The Englebert family has confirmed that the remains discovered in October near a national park site in rural western Nebraska have been positively identified by DNA to be Chance Englebert, the Moorcroft man who had been missing for more than six years.
The cause of death has been deemed accidental due to a fall, said his mother Dawn Englebert.
Englebert’s body was discovered last month by a hiker in a rugged, remote area on the northside of the Scotts Bluff National Monument not known to be popular for hiking.
The Englebert family had been notified by a Gering Police detective when the remains were discovered that it might be Chance based on items found with the body.
They were bracing themselves for a conclusive answer.
Now that they have one, they are having a hard time accepting that he died by accident, said Dawn, who is skeptical that her son would have ended up in that remote location on his own.
“They feel he chose that trail as a short cut to Torrington,” she said in an early Tuesday message to Cowboy State Daily.
More than six weeks after human remans were found near rural Gering, Nebraska, it's been confirmed they belong to Chance Englebert, a Moorcroft, Wyoming, man who disappeared while visiting family there in July 2019. 
More than six weeks after human remans were found near rural Gering, Nebraska, it's been confirmed they belong to Chance Englebert, a Moorcroft, Wyoming, man who disappeared while visiting family there in July 2019. (Help Find Chance Englebert Facebook) 
More than six weeks after human remans were found near rural Gering, Nebraska, it's been confirmed they belong to Chance Englebert, a Moorcroft, Wyoming, man who disappeared while visiting family there in July 2019. (Kelly Mumm; Help Find Chance Englebert Facebook)
Was Walking
Englebert, 25, disappeared over the July Fourth holiday weekend in 2019 on a visit from Wyoming to Gering, Nebraska, to visit the family of his wife, Baylee’s, and their infant son.
During the day, he got in an argument with his in-laws while golfing and told his wife he wanted to leave.
When she balked, he walked off from his in-laws, telling his best friend, Matt Miller, and family that he planned to walk the 35 miles to Torrington, following the North Platte River.
He was last spotted on surveillance video walking alone in neighboring Terrytown, about 1.5 miles north of Gering and halfway between Gering and Scottsbluff.
In the video, he looks down at his phone before taking a 90-degree turn to the left, as if following a map.
His last communication was a text message to a family member at 9:08 p.m., just as a torrential storm swept through the area.
The jumble of letters and the smiley face emoji made no sense to any of them.
There was no trace of Englebert until now despite a massive search of the Gering-Scottsbluff area and along the North Platte River by more than 17 agencies with drones, divers, cadaver dogs and hundreds of volunteers on foot, and horseback and ATVs.
Subsequent searches over the years by Miller and other volunteers have likewise turned up no clues.
Mom Still Questions
His disappearance has remained a mystery, but even after being identified, Dawn said that the family still has questions given that they’d formerly been told by police that they had proof that Englebert had been backtracking back to his in-law’s home when he vanished.
“This is not closure to us at all, but only more whys,” she said. “Our hearts hurt more than ever.”
There will always be more questions, she said.
Dawn is not the only one scratching their heads as to how Englebert might have ended up in that location.
Longtime Gering resident Kelly Mumm also wonders how Englebert ended up in such a remote area.
Mumm was out walking his dogs Oct. 11 along the canal road alongside the irrigation ditch on the north side of the monument when he saw a large police presence.
Typically, this area is not well traveled, Mumm told Cowboy State Daily in an earlier interview, estimating he sees about one or two other walkers every month.
Monument park is a popular hiking spot, Mumm said, but all the trailheads are on the south side, and he’s never seen any hikers on the north side when he’s been out walking.
Had Englebert left the canal road where Mumm stood, he would have had to swim about 15 feet across the canal and then tromp through thick brush and climb the steep terrain.
It would have required bushwhacking through tall grass and thick brush through elevated, rough terrain as opposed to sticking to paved roads that followed the North Platte River.
“That'd be the longest way I could imagine you could walk to Torrington,” Mumm said in an earlier interview, “especially at night in the rain.”
Englebert’s remains will be presented to Baylee on Wednesday at a press conference, Dawn said.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
