A Montana man found slain in his tent this month welcomed the suspect in his killing, a stranger, to his campsite and offered him a beer, the Gallatin County sheriff said Thursday.
Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, was arrested this week and charged with deliberate homicide in the killing of Dustin Kjersem, 35, whose body was found in his tent near Big Sky on Oct. 12, officials said.
It was a “chance encounter” at the campsite on the night of Oct. 10, and Abbey did not know Kjersem, Sheriff Dan Springer said at a news conference.
Dustin Kjersem.Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office
Abbey had planned to camp at the site, but when he arrived that night he found Kjersem was already there, with a wall tent, beds and a stove, Springer said.
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Abbey in a confession to detectives, “stated Dustin welcomed him to the campsite and offered him a beer,” Springer said.
“At some point, this individual struck Dustin Kjersem with a piece of solid wood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver and ultimately hit him with the ax,” Springer said. “The motives of this attack are still unknown.”
The state crime lab matched DNA from a beer can found in the tent to Abbey, Springer said.
Abbey was arrested Saturday in Butte, around 80 miles northwest of Big Sky. He was interviewed by sheriff’s detectives and Montana Justice Department investigators Tuesday and confessed to the killing, Springer said.
Kjersem planned to spend the weekend at the campsite with his girlfriend. He set up the camp on Oct. 10, a Thursday, and he planned to pick his girlfriend up from work the next night, Springer said.
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Kjersem never arrived. The girlfriend and a friend drove to the campsite on Oct. 12, a Saturday, and found Kjersem dead in the tent, Springer said.
Kjersem’s injuries were such that the person who reported discovering his body suspected he had been attacked by a bear, the sheriff’s office has said. An autopsy confirmed it was homicide, not an animal attack.
Abbey had been living in a couple of different areas but most recently had a residence in Basin, Montana, a small community in the mountains northeast of Butte, Springer said. He had been employed in the Big Sky area at various times, Springer said.
Abbey was arrested on a probation violation in Butte but is charged with deliberate homicide in Kjersem’s death, the sheriff’s office said.
State Corrections Department records show Abbey was on conditional release after a prison sentence for a 2020 repeat driving under the influence case.
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Abbey was being held in custody Thursday night without bond, jail records show. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The investigation could take months more. Springer said detectives will work to put together more pieces of what occurred, including what motive Abbey might have had.
“We have a bit of his story, but we don’t really know what the true story is,” Springer said. “We have a story — we just don’t know if it’s accurate.”
Springer said that after he killed Kjersem, Abbey removed items he may have touched or which could connect him to the crime, including a cooler and the ax. He returned the next night and took more items, Springer said.
The sheriff’s office previously said an ax, a Yeti cooler, a shotgun and a revolver were missing from the campsite.
Montana Brown showed off her blossoming baby bump in a series of vacation snaps on Thursday.
The former Love Island star, 29, who is expecting her second child with fiancé Mark O’Connor, displayed her growing bump in a stylish green bikini which consisted of a triangle bikini top and a pair of tie-side bikini bottoms.
Cradling her bump, the TV star further accessorised her pool-side look with a pair of cool shades.
The mother-of-one captioned the gorgeous snaps with: ‘Not long Babygirl (heart emoji)’
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Fans and close friends of the star then flocked to the comment section to pay their compliments.
One fan wrote: ‘A real life angel!!!’; ‘Gorgeous glowing mama’; ‘Feels like yesterday baby Jude was in there!!’
Pregnant Montana Brown showed off her blossoming baby bump while wearing a bikini in a series of vacation snaps on Thursday
The former Love Island star, 29, is expecting her second child with fiancé Mark O’Connor
Montana announced she was pregnant with her second child in July and took to her Instagram to share the happy news with her 1.1 million followers.
She displayed her tummy in a chic knit dress and cradled her stomach as she smiled for the camera in the clip.
Confirming that she is expecting again with her rugby player fiancé Mark, Montana wrote: ‘Two under two let’s go!’
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Montana and Mark welcomed their first child, a son named Jude, in June last year and announced they were expecting again just 13 months later.
The couple travelled to Santorini after they enjoyed a week-long holiday with their son Jude in Montenegro and shared updates from their sun-soaked trip.
The reality personality was flooded with congratulatory messages from her famous friends and Instagram followers.
Gabby Allen, who appeared on her series of Love Island, wrote: ‘Omgggg.’
While fellow Love Island alum, Tasha Ghouri said: ‘Ahh!! Congratulations!’
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The mother-of-one captioned the gorgeous snaps with: ‘Not long Babygirl (heart emoji)’
Samira Mighty penned: ‘Ahhhh.’
Food influencer Emily English posted a series of clapping hands while Tiffany Watson and Natalya Wright both said ‘congratulations’.
Other stars who shared their support included Vicky Pattison, Danielle Lloyd, Grace Beverley, Kendall Rae Knight and Elle Brown.
Earlier this year, Montana celebrated the joys and sorrows of motherhood as she paid tribute to her baby son Jude in a heartfelt Instagram post.
