A body found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who has been missing for more than six years, say his family and a private investigator working to solve the disappearance.
Englebert, then 25, vanished during a trip to visit his in-laws in Gering in July 2019.
Englebert’s mother Dawn received a call around 7 a.m. Saturday morning from Brian Eads, lead investigator on the case for the Gering Police Department, saying that the body may to be tied to Englebert based on clues found at the scene.
Nobody was available at the Gering Police Department on Saturday to confirm the discovery, which may bring closure to a case that captured widespread local and national media attention.
Dawn was bombarded by people contacting her, according to former volunteer private investigator Ryan Couch, who has been working with the Englebert family to find their son for the past two years.
Instead, Dawn posted on the “Help Find Chance Englebert” Facebook page Saturday afternoon.
“We ask the entire ‘Chance's Army’ community for your patience and respect during this time,” Dawn wrote. “Please allow law enforcement to conduct their thorough investigation.
“Our family is waiting for official confirmation and further information from the authorities.”
Couch said the remains were discovered in Scotts Bluff National Monument, about 3-5 miles from where Englebert was last seen on video surveillance walking alone in neighboring Terrytown, about 1.5 miles north of Gering and halfway between Gering and Scottsbluff.
Couch further said that law enforcement officials were seen with shovels at the site in what he believes has been characterized as a crime scene.
“It’s an area that myself and many other people have felt that (is where) Chance may have went missing,” Couch told Cowboy State Daily by phone. “We’ve always suspected that he could be anywhere from the North Platte River from Five Rocks Road going west out to the Monument area.”
He believes that the body is likely that of Englebert.
“More than likely it is Chance,” Couch said.
A body found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who has been missing for more than six years, say his family and a private investigator working to solve the disappearance. (Courtesy: Kelly Mumm) 
A body found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who has been missing for more than six years, say his family and a private investigator working to solve the disappearance. (Courtesy: Kelly Mumm) 
A body found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who has been missing for more than six years, say his family and a private investigator working to solve the disappearance. (Courtesy: Kelly Mumm) 
A body found Saturday morning near rural Gering, Nebraska, may be that of Moorcroft man Chance Englebert, who has been missing for more than six years, say his family and a private investigator working to solve the disappearance. (Courtesy: Kelly Mumm)
Heated Exchange
Englebert was visiting the family of his wife, Baylee, with their infant son over the Fourth of July weekend in 2019.
He had spent the day golfing with his father-in-law and other members of his wife’s family.
They’d reportedly been drinking when someone made a comment about Englebert’s new job.
He’d just been laid off from a coal mine but had already secured a new job that was set to start the following Monday.
Whatever was said angered Englebert, who told his wife he wanted to go home to Moorcroft. When she hedged, he walked off calling a friend, Matt Miller, to come get him.
Miller, who lives in Gillette, called Englebert’s mom in South Dakota, while Englebert said he’d start walking the roughly 35 miles from Gering to Torrington, Wyoming.
He never made it.
The last time Chance Englebert was seen was on surveillance video that showed him walking down the 700 block of O Street in Gering, wearing Wrangler jeans, a shirt, and a trucker’s cap.
Calls and texts to his phone went unanswered. The last text message — an incomprehensible jumble of numbers and emojis — was sent from his phone at 9:08 p.m.
That in itself was odd, Dawn told Cowboy State Daily in an earlier interview, who said Englebert never used emojis.
She believed that someone else must have been using his phone.
Despite a massive search involving 17 agencies, drones, divers, cadaver dogs and hundreds of volunteers on foot, horseback and ATVs — as well as numerous searches by his friends — no trace of Englebert had been found.
Hundreds of tips have turned up nothing, Eads told Cowboy State Daily in an earlier interview.
Not even a $200,000 reward offered by Englebert’s grandmother for a year yielded solid information to lead police to Englebert.
Witnesses Report Two Women Running
Investigators remained mum on updates or tips until Couch unearthed new leads in 2024 involving Englebert’s potential timeline that night, as well as a tip about two young women in their mid-20s.
They reportedly were screaming and running alongside the road near Five Rocks and Stable Club roads around 9 p.m. that evening, within a mile of the vicinity where Englebert was allegedly last seen by a convenience store clerk.
Witnesses told Couch the women were picked up by a driver of a white, two-door pickup that was towing a small boat on a white trailer that they seemed to know.
Now Couch reports that four witnesses have come forward to verify seeing the two women that night with one helping to pinpoint the direction in which they were running.
Couch said the two women were spotted in an area about 4-5 miles from where the remains were located in the park Saturday.
All of the information has been shared with police, Couch said, as he and Englebert family wait for confirmation that the remains are Englebert.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
