Montana
Montana man found dead in tent welcomed suspect to camp and gave him a beer, officials say
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
How Do Montana State, North Dakota State Compare To Past FCS National Championship Contenders?
As we prepare for the 2025 FCS National Championship game, we wanted to take a look at how Montana State and North Dakota State compare to previous teams who have made appearances in the FCS national title game over the past five seasons.
Do these teams belong in the same conversation as last season’s South Dakota State team or the 16-0 North Dakota State team in 2019? We examine both teams in this season’s national title game and compare them to those who have appeared in the national title game in the last five full seasons. Due to the unique format of the season, we excluded the shortened spring 2021 season.
We utilized several advanced metrics, including the Massey Power Rating, Sagarin Power Rating, and College Football Reference’s Simple Rating System (SRS). The SRS is not logged for FCS teams, but we have utilized their formula to make our own SRS for teams at the FCS level. The calculation is straightforward, using the average margin of victory and strength of schedule.
|
Massey Power Rating |
Sagarin Rating |
SRS |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
2024 Montana State |
53.5 |
76.6 |
26.2 |
|
2024 North Dakota State |
55.8 |
76.3 |
25.7 |
|
2023 South Dakota State |
62.8 |
83.3 |
24.3 |
|
2023 Montana |
49.9 |
69.1 |
15.9 |
|
2022 South Dakota State |
58.8 |
76.0 |
25.9 |
|
2022 North Dakota State |
55.3 |
69.7 |
18.9 |
|
2021 North Dakota State |
63.3 |
76.3 |
23.3 |
|
2021 Montana State |
52.3 |
65.1 |
18.4 |
|
2019 North Dakota State |
61.4 |
78.6 |
24.4 |
|
2019 James Madison |
57.2 |
72.8 |
22.3 |
Both teams this season compare favorably with the past four FCS national champions. Montana State has the second-highest adjusted margin of victory, winning by an average of 19.1 points per game. It only trails the 2019 North Dakota State team, which defeated opponents by an average of 19.3 points per game.
The most interesting takeaway is that this is the first matchup in the FCS National Championship in the past five full seasons in which both teams appear to be playing at a championship standard. Analytically, this is the closest gap between the teams playing in the national championship in the past five seasons.
This should be no surprise to fans, who have seen dominant performances over the past few seasons in Frisco. The average margin of victory in the past five national championships has been 16.4 points, with the closest game being Sam Houston State’s two-point win over South Dakota State in the spring of 2021.
If you were to average these three metrics together, they would rank as follows:
1. 2023 South Dakota State (56.8)
2. 2019 North Dakota State (54.8)
3. 2021 North Dakota State (54.3)
4. 2022 South Dakota State (53.6)
5. 2024 North Dakota State (52.6)
6. 2024 Montana State (52.1)
7. 2019 James Madison (50.8)
8. 2022 North Dakota State (47.9)
9. 2021 Montana State (45.3)
10. 2023 Montana (44.9)
Every metric we analyzed indicates that Monday’s game could be an instant classic. Both teams rank much closer to recent FCS national champions, compared to the runner-ups over the past five seasons.
No. 1 Montana State will face No. 2 North Dakota State in the 2025 FCS National Championship game in Frisco, Texas. Kickoff is scheduled for Jan. 6 at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.
Behind The Numbers: FCS National Championship Preview
FCS National Championship: Offensive Spotlight
FCS National Championship: Defensive Spotlight
History Of The FCS National Championship Game
2024 FCS Playoffs: Official Bracket, Schedule, Scores
Follow FCS Football Central on social media for ongoing coverage of FCS football, including on X, Facebook, and YouTube.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and two agencies have raised a lawsuit to challenge the Yellowstone National Park’s way of managing its bison herd, arguing that it violates federal laws.
Newsweek has contacted the Yellowstone National Park’s press office for comment via email outside normal business hours.
Why It Matters
The clash between Montana and the National Park Service, among other officials and entities that maintain the sprawling park, stems from state authorities’ belief that the park’s plan to manage its bison herd doesn’t do enough to reduce the risk of brucellosis transmission.
Though a bacterial disease that mainly infects cattle, swine, goats, sheep and dogs, brucellosis can be transferred to humans if a human has direct contact with an infected animal, or if they eat or drink contaminated animal products.
Matthew Brown/AP
What To Know
On December 31, Gianforte’s office, Montana’s Department of Livestock and its Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks filed a lawsuit over Yellowstone National Park’s bison management plan.
In a news release about the lawsuit, the state government said its concerns had been ongoing since 2022, when the national park first announced its intent to draft the plan.
In 2023, Gianforte criticized the park’s bison management, citing Yellowstone National Park’s “failure to meet its own mandates,” a lack of cooperation of the park with the state of Montana, and deficient and misstated analysis.
According to the lawsuit, the size of Yellowstone National Park’s bison herd has been a “source of constant strife” in the state, as the boom in the bison population has increased the spread of brucellosis.
Yellowstone National Park and Montana adopted bison management plans in 2000 to tackle the issue, the lawsuit added, with a goal of keeping the bison herd to 3,000 while combating the spread of the disease.
“Over the last 20 years, YNP has utterly failed to manage to the specified population target or implement critical elements of its plan,” the lawsuit said.
It added that the new plan developed by the park in 2024 “fails to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and is a violation of the National Park Service Organic Act (NPSOA) and Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (YNPPA).”
The new plan was also “developed without meaningful consultation and collaboration with one of its “cooperating agencies”…the State of Montana,” the lawsuit said.
What Is Yellowstone National Park’s Bison Management Plan
When Yellowstone National Park announced its new bison management plan last year, it said the Record of Decision, a culmination of the Environmental Impact Statement and National Environmental Policy Act process, allowed the National Park Service to manage the bison based on new scientific information that suggested the 2000 plan needed updating.
The new information related to how brucellosis could be regulated, the park announced in July. It added that the decision “continues the original purpose of the [Interagency Bison Management Plan from 2000] to maintain a wild, free ranging bison population and reduce the risk of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle.”
The 2024 plan said the bison herd population would be managed in a range between 3,500 and 6,000, up from the goal of 3,000 in the 2000 plan.
The new plan also called for expanded bison hunting and greater bison freedom, allowing them to roam beyond the tolerance zones along the park’s northern and western edges, Montana Free Press reported.
According to the outlet, Tom McDonald, the vice chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, supported this element of the new plan.
McDonald told Montana Free Press that expanding where Yellowstone bison could go would help make tribal and state hunting safer, which is a method used to regulate the bison population.
What People Are Saying
Mike Honeycutt, the director of Montana’s Department of Livestock, said in a December 31 news release: “The Department of Livestock is committed to preventing, controlling and eradicating animal disease. Given the way NPS has ignored feedback from Montana, we have major concerns about potential threats to animal health from the possible spread of brucellosis.”
Christy Clark, the director of Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said in the release: “Bison represent a complex and contentious issue with both livestock producers and wildlife advocates. We had hoped for and asked for a better and more transparent process in developing this EIS. Those requests were ignored.”
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said in the release: “The National Park Service has repeatedly and consistently failed to engage with the State in a meaningful and transparent manner as required by law throughout the planning process. NPS has not given us a fair shake and has ignored concerns raised by the State. We will always defend our state from federal overreach.”
Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said in July of the park’s 2024 bison management plan: “We have come a very long way since the last bison management plan was signed in 2000. This new plan solidifies much of the progress made over the past two decades and provides a foundation for future decision making. We appreciate the significant engagement on this plan by our affiliated Tribes, partners, and the general public.”
What Happens Next
The lawsuit requests that the Montana district court rule on whether Yellowstone National Park has violated federal law with its 2024 plan.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
Significant snowstorm to impact Montana Friday and Saturday
WINTER WEATHER ALERTS are in effect for most of Montana for the next couple of days.
A WINTER STORM WARNING is in effect most of north-central Montana from 5am/11am/5pm Friday until 5am/5pm Saturday.
