On October 10, 2025, human remains were found at the Scotts Bluff National Monument property in Nebraska. More than a month later, the remains have been identified as belonging to Chance Englebert, a Wyoming man who went missing from nearby Gering in 2019.
Dateline covered Chance’s disappearance in September 2019, as part of our ‘Missing in America’ digital series. He was reported missing by his wife in July 2019. Chance was last seen leaving the residence of his wife’s grandparents on the evening of July 6, 2019. Dateline spoke with Baylee Englebert in 2019. She said her husband had been out golfing with her family in the afternoon, but had left the outing early after Chance got upset in a misunderstanding. Baylee said she drove him back to her grandparents’ home, but Chance became upset again and walked away from the house.
“When he gets mad, he’ll walk to cool down,” Baylee told Dateline at the time. “But I didn’t think he’d go far. He just kept walking until I couldn’t see him. I didn’t think he was serious.”
Baylee said her last communication with her husband was at 7:46 p.m., when Chance told her he was walking south. She said she later learned he had also contacted friends and told them he was walking north toward Torrington, Wyoming, over the Nebraska/Wyoming border.
According to Baylee, the last time anyone heard from Chance was about 8:46 p.m. His phone was turned off shortly after that. Around 9:00 p.m., a bad thunderstorm hit the area. Baylee’s grandfather went out to search for Chance, but couldn’t find him.
Police told Dateline at the time that the rains had been cold, so they were worried about lightning and the possibility that Chance could get hypothermia. Heavy rains would also mean the risk of slipping into rivers and streams.
At the time of his disappearance, Baylee told Dateline that Chance would not leave his family. The couple had just become parents to a son, Banks, born in May 2019. “He is such a good father,” Baylee said at the time.
Over the last six years, there have been many searches for Chance. This week, the Gering Police Department and the Scotts Bluff County Attorney released a joint press release about the recent news and detailed the work done during the investigation. The investigation involved more than a dozen agencies from around the state of Nebraska, plus “forensic K-9 and search teams from Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah and New Mexico,” in addition to federal agencies.
“Officers conducted hundreds of interviews” and “served numerous search warrants for phone records, social media accounts, financial records and other technical data,” the press release stated. They never found anything that led to Chance’s whereabouts.
Then, on October 10, 2025, hikers discovered human remains at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska. Shortly after the discovery, the Scotts Bluff County Attorney’s Office put out a press release stating that there were also several items located near the remains that the family identified as belonging to Chance.
However, it would take more than a month to make an official identification. “Multiple experts in forensic dentistry, forensic anthropology and archaeology and forensic pathology” assisted with the identification through dental records and DNA testing, according to the press release.
“The cause of death is listed as ‘a pattern of blunt force trauma most consistent with a rapid deceleration event including, but not limited to, a fall from height,’” authorities stated in their press release. “It was further determined the distance from where the fall occurred ranges from approximately 130 feet at the shortest point to 290 feet.”
According to the joint statement from Gering PD and the Scotts Bluff County Attorney’s Office, “after a full investigation, there is no evidence that the death of Chance Englebert was anything other than accidental.”
The “Help Find Chance Englebert” Facebook page posted about the news earlier this week with a photo of Chance fishing at sunset, stating, “This is not any type of closure to us 💔 will just always be more questions.” They went on to thank everyone for the “support, prayers and love.”
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