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S2E7: Finding Justice for Dustin Kjersem · Blood Trails

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: When detectives stepped into Dustin Jersom's canvas tent, they thought
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the man lying on the ground had been attacked by
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a bear, but the evidence inside, untouched food, an empty
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ac sheath, and two tequila glasses pointed to someone else,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: someone who had brutally murdered the father, friend, and brother
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and then fled into the darkness. That's next on Blood Trails.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Dustin Jersom was the kind of guy you could count
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: on when things went sideways, and it didn't matter whether
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he'd known you for twenty years or two weeks.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: He met me on my doorstep with dinner he had
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: made steak, and he just showed up.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Natalie Holloway had met Dustin on a dating app, but
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: shortly after they began texting, her son was admitted to
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the hospital. She spent the next two weeks in that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: hug hospital room, stressing over her son's health and being
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: in close proximity to her ex husband, even though she
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and Dustin hadn't even met in person yet. She told
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: me he was the one bright spot in those weeks
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of darkness.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Just the sweetest person on the planet.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: He had never met me. He listened to me through
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: all of it, for the two weeks in.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: The hospital, not knowing what was going on with my son,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: having to deal with my ex and nothing changed from
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: texting to being in person. I mean he was better
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: in person.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: That first date at Natalie's house turned into regular weekends,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and the mother of two says Dustin was a steady
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: presence in her sometimes unsteady life.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: He was just so genuinely himself and no one I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: ever had to worry about. He was there for me
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: for everything. I could be having a complete and total
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: meltdown about whatever was going on in my life, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: he was rock steady. You know, never any judgment, never
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: any well, you should do this, you should do that,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: just listen and I can't ask for more than that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: When stuff is shitty, all the stressors just ceased to exist.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Like most residents of Bozeman, Montana, Dustin loved hunting, fishing,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and being outside and he loved sharing those passions with Natalie.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I mean he used to tell me all of his
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: hunting stories with Matt, and the fishing stories and you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: everything that they had ever done and the camping and
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: how he got the wal tint that we were going
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: to go out in and you know, everything that he
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: enjoyed he came to life when he talked about it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: In August of twenty twenty four, he and Natalie were
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: excited to go camping at a spot Dustin knew along
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Moose Creek, about thirty miles south of Bozeman. The couple
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: had patched that wal tent themselves, and Dustin had prepared
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the gear they'd need to spend a weekend in the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Montana wilderness.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: He was planning everything. Basically, I had to show up,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: That's what he told me.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Like, I was stoked.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't have to worry about anything, and this was
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: his thing and I was going with it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: The trip was delayed several times due to sickness and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: hot weather, but they eventually settled on the second weekend
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of October, and Dustin drove up that Thursday to set
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: up camp.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: You know, he got antsy.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: He was like, well, I might go set up a
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: tent and just hold our spot. And then he was like, well,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not working tomorrow, so let me just go up
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and I was like that's fine.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Natalie had to work until Friday, October eleventh, so the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: pair decided that Dustin would drive back up to Bozeman
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: pick her up, and then the two would spend the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: weekend camping, hiking, and enjoying the glorious fall weather. But
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: when Friday afternoon rolled around, she still hadn't heard from
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: her normally reliable boyfriend.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: The last time I had heard from him was Thursday
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: night before he left. You know, he said I'm going
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: up and I said, okay, be safe, love you and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: he said, okay, love you too.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: And that was a Friday.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: When I didn't hear from him, I went into panic mode,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and I knew not hearing from him was not normal.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Something in me immediately knew something was wrong.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: She knew there was no cell phone reception at the campground,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: but she also knew that there was a call box
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he could have used if he'd gotten his truck stuck
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: in the mountains. Even if nothing was seriously wrong and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: he was just trying to sleep off the effects of
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a few beers, he wasn't the kind of guy to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: leave his girlfriend hanging. Natalie spent a sleepless Friday night
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: with images of terrible scenarios flashing through her mind.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I tend to be a worrier anyway, so for him
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to not call.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: It was just instant worry, but knowing that there was
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: a hunter that was treed by a bear in that
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: area two weeks prior, that was the first place the truth.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: As it turned out, exceeded her worst fears. Natalie called
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: her friend the next morning and the pair drove into
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the mountains to look for Dustin.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: And I didn't really have a clue where he was
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: staying exactly.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: She knew it was the Moose Creek area, but there
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: are dozens of camping.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Spots, so we checked the campground first, no sign of
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: a truck there, and then we started to drive up
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the forest service road, and I mean we went probably.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Four miles in and didn't see anything.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: So on our way back down there was a couple
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: cut off roads, and it was the first cut off
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: road that we turned onto where I found his truck.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: I was out of Amanda's vehicle before she ever put
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: it in park, because there was no smoke coming from
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the camp stove and it had been in the thirties
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the night before, so there was no doubt in my
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: mind something was off, and I just booked it straight
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: for the tent as soon as I got out of
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the car. And when I got out of the car
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: and I went for the tent.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: That was not what I expected.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Dustin was lying on the floor of the canvas tent,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: not breathing or responsive. The injuries to his face and
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: head were so bad that the only thing Natalie could
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: imagine was that he'd been attacked by a bear.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: When I found him, I had no idea what happened,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: so and my first instinct was something attacked him, right.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I couldn't think of anything else that had happened at
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: that point based on what I saw.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Natalie and her friend drove down to ask other campers
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: for help, and they called nine to one one. The
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's deputies arrived, and everything became a.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Blur, and everything felt like it was taking forever. Time
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: didn't feel like it was passing. Everything kept looping, you know,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: And once law enforcement got there, it just I felt
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: like I spent days on that mountain.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Detectives let Natalie go home twelve hours later, but not
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: before letting slip that Dustin's attacker had not been.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: A grizzly, and it wasn't until very very late in
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the day that they led on that this was not
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: an animal and that somebody had done this.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Somebody had done this, but who? That question burned through
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the minds of Dustin's family, the detectives with the Gallatin
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office, and.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Natalie and I had no idea what happened. I had
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: no idea what to do. And you know, there's this
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: little tiny voice in the back of your head that's like, well,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: whoever did this?
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Do they know about me? Do they know where I live?
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Because Dustin spent every weekend at my house.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: No one knew why Dustin had been killed, but as
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: investigators began processing the scene, they knew his death had
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: been brutal and the person who killed him was still
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: out there. The trail to find that killer led through
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a missing axe, claims of white supremacy, a questionable confession,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: and a pair of cell phones found by someone who
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: said he saw them in a dream. Natalie couldn't help
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: but wonder if her boyfriend's murderer would strike again.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: You're constantly looking over your shoulder, You're looking in review mirrors,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: every weird van that went by, like, well, what.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: The hell is that?
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Anything to me would have been possible at that point.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I'm Jordan Sillers and this is Blood Trails Finding Justice
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: for Dustin Jersom Part one. The tent. The Gallatin County
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office responded to the scene, but they were soon
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: joined by an alphabet soup of state and federal agencies.
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: Fishing Game for Service MHP. Everybody was there because we're
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: thinking it's a bear attack.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: That's Detective Ryan Duma with Gallatin County. Ryan was one
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of the first detectives on the scene and he was
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: assigned to be the lead investigator on the case.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: So yeah, we worked our way inside the tent where
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: Dustin was found, and the first thing that stood out
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: to me was the injuries on him. I've investigated a
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: handful of homicides, He'd been to several deceased individuals, and
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: his stuck out as being more brutal.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Ryan couldn't initially see all the injuries Dustin had sustained,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: but later examination showed the thirty five year old had
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: been attacked with multiple weapons. He had three large lacerations
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: on his head, apparently from some kind of sharp object,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: but he also had an indentation on his skull from
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: something blunt and a puncture wound in his neck. It's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: no wonder. The incident was initially reported as a bear attack,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: but Ryan quickly noticed that the scene didn't match what
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you'd normally expect in that situation.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: The tent was fairly put together aside from the blood evidence.
