tracked down the purchase of the pickaxe and the shovel at a Home Depot.
We tracked down video surveillance of him at gas stations. Joseph was involved in a lot of movements
from when he left Minnesota all the way down to Arkansas. narrator: Cristina was still unaccounted for.
Brandon Kuske: We don't have any information on Cristina's whereabouts. She's still missing.
And she was last known to be with Joseph. Based on her not being in the vehicle, you're very concerned.
Narrator: Samples taken from Cristina's carpet only added to investigators' concerns.
Brandon Kuske: The DNA evidence came back from the handprint to show that it was Cristina's blood.
[bellowing music] ♪ ♪ Adding up all the factors, Joseph's criminal history, his violent history specifically
with Cristina, the fact that he was traveling across country-- he had been traveling alone but with an ax and shovel.
Everything was pointing towards Joseph. [stirring music] narrator: Then the case took an unexpected turn.
Brandon Kuske: Four days into the investigation, we caught a major break. Cristina's phone was turned back on
and was pinging in Arkansas. It was a huge surprise when it got turned back on. And we were able to track it.
narrator: Cristina's phone ping location data led them to a Walmart in Arkansas.
Brandon Kuske: We contacted the FBI and local authorities in the area of Arkansas to assist
us with our investigation. narrator: When they checked Walmart surveillance footage
from the exact time of the ping, they discovered an unknown male pawning Cristina's phone.
As the police searched through the footage, they made another groundbreaking discovery.
As the unknown middle-aged male left the Walmart, he was joined by Joseph Porter.
Investigators realized the two men were traveling together. Brandon Kuske: They had arrived on scene with a silver vehicle
that we had not known about prior to this. Narrator: When investigators checked Joseph's social media,
they identified the unknown male from the surveillance footage. Brandon Kuske: Through the course of our investigation,
we learned that Joseph was married to an older man. [piercing music] narrator: The man was Richard, Joseph's 50-year-old husband.
The FBI tracked Joseph and Richard to a trailer park in Arkansas. [camera clicking]
They were both arrested and brought into custody. But Joseph's appearance was alarming.
Brandon Kuske: Joseph had fresh burns on his hands and face. We had a lot of arrest history with Joseph.
And he had a full head of hair the last time that we had arrested him. So something happened.
When Joseph was initially taken into custody, he was very defiant. investigator: Where is Cristina now?
- She's in Minnesota. investigator: How should we get a hold of Cristina? Because there's a lot of people that are concerned about--
- Gone in her place. investigator: That's been done. She's not there. You were the last one that had contact with her besides--
- I'm not the last one that had contact-- - --the police that were there that night when you said you left.
Narrator: Police asked Joseph to explain the burns on his hands and face. [ominous music]
investigator: Do you mind if I look at your hands? So all of that is-- it burns.
It looks like you got in a fight, but it burns. - Yeah, it burns. - And that happened how? Because it looks--
- I fell asleep. - It looks like you got it pretty good. - I fell asleep next to my campfire.
I don't know if I rolled into it or-- - Have you told me everything? - I've answered all your questions.
And the questions that I can't answer I can't [bleep] answer because I don't [bleep] know.
[bleep] Christ, I'm tired of your goddamn games. Shawn Katz: What we have here is
a very different Joseph than the one we saw in the police car. He's looking down.
He's not jokey. He's not nonchalant. He's defensive. His answers are a little more aggressive.
So clearly, this is a very different part of Joseph that's showing up here. narrator: When police interviewed
Joseph's husband, Richard, he was more forthcoming. - What would you say to her, well,
if you could say I knew something, but I didn't help? - I knew something. I didn't help, but I'd be feeling pretty bad.
investigator: So what do you got to say that's gonna help? You better think long and hard.
- I didn't know whether he had weapons or whatever in the house. I was pretty much scared the last two days, you know?
And he told me that-- he told me that she was dead before she left. investigator: So he told you he killed her?
- Yes. [harmonic music] ♪ ♪ Brandon Kuske: After Joseph's husband told us that Joseph had confessed to him on murdering Cristina,
we needed to find her. The car was the first clue. The car that Joseph was driving in the video surveillance
at Walmart was recovered at the location where he was arrested. The vehicle was registered to a tow yard in New Orleans.
narrator: While Joseph was in custody, Edina Police received news that a body had been
discovered in New Orleans. It was right next to the tow yard where the silver vehicle had been stolen.
Brandon Kuske: The body was found burning in a shipping container full of tires.
So the fire department had been called there to put the fire out, and while doing so,
they located the body in the back of the box. [pounding music] We had made arrangements for the body that we had thought
was Cristina's to be sent to Minnesota for further examination. The medical examiner confirmed it
was Cristina's body through DNA and dental records. [ominous music] narrator: Joseph Porter was brought back
in for a second interview. - You prefer Joe or Joseph? Brandon Kuske: We had lots of critical information
from the investigation that was presented to Porter during the interrogation that
didn't allow him to back out. [tinkling music] Shawn Katz: Choking someone, strangulating
them is really close and intimate because you're gonna be holding them while you're doing it.
That's not a compassionate, kind part of Joseph. That's a sociopathic part. He didn't call the police saying, I did this by accident.
If you're a sociopath, you have no problem lying, and you don't operate with the same rules for humanity.
You feel entitled to get what you want, do what you want, manipulate people. Sociopathic tendencies have very little regard
for any other's well-being other than your own self-serving needs. investigator: All right, let's go.
[gentle music] Luna Bloomer: It's really, really messed up, you know? And the thought of her being strangled, thinking
that this person that's doing this to you loves you like they're supposed to be supporting
and caring for you, not restricting your breathing, is terrifying and is heartbreaking.
Nobody deserves that, at least of all somebody like Cristina. I felt guilty that I wasn't there for her,
heartbroken that she couldn't extend her light anymore to the world, that more people wouldn't
be able to get to experience Cristina and the big heart that she had and the laughter she had.
[eerie music] Narrator: In January 2019, Joseph Porter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
He was sentenced to 20 years and 10 months in prison. Shawn Katz: The World Health Organization
estimates that roughly 30% of women will experience some kind of violence within a relationship
that they're in. That's a lot of people. It's important that people know the signs of what
is a coercive, controlling, abusive relationship so that they could get the help they need.
[mellow music] Luna Bloomer: If I could speak to her again, I would say how sorry I am that I wasn't there
for her, [sniffles] and that she went through everything that she had to go through,
that she didn't deserve that. She was such a beautiful soul. And I wish she was still here.
♪ ♪ [orchestral music] ♪ ♪