Montana reflected on her pregnancy journey seven months after her little one was born – as she shared her emotional thoughts with her followers.
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She detailed the highs and lows of the ‘humbling’ experience, admitting she was always ‘one comment away from having a meltdown’ but it also made her ‘respect her body so much more’.
Sharing a throwback picture of when she was seven months pregnant, she showed off her baby bump in a red bikini.
Montana was seen posing on a lavish terrace while soaking up the sun, adding a stylish straw hat and chic shades.
Montana announced she was pregnant with her second child in July and took to her Instagram to share the happy news with her 1.1 million followers
Montana and Mark welcomed their first child, a son named Jude, in June last year and announced they were expecting again just 13 months later
In the second shot, she displayed her growing baby bump in the same beach set while smiling happily in a mirror selfie.
The TV star added a few heart-melting pictures of little Jude to her carousel, accompanied by a lengthy caption: ‘7 months in vs 7 months out.’
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‘I actually LOVED being pregnant, it was such a special experience and it really made me respect my body so much more I’m still in awe.’
‘This chapter has been hard, the lack of sleep etc is so tough, I legit cried when someone beeped me in the car recently and I always feel one beep or one comment away from having a meltdown but it’s such a humbling experience.’
She went on saying: ‘I am in awe of the mums that do it on their own, don’t have family around to support and who just don’t get a break because I am so fortunate to have support around me and I am STILL in the thick of it..’
The Love Islander finished gushing over her tiny one: ‘But despite how tired I have been, Jude gets me through, his smile first thing in the morning is just priceless.’
HELENA — It is open enrollment for health insurance through the HealthCare.gov Marketplace.
People can apply or reapply for coverage until January 15, 2025, or they may have to wait until November 2025 to apply again.
Last year, 30 percent of Montanans got a plan for $10 per month through the marketplace.
Cover Montana is a project of the Montana Primary Care Association, a nonprofit organization with a federal grant to help underserved communities, consumers, and small businesses find and enroll in quality, affordable health coverage through HealthCare.gov, the Health Insurance Marketplace.
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Olivia Riutta, the director of population health of the Montana Primary Care Association shared the importance of open enrollment for Montanans.
“It is the annual opportunity to update your applications and make sure your income is correct and then to ensure that you have a plan that really meets both your monthly budget and your health needs for 2025,” Riutta says.
Cover Montana Navigators can provide phone and virtual assistance statewide through the Cover Montana Help Line: (406) 634-3105 or (844) 682-6837. In-person enrollment assistance is available in many areas, including Billings, Bozeman, Helena, Missoula, Dillon, Kalispell, and Miles City.
BILLINGS — Emotions were high as Montana State prepared to leave team headquarters for Toyota Stadium on the morning of the 2021 FCS national championship game in Frisco, Texas.
Waded Cruzado, the much-revered president of the university and a preeminent champion for unprecedented growth and development at Montana’s land-grant institution, couldn’t help but be swept up in it all.
Montana State University
Montana State University president Waded Cruzado is pictured during MSU’s First-Year Student Convocation at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman on Aug. 20, 2024.
“I was the last person to leave the hotel,” Cruzado recalled during a recent video call with MTN Sports from her office at Montana Hall. “When I got to the lobby and the doors opened, there was head coach Brent Vigen. And tears came to my eyes.
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“Everybody was so happy and so proud and everybody was rooting for the Bobcats.”
It’s a subtle anecdote, but it serves as a symbol for all the things Cruzado has tried to instill on the MSU campus since becoming president in January 2010 — pride, passion, identity and belonging.
And Montana State athletics has been one of the greatest beneficiaries.
The Bobcats didn’t win that championship game in 2021, but the fact that they were there underscored how far they’d come. It had been 37 years since the football program had advanced that far, and there were times in the late 1980s and certainly the 1990s that suggested it might never happen again.
It takes talented players, dedicated coaches and forward-thinking administrators to achieve sustained success. It also takes a president that has bought in. Cruzado has been that in spades. But now she’s on her way out.
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Cruzado announced her retirement in August, effective next summer. As she gets ready to watch the annual Cat-Griz rivalry for the 15th and final time as MSU president, nostalgia can be added to a thorough list of emotions she’s feeling.
“After my appointment … it became evident to me that Cat-Griz was a very important event in the life of both universities,” Cruzado said. “I could feel the passion. I could feel the rivalry, which was far more intense than what I had (seen) at my previous institutions. Every year it’s a great cause for celebration and anticipation.
“Even when I have been in Missoula, fans have been so kind to me, so nice to me. And I really appreciated that.”
That doesn’t mean Cruzado didn’t want her Bobcats to kick the Grizzlies’ butts.
Montana State University
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Montana State University president Waded Cruzado poses with members of the football team during MSU’s annual downtown Cat Walk in Bozeman on Aug. 16, 2024.
Cruzado has without question lifted Montana State’s academic profile and points out that the university has more research expenditure dollars on an annual basis than all the other public and private universities in the state combined.
But her impact on MSU athletics cannot be overstated.
Ninth-year athletic director Leon Costello said Cruzado’s support “completely exceeded my expectations. It was unlike anything that I’d ever been a part of.”
Diminutive in stature, Cruzado bursts with immeasurable love for the university. She’s channeled that into doing whatever it takes to raise the bar for an athletic department that seemed to be stuck in neutral in terms of fundraising and infrastructure for several years prior to her arrival in Bozeman.
On the whole, as everyone knows, football — the opiate of the masses — is the primary driver of revenue in Division I sports. But how did a native of Puerto Rico, who had no relationship with American football in her youth, come to realize its importance?
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“Baseball in Puerto Rico is sacred. Just need to say one name — Roberto Clemente,” Cruzado offered. “So I grew up watching a lot of baseball. When I turned 13, 14 years old, I became (a fan) of men’s basketball, and Puerto Rico had a very decent national team. So there is a lot of enthusiasm for sports in Puerto Rico.
“In my adulthood, of course, I was in the U.S., and you cannot escape football, the allure and what it brings. And in the state of Montana, football speaks for our culture. It’s a very important thing for us. I was blown away to see how long people will drive in the state just to join us for a game.”
Early in her tenure, Cruzado saw the improvements that had to be made to Bobcat Stadium. She noticed fans leaving during games, especially students. There had to be a transformation.
It began with the south end zone project in 2010, an undertaking Cruzado spearheaded with a fundraising challenge to the Bobcat Quarterback Club that ultimately collected $11 million.
The Sonny Holland end zone, completed in time for the 2011 season, bowled in the south side of the facility and was the proverbial jolt the department needed to achieve future goals.
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Montana State University
Montana State University president Waded Cruzado is pictured with students during a Bobcats football game against Northern Colorado in Bozeman on Oct. 5, 2024.
In the years since, the stadium has added lights, and it now boasts an $18 million athletic complex and a state-of-the-art 30-by-100-foot Daktronics scoreboard on the north end.
MSU has also upgraded its track and field facility, made improvements to Worthington Arena and Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, and is now erecting a $26.5 million indoor practice facility to benefit all programs, not just football.
For everything that’s happened at MSU on Cruzado’s watch — the 33% growth in enrollment, the 133% increase in research dollars, the more than $600 million in construction projects on campus, etc. — her backing of athletics is immense.
Montana State fell behind rival Montana in athletics in the ‘80s and ‘90s. But that gap doesn’t exist anymore. And students are no longer walking out of the stadium prematurely.
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“She’s done nothing but support our vision — my vision — even when maybe we had differing opinions,” said Costello, whose own exuberance has given the Bobcats a certain dynamic they seemed to lack in years prior. “That partnership is the benefit that you now see in Bobcat athletics.”
Bill Lamberty, MSU’s assistant AD for communications, has been with the department since 1990. He’s had a front-row seat to the transfiguration.
“The easiest ways to gauge president Cruzado’s impact on Bobcat athletics are to look at an aerial overlay comparing the athletic physical plant of today to 2009, and to compare our across-the-board success in competition in that time,” Lamberty said. “Those areas are both vastly superior today to when president Cruzado arrived.
“Positive energy, Bobcat spirit, and commitment to supporting MSU students are the cost of admission to being part of the Montana State community, and it all starts with president Cruzado. She’s a transformative person, and her presidency has transformed Bobcat athletics.”
As far as the on-field rivalry with Montana, the Bobcats are on much better footing than they were not that long ago. The series is even at 10-10 since the Grizzlies’ 16-game winning streak was halted in 2002.
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Cruzado even made mention of “The Streak” when talking about all this growth, saying she noticed upon her arrival that it still pained fans and boosters — even though it ended eight years prior to her appointment.
Montana State University
Montana State University president Waded Cruzado is pictured with Bobcats mascot Champ on the MSU campus in Bozeman on Aug. 21, 2024.
When she met with the Quarterback Club in June 2010, Cruzado said she “let them vent. At the end I said, ‘I hear your passion. I know that you care about this place. But as far as I’m concerned that’s in the past, and I would love for us to turn the page. I want to focus on the future.’”
Thus, athletic growth became one of her top priorities.
Saturday’s Cat-Griz game is the 123rd all-time and the 15th of Cruzado’s tenure. It will be her last as president. Her No. 2-ranked Bobcats, trying to complete the program’s first 12-0 regular season, were 17-point favorites on Tuesday.
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They’re one of the favorites to make it back to Texas for this year’s national title game, especially if they secure home-field advantage with a top-two seed.
Cruzado, for one, would love to go back to experience more tear-inducing moments, to perhaps see MSU’s first football title in 40 years.
But her legacy will be greater than that.
“When the university speaks about excellence, it has to be excellence in every realm,” Cruzado said. “And (our) new facilities speak to that excellence. But the most important thing at Montana State cannot be those buildings. It has to be the people.”
“What I will feel very, very proud of is that we were able to expand that tent. Athletics is a very big tent, and everybody’s welcome,” she added. “I hope that I have been able to add a little bit of, you know, my grain of salt, to instill that sense of identity, of belonging and passion about being a Bobcat.”
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