Camper believed to be mauled by bear actually victim of homicide: Police

A Montana camper believed to be mauled by a bear turned out to be a victim of a brutal homicide, authorities said Wednesday.

Dustin Kjersem, 35, of Belgrade, about an hour-and-half drive southeast of Helena, went camping northeast of Big Sky on October 10, Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said at a news conference Wednesday.

Kjersem had plans to meet up with a friend the next day. When Kjersem didn’t show up, his friend started looking for him.

Kjersem’s friend found his body in the Moose Creek area on Saturday morning and reported it as a possible bear mauling. A Montana wildlife agent, however, found no evidence of a bear.

An autopsy later determined that Kjersem died of “multiple chop wounds” from an unknown weapon, Springer said. The victim suffered injuries to his skull and body. His exact time of death is unknown.

There had been no arrests, and it was unknown if there was still a threat to the community.

“People have asked me if there’s a threat to the community, and the answer is: We don’t know. We don’t have enough information to know at this time,” Springer said. “But we do know that someone was out there who killed someone in a very heinous way.”

Springer added, “If you’re out there in the woods, we need you to be paying attention; we need you to remain vigilant.”

Kjersem was camping in an unofficial campground in a remote forest. The location of the killing makes the investigation more complicated, Springer said. There is no cell service in the area, so there’s no record of calls that could have helped investigators.

Kjersem’s sister, Jillian Price, said he worked as a homebuilder in the Gallatin Valley, which includes the city of Bozeman.

“This weekend, we lost our brother, our son, our uncle, our best friend and our dad in the most unimaginable way,” Price said.

She called him a “loving, helpful and adoring father who in no way deserved this.”

“I ask our community to please help us find out who did this,” Price said. “There is someone in our valley who is capable of truly heinous things.”

If anyone in the Moose Creek area had a trail or game camera, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office asks them to contact authorities.

“We are working all hours of the day and night to find his killer,” Springer said.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.