A WINTER STORM WARNING is in effect for central and southern Phillips County, Garfield County, and Petroleum County from 11am Friday until 5pm Saturday.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY is in effect for the southern Rocky Mountain Front, the high plains, the Bozeman and Helena areas, and the mountains in central Montana from 8pm Thursday/11am Friday until 5am/5pm Saturday.
There is going to be scattered snow around tonight, generally in central Montana, including around Great Falls, Helena, and Lewistown, and light snow accumulations of up to an inch or two are possible. We are also going to have overcast skies tonight with a few areas of fog around. It is also going to be cold tonight in north-central Montana as lows are going to be in the -0s and 0s. Around Helena, lows tonight are going to be in the mid to upper teens and low to mid 20s.
A significant snowstorm is going to impact our area on Friday and Saturday. As we go through Friday, snow will develop from northwest to southeast. Around Helena, snow is likely tomorrow morning, but the snow will taper off from southwest to northeast tomorrow afternoon/evening. In north-central Montana, locations around and west of I-15 and in southern portions of north-central Montana, including around Great Falls and Lewistown, will see snow begin to develop during the morning. This snow will then overspread the rest of north-central Montana during the afternoon and evening, and will arrive in northeastern Montana during the late evening.
Widespread snow is then likely tomorrow night in north-central Montana, with areas of snow around the Helena area tomorrow night. Some of the snow that falls tomorrow and tomorrow night will be heavy at times. Light to moderate snow will then continue to fall on Saturday, especially in locations east of I-15, but this snow will gradually taper off from west to east as the day goes on.
Check the Montana Department of Transportation website before you hit the road to find out which roads are snow-covered, which ones have ice and/or slush, and if any roads are closed. You can also check MDT cameras from across the state by clicking here.
This snowstorm will drop a significant amount of snow. A widespread 3-12” of snow is expected in central and north-central Montana from this evening through Saturday evening, with most locations receiving 5-10” of snow. In the mountains, 6-18” of snow is expected through Saturday evening. Due to this snow, difficult travel conditions are expected tomorrow and Saturday (especially tomorrow afternoon through Saturday morning), so please use extreme caution when driving and consider delaying your travel if possible. Also, give yourself plenty of extra time to get to where you need to go.
It is also going to continue to be cold tomorrow and Saturday in north-central Montana as highs are going to be in the single digits, teens, and low 20s, with lows in the -0s, 0s, and low 10s. Around Helena, highs tomorrow are going to be in the upper teens and low to mid 20s in most locations and highs on Saturday are going to be in the upper 20s and low to mid 30s in most locations. It is also going to be breezy in some areas east of I-15 on Friday as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 20 mph. There is also going to be a breeze around on Saturday along the Divide and the Rocky Mountain Front as well as in northeastern Montana as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 20 mph.
On Sunday, we are going to have mostly cloudy skies with a few snow showers around in north-central Montana and scattered snow around Helena. Snow is then likely around Helena on Monday and there is going to be some scattered snow around on Monday in north-central Montana, generally around and west of I-15 as well as along the MT 200 corridor. We are also going to have a wide range of temperatures on these two days as highs are going to range from the single digits to the mid 30s, with the coldest temperatures along the Hi-Line east of I-15 and the warmest temperatures around Helena.
We are then going to have partly to mostly sunny skies on Tuesday with a few snow showers around during the morning as a disturbance leaves our area. We are also going to have a wide range of temperatures again on Tuesday as highs are going to range from the mid teens to the mid 30s, with the coldest temperatures in northeastern Montana. It is also going to be a little breezy in some areas on Tuesday as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 5 and 20 mph.
Some isolated rain and snow showers are then possible on Wednesday as another weak disturbance passes through our area. We are also going to have partly to mostly cloudy skies on Wednesday. Partly cloudy skies and mainly dry conditions are then expected on Thursday as high pressure is going to be in control of our weather. Warmer air is also going to return to our area for these two days as highs are going to be in the 30s and low 40s. There is also going to be a breeze around on Wednesday as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 20 mph.
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