A camper offered a strange beer. The can revealed his murder, the sheriff says

But it was Abbey, not a bear, who hit Kjersem with a piece of wood before stabbing him in the neck with a screwdriver and then taking an ax to the 35-year-old man, authorities said.

“This appears to be a heinous crime committed by an individual who had no regard for the life of Dustin Kjersem,” Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said at a news conference Thursday.

Local law enforcement agencies and an agent from Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, an expert on bear attacks, inspected the site in Gallatin Canyon’s Moose Creek Campground but found no signs of bear activity. case like murder. An autopsy later confirmed that Kjersem suffered multiple lacerations, according to authorities.

“This is the behavior of a guilty person who thought he could get away with it,” Springer said.

Investigators say they believe the two men did not know each other and that the alleged murder was a chance encounter. Abbey planned to camp at the site, across the border Yellowstone National Parkwhere Kjersem had already pitched his tent, Springer said.

Kjersem planned to spend the first night alone before picking up his girlfriend the next day for a second night together in the wilderness. His girlfriend became concerned when he didn’t show up the morning of Oct. 12, a Saturday, Springer said, so she drove to the campsite and found Kjersem dead in the tent.

The sheriff’s office began an intensive three-week investigation.

Kjersem’s sister, Jillian Price, asked the public on Oct. 16 to help them find her brother’s killer.

She said her brother was born in nearby Bozeman and worked throughout the valley pouring foundations, framing houses and installing countertops.

“He was a loving, helpful and admiring father who in no way deserved this,” she said.

But there were few good leads and little useful evidence, Capt. Nathan Kamerman, chief of investigations for the sheriff’s office, said Thursday.

The big break came on Oct. 25, when crime lab staff told investigators they had a DNA match on the beer can, Springer said. Abbey had previously been arrested for driving under the influence, according to state corrections records.

Authorities arrested Abbey the next day and interviewed him on October 29, when he confessed to the murder, according to authorities.

Abbey is about 90 miles away in Basin, Montana, but he was in the area working construction, Springer said.

Abbey removed items from the campsite that he thought tied him to the murder, Springer said. That’s why researchers asked the public on October 24 to look for a blue Estwing camp axe, a 12-gauge Remington 11-87 shotgun, a .44-caliber Ruger Blackhawk revolver and an orange YETI cooler.

Cases like these consume the sheriff’s office, said Springer, who heads the 59-deputy agency.

He thanked his investigators, other agencies who helped and the laboratory technicians who cleared up the case. Springer also had a message for Kjersem’s family.

“I hope this can bring you all a little peace,” he said.

Abbey is being held on $1.5 million bond on charges of intentional homicide and two counts of tampering with evidence, according to Gallatin jail records.