Today marks the fourth anniversary of the disappearance in Gering of a Wyoming man who grew up in the Edgemont area.
Chance Englebert, whose 29th birthday was last December, was visiting family in Gering when he went on a walk and never returned. Surveillance video later showed that Engelbert walked north, then west to Terrytown.
His cell phone last pinged near a tower near the Hwy 71-Beltline Road intersection, and an incoherent text message was his last contact with anyone.
Multiple searches, large and small, were conducted over many months but failed to turn up any new leads on his possible whereabouts. Neither did a $20,000 reward.
Engelbert’s grandmother, Linda Kluender added another $200,000 to the reward last December, but that offer expires December 3 – Chance’s 30th birthday.
Kluender said the family believes someone knows something and just hasn’t come forward, so the hope is the combination of more money and the deadline will bring in information that solves the mystery of his disappearance.
Kluender said the money came from a recent inheritance and that after her husband told her to buy anything she wanted, she realized all she wanted was for Chance to be found and for the family to get peace of mind by learning what happened to him.
Gering Police Investigator Brian Eads told KNEB News this week that Chance Englebert’s disappearance remains an active case, but that there were only a few new leads in the past 12 months and that all resulted in dead ends.
Eads says authorities are still urging anybody who has information on what happened to Chance Engelbert to contact the Gering Police Department.