Authorities in Montana say a 911 caller discovered his friend dead in a tent in what appeared to have been a fatal bear attack — but officials soon discovered the camper was actually the victim of a brutal murder.

Dustin Kjersem, 35, was found dead in his tent on Saturday morning along Moose Creek Road north of Big Sky, Montana, Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said at news conference Wednesday. A friend who was supposed to have met Kjersem went searching for him when he didn’t show up as scheduled on Friday.

The friend ultimately discovered Kjersem’s body in a tent at a makeshift campsite and called 911, telling responders the death appeared to have been caused by a bear attack, the sheriff’s office said.

  • someguy3@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Yeah I don’t think you can mimic how a bear would kill someone.

    *Headline wasn’t what I read it as, the actual friend did find him like that and thought it was a bear attack.

    • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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      12 days ago

      This is not far from Yellowstone so there will be grizzlies in that area. I could absolutely see someone finding this scene and getting panicked and running to find a cell signal instead of performing forensic analysis of the scene. But yeah the cops weren’t the ones saying it was a bear, they got it at least.

    • can_you_change_your_username@fedia.io
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      12 days ago

      If I were in the friend’s position I doubt I would have gotten a close enough look to differentiate. The autopsy said the victim had “multiple chop wounds” including to the skull so it was probably a machete or ax attack. With lots of long deep wounds and blood there wasn’t much chance he was alive when the friend found him so it’s plausible that the friend didn’t actually go into the campsite, just saw the blood and assumed it was a bear because what other animal could do that much damage.

          • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            IIRC it’s not even close if we consider insects (because of mosquitoes) but otherwise I think you’re actually right

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            Fun fact, there’s a possibility that our hands evolved the way they did, because using them as clubs was useful.

            And by fun, I mean depressing.

        • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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          12 days ago

          So are you saying that if I had to choose between a random human or a random bear then I should pick the bear?

    • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Bears will usually drag you out of the tent and start eating you in the open. They don’t usually kill to kill. They kill by consuming.