A (0:02)

Hi Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Exciting news. Conspiracy theories, cults and crimes is leveling up starting the week of January 12th. You'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays we unravel the conspiracy or the cult and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Every week has a theme. Tech, bioterror, power, paranoia, you name it. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now on your podcast app because you're about to dive deeper, get weirder, and go darker than ever before.

B (0:46)

This is Crime House. A night alone in the Montana woods ends with a 911 call for a bear attack. But detectives soon learn the danger didn't come from the wildlife. Jersum was found dead at his campsite along Moose Creek Road by his girlfriend and another friend the morning of Saturday, October 12th. 41 year old Darren Abbey is accused of killing Dustin Jersum at a campsite in the Moose Creek area last month. According to the sheriff, Abbey proceeded to remove all items from the campsite he thought contained evidence that would tie him to the crime. But he left one item. Hi, welcome to Crime House Daily. I'm your host Katie Ring. Here we follow the cases making headlines now, where justice is still unfolding. Follow us wherever you're listening and if you want ad free episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. On October 10, 2024, 35 year old Dustin Gerson drove into the Moose Creek area near Big Sky, Montana, a place he knew as well as the back of his hand. He was planning a romantic weekend there with his girlfriend, but went out first to set up the camp alone. Moose Creek Road cuts into the Gallatin Mountains through a rugged forested stretch that campers and hikers use to get back there. He set up camp about two and a half miles up the dirt road, well away from any developed campground and in an area where cell service is split body at best. The plan was simple. Spend the night alone, get the camp set up just the way he liked it, then pick up his girlfriend the next day so the two of them could spend the weekend together off the grid. It was the kind of weekend Dustin lived for, but by nightfall, something or someone dangerous would change the entire trajectory of the weekend. Before we get to what happened out there, though, it's important to know who Dustin was. Not just the victim of the brutal crime, but the person whose life was still in motion, right up until that night. Dustin Mitchell Jersem was born on November 10, 1988 in Bozeman, Montana to Jay Jersim and Janet Price. Dustin was the youngest of four and had three older sisters who absolutely adored him. His family says that once he was able to put on his shoes and run around, he never wanted to stop. He constantly wanted to explore. When he was younger, his family moved to Three Forks, which was the perfect place for him to keep exploring, fish with his friends, romping around, and quote, skating somewhere they probably weren't supposed to be. As a teen, Dustin's sister Jillian took custody of him and he moved to Bozeman to live with her. Public accounts don't spell out the details of everything that happened, but it was clear that they faced challenges growing up. He started thriving in Bozeman and joined the Big Sky Youth Empowerment program, which both empowered him and gave him confidence. His love of the outdoors and snowboarding in particular continued to grow. There was another passion that Dustin discovered while at Bozeman High School. He took a construction class and became obsessed. He had great pride in everything he did and it paid off because he built his love into a career as a self employed construction contractor, working on homes while teaching himself additional trades to expand his business. He was proud of the life he'd built, but his greatest love and pride was his family, even though he had a tough upbringing. When Dustin moved in with his sister, he stepped into the role of a teenage uncle without hesitation. Playing and having tea parties with her daughter, helping around the house, doing everything he could to make life easier. That instinct to show up and do the work didn't fade as he got older. In part of his obituary, that made me emotional and showed what kind of guy Dustin really was. His family said that he had various nicknames growing up, but that quote, he would tell you that In December of 2014, he earned the most gratifying title of his life. Dad Dustin and Jessica Kirkland gave birth to our sweet, sweet Addie Mae. Dustin stepped into fatherhood with confidence, having already been the most helpful, caring, fun uncle to his niece Jaden. People close to Dustin described him as a loving, hands on dad who doted on both Addy and his stepson Zeb at home. That looked like everyday stuff, spending hours doing crafts with kids and proudly keeping their artwork all over the house. So when he made plans for a weekend away with his girlfriend, he wanted it to be perfect. The Gallatin County Sheriff's office later described the campsite Dustin chose as fairly remote and not part of an established campground. And that was part of the appeal. He got there early, picked a spot and went straight to work. He set up a large four wall canvas tent, the kind that stands tall and sturdy, and outfitted it with a wood stove, beds, lamps, and everything the two of them would need for a comfortable stay in the woods. But at some point that evening, a man walked towards the tent. He introduced himself as Darren Christopher Abbey. 41 year old. Darren had recently relocated to Montana from California and was working for a construction company in Big Sky. According to what he later told investigators, he'd planned to camp at the same site, but arrived after Dustin did. But Dustin didn't mind. He was friendly, easygoing, so he offered Darren a beer. The two men talked for a while outside and shared drinks. Just casual conversation between strangers. Nothing seemed off. And at some point, Abby ended up inside the tent with him that night. What exactly happened in that tent wouldn't become clear until much later. The only thing that was clear at first was this. Dustin had planned to head back into town on Friday, October 11, to pick up his girlfriend and bring her out to the camp with him. And he never showed up. This was unlike him. He wasn't unreliable. He didn't flake. And by the following morning on October 12, his girlfriend was worried enough that she couldn't wait around any longer to hear from him. She needed to go check on him herself. So she and a friend drove out to Moose Creek. When they arrived, the tent was right where it should be. Everything Dustin had prepared was still neatly in place, but still there was no sign of Dustin outside. His girlfriend stepped into the tent and that's when she found him. He was lying inside, not moving, with severe injuries to his head, neck and face. In that first shock moment, it didn't seem like a person was capable of causing severe injuries like these. So when she called 91 1, she reported it as a bear attack because it seemed like the only explanation. And it made sense that she automatically assumed it was a bear because Montana is famously known for its grizzly bears and they are one of the top threats on people's minds. While camping or enjoying nature. Deputies and wildlife officers scrambled to reach the remote site. They started outside, scanning the ground, the soil, the foliage, looking for any indication of a bear moving through the area. But weirdly enough, they found no tracks. No fur, no disturbed ground, no drag marks, and no ripped or shredded items. And Inside the tent, the wounds also told a completely different story. There were no claw marks, no bite wounds, and no tearing. Nothing consistent with the attack of a large predator. Soon after arriving on the scene, investigators ruled out a bear entirely. And suddenly, the entire investigation was flipped on its head. With an attack so severe that was confirmed not to be an animal, investigators were left with one conclusion. This was a homicide. Now detectives had a new problem. They had to figure out who was capable of such a violent murder. And why did they do it? Dustin had gone out there to set up camp on his own. There was no obvious reason anyone should have been at the site with him that night. And as we learn from his family, he was the kind of guy everyone got along with. But inside that tent, investigators discovered key pieces of evidence that would lead them to Dustin's killer. When detectives searched inside the tent, they found beer cans and shot glasses left behind. Deputies collected them and sent them to the Montana State Crime Lab for DNA analysis. On October 25, 2024, lab technicians ran the samples, and two hits came back. Sure enough, there was a match for Darren Christopher Abbey, and one for Darren's twin brother. Before the Moose Creek killing, Darren had frequent run ins with the law. He had a felony hate crime conviction from Idaho in 2011 and felony DUI convictions in Montana, each classified as a fourth or or subsequent offense, meaning at least four DUIs or possibly even more. But since his twin was already in prison, it left just one person tied to the campsite and specifically inside Dustin's tent, drinking with him the night he died. Investigators knew they needed to find him fast. But the next day, on October 26th, Gallatin county detectives quickly looped in Montana probation and parole officers for help locating him. The Butte Police department tracked him down in the area, which was roughly 120 miles from the campsite, and detained him on an unrelