A man charged with the murder of a camper has claimed he was acting in self-defense when he stabbed the victim in the neck with a screwdriver and struck him with an ax after the victim flew in a rage about his dog’s muddy paws.
Daren Abbey, 41, of Basin, Montana, was charged with deliberate homicide and two counts of tampering with evidence in connection with the death of Dustin Kjersem, 35.
Kjersem’s body had been found in his tent near Big Sky in the Moose Creek area on October 12, with wounds so brutal that his death was initially reported to 911 dispatchers as a possible bear attack.
Abbey was arrested on October 31 and confessed to the killing, Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer told reporters at the time.
Now, new details have come to light about Abbey’s version of events of what happened.
According to court records obtained by Fox News, Abbey told investigators that, after the two men had shared a few beers in Kjersem’s tent, the suspect’s dog jumped on Kjersem’s air mattress and left behind muddy paw prints.
Abbey claimed he went to a stream and dampened his t-shirt so he could use it to clean up the mess, but returned to face Kjersem threatening to shoot him and his dog, the court documents state.
A fight then allegedly broke out, with Abbey claiming he hit Kjersem over the head with a block of firewood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver and struck him on the face with the blunt side of an ax, the documents state.
Investigators have refuted Abbey’s claim of self-defense, saying that he didn’t have any defensive wounds.
The suspect also allegedly returned to the crime scene later to remove evidence so there “were no loose ends,” according to authorities.
But, despite his efforts, he left behind a beer can which was tested for DNA – coming back a match to Abbey.
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for the attack, with Springer describing it as a “chance encounter.”
“We have a bit of his story, but… we don’t really know what the true story is,” the sheriff said.
According to the court documents, before the killing, Abbey had made some employees of a local restaurant feel uncomfortable by making “white supremacist comments.”
The 41-year-old has Nazi symbol tattoos including a “swastika [and] SS lightning bolts,” according to his profile on the Montana Department of Correction website.
The Independent has contacted Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office for further information.
