The Chance Englebert Case: Search, Remains, and Ruling

The Chance Englebert case ended in November 2025, more than six years after the 25-year-old Wyoming bareback rider walked away from a family gathering in Gering, Nebraska. Hikers found skeletal remains at Scotts Bluff National Monument on October 10, 2025, and forensic testing confirmed they belonged to Englebert. The Douglas County Coroner’s Office ruled the death accidental, caused by blunt force trauma consistent with a fall from a height estimated between 130 and 290 feet.¹

Who Chance Englebert Was

Englebert grew up on his family’s ranch near Edgemont, South Dakota, and began riding bareback in eighth grade. He went on to Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne on a bareback riding scholarship and earned degrees in diesel mechanics and welding.² He hoped to qualify one day for the Wrangler National Finals.³

By 2019 he was living in Moorcroft, Wyoming, working as a welder at a coal mine. He had recently been laid off and was set to start a new job at a propane company the Monday after he disappeared.⁴ He was married to Baylee Englebert, and the couple had an infant son, Banks, born in May 2019.

The Night He Disappeared

On the afternoon of July 6, 2019, Englebert was golfing in Gering with members of Baylee’s family. A dispute broke out over comments about his new job paying less than his previous one.⁵ He called Baylee and said he wanted to go back to Wyoming. She picked him up and drove to her grandparents’ house in Gering. Arriving there only agitated him further. He got out of the car and started walking.

Baylee later told NBC’s Dateline that when Chance got angry he would walk to cool down. “I didn’t think he’d go far,” she said. “He just kept walking until I couldn’t see him.”⁶

At 7:46 p.m., Englebert told Baylee he was heading south. Around the same time, he told friends he was walking north toward Torrington, Wyoming, roughly 35 miles away.⁷ He also phoned his best man, Matt Miller, asking for a ride. Miller could not help. That call, at roughly 8:46 p.m., was the last confirmed contact anyone had with him.⁵ His phone went dark soon after.

Surveillance cameras in Gering captured a final image of him walking through town about an hour before a severe thunderstorm rolled in around 9:00 p.m.⁸ Police later said the storm raised immediate concerns about hypothermia, lightning, and falls near rivers and streams.⁶ Baylee’s grandfather went out looking for him after the storm passed and did not find him.

What the Six-Year Search Turned Up

The Gering Police Department led the case with support from the Scotts Bluff County Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and forensic search teams from Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico.⁷ Investigators conducted hundreds of interviews, served search warrants for phone records, social media, and financial data, and administered polygraph examinations. Authorities did not publicly identify who was tested or disclose the results.¹

Chance’s grandmother put up a $200,000 reward. It never produced a lead that held up.⁹

A private investigator, Ryan Daniel, pursued two leads he considered significant. A convenience store clerk about two miles from Englebert’s last confirmed location said a man matching his description came in between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. that night, bought a drink and tobacco, and appeared to be having a tense conversation toward the back of the store. Separately, two women in their mid-20s were seen in a state of panic trying to stop traffic in the area where Englebert was last spotted; witnesses said the women were eventually picked up by a truck whose driver they appeared to know.¹⁰ Neither lead was publicly resolved before the remains were found.

How the Remains Were Found and Identified

On October 10, 2025, hikers at Scotts Bluff National Monument found human remains and personal items on the north side of the park property, near Gering.¹¹ The site was between one and one and a half miles from the spot where Englebert had last been seen on surveillance footage.⁸ The area was treated as a potential crime scene, and rescuers carried out a careful excavation.

The remains went to the Douglas County Coroner’s Office in Omaha. Identification took over a month and drew on specialists in forensic dentistry, anthropology, archaeology, and pathology. DNA analysis was performed by the Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth, Texas, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Dental records and DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Chance Englebert.¹

The Accidental Fall Ruling

The Douglas County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death was “a pattern of blunt force trauma most consistent with a rapid deceleration event including, but not limited to, a fall from height.” Investigators estimated the fall was from roughly 130 to 290 feet.¹ A joint statement from the Gering Police Department and the Scotts Bluff County Attorney’s Office read: “After a full investigation, there is no evidence that the death of Chance Englebert was anything other than accidental.”¹²

The finding fits the terrain. The National Park Service describes the bluffs as “soft and crumbly,” with sharp drop-offs along the Saddle Rock Trail, which rises more than 700 feet above the surrounding plain.¹³ The park service warns that leaving the paved paths can be extremely dangerous.

Authorities said the remains would be returned to Baylee Englebert.¹⁴

What Still Isn’t Answered

The accidental ruling did not settle the case for everyone close to it. The “Help Find Chance Englebert” Facebook page, long a hub for the search, posted: “This is not any type of closure to us 💔 will just always be more questions.”⁷ Reporting by NewsNation noted that family and friends had previously disputed the possibility that the death was accidental.¹⁵ His mother, Dawn Englebert, had earlier rejected the idea that her son wandered into the North Platte River or died of exposure, pointing to his physical strength and experience as an outdoorsman and rodeo competitor. “I don’t know what could have happened, but I know that didn’t happen,” she said.¹⁶

Six years of investigation across more than a dozen agencies produced no evidence of foul play. What the record still does not explain is the sequence of events between the 8:46 p.m. phone call to Matt Miller and the moment Englebert reached the bluffs. Whether he walked there deliberately, and what role the 9:00 p.m. thunderstorm played in disorienting him, is something the evidence recovered after six years in the elements could not resolve.

1
KNOP News 2. After Massive Six-Year Investigation, Chance Englebert’s Cause of Death Revealed
2
The Fence Post. Search for Missing Wyoming Man Still Active
3
People. Missing Rodeo Star Human Remains Identified Six Years Later
4
Cowboy State Daily. New Leads but Not Much Progress Finding Moorcroft Man Missing for 5 Years
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NewsNation. Where Is Chance Englebert? Lead Investigator Weighs In
6
NBC News. Family Fears Worst Two Months After Wyoming Man Chance Englebert Disappeared
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NBC News. Chance Englebert Remains Found, Death Accidental
8
NewsNation. Human Remains Found Near Scotts Bluff National Monument
9
Wyoming Truth. Still No Answers for Family of Missing Moorcroft Man as Reward Expires
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NewsNation. Lead in Chance Englebert Disappearance Case
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1011 Now. Human Remains Confirmed to Be Missing Wyoming Man
12
Sundance Times. Accidental Death Ruled for Chance Englebert
13
National Park Service. Hiking at Scotts Bluff National Monument
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NewsNation. Chance Englebert Remains Identified in Nebraska
15
NewsNation. Chance Englebert’s Death Deemed Accidental by Authorities
16
NewsNation. Missing: Chance Englebert, Gering, Nebraska