Six years after Chance Englebert walked away from a family gathering in Nebraska and disappeared, authorities have finally confirmed what became of him.
DNA test results show that the remains found in October belong to the Wyoming father. His family said in a Facebook post that his cause of death was ruled accidental due to a fall.
For Englebert’s family, who have searched relentlessly since 2019, the findings bring more heartache than closure.
A hiker discovered the remains in a rugged, remote area on the north side of Scotts Bluff National Monument. Gering, Nebraska, police told the family at the time that the remains might be Englebert’s based on items found on and near the body. Investigators believe he took the trail as a shortcut.
His mother, Dawn Englebert, remains doubtful, telling Cowboy State Daily she cannot understand how her son could have ended up alone in such an isolated area.
“This is not closure to us at all, but only more whys,” she said. “Our hearts hurt more than ever.”
Englebert disappeared on July 6, 2019, after an argument with his in-laws during a family golf outing.
He told his wife he wanted to leave, and when she hesitated, he walked off, telling his best friend Matt Miller and other relatives he planned to walk about 35 miles to Torrington, Wyoming, following the North Platte River.
Surveillance footage from Terrytown, roughly 1.5 miles north of Gering, captured his last confirmed sighting. The video shows him looking at his phone before suddenly turning left, as if following a map. His final message, sent at 9:08 p.m., was a string of nonsensical characters and a smiley face emoji — and it arrived just as a violent storm hit the region.
More than 17 agencies searched for him using drones, divers, cadaver dogs, boats, ATVs, and volunteers, but found nothing. Independent searches by Miller and others also turned up no clues.
Authorities explored several theories. As reported by Cowboy State Daily, a private investigator found that Englebert had a tense encounter with an unidentified man at a Scottsbluff convenience store shortly before he vanished. He told a clerk he was heading back to his in-laws’ home before the storm. The clerk said he appeared “level-headed” but did not see how he left the store.
Around the same time, two women were reportedly seen screaming on a roadside about a mile from the store before getting into a white pickup truck towing a boat.
Englebert’s grandmother, Linda Kluender, once offered a $200,000 reward for information, but no one ever claimed it.
“Seems the people in the know feel their life is more valuable than $200,000, and Chance’s life is worth nothing,” she told the Wyoming Truth.
Local residents also question how Englebert ended up where he was found. Kelly Mumm, a longtime Gering resident, said he saw a large police presence on the north canal road when the remains were recovered. He rarely sees anyone in that area, noting that all official trailheads for the monument are on the south side.
To reach the discovery site, Englebert would have had to leave the canal road, swim across a 15-foot-wide canal, push through dense brush, and climb steep, rough terrain.
“That’d be the longest way I could imagine you could walk to Torrington,” Mumm said, “especially at night in the rain.”
Dawn, who runs the “Help Find Chance Englebert” Facebook page, wrote Tuesday that her son’s remains will be released to his wife, Baylee.
“All I can say is, this is not any type of closure to us,” she wrote. “There will always be more questions.”
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