Mother Pleads Guilty To Helping Her Son Dump Her Husbands Body In Wisconsin

It has been a long time coming, but justice has finally come to fruition for Gary Herbst who went missing way back in 2013 from Elko New Market Minnesota. In July of 2014 at the urging of Gary's Herbst brother, Gary's wife Connie made a missing persons report and told police that she had not seen Gary since July of 2013. She said he came to the house, took $5,000 cash and then was gone. She and her son Austin both told police that Gary was abusive and nobody has seen or heard from him since.

Then in June of 2020 police confronted Connie about a title for Gary's 2003 Chevy Impala which had been sold in WI in 2017 four years after he disappeared, which had Gary's signature on it. His wife dismissed the whole thing saying that Gary often pre-signed off vehicle titles. That is the same year (2017) that Gary's skull was found by a person that found a dog chewing on it with a bullet hole very prominent in the skull.  Again the investigation did not even start until 4 years after he was reported missing.

During the investigation regarding the vehicle officers interviewed the Herbst neighbors who said they did notice something suspicious on the morning of August 30th 2013. The witness saw Connie and Austin loading something into a black pick up truck that resembled a rolled up carpet. Then the two of them proceeded to have a garage sale that day selling men's clothing. After the garage sale the two left with a boat attached to the truck and were gone for a few days.

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A few months after the investigation Connie and Austin had sold their house when the new owners were asked by the sheriff's office if they could search the home. They found an unusual stain in the basement which cadaver dogs came to discover was human blood from a body that had decomposed.

This whole scenario sounds to me like a bad lifetime movie of the week. I have questions like why did they not search the home when Connie and her son still lived there? And did they even question the two of them after 2 different witnesses said they saw them load something into the pickup truck?

Austin Herbst was arrested in November of 2020 and admitted that he shot his dad in the head while he was sleeping because he had been yelling at his Mom.

According to Bring Me The News:

Connie L. Herbst, 63, was charged in November of 2020 with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, with a second charge (aiding an offender, accomplice after the fact) added in July via an amended criminal complaint. Prosecutors also charged her adult son, Austin Herbst, alleging he fatally shot his father in June of 2013 then, with the help of his mother, took the man's body to Wisconsin and dumped it in the woods.

It took a while but thankfully justice was done and hopefully, both of them will serve plenty of time for their crimes. Maybe now Gary's family will be able to find some peace since they know what happened to him.