A young man disappears without a trace from a remote farming community, leaving investigators with few clues to follow. As the search intensifies, a shocking piece of video evidence helps unravel the mystery, revealing how one critical mistake brought detectives closer to the truth behind Dylan Rounds' disappearance. Subscribe to FilmRise True Crime For More Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseTrueCrime

Killers Caught On Camera is a true-crime series with a voyeuristic twist: video footage from home security cameras, CCTV, and dashcams take center-stage, helping detectives catch perpetrators in moments of criminal intent to acts of pure evil. Family members of victims and law enforcement provide first-hand accounts of how these chilling events unfold while experts like Criminal Psychologist Dr. Julia Shaw dissect the darkest corners of the mind.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseTelevision FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

The episode details the tragic cases of Dylan Rounds and Cristina Prodan, highlighting violence and the search for justice.

Key points

The Search for Dylan Rounds. A mother searches for her missing son, leading to shocking discoveries.
Disturbing Discoveries. Searchers find boots and blood near Dylan's last known location, raising alarms.
The Shocking Video Evidence. A video reveals Dylan's neighbor with blood on him, leading to murder charges.
Dylan's Legacy. Candice Cooley channels her grief into a charity to help recover missing persons.
Finding Peace. Candice finds peace in watching nature, reflecting on her son's love for sunflowers.
The Mystery of Cristina Prodan. A young woman goes missing in Edina, Minnesota, raising alarms in a typically safe community.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Dylan was a unique kid from day one.

Candice Cooley reflects on her son.

2:31WatchJul 6, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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