A tourist offered beer to a stranger. The can cracked his murder, the sheriff says

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

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

Local law enforcement and a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks agent who is an expert on bear attacks checked the Moose Creek Campground area in Gallatin Canyon but found no signs of bear activity, prompting authorities to treat the case as murder. An autopsy later confirmed that Kjersem had suffered multiple stab wounds.

“This is the behavior of a guilty subject 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 killing was a random encounter. The Abbey planned to set up camp at this location, across the border Yellowstone National Parkwhere Kjersem had already pitched his tent, Springer said.

Kjersem planned to spend the first night alone, and pick up his girlfriend the next day to spend a second night together in the desert. His girlfriend was worried when he didn’t show up The morning of Oct. 12, a Saturday, Springer said, she went to the campsite and found Kjersem dead in the tent.

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

Kiersem’s sister Jillian Price asked the public on October 16 to help find her brother’s killer.

She said her brother was born in nearby Bozeman and worked all over the valley pouring foundations, furnishing homes and installing countertops.

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

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

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

Authorities arrested Abby the next day and questioned him on October 29, when he confessed to the murder.

Abby is about 90 miles from Basin, Montana, but he was in the area working on construction, Springer said.

Abbey removed items from the campsite that he believed could tie him to the murder, Springer said. Therefore, the investigators appealed to the public on October 24 keep an eye out for a blue Estwing camp axe, a Remington 11-87 12 gauge shotgun, a 44 gauge Ruger Blackhawk revolver and an orange YETI cooler.

Such cases consume the sheriff’s office, said Springer, who heads the 59-deputy agency.

He thanked his investigators, other agencies that helped, and the lab technicians who cracked the case. Springer also had a message for the Kjersem family.

“I hope this brings some peace to all of you,” he said.

According to Gallatin jail records, Abby is being held on $1.5 million bond on one count of first degree murder and two counts of tampering with evidence.