A gruesome death that was initially reported to be a bear attack is now being investigated by Montana authorities as a vicious homicide.
The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office in Montana received a call around 10 a.m. Saturday regarding the discovery of a dead man in a tent 2.5 miles up Moose Creek Road. The caller indicated that the death may have been caused by a bear attack.
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Multiple departments responded and the victim was identified as Dustin Mitchell Kjersem, 35, of Belgrade, Montana.
However, a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks agent “with expertise in bear attacks” who responded to the scene “did not find any signs of bear activity at the scene,” the sheriff's office said in a statement.
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“This prompted investigators to treat the case as a homicide. Evidence gathered through an autopsy further indicated that this was a homicide,” the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities described the incident as a “vicious attack” and said detectives are working to develop and track down leads.
Kjersem was last seen the afternoon of Thursday Oct. 10 as he was leaving to go camping up Moose Creek. He was driving a black 2013 Ford F-250 with a black topper and an aluminum silver ladder rack, the sheriff’s office's investigations captain Nate Kamerman said in a news conference Thursday.
"He was well prepared for a weekend of camping and had plans to meet with a friend on Friday afternoon, but he never made that meeting," Kamerman said.
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Kjersem died after sustaining “multiple chop wounds,” according to his autopsy, Cameraman said.
It’s not clear what the weapon was, but “we do know it was something hard enough to cause significant damage to the skull as well as some flesh areas of the body,” Sheriff Dan Springer said.
Springer said Kjersem's body was discovered by the friend who he was supposed to meet with Friday who went looking for him after he failed to show up.
Kjersem was in an area that is not an official campsite, but is a “standard forest service area where people make their own campsites,” and where there are plenty of hunters, outfitters and people living in the area, the sheriff said.
“There is a lot of activity even though it’s fairly remote,” Springer said.
The sheriff’s office asked for anyone present in the Moose Creek area from the evening of Oct. 10 to the early morning hours to Oct. 12 to reach out to the sheriff’s office and anyone with trail or game cameras to reach out, “even if the footage seems irrelevant.”
No one has been arrested yet in connection with the case.
Kjersem's sister, Jillian Price, spoke at the press conference, saying her brother was born in Bozeman and worked in the area. She described her brother as a "hardworking, skilled tradesman" and "a loving, helpful and adoring father who in no way deserved this."
Springer said he doesn’t know if there’s a threat to the community and called for locals and campers to be cautious.
“We don’t have enough information to know at this time but we do know that someone was out there who killed someone in a very heinous way. So if you're out there in the woods … you need to remain vigilant.”
Anyone with information can call the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office at 406-582-2121 and leave a message during business hours or after hours at 406-582-2100 and select option 1 to reach a dispatcher.
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