Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘What the Neighbors Saw’ of CBS’ ’48 Hours,’ the primary focus is on the sudden disappearance of Gary Albert Herbst, who lived in Elko New Market, Minnesota, with his wife, Connie, and their son, Austin James Herbst. When his remains were found a few years later, his son and wife were eventually connected to Gary’s killing. During interviews, Austin never denied his involvement in the murder and was later punished in the court of law for killing his father.
Austin James Herbst Alleged He Killed His Father to Save His Mother
Around 1994, Austin James Herbst was born to Gary Albert Herbst and Connie Herbst, with whom he lived in Elko New Market, Minnesota. According to him, Gary was allegedly physically and verbally abusive towards Connie and him every now and then. When he was 19 years old, he allegedly believed that his father was going to kill his mother. So, he reportedly shot him to death on July 6, 2013, in his sleep and kept his remains inside the home, while trying to figure out a way to dispose of them with his mother, Connie. According to official records, around mid-August 2013, the mother and son loaded the remains in Gary’s pickup truck and drove down to a wooded area near Maple Grove Township in Barron County, Wisconsin, where they dumped them.
Several neighbors also claimed to have seen Austin and Connie scrubbing the windows and basement floors of the residence following the disappearance of Gary. The following year, on July 6, 2014, Connie reported her husband missing to the police, upon Gary’s brother’s insistence. However, his remains weren’t discovered until December 2017, when a Wisconsin resident reported finding them near his 15-acre wooded residence. After they were confirmed to be Gary’s remains in February 2020, the detectives began looking into Austin and Connie’s possible involvement in the murder.
Austin Told the Police About His Alleged Bad Blood With His Father
During his first interview, Austin told the detectives that he saw his father leave with an unknown person in a grey car, after which he called his mother to inform her. In another round of questioning in June 2020, he claimed he didn’t have a good relationship with Gary and was aware of what happened to him, but wasn’t ready to reveal it at the time. Later, apart from executing search warrants at their previous home, where the murder took place, and their new home in New Prague, the police also interviewed neighbors and seized the mother and son’s cell phones. It turned out that Connie and Austin held a garage sale a few weeks after Gary’s death, selling men’s clothing and several tools, seemingly belonging to Gary.
In late July, Austin claimed that he and his mother had gone camping the weekend Gary disappeared. He also mentioned that he had thrown a handgun in the Flambeau Flowage. After finding out a series of suspicious texts between Austin and Connie, the police had enough evidence against them to obtain a warrant for their arrests. Finally, on the morning of November 19, 2020, the mother and son were arrested at their New Prague residence without incident. They were charged with second-degree aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder in connection with Gary Herbst’s killing.
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Austin James Herbst is Supposedly Incarcerated at a Minnesota Prison Facility
In the second week of March 2021, Austin James Herbst pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the second-degree murder of his father, Gary Herbst. Meanwhile, Connie later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aiding an offender after the fact. A few months later, in June, Austin was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for his involvement in the gruesome crime. With credit for time served since his arrest in November 2020, Austin has to serve nearly eight years in prison before he can be released on supervised parole.
In his presentence defense argument statements, Austin stated, “To this day, I believe he was going to kill her that night. If I would have stood aside, my mom would be dead. I knew what I did and why I did it, and to this day I am confident that my decisions were justified.” Admitting that he shot his father to free his mother “from a prison.” As of today, he is seemingly serving his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
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