GALLATIN CANYON, Montana – A suspect has confessed to killing Dustin Kjersem, a camper found brutally attacked near Big Sky, Montana, last month is in custody.

That’s a relief for hunters and others camping in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, but the details of the crime authorities revealed on Halloween still add up to a camper’s worst nightmare.

Gallatin County sheriff’s officers arrested Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, in Kjersem’s killing, an attack that witnesses initially believed to be the work of a bear due to its brutal nature. The killing, which took place at the victim’s campsite, shocked the region, shattering the idyllic image of the outdoors and fall camping trips, where many seek to escape crime and other problems plaguing larger towns and cities.

Abbey was caught after a nearly three-week manhunt and held on “unrelated charges,” Springer said, before confessing to the murder.

“This criminal is a 41-year-old male who currently resides in the Basin, Montana area and works in the Big Sky area,” Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer told reporters gathered at a news conference Thursday.

Kjersem’s death prompted forest rangers and safety experts to urge campers to consider their surroundings and take special precautions to deter and distract unwanted attention and strangers from their campsites.

“The motives for this attack are still unknown,” Springer said. “Investigators will continue to piece together everything they can to build a better picture of the events of that evening. This appears to be a heinous crime committed by someone who had no regard for Dustin Kjersem’s life.

“By all accounts, this homicide appears to be a chance encounter. There does not appear to be any connection between our victim and our suspect.”

What happened

The tragic and fatal encounter between Kjersem and his killer took place on October 10, when the 35-year-old victim arrived in the Moose Creek area and set up camp, which included “a wall tent, complete with a stove with firewood, beds, lamps and several other items,” Springer said.

Kjersem also had a handgun and a rifle. He planned to bring his girlfriend to the camp the next day, but that night Abbey entered Kjersem’s camp.

“We learned that the suspect was looking for a camping spot on Thursday night and had planned on this particular spot. As he approached the site, he realized that someone was sitting there. He said Dustin welcomed him to the campsite and offered him a beer,” Sheriff Springer continued during the press conference. “At one point, this individual just hit Dustin Kjersem with a piece of solid wood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver, and finally hit him with the axe.”

When Kjersem’s girlfriend and a companion discovered Dustin’s body two days later on October 12, they thought he had been attacked by a bear.

Much of what investigators learned only raised more questions, Springer said.

“We have a bit of his story, but we don’t really know what the real story is,” he said. “Do we really know what happened in this case? What caused this? We have a story, we just don’t know if it’s accurate. So I’m not willing to share that until we know what it actually is exactly.”

With so many unknowns, campers in the Custer Gallatin National Forest and beyond are left wondering what they can do to stay safe.

“so rare”

Mark Genito, a former Yellowstone National Park ranger who now lives in Bozeman, Montana, said he followed the Kjersem case closely. Genito often patrolled Yellowstone’s Thorofare region alone on horseback, acting as a law enforcement officer in the deep country, which he believes is the safest place to be on public lands.

“It’s counter-intuitive because we have this innate fear of the deep wilderness because we’re so far away, but it’s this fear that keeps most people out there and the biggest threat is always other people,” he said Genito in a telephone interview. “You know, the biggest threat is never the thing that crawls in the dark. It is so rare that there is this predatory monster that wants to enter your tent.

“Most things that are on all fours in the wilderness are more afraid of us than they are. And the biggest threat to your safety is always humanity – it’s your fellow man, unfortunately. So the backcountry that’s the furthest away, those are going to be your safest places as long as you know how to handle the backcountry.”

Kjersem was not killed in the back of the country.

The crime scene is 1.5 miles from US Highway 191, the busy link between Big Sky and Bozeman. It runs along the Gallatin River, the setting for the movie “A River Runs Through It.”

Kayakers hitchhike back to their cars and campers fill designated campsites. It’s a busy front country area, and Genito said in his experience in YNP, that’s where you’re most likely to run into trouble.

“The first country was much more dangerous,” pointed out Genito, who once confronted the Hell’s Angels during a traffic stop in Yellowstone. Then there was the time he was hiking outside of Butte, Montana, and discovered a meth lab deep in the woods.

“You kind of feel like, ‘Oh, maybe I’m not alone all of a sudden, and there are some people here who don’t want me around,'” Genito added, saying in general, “I tend to trust my peers of camping.”

Security

Genito said he agrees with security consultant George Babnick, whose rule no. 1 for safe camping is to choose a good spot.

In an online post titled “How to Avoid Camping Disasters,” Babnick suggests, “Always keep safety in mind and follow your ‘gut’ instincts.” Trusting your gut means following the physical feelings your body is giving you and making the right or wrong decision.

“Is there anyone camping nearby who looks a little shaky? Is there trash in the area that might indicate the area is a local “party zone”? Are there negative reviews online about a particular area? Is there cell service in the area in case you need to call 911?”

Whether they’re in the front or the back, campers this time of year aren’t alone.

Jamie Balke, spokesman for the Custer Gallatin National Forest, told the agency, “They conduct hunter patrols through the forest, which provide an opportunity to talk with people in the landscape, answer questions and, if the situation warrants, issue warnings or citations.

“Although our employees are on hand year-round to chat with visitors and answer questions, it’s great to have a presence in the woods this time of year when people are hunting or enjoying other fall recreation opportunities on the grounds their public.”

Like the ski patrols or river foresters who manage popular stretches of water, the hunter patrols function definitively as a roving force, said Terina Hill, spokeswoman for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. In the transition from fire season to hunting season, crews put down their pulaskis — a firefighting tool — and staff hunter patrols.

“Our firefighters will go out into the woods this time of year and do patrols, going to camps,” Hill said.

There’s an art to approaching strangers at their campsites, and Morgan Jacobsen, title? with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, game wardens are trained in the craft.

“Of course, this time of year when the hunting season is going on, all the hunters are armed and the game wardens interact with thousands of them throughout the season,” Jacobsen said. “They have to be very careful.”

“If you’re dealing with another camper, be aware,” retired Bozeman Police Officer Scott Swanson said during a phone interview from the banks of the Gallatin River.

A former deputy police chief in Santa Rosa, Calif., Swanson recounted a camping incident years ago when, “We had two shady characters next to us and they were both drunk and throwing knives.”

Things escalated and law enforcement intervened, causing one of the men to attempt to escape by swimming downstream, where he was eventually caught.

“Then the last time I trusted someone sitting across from me was offering me psychedelic mushrooms,” Swanson recalled with a laugh. “And then I told him I’d been a policeman for 30 years and he said, ‘Well, I should go.’ And he returned to his camp.”

Swanson said law enforcement from the front and back forms a public safety net designed to protect campers. They have a bond the Gallatin County Sheriff said at the Halloween press conference.

“We know it’s our responsibility to stand between good and evil in this world,” Sheriff Springer said. “We will protect the good people of this community with every resource we have.”

These resources include a “Death Dashboard” produced by the National Park Service. According to the scoreboard, there were 2,149 deaths in national parks between 2014 and 2019, with 25 of those deaths determined to be homicides.