The Halloween He Never Came Home
Jacob Wenzel stepped out into the autumn night on October 31, 2022, and vanished without a trace. More than three years later, his family still waits — and the questions keep multiplying.
Halloween in a small Wisconsin city is usually the stuff of neighborhood memories — porch lights, candy bowls, kids in costumes cutting through the cold. In Oconto, population around 4,500, it’s the kind of evening where most people know their neighbors. That is what makes the disappearance of 21-year-old Jacob Wenzel so haunting. He walked into that ordinary October night and never walked back out.
Jacob Thomas Scott Wenzel was last seen alive on the evening of October 31, 2022. He had spent part of the afternoon and evening with his girlfriend and his cousin at a relative’s home in Oconto. Around 9 p.m., according to a message his cousin sent to Jacob’s mother, Tonya Sampley, Jacob left the house saying he was going to meet someone — and didn’t return.
It was the last confirmed sighting anyone who loved him would have.
Case at a Glance
Missing: Jacob T.S. Wenzel, 21 at time of disappearance
Last seen: October 31, 2022, Oconto, Wisconsin
Physical description: 5’11”, approx. 138 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes
Clothing last worn: White patterned sweatshirt, khaki joggers, red/black Air Jordans, grey hat
Distinguishing tattoos: “Family” on left forearm; diamond on left chest; star on right forearm; multiple small tattoos on both hands
Case number: C22-04930 (Oconto Police Department)
Status: Active missing persons investigation
A Trail That Goes Cold Ten Miles South
In the hours after Jacob failed to return, his family grew frantic. When they contacted authorities, investigators used cell phone technology to ping Jacob’s device and traced a signal to an area near Brookside Cemetery and a Shell gas station along Highway 41 in Abrams — approximately ten miles south of Oconto. Jacob’s brother drove to the location. When he arrived, he reported seeing a suspicious vehicle at the gas station with a man and a woman inside. As he watched, the vehicle left the area.
The family organized an early search effort, combing the grounds near Abrams, Oconto, Brookside, and the Pensaukee River. According to Jacob’s aunt Carrie Marquardt, the family found something during that search — but the detail was withheld from the public at the request of investigators due to the ongoing case. Jacob’s phone, wherever it had been, went dark. The battery had died, and with it, the last electronic breadcrumb.
Days after Jacob went missing, a gas station employee reportedly told a profiling website that surveillance footage from the Shell station showed two men and a woman involved in a physical altercation — an incident said to end with one person being forced into the trunk of a vehicle. The Charley Project, which profiles cold cases nationwide, included this account in its file on Jacob. However, Oconto Police have reportedly denied that such footage exists, and the account has never been officially confirmed. It remains one of the most contested and unresolved details of the entire case.
“Someone knows something. It’s time to speak up.”
— Tonya Sampley, Jacob’s mother
A Mother’s Vigil, Conducted Online and in Her Heart
In the years since Jacob’s disappearance, it has been his mother, Tonya Sampley, who has refused to let the case go quiet. Through consistent social media posts, public appeals, and persistent contact with investigators, she has become the most visible force keeping Jacob’s name in circulation in Oconto County and beyond.
Her posts reflect the full, unvarnished emotional weight of unresolved loss. On Jacob’s birthday in July, she wrote publicly about the last birthday they celebrated together — a message directed to her son as though he might still read it. “I am overcome with regret, baby boy,” she wrote. “I beg of you, do not lose faith in me, and I will vow not to abandon my quest to find you.”
Sampley has also shared various theories and possibilities she’s encountered in her search, including speculation that Jacob may have been taken to Adams County, that he later traveled to Chicago, or that his remains may be in Menominee, Michigan. She has been careful to frame these as possibilities, not conclusions — but each one reflects both her determination and her desperation for any thread to pull.
Oconto Police Chief Kassie Dufek acknowledged that investigators have looked into the Menominee lead. “I know that his mother is very concerned about the possibility of him being in the Menominee, Michigan area,” Dufek said. “She shares her concerns and we appreciate that. Every concern is followed up on.” Notably, the Menominee County Sheriff’s Office stated they have not been directly contacted about Wenzel and have no information on the case.
An Investigation That Continues — But Quietly
One of the most persistent tensions in the Jacob Wenzel case has been the friction between the family’s visible anguish and the operational silence that comes with any active investigation. Dufek has pushed back on the perception that law enforcement has abandoned the case. “Most of the public, including his mother, thinks we don’t care, that we’re just not doing anything,” she said. “That’s the opposite of what’s going on.”
Multiple departments have reportedly been involved at various points. Dufek noted that special agents and detective lieutenants remain active on the case, and that the work includes coordination with agencies in other jurisdictions. The Oconto County Sheriff, Todd Skarban, confirmed that his department assisted in the initial stages before the trail appeared to lead out of county, but has not been asked to re-engage since. “It’s an Oconto police case,” Skarban said. According to Tonya, the police are cooperative and helping now because the case was transferred.
What has frustrated both the family and outside observers is the near-total absence of public communication from investigators over the years. According to a 2024 podcast investigation by WSAW’s “Out of the Dark,” the Oconto Police Department issued only two Facebook press releases in the weeks after Jacob disappeared — on November 4 and November 8, 2022 — and provided virtually no public updates in the 16 months that followed. When reporters attempted to ask questions on six separate occasions, none were answered.
In our interview Tonya said she was appreciative of the police’s work and that the earlier miscommunication in this case is not the case anymore and she states that the current officer in charge is very helpful.
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The Night in Full
Reconstructing what is known about the evening of October 31, 2022 reveals a story that raises more questions than it answers. Jacob called his mother around 2 p.m. that afternoon. He told her he, his girlfriend Brooke, and his cousin Hayley were heading to The Breakwater — a park at the mouth of the Oconto River along the bay of Green Bay — to spend the afternoon together. His mother recalled that the call ended on a strangely reflective note. “He says, ‘I don’t want to be grown up anymore. I just want to be a kid again,’” she recounted. “And I just laughed at him.”
That evening, Jacob was at his cousin’s home. Around 9 p.m., he apparently told someone he was stepping out to meet an individual. He left. He didn’t come back. His cousin reached out to Tonya. Tonya called police. Investigators pinged his phone. The trail ended near a gas station in Abrams, ten miles from where he started.
Jacob Wenzel was last seen getting into a vehicle with at least one other person. His phone went silent. And no one — officially — has said what happened next.
What We Still Don’t Know
Three years in, the open questions in this case are substantial. Who did Jacob leave to meet that night? What was in the surveillance footage from the Shell station in Abrams — and why do accounts from the family, media, and law enforcement conflict so sharply? What did Jacob’s family find during their initial search near the Pensaukee River that was deemed too sensitive to disclose? What has the investigation determined about the person Jacob reportedly had a conflict with prior to his disappearance? And why, if multiple agencies are actively working the case, has there been so little public communication?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the kind that someone, somewhere, has the answers to.
If You Know Something
Jacob Wenzel has been missing since October 31, 2022. He remains classified as a missing person. His family is still looking. Investigators say the case remains active.
If you have any information — no matter how small or how long ago you came across it — you are urged to contact:
Detective Lieutenant Ron Ripley
Oconto Police Department
📞 (920) 641-5749 | ✉️ rripley@cityofocontowi.gov
Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults
📞 1-800-THE-HOPE (1-800-843-4673)
