Chain of Custody & The 2017 Pet Dog Discovery
In early December 2017, homeowners residing in rural Stanfold Township, northeast of Rice Lake in Barron County, Wisconsin, notified the Barron County Sheriff's Department after their family dog returned from adjacent woods carrying a weathered human skull.
Barron County deputies, state special agents, and forensic anthropologists secured the property, conducting systematic grid searches across fifty acres of dense timber and swamp. Anthropologists excavated a shallow, clandestine depression where they recovered remaining postcranial skeletal elements wrapped in decomposing cloth.
Forensic Pathological & Anthropological Examination
Examination at the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office and forensic anthropology laboratories determined the decedent was an adult White male, estimated between 45 and 65 years of age. Taphonomic bone weathering, root growth through the pelvic girdle, and decomposition rates indicated the decedent had been interred for between five and fifteen years prior to discovery.
The cause of death was definitively ruled homicide. Pathologists identified a penetrating gunshot wound to the cranial vault with entrance fracturing and internal beveling consistent with a medium-caliber projectile fired at close range. The case was entered into NamUs as Unidentified Person UP17502.
Investigative Genetic Genealogy Breakthrough
With zero matching local missing persons profiles and no hits in CODIS, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald partnered with the non-profit DNA Doe Project in 2019. Skeletal samples were sent to HudsonAlpha Discovery for whole-genome sequencing, yielding high-density SNP data uploaded to GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.
Genealogists identified second-cousin matches descended from family lines rooted in Barron and Polk counties. By reconstructing multi-generational family trees, team members narrowed the candidate pool to Gary Allen Herbst, a U.S. Navy veteran born in 1943 who had lived in New Richmond, Wisconsin, before mysteriously vanishing without a trace in 2006. In June 2020, direct reference DNA swabs from Gary Herbst's surviving family confirmed the identification.