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: I mean, there was some knocked over stuff, but there
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: were drinks and food that hadn't been touched, sitting on
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: top of totes. They were all undisturbed, So it just
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: didn't seem like a bear entered the tent. You know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: it was a chaotic scene, but stuff wasn't thrown everywhere.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: What's more, there was other evidence to suggest that someone
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: else had been in the tent with Dustin.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: The thing that stuck out to me was two shot glasses.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: They had line and they smelled like tequila. So it's
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: you know, if it's just you, you're taking one shot glass,
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: there was two, so it seemed like somebody else had
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: been there.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: They canvassed the area to ask nearby campers if they'd
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: seen or heard anything suspicious, and they collected as much
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: evidence as they could from the campsite that included beer cans,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: ammunition shellcasings, and Dustin's camping gear. They also took a
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: closer look at the blood inside the tent, and what
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: they found made this attack, if possible, even more disturbing.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: There was no blood high on the canvas in the tent,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: and so this stood out to us as odds. So
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: we work with a blood expert on that, and he
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: ended up determining that Dustin was no more than seven
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: inches off the ground when he was getting hit. The
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: first hit. He could have been higher, but after you
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: start bleeding and you continue to impact blood, which makes
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: those spaba patterns, those all happened below seven inches.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Also noticed that there wasn't any blood on the bottom
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of Dustin's boots, even though there were pools of the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: substance elsewhere in the tent. This reinforced the blood spatter
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: analysis and told the detective that Dustin had been attacked
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: while lying on the ground, but it was unclear exactly
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: what he'd been attacked with. Detectives found the sheath of
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: an axe, but the axe itself was missing. There was
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: blood on the wood blocks Dustin had been using to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: fuel his stove, but they didn't know for sure whether
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: any of them had been used in the assault, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: they had no idea what could have made the puncture
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: wound in Dustin's neck. They did confirm, thanks to Natalie,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that some of Dustin's gear had been stolen. Dustin had
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: sent his girlfriend a photo of his truck before he left,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: which clearly showed an orange yetty cooler in the back,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but that cooler was no longer at the camp site.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: They later learned that one of Dustin's friends had loaned
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: him a forty four magnum revolver for bear defense, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: that pistol also wasn't recovered. The missing gear suggested a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: possible motive for Dustin's killing, but there were still several
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: valuable items in the tent and the truck. Those tequila
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: glasses were also hard to square with a violent homicide.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Did Dustin share drinks with his killer? If so, the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: detectives thought they might find that person by looking into
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Dustin's friends and associates.
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: But we're also starting to dig into the victim what
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: we would call victimology.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: That's Detective Sandy Schroeder with a Galuton County Sheriff's office.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Sandy was one of the key investigators on this case,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and she told me the odds of Dustin being attacked
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: by a stranger were low.
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: Because Statistically, I think it is only nine percent of
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: homicides are committed by strangers.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: We were doing search warrants for all of Dustin's social
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: media is anything he was chatting on. We had guys
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: chasing down, like following his path into the mountains from
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: where he grocery shopped to where he fill up with gas,
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: just trying to see if anybody was following him or
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: who he told that he was going camping at that location.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Detectives Duma and Schroeder also spoke with as many of
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Dustin's family and friends as they could.
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: We're asking that question like does he have beef with anybody?
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: Is he, you know, behind on his bills? Does he,
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: you know, is he sleeping with somebody else's girl? Right Like,
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: we're we're asking open ended questions to family and friends,
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: trying to solicit anything. Any leaves it'll, you know, point
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: to somebody else.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: The problem was the answer to all those questions was no.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: No matter how many people they interviewed, they couldn't find
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a single person who didn't like Dustin Jersum Part two.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Dustin Dustin was born in Bozeman in nineteen eighty eight.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: His parents and three older sisters moved to Three Forks,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Montana when he was young, and Dustin stayed there until
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: he was a teenager.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: We kind of just started skateboarding at a young age
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: and hanging out.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: That's Chris Anderson. Chris was about five years older than Dustin,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: but he got to know the younger boy because he
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: was friends with Dustin's older sister. He told me Dustin
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: was cool and funny and he was always happy when
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: they got to hang out despite their age gap.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: He was always into fishing and we kind of had
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: I had a group of friends. We would go on
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: a catfishing trip every year, and I think that first
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: year we drove in his deep I rode with him
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: because he is my good buddy, and you know, long
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: road trips like that. He always had a bunch of
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: coffee and you know, talk about everything, what he wants
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: to do. All I was thinking about getting this gun,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: thinking about doing this.
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: I'm gonna go shoot some anelo.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Chris says they caught lots of catfish on that trip,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and Dustin was interested in everything, including how to set
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: up a good campsite.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: That trip maybe inspired him. I don't know if he
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: had that walten at the at that point.
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: But when we were up.
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: There, my group of friends had a wall ten and
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: then we would all kind of clamber in there. But
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: I could just imagine Dustin going into one of those,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: you know, and saying, well.
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: This is bad ass.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: That's like, because that's totally what he'd say.
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: Look at this, Oh you got a stove over there,
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: you got all your coolers, you got your chair. Then
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: that that's him.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: That's like exactly him walking into the campsite and telling
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: you everything looks good. Crack a joke, you know, make
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: fun of you a little bit, dig into his ribs
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: a little bit back, and.
• 15:28
  Speaker 7: Ha ha ha.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Dustin got his own wall tent sometime later, and by
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the time he was planning his trip with Natalie, he
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: had all the gear he needed for an enviable setup.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: He'd purchased a new air mattress, he had a stove
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to keep the tent warm, and he'd stacked wood neatly
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: beside it. He also had a tarp on the floor
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: with an air blower to clean up whatever dirt was
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: tracked inside. Dustin was a carpenter, so he'd set up
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: big industrial lights outside the tent to illuminate the site
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: when the sun went down. Even in the aftermath of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: his murder, investigat could tell from the way Dustin had
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: arranged his camp that he was detail oriented, meticulous, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: was trying to create the perfect weekend for himself and Natalie.
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: When he did something, it was one hundred percent. There
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: was no half ass.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And that's Jake Noble, another of Dustin's longtime friends. He
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: told me that Dustin's thoughtful, all in personality extended to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: everyone he loved, and not just when he was planning
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: a romantic weekend. Dustin was a mentee with a Big
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Sky youth empowerment program, and when he got older, he
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: became a mentor with the same organization. He was always
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: happy to lend a helping hand whenever it was needed,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and this aspect of Dustin's personality became a theme in
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: my conversations with Dustin's family and friends.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: From the first time he set foot in my house,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: all he wanted to do was help with something.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: What do you need? Help with what needs to be done?
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Haven't you been able to do?
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: He thrived on leaving something better than he found it.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Including me.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: He was my most trusted friend. He was so trusted
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: by me and my family hate that. I would give
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: him the codes to my house, I would let him
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: borrow any tool.
• 17:05
  Speaker 7: I would let him come over anytime.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, Dustin had a daughter with a woman
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: he'd been dating. While their relationship didn't last, Jake told
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: me he was a present, devoted dad from day one,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a job he took to like a fish to water.
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: People have said how Grady was with her, and I
• 17:25
  Speaker 8: have seen him throughout the years, like I have all
• 17:28
  Speaker 8: these pictures from his niece's fourth birthday party, and he's
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: like sixteen or seventeen years old, and he wouldn't even
• 17:38
  Speaker 8: sit at the adult table. He is with all of
• 17:41
  Speaker 8: these kids, you know, and he's sucking down helium from
• 17:46
  Speaker 8: a balloon to talk in high voices to the kids,
• 17:49
  Speaker 8: and he's just playing with them. You could just tell
• 17:53
  Speaker 8: how grat he was with children in general.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: He was a big goofball, you know. Everything was fun
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: for him. We used to go and play bingo in Manhattan,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: and I have never seen a grown man have so
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: much fun playing bingo in a room full of old people.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: And damn if he didn't have the best luck.
• 18:13
  Speaker 8: I wish that I could convey just how he could
• 18:16
  Speaker 8: light up a room, you know, like just being around
• 18:20
  Speaker 8: him brought everybody up, what notch you know, he made
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: everybody happier just by being around.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Investigators heard all this and more when they spoke to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the people who knew Dustin best. It was a testimony
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to the thirty five year old's character and integrity, but
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: it didn't really help move the case forward, at least
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: not at first. All they knew was that no one
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: had any reason to hurt Dustin, and they couldn't find
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: anything about his life that may have led to his death. Meanwhile,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the people who loved him were left picking up the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: pieces and walking down the long, dark road of grief.
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: The day I found out, I have his fly rod
• 19:07
  Speaker 8: from Big Sky Youth Empowerment. He needed some gas money
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: and he sold it to me, and I went downstairs
• 19:15
  Speaker 8: the day I found out and pulled that pulled the
• 19:18
  Speaker 8: knob off of the reel and put it on that
• 19:21
  Speaker 8: bracelet and it's been on there ever since. I'd say,
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: there isn't a day that goes by that I don't
• 19:26
  Speaker 8: think about him, And you know, just the tragedy of it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: You know, he's got he's got a daughter, who's growing
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: up without him. And I've got a seven year old
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: daughter myself, you know, and I don't feel like I'm
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: as good of a father as what Dustin was, and
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: that thought, you know, that she's going to miss that
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: is just it's soul crushing.
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: Was a true Ride or Die friend.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, I never had any issues with him, We
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: never butted heads. I always would have wanted to do
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: right by him and do everything I could for him.
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: And I wish that I would have had him more
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: of a chance. You know, you don't get a chance.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Ever really to tell your friends sometimes that you love them.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: And I don't know, and we'd never say that, but
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: we were so close. I remember that I got a
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: chance on my wedding to give him a real good hug,
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: and I hope that I told him that I love him.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Losing a Ride or Die friend was difficult enough, but
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: that grief was compounded by the terrible nature of Dustin's
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: death and the apparent lack of progress in the investigation.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: But detectives were working around the clock to find Dustin's killer,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and they ended up getting some help, though not from
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: a source they expected. Part three, divine intervention from the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: moment that first nine to one one call came in,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: detectives with the Galaton County Sheriff's Office felt an intense
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: pressure to find the person responsible for this atrocity.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: But you're trying to idea suspect quickly. You don't know,
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: you know, if the communities endanger currently at that point.
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: You know, obviously in this case, there was We didn't
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: have anybody detained or any ideas of who it could
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: have been.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: At that time, deputies and detectives had followed up on
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: a few leads about other campers in the area, but
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: none had panned out. And even though detectives Duma and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Schroeder are experienced investigators, they knew they needed all the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: help they could get. So Galaton County Sheriff Dan Springer
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: asked for additional resources from the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: or DCI. On Wednesday, four days after Dustin was found,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: DCI sent an investigator named Derek Mallam down to Bozeman.
• 21:58
  Speaker 9: So the fact that the gal County Sheriff's office had
• 22:01
  Speaker 9: been running for three quarters of Friday, all day Saturday,
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: all day Sunday, Monday, and then in the Tuesday was
• 22:09
  Speaker 9: unreal given the circumstances, so when Sheriff Springer called, it
• 22:13
  Speaker 9: was more of a hey, he kind of need some
• 22:15
  Speaker 9: rehab on some troops and maybe a fresh set of
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: eyes on it, which is common.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Derek got up to speed on the case once he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: arrived in town. He was intrigued by the empty shot glasses,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: but he was also struck by the presence of a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: loofa found near the bank of a nearby creek. A loofah,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: for those unfamiliar, is one of those exfoliating sponges you
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: might find in someone's shower.
• 22:36
  Speaker 9: One of those was sitting next to the creek, and
• 22:39
  Speaker 9: a short distance from that was a bottle of conditioner
• 22:43
  Speaker 9: or handstarp. What the little bottles you get from the motel.
• 22:47
  Speaker 9: It didn't make sense. His initial plan was to go
• 22:50
  Speaker 9: establish camp and then go back into Bozeman and pick
• 22:53
  Speaker 9: up his girlfriend. Why would you go out and wash
• 22:57
  Speaker 9: something up and it wasn't that's not something that of
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: a typic use to wash my dishes.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Something had obviously been washed at the creek, and Derek
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: was keen to figure out what. He drove up to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the campsite with one of his colleagues with a chemical
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: that makes traces of blood glow in the dark.
• 23:14
  Speaker 9: If you've ever seen like a lightning bug, it's very
• 23:17
  Speaker 9: similar to that. When you apply the chemical, it bioluminesses.
• 23:20
  Speaker 9: And we're sitting down the next to the creek and
• 23:23
  Speaker 9: Brad's is applying the chemicals, and all of a sudden,
• 23:26
  Speaker 9: right with ab rufe was you start to see this
• 23:28
  Speaker 9: glow and Brad and I, I mean it was almost
• 23:31
  Speaker 9: a movie moment. You look up and we both work
• 23:33
  Speaker 9: at each other and go, Okay, we've got something here.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Someone had sat next to the creek and cleaned blood
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: off of something. Derek didn't know if it was that
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: person's hands, a weapon, or both, but it was clear
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that not only had Dustin's killer fled the scene, he'd
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: also made attempts to hide his crime. How far that
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: person had gone to throw investigators off the trail wasn't
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: clear until a few days later, when detectives got a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: call they never could have expected.
• 24:00
  Speaker 9: I'm a religious person. Things happened for a reason that
• 24:03
  Speaker 9: you don't Sometimes it is better that you don't ask
• 24:06
  Speaker 9: questions of why it happened. Right as I was sitting
• 24:09
  Speaker 9: at the Gallen County Sheriff's officer. We were doing some
• 24:11
  Speaker 9: work on it. One of the deputies walks in and says, hey,
• 24:14
  Speaker 9: we just responded to a complaint on Moose Creek. So
• 24:17
  Speaker 9: we got a call from a citizen that said he
• 24:20
  Speaker 9: was a friend of Dustin's and that he had a
• 24:23
  Speaker 9: dream the night before about water and that he and
• 24:26
  Speaker 9: his girlfriend drove from outside of the Barsman area to
• 24:30
  Speaker 9: Moose Crek and they drove up the road and they
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: got out of their vehicle versus right next to the
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: creek and walked out and found two cell phones, one
• 24:38
  Speaker 9: of them I think was hanging in a tree. I
• 24:40
  Speaker 9: can't tell you the number of law enforcement that went
• 24:42
  Speaker 9: up and down that road. And this guy has a
• 24:45
  Speaker 9: dream and he finds these two cell phones.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Derek says, this man had a dream, and Sandy and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Ryan say the word he used was premonition. Either way,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the Gallatin County detectives were extremely interested in talking to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: this man and his girlfriend. The couple came into the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: station willingly, and the story they told Belli's explanation.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: They're walking this creek and a beer can out in
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: the forest caught their eye, and while going out to
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: see what that was, they found two phones. You know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: we get that where like, well we got new suspects, right, Like,
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: these people randomly found phones in the mountains. They were
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: interviewed separately. Sandy interviewed one, I interviewed one, and there
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: was nothing that indicated that they were involved in any way.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and once they and once you get them in
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: front of you and you're able to they had dogs
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: in the first place that they got out was a
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: natural pull out. Once they went up Moose Creek, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: you know, they saw something that stood out, the beer can.
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: And the lady involved, she had done some investigative work
• 25:52
  Speaker 6: for a defense attorney that was kind of her side
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: hustle or profession in a different county and so she had,
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: you know, went.
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: And looked for evidence before.
• 26:01
  Speaker 9: So it wasn't something new.
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: And as she walked through it, and you know, she
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: even said to me, was like, I know, it sounds
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: crazy that we found these things, and it's unbelievable, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: I'm sure you suspect us, like it's just dumb.
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: Luck.
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: This is unbelievable Luck. And Dustin's phone was had some
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: stickers on it, and so we were quickly able to
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: identify it as his based on his daughter was able
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: to describe that phone to us because she had put
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: the stickers on the phone, so we knew right away
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: that they were his phones.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Dustin's campsite was almost four miles up the forest service road.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: We made the hike a few weeks ago, and as
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: we walked back down we looked for the pull out.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Sandy mentioned, we think we found it. There's a small
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: day use campsite there, but it's close to the trailhead,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: miles from where Dustin was camping. I understood why investigators
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: missed those phones, but if you had a dream about water,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to stop there. Russe Creek runs underneath
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the road through a culvert, and the sound of falling
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: water echoes loudly through the small canyon. You can decide
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: for yourself what to think of the phone finder's claims,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: but whether you believe in divine intervention, dumb luck, or
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: something else. Detectives were glad to have those devices in
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: their possession. Dustin used one of the phones as a phone,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: but the other he used as a music player. Investigator
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: sent both devices to the lab to recover data, and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: one photo in particular, helped them construct a timeline of
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: what happened that Thursday night and into Friday morning.
• 27:34
  Speaker 9: And he says, by the way, I have a picture
• 27:37
  Speaker 9: that we found of what appears to be what Dustin
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: took a picture of his campstove, and as times down
• 27:43
  Speaker 9: did like eleven o'clock.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Roughly Dustin was still alive at that point on Thursday night.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: He was wearing different shoes than those he was found in,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: which suggested that maybe he'd gone out at some point
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: to use the restroom. The stove itself was red hot.
• 27:57
  Speaker 9: Which is kind of an indicator, right that he's clearly
• 28:00
  Speaker 9: relaxing for the night. He's going to be in his
• 28:02
  Speaker 9: tent for a while.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: When detectives zoomed in on the ground, they saw a
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: twenty eight inch axe lying next to the stove that
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: confirmed the acts had been taken, and combined with the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: lacerations on Dustin's face and the blood next to the stream,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: began to paint a picture of how the young father
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: had been attacked. But those phones contained even more troubling
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: information about Dustin's killer. One of his phones had a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: health app installed, which tracked movement and elevation even if
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the phone was turned off. Derek's colleagues discovered that Dustin's
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: phone had remained still all day Friday, but had started
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: moving again later that night, nearly twenty four hours after
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Dustin was killed.
• 28:41
  Speaker 9: We got his piece of bulch of paper out. We
• 28:43
  Speaker 9: made a timeline on it that we have this movement,
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: we have this movement. We had this moment. I never
• 28:48
  Speaker 9: looking at everybody. They're the kind of looking at me.
• 28:50
  Speaker 9: You're like, we don't see the value of it. And
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: finally I just had to tell this as guys, the
• 28:56
  Speaker 9: deceased person's cell phone moved twenty four hours after the
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: time of death. The suspect came back to the scene,
• 29:03
  Speaker 9: and this poorning. You know, it still makes a hair
• 29:06
  Speaker 9: in the back of my next stand up. You're dealing
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: with somebody a little bit different, right, You know that
• 29:12
  Speaker 9: we were confident, we knew that the date or day
• 29:14
  Speaker 9: in time roughly at least a narrow window when Dustin died.
• 29:18
  Speaker 9: And now you go back up to the scene to
• 29:21
  Speaker 9: clear to take the cell phones. It just it kind
• 29:24
  Speaker 9: of just made an irre sense of the type of
• 29:27
  Speaker 9: person that.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Could go do that. Whoever had taken those phones was
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: almost certainly the same person who had killed Dustin. A
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: different phone thief presumably would have called law enforcement upon
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: seeing Dustin's body, but this person had gone back to
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the campsite, walked inside the tent, robbed their victim, and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: walked away. Investigators had learned a lot about Dustin's death
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and the person responsible, they still couldn't put a face
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: and a name to the crime. As the weeks dragged on,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Dustin's family and friends were left with far more questions
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: than answers.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Like who is this person?
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: You know? And I think the whole thing has just
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: been questioned after question after question, And that was the
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: hardest part.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Part four, Darren Abby. If Dustin had been killed thirty,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: even twenty years ago, this story might end here. But
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: DNA analysis gives modern day investigators a powerful tool for
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: solving crimes, even deep in the back country, and those
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: techniques provided the turning point in this case.
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: I got a phone call from the sheriff's officers, Hey,
• 30:36
  Speaker 9: we got a DNA hit. I again almost dropped my phone,
• 30:39
  Speaker 9: going finally something, we got a break, Like, we can
• 30:43
  Speaker 9: we can work with it.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: The Montana Crime Lab fast tracked Dustin's case, and a
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: short two weeks after he was killed, lab technicians were
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: able to match the DNA from one of the beer
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: cans at the scene to someone already in Montana's criminal
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: justice database, or more accurately, two people.
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: On that same token. The next send side of the
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: mouth was yeah, it's a DNA sample for twins, and
• 31:08
  Speaker 9: I wad you gotta be kidding me, right.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: The DNA was a partial match to two men, Dustin
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Abbey and his twin brother, Darren Abbey. Both men had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: been convicted of crimes in the past, which turned out
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: to be another blessing in this investigation.
• 31:24
  Speaker 9: We got really lucky because Darren's brother was incarcerated at
• 31:28
  Speaker 9: the time at the Montana State Prison and had been
• 31:30
  Speaker 9: for several years. So I'm not gonna lie. It was
• 31:33
  Speaker 9: a big cyber relief.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: The beer can with the DNA on it was found
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: inside Dustin's tent, so investigators had reason to believe that
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: it wasn't left there by another camper from a previous visit.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: What's more, as they dug into Darren Abbey's past, they
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: discovered he had a long history of violent convictions, including
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: malicious harassment in Idaho, an assault on an officer in Arizona,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and a battery on a police officer in Nevada. They
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: also realized that even before the DNA results came back,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: they'd received a tip about a man matching Abby's description
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: harassing guests at a nearby resort.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: And Abby was apparently making statements about how he done
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: prison time, and he was making other white supremacist comments.
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: I mean, during the interview even he identified as a
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: as a skinhead, so that was something he wasn't afraid
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: of hiding.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Ryan isn't exaggerating. I was told by a corrections officer
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: in Gallatin County that Abby has a large Nazi tattoo
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: on his chest. But more importantly to the investigation, Abby
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: also told the resort patron that he'd been camping in
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the Moose Creek area around the time Dustin was killed.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Darren was on probation and wasn't allowed to drink alcohol,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: so when officers with the Butte Police Department saw him
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: coming out of a bar, they had a good reason
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: to arrest him. Derek and Ryan let him stew in
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: jail while they looked into his background, and then sat
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: down for an interview on October twenty sixth.
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: In my mind, I'm picturing this six for two, six
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: foot three dude, you know that's ripped. That's what I'm
• 33:02
  Speaker 9: picturing in my mind. Darren's not. He's about five five
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: five six. He's pretty well put together, but he's not
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: this giant mountain of a dude that I thought he
• 33:10
  Speaker 9: was going to be. So when we sit down with him,
• 33:13
  Speaker 9: he was very flat affect. He was animated in some
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: of his conversations. Was never confrontationial, was never aggressive.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Darren had a long go tee and as you might
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: have guessed, a shaved head. But if you didn't know
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the meaning of his tattoos, you'd think he was a
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: normal blue collar guy. I've spoken with other inmates who
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: knew him and played poker with him in jail, and
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: he struck them as pretty even keeled. Ryan used that
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: outwardly relaxed demeanor to build rapport with the man they
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: believed killed Dustin.
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: I think the time that we spent in rapport and
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: just asking him questions without challenging anything difficult during the interview,
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: I think he was really relaxed with us and he
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: thought that we believed him.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: At the time, Darren was working on a construction crew
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: in Big Sky, Montana, so they chatted about his work
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: for nearly an hour before diving into the real reason.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: The three of them were sitting in that room, so.
• 34:09
  Speaker 9: At one point in the interview, I looked at Darren
• 34:11
  Speaker 9: and said, well, Darren, here's the deal. We're investigating assault
• 34:14
  Speaker 9: in Bozeman or doubt, sorry, down and not Big Sky.
• 34:16
  Speaker 9: You know, we think you're revolved in it, and we're
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: just here to get your side of the story. That's
• 34:20
  Speaker 9: all it took. And then Darren Bill told us his
• 34:25
  Speaker 9: version of verarnans to what actually happened. He really pointed
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: the finger at Duwston being the one that precipitated the attack.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Darren told the detectives that he'd driven up to Dustin's
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: camp and the two had struck up a conversation about
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: their mutual experience as construction workers. They had a couple beers,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: cut some firewood and went into the tent to sit
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: by the stove. The men shared a few drinks and
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: their interaction was friendly until, according to Darren, his dog
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: had gotten muddy paw prints on Dustin's air mattress. This
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: caused Dustin to become irate, and Darren claimed the other
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: man had threatened to shoot his dog, and then shoot him.
• 35:01
  Speaker 9: Darren basically said, yeah, you know, Dustin was crazy on me.
• 35:05
  Speaker 9: I thumped him with a block of wood and then
• 35:07
  Speaker 9: I hit him with the axe and that was it.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Darren claimed that Dustin raised his pistol to shoot him,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: so he charged the younger man and wrestled him to
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the ground. As Dustin continued to reach for his pistol,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Darren hit him three times with a block of wood,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: but dustin quote kept coming, so Darren grabbed a screwdriver
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: sitting next to the stove and stabbed Dustin in the neck.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: The detectives listened to the story with neutral expressions, but
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: both of them told me the interview was not progressing
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: how they expected, and.
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: That was a surprise, I think, certainly for me and
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: to Agent Mellin. There was a few times where he
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: got up or got down on the floor and acted
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: out the event, which is always helpful to see. So
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: he did get a little high strung during those where
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: he's acting things out, but for the most part, because
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: he thought we were believing us, or that we believed him,
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: I think thought he was being helpful.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: It had been over two weeks since Dustin had been killed.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Darren said he didn't come forward immediately because of his
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: history with law enforcement and the fear that his story
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be believed. Ryan and Derek both think he decided
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: to tell the story in that interview because the pressure
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: had been getting to him.
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: He was watching the news and when something would pop up,
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: he admitted to feeling like he was caught, like they're
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: gonna get me.
• 36:26
  Speaker 9: He talked about being in one of the bars and
• 36:29
  Speaker 9: one of the bartenders having that article that video up
• 36:32
  Speaker 9: about the news release. He recalls a conversation with one
• 36:35
  Speaker 9: of the bartenders that looked at him and says, yeah,
• 36:37
  Speaker 9: I got you, we got you. Unrelated and I still
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: think it's Dustin from another place, tapping him on the
• 36:45
  Speaker 9: shoulder and says, you're not going to get away with this,
• 36:48
  Speaker 9: I really do.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Whatever his reason for doing so, he admitted to killing
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Dustin and then taking some of his stuff. He told
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: detectives that he took Dustin's handgun, a shotgun, the yettie cooler,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: the axe, some binoculars, a headlamp, and several other items
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: he thought might become evidence in the case against him.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: The next night, he realized he'd left his beanie at
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the camp, so he returned to collect it, along with
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: some beer cans, those phones, and other pieces of trash
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: he thought might have his DNA on them. When asked
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: where he stashed all of Dustin's stuff, Darren offered to
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: show the detectives where he dumped it, many miles off
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the interstate.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: We took him out and we went on to like
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: show and tell, do you remember where you left this stuff?
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: Because without your help, it's going to take us a
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: long time to be successful.
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: And he led us to the.
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: Cooler, to the binos, to the headlamp. There was some
• 37:40
  Speaker 6: shotgun shells that he had discarded. We had a hard
• 37:43
  Speaker 6: time finding the guns because he had hid them in
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: a different manner to conceal them. And he willingly got
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: out of the police car and walked over over the
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: knoll to show us, like they're down there.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Darren seemed like he was trying to be helpful. His
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: self defense story was plausible, if a little strange, and
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: he directed investigators to Dustin's stolen possessions. But even in
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: that first interview, Ryan and Derek had reason to question
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Darren's story.
• 38:10
  Speaker 9: He had an injury on his head that he told
• 38:12
  Speaker 9: us that he fell to a deck and as he
• 38:13
  Speaker 9: smucked his head right. But the dates and times evolved
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: as he told us.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: That his story evolved once again when he claimed that
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: actually he'd sustained that injury during his fight with Dustin.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: But that wasn't the only thing he said that didn't
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: match up with the evidence at the scene.
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: Darren specifically said that Dustin had this revolver, his forty
• 38:35
  Speaker 9: four caliber revolver on his hip right he motioned during
• 38:39
  Speaker 9: the interview was down towards his right hip. Well, Darren
• 38:43
  Speaker 9: didn't more with a time that that holster, the gun
• 38:45
  Speaker 9: and the holster were actually given to Dustin by a
• 38:48
  Speaker 9: friend of his, and that that holster had been the
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: bell clip on it like an Uncle Mike style. Holster
• 38:54
  Speaker 9: had been inverted and then screwed under the dash of
• 38:57
  Speaker 9: his vehicle, So we could basically have a gun in
• 38:59
  Speaker 9: it pick up. If that sequence events happened like Darren
• 39:04
  Speaker 9: said it did, that holster would have been upside down.
• 39:07
  Speaker 9: Maybe the gun may not have fallen out, but as
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: soon as you get into a tussle, very likely it's
• 39:11
  Speaker 9: going to fall out.
• 39:11
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 39:12
  Speaker 9: That's just one of a couple of examples that it
• 39:15
  Speaker 9: couldn't happen the way he said it based on the
• 39:17
  Speaker 9: physical evidence that was there.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Dustin also wasn't wearing a belt, so even if he
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: had for some reason clipped on the holstered gun upside down,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: his pants would have sagged and the gun wouldn't have
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: stayed on the truth of that assumption became crystal clear
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the next day when Detective Sandy Schroeder found the holster.
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: I think we'd been out there four or five hours.
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: I'm kind of hoping that this is going to end
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: sometime soon, and we're all giving up hope. And sure enough,
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: one of the teams located the holster, and man, what
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: a breakthrough that was, especially when you start to dig
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: into the details of what that holster looked like.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: That holster confirmed that Dustin couldn't have had the gun
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: on his hip, which cast doubt on every other part
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: of Darren's story.
• 40:03
  Speaker 9: So again, he continued to minimize all of his involvement.
• 40:06
  Speaker 9: It was a I hit him once, so maybe hitting twice.
• 40:09
  Speaker 9: Kind of that methodology of trying to make himself look
• 40:12
  Speaker 9: really good in a light of the crime.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Given the circumstances in Darren's first account of what happened,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: he didn't mention the acts when Ryan and Derek pointed
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: out that Dustin's injuries didn't match Darren's description. He confessed
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: to hitting Dustin with the ax prior to stabbing him
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: with the screwdriver, but he claimed he only hit Dustin
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: once or twice with the blunt side in an attempt
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: to knock him out. That axe was later found with
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: the rest of Dustin's things, and the screwdriver was located
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: in Darren's truck. His description of that fight also didn't
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: align with what investigators knew. That Dustin had been hit,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: mostly while he was lying on the ground. Darren tried
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to characterize the fight as a fair one, even though
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: he'd sustained very few injuries, especially as compared to Dustin.
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: Just an untruthful person and you start to add all
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: those little pieces to get maybe it's not one thing,
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: but it's each of those little chunks, and we're working
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: as a team to verify everything. It's our job to
• 41:06
  Speaker 6: prove facts. If he's telling the truth, we want to
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: verify that as well.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors with Gallaton County determined that Darren was likely not
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: telling the truth, at least not enough to justify self defense.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: On November fourteenth, twenty twenty four, a little over two
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: months after Darren was killed, an affid Davit was filed
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: with a district court, charging Darren with one count of
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: deliberate homicide and two counts of tampering with evidence. I
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: asked Natalie what she was thinking and feeling when she
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: heard someone had been arrested for murdering her boyfriend.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: It was really easy to find that he had a
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: previous history with law enforcement, So then the questions of
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: how is he still able to walk around? This guy
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: has been in front of a judge how many times?
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: How many times? And then this happens, like why does
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: it take something like this to make sure people like
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: that don't hurt somebody? And then why Dustin? Like what happened? Yes,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: it was great to have a person to put to this,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: but I don't think that made it any easier at
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: any point.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: As for Darren's claim of self defense, Natalie wasn't buying it.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: It made me physically sick to my stomach, and I.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Was like, there is no realm on any planet that
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: that would have been self defense, No way possible. The
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: most that I could have seen is Dustin telling him
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: to leave because at this point he's already extended, you know,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: this courtesy and this friendliness and kindness, because that's just
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: who he is.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: And it's like, what was the turning point?
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: And you know, we'll never know, you know, Darren's side
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: of everything is just a load of bullshit.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: None of Dustin's friends and family belief he would have
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: attacked Darren. But that's not enough to get someone convicted
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: in the state of Montana. There As in many states,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: prosecutors need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Darren
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: didn't act in self defense. As his attorneys pointed out
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: time and again, Darren is the only person who knows
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: what happened that night. Proving his story false would be
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: a high bar, but prosecutors attempted to clear it when
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Darren Abbey's murder trial began twelve months later, Part five.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: The trial, Darren was represented by two experienced defense attorneys,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Sarah Kottke and Joe Zavatsky. They told me that their
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: case rested on Darren's fear for his life facing a
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: stranger with a gun in the Montana wilderness.
• 43:46
  Speaker 11: There were only two men that were in that tent
• 43:49
  Speaker 11: and knew what was going to happen. There was one
• 43:52
  Speaker 11: individual with a gun on one individual that did not
• 43:54
  Speaker 11: have a gun on his person at that time, that
• 43:57
  Speaker 11: if a gun was pointing at him, he wasn't going
• 43:58
  Speaker 11: to run away from it because he could still have
• 44:00
  Speaker 11: been shot. So he was a fight for his life
• 44:03
  Speaker 11: in that tent.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: On the other side of the aisle. The prosecution consisted
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: of three attorneys, Shannon Foley with Gallatin County along with
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Dan Gazinski and John Nesbit with the Montana Department of Justice.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Dan acknowledged that despite the holes in Darren's story, the
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: basic facts of the case still weighed in the defendant's favor.
• 44:23
  Speaker 12: Self defense claim, on its face may seemed a little ridiculous,
• 44:27
  Speaker 12: but at the end of the day, when you actually
• 44:29
  Speaker 12: take everything into like a you know, you folldel it down.
• 44:33
  Speaker 12: There's two people in that tent, and Dustin was the
• 44:37
  Speaker 12: one with the firearm, and so I think that becomes
• 44:42
  Speaker 12: somewhat problematic.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Dan explained that a self defense case is really about
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the defendant's mental state. Does he reasonably believe he's in danger?
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Most people would agree that if someone points a gun
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: at you, it's reasonable to fear for your life. Joe
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Darren's attorney tried to convince the jury that his client
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: can continued to feel that fear even as he cycled
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: from weapon to weapon.
• 45:04
  Speaker 10: Darren said that when he raised the gun up, Darren
• 45:09
  Speaker 10: was about eight feet away from him Marceau, and that
• 45:12
  Speaker 10: he ran at Dustin kind of trying to grab the gun.
• 45:19
  Speaker 10: He then wrestled with Dustin and that essentially he was
• 45:25
  Speaker 10: trying to just reach for anything that was there. And
• 45:28
  Speaker 10: so that's what Darren explained, was that that this fight,
• 45:33
  Speaker 10: you know, it happened in a matter of seconds with
• 45:36
  Speaker 10: an at tent, and that at no point did Darren
• 45:41
  Speaker 10: feel like he could leave from that situation knowing that
• 45:45
  Speaker 10: there was a gun.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Darren acted based on his fear of Dustin's firearm, but
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: the defense also pointed out that their client likely had
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: firearms of his own in his truck. This, they argued,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: bolstered his claims.
• 45:58
  Speaker 10: If it was Darren's sole burgmase here to go up
• 46:02
  Speaker 10: and kill this guy that he found, he would have
• 46:05
  Speaker 10: used one of the weapons in his trunk, and he didn't.
• 46:10
  Speaker 10: Something happened. We don't know exactly what that was.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: If Darren's goal was to kill Dustin. His attorneys asked,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: why would he use a block of wood, an axe,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and a screwdriver and not one of the guns in
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: his truck. It was a reasonable question, but the prosecution
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: had a response. First, we don't know definitively that Darren
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: had any firearms on the night of the incident, and
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: even if he did, the evidence shows that he likely
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: didn't need to use them. Here's John Nesbit, one of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: the prosecutors.
• 46:42
  Speaker 13: There's a kind of a blitz from Darren with a
• 46:46
  Speaker 13: series of weapons. He's able to take away Dustin's dynamic movement.
• 46:53
  Speaker 13: He's flat on his back, not really a lot of
• 46:55
  Speaker 13: chance to defend himself.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: What's more, while the prosecution couldn't prove dar Warren's mental
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: state in the moments he killed Dustin, they could prove
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: that after the incident he didn't act like a good
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: hearted person forced to defend himself. He didn't render aid
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: or call the police. And as you already heard, he
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: took some of Dustin's things. He claimed that he did
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: so to hide his involvement in what he says was
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: a self defense incident. But if you've been listening carefully,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: you've already noticed that not all of the things he
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: took were related to that incident. The cooler, headlamp, and
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: binoculars were in Dustin's truck. Stealing them looked more like
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: looting the man he'd just killed than the misguided actions
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of a reformed felon. Even Darren's defense admitted that this
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: behavior was almost impossible to explain.
• 47:43
  Speaker 11: We didn't have a good answer for why he took stuff.
• 47:47
  Speaker 11: Was a really tough hurdle for us to overcome.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: But it got even worse for Darren. He owned a
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: camper trailer that was parked at a friend's house. When
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Sandy went to search that trailer, that friend showed her
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: something that ended up being a crucial peace piece of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: evidence in this case.
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: It was kind of funny because the friend thought we
• 48:03
  Speaker 6: were there maybe for probation violation or some kind of
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: drug thing, and then he saw the search warrant was
• 48:08
  Speaker 6: for homicide, and he's like, I don't want anything to
• 48:10
  Speaker 6: do with that. You guys said, she see this photo,
• 48:13
  Speaker 6: and that's the first time we saw the photo. But
• 48:15
  Speaker 6: then in the days after Abby had been his name
• 48:20
  Speaker 6: went to the press, other folks in his circle started
• 48:23
  Speaker 6: calling and saying, hey, I also got these images.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: The photos showed Darren holding Dustin's stolen possessions, and they
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: were taken just days after Dustin was killed. Darren had
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: gone back to a job site and during a lunch
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: break he took the items out of his truck and
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: posed with them for photos. There's even a video of
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: him dancing, holding Dustin's guns in each hand while the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: dead man's binoculars hang from his neck. You can see
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: one of these photos for yourself by going to the
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: meteater dot com slash blood Trails, or by watching the
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: video version of this podcast on YouTube. The jury saw
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: this photo and many similar images, and it's safe to
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: say the prosecute you should have brought them back up
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: every chance they got.
• 49:02
  Speaker 13: We found that to be militating directly against an an
• 49:07
  Speaker 13: argument of self defense. If someone were truly in a
• 49:10
  Speaker 13: situation where they had to defend themselves, they're not going
• 49:13
  Speaker 13: to celebrate with the person's items immediately after that event.
• 49:18
  Speaker 13: You know, that's just not the emotional reaction of a
• 49:20
  Speaker 13: person who acted to defend themselves and had no other
• 49:24
  Speaker 13: choice but to kill someone.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: These photos and videos not only demonstrated a shocking callousness,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: they also gave John and Dan the evidence they needed
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: to suggest a motive.
• 49:34
  Speaker 12: And I think what was somewhat challenging for John and
• 49:37
  Speaker 12: I is what was the motive for Darren Abby to
• 49:40
  Speaker 12: kill Dustin? And what really was the motive? And I
• 49:44
  Speaker 12: believe that it was it was about taking Dustin's things.
• 49:47
  Speaker 12: I mean, people have killed for a lot less. It
• 49:50
  Speaker 12: wasn't a lot of items like people have killed for
• 49:52
  Speaker 12: tennis shoes. People have killed for a lot lot less.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: That contention was backed up by a man who'd been
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: in jail with Darren and claimed to know what really
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: happened that night on the mountain.
• 50:03
  Speaker 13: The witness came forward to law enforcement after Darren was
• 50:07
  Speaker 13: in the detention center. Basically what he said was that
• 50:12
  Speaker 13: Darren didn't know Dustin. He was up there looking for
• 50:16
  Speaker 13: a place to stay. He noticed that Dustin's campsite had
• 50:21
  Speaker 13: a lot of construction type equipment and he had a
• 50:25
  Speaker 13: very immaculate campsite. He engaged in conversation with Dustin. I
• 50:31
  Speaker 13: think it started pretty friendly. They had some beers together.
• 50:36
  Speaker 13: They tried to cut a tree down with a chainsaw.
• 50:39
  Speaker 13: The chainsaw ran out of gas. The witness indicated that
• 50:42
  Speaker 13: Dustin may have been ribbing Darren about his chainsaw running
• 50:46
  Speaker 13: out of gas, which irked Darren. As the night went on,
• 50:49
  Speaker 13: they continued to have beers together, and then at some
• 50:53
  Speaker 13: point in the night, Darren stole a pistol that Dustin
• 50:58
  Speaker 13: had borrowed from his roommate, put it in his truck,
• 51:02
  Speaker 13: and returned to the tent. Dustin noticed that the pistol
• 51:06
  Speaker 13: was missing and confronted Darren about that, and it's at
• 51:10
  Speaker 13: that point that Darren attacks him.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: This testimony offered a reasonable explanation for why Darren might
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: have murdered Dustin, and his history of violent felonies made
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: this an easier pill for the jury to swallow. However,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: though Darren didn't testify at his trial, his attorneys denied
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: this version of events. They pointed out that this witness
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: had testified against other inmates, and I was told the
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: jury didn't find him particularly credible. The defense also offered
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: their own theory that explained why Dustin might have snapped
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: over something as trivial as muddy pause on a mattress.
• 51:45
  Speaker 11: Dustin had a relatively new girlfriend that had been dating
• 51:49
  Speaker 11: throughout three or four months. This camp spot was a
• 51:52
  Speaker 11: getaway for them for the weekend, so a lot of
• 51:55
  Speaker 11: the equipment was new for them, like the air mattress
• 51:58
  Speaker 11: was new, and so that a lot of this was
• 52:02
  Speaker 11: because he was trying to impress his new girlfriend, and
• 52:06
  Speaker 11: so he wanted everything to be perfect, and so then
• 52:09
  Speaker 11: having like a stranger's dog, get muddy footprints all over
• 52:13
  Speaker 11: it and then compounded like a lot of frustration.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Pointing a gun at Darren might still seem like an
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: extreme reaction, but the defense also noted that both men
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: had been drinking. We don't know exactly how much Dustin
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: had consumed, but Sarah said his toxicology report showed his
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: blood alcohol levels were well above the legal driving limit. That,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: combined with a growing frustration against a stranger ruining his campsite,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: may have led to a situation that spiraled out of control.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Darren claimed that the cut on his forehead was actually
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: from Dustin striking him with a pistol. That fight, Darren said,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: devolved from there. Pistol whipping someone could indeed justify a
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: deadly use of force. But when I asked those who
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: knew Dustin whether he could be aggressive or hot headed,
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: their response was unanimous.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: Dustin was the least confrontational person I have ever met, Like,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: you couldn't get him riled up. He didn't have road rage, Like,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: there was nothing that even elevated his blood pressure.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Chris Anderson agreed with Natalie's sentiment. He told me that
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Dustin liked to joke around and poke fun at people,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: but it was never in a mean or aggressive way.
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: Given him a hard time about running the chainsaw on stuff.
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: He Dustin probably did that. He probably said, oh, you're
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: doing that, don't don't do that. Don't bind that up,
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: you know, to run one of those. Give you a
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: hard time, you know what I.
• 53:35
  Speaker 7: Mean, because that's what he'd say.
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And he'd say that to me if I was
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: if I got some chainsaw bound up in a tree,
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: you know what you're doing with that thing, but to
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: the wrong person. And that's what I think, is that
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: just he's Dustin trying to get close to this guy,
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: you know whatever, have a good time, and this guy
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: the whole time is just like getting Oh, well, this
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: guy's getting on my nerves, you know.
• 54:04
  Speaker 7: And that's what I think.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: And Dustin probably just got a little too under his
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: skin for him, and the guy had an opportunity.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Chris thinks that Dustin confronted Darren when he noticed his
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: pistol was missing, but he was especially keen to get
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: it back because it wasn't actually his pistol, it was
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: his friends. And as we heard Chris say earlier, Dustin
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: was someone you could trust to take care of your stuff.
• 54:27
  Speaker 7: If it's my stuff, I guess you can have it.
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: But you know, if that's my buddy is, don't take that.
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: And I wish that in many ways he would have
• 54:35
  Speaker 7: just let the guy walk.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Jake Noble offered a reason for Dustin's generally relaxed demeanor.
• 54:41
  Speaker 8: He was the chillest with his family life previous to
• 54:47
  Speaker 8: Jillian getting custody of him. You could tell that he
• 54:52
  Speaker 8: wanted to pacify a situation.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Dustin's parents had divorced when he was young. Jake described
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: Dustin's father as mean, and his household could be chaotic
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and unstable, so much so that when he was a teenager,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: he was emancipated from his parents and went to live
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: with his older sister, Jillian. Dustin and Jillian lived with
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Jake and his wife for a year, and Jake had
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: a chance to observe Dustin's personality up close.
• 55:17
  Speaker 8: Dustin was the one who was trying to smooth it out.
• 55:21
  Speaker 8: Dustin was the one who was avoiding conflict, making sure
• 55:24
  Speaker 8: that nothing ever escalated.
• 55:26
  Speaker 7: I mean he was.
• 55:28
  Speaker 8: I know that I saw him get angry, but I
• 55:31
  Speaker 8: can't say that I ever saw him lash out in
• 55:35
  Speaker 8: anger in any way, like not even throwing a controller
• 55:39
  Speaker 8: for a video game.
• 55:40
  Speaker 14: You know.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Natalie and Gillian testified to Dustin's laid back nature at trial,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and the implication of that testimony was clear. Even if
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Dustin was upset about Darren's dog, There's no way he
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: would have threatened to kill Darren, even if he was intoxicated.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what those twelve Gallaton County residence
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: thought of that testimony, but on December tenth, twenty twenty five,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: they had their chance to weigh in. The trial had
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: lasted a full week, and as the jury filed out
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: to deliberate, Dan said he wasn't sure what to expect.
• 56:13
  Speaker 12: Every minute that goes by, you're worried about why a
• 56:15
  Speaker 12: verdict hasn't come. Because these jurors come from all walks
• 56:18
  Speaker 12: of life, you don't get to really know them that well.
• 56:20
  Speaker 12: And all it takes is one juror to say that,
• 56:23
  Speaker 12: you know, we did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt
• 56:25
  Speaker 12: that it wasn't justifiable use of force, and then you
• 56:28
  Speaker 12: have a hung jury and you have to do the
• 56:29
  Speaker 12: whole thing over again.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: But they only had to wait three hours when the
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: jury filed back into the courtroom and handed down their verdict.
• 56:37
  Speaker 15: Count one to the charge of deliberate homicide of Dustin
• 56:40
  Speaker 15: Jerism guilty. Count two to the charge of tambourine or
• 56:45
  Speaker 15: back Refuitian physical evidence Honor October's twenty twenty four guilty.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: The identities of jurors are kept secret, so we don't
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: normally know the reasons behind their decisions, but Joe and
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: Sarah had a chance after the trial to talk to
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: some of the jurors, and they explained how they reached
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the unanimous decision.
• 57:04
  Speaker 10: The way that we saw it when the verdict came
• 57:07
  Speaker 10: down was one of two things. Number one, they didn't
• 57:11
  Speaker 10: believe him, or number two that they believed him but
• 57:18
  Speaker 10: believe that he went too far.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Sandy also got a chance to speak to some of
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: the jurors. They told her the photos and videos of
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: Darren with Dustin's things were powerful evidence of his guilt,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: and they reiterated what you just heard Joe.
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: Explain, and not only the videos and photos, but also
• 57:37
  Speaker 6: the fact that he used so many different weapons, Like
• 57:39
  Speaker 6: when does self defense end?
• 57:41
  Speaker 16: You know?
• 57:41
  Speaker 6: Was it after hitting him with the block? It was
• 57:43
  Speaker 6: it after hitting him with the axe? Was it after
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: stabbing him in the neck with the screwdriver.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: The jury believed that even if Dustin had threatened to
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: shoot the man, he'd invite it into his camp. Darren
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: quickly gained the upper hand. The blood spatter analysis proved
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Dustin was lying on the ground when much of the
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: damage was done, unable to fight back, and no longer
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: a threat to Darren's life.
• 58:07
  Speaker 7: There is no self defense at any moment.
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: He could have stopped and let my friend live, but
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: instead he just was like, oh, I gotta like put
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: him down like an animal. What he did was a
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: killing and a euthanization. It was not self defense. You
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: don't go to those extremes to end someone's life in
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: self defense, you know, you only do that if you.
• 58:31
  Speaker 7: Don't want him to live. So they don't tell you
• 58:33
  Speaker 7: what actually happened.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Part six the sentence. Darren's sentencing hearing took place about
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: six weeks after his trial. At the hearing, he apologized
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: to Dustin's friends and family and asked the judge for leniency.
• 58:53
  Speaker 7: I have not known Dustin.
• 58:56
  Speaker 17: When I first encountered him. He approached me when I
• 59:00
  Speaker 17: Drew Hofer was turning around. He's seem like he liked
• 59:04
  Speaker 17: the guy. I wish just never happened. The vial he
• 59:13
  Speaker 17: had friends of Justin to understand what really happened. I
• 59:20
  Speaker 17: never intended any of this happened.
• 59:27
  Speaker 7: I'm sorry, prere real lost.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Darren's defense attorneys also highlighted the ways their clients passed
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: had influenced the person he became.
• 59:36
  Speaker 11: You know, he came from a broken home. He had
• 59:38
  Speaker 11: a twin brother and an older brother. His older brother
• 59:42
  Speaker 11: was killed by police brutality. When his parents divorced, he
• 59:45
  Speaker 11: basically lost most contact with his dad. So he was
• 59:49
  Speaker 11: raised by a single mom. Just the amount that that
• 59:53
  Speaker 11: kind of shapes who you become, like having trauma kind
• 59:56
  Speaker 11: of those very early ages, and so we highlighted that
• 59:59
  Speaker 11: for the judge.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Dustin's family and friends also testified at this hearing, including
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: Chris and Jillian. I've spoken to Jillian several times and
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: she connected me with Natalie. Chris and Jake. Even in
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: our brief conversations, it was clear to me that her
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: sense of loss is profound. She had raised Dustin, protected
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: him his entire life, and she loved him from the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: moment he was born.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 8: She took him to school for show and tell, and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 8: like the second grade or something, he was just a baby,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 8: and she took him to school for show and tell.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 8: If that gives you any idea how she felt about him.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Jillian told the judge at the sentencing hearing that imagining
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: what happened to the man that baby had grown into
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: was almost too much to bear.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 18: I have to picture him struggling to take his last
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 18: press alone in that tent with this monster. I would
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 18: have given everything I have to send him off with
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 18: as much love as I received him with.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: She asked the judge to make sure that Darren Abbey
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: never had another chance to rob a family and community
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: of someone so loved.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: He took my brother's life, He stole from him again.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: He stole from him again the next world he was capable.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 19: Of returning, spending time in the tent, Dustin's mutilated body
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 19: taking more seats, next level disregard.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: For human life. The sad body lay their phone, loved,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: I steal.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 18: Many and at the trial we all became witness to
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 18: the lack of remorse it is had by Abby as
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 18: we watched a minute and thirty second video.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 16: Of him dance triumphantly very brother's possessions. Darren Abbey exluded
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 16: more joy that minute and very selconds than I have
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 16: been able to muster seize the corner knocked on my
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 16: door toward the tail twelve two thousand before.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 14: This is not the first bogged down with sorrow from
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 14: having taken a life. This looks like someone who is
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 14: proud of what he has done, someone who's given the opportunity,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 14: would do it again.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: A few minutes later, Judge Peter o'man sided with Jillian.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: He sentenced Darren to one hundred years behind bars, the
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: first eighty of which without the chance for parole. Unless
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: Darren lives to be one hundred and twenty, the grave
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: will be his only chance to escape the confines of
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: those bars. After the judge finished reading the sentence, Darren
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: lost the penitent attitude he'd adopted a few minutes before.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 9: Robbie will get your copy of this and then death.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 7: We're rap so well.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 17: I'll be a young your crooked ass quotes there's the Dart.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Despite his bluster, Darren has not appealed his conviction as
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of this recording, and he remains behind bars meanwhile, since
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: family and friends have done their best to remember him
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: for who he was and try to make sense of
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: the senseless way they lost him, and.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: How much he just loved life and his family and
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: his friends and anybody who he thought was important.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: They knew it. There was no question in your mind
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: if he cared for you. You felt it every moment.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: I hope people remember that he was a Montana boy,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: loved the outdoors, loved hunting, loved to share that with people.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 7: Dustin was a good guy. He was good natured. He
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 7: was alone, and he just the wrong guy came across him.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: And I feel like there are so many things that
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: could have changed that, but then this guy would be
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: out there, still capable of such bad things. And so
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: maybe I wish that Dustin could be remembered for the
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: guy that stopped that that if this ended, it ended
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: with Dustin.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Dustin and the man who killed him were in some
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: ways living parallel lives. They both came from broken homes,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: they both experienced unstable childhoods, but they scraped together a living,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: working with their hands. But while Darren chose a life
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: of violence and hate, Dustin chose the opposite. I don't
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: know why their paths ended up on such drastically different trajectories,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: but I do know that Dustin had people in his
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: life who loved him, who looked out for him, and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: who never abandoned him. Those people wish more than anything
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: that Dustin had never met Darren Abbey that night on
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: the mountain. But they take at least some comfort in
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: the fact that he died as he lived, friendly, caring
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: and happy to invite a stranger into his tent to
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: share a drink.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: He died doing what he was fucking born to do,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, being out there in a
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 4: camp and with all this stuff, everything set up waiting
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: for the most important people in his life to there
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: and join them, and he was built to do that.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of Blood Trails. If
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: you'd like to see images from this case, including of Dustin, Darren,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: and the campsite, head on over to the meeeater dot
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: com slash blood Trails. We also publish a video version
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: of every Blood Trail story, which you can find at
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: the Meat Eater Podcast Network on YouTube. I so appreciate
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: everyone who spoke to me for this episode. Jillian Price,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Chris Anderson, Jake Noble, Natalie Holloway, Ryan Duma, Sandy Schroeder,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: Dan Gazinski, John Nesbit, Sarah Kottke, Joseavatsky, and Derek Mallum.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have told Dustin's story without them. If you
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: know of a story you think we should cover, or
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: you have any thoughts or questions about the episode so far,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: send me an email at blood Trails at theemeeteater dot com.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: You can also shoot me a message on Instagram at
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: blood Trails Pod. See you next time. Stay safe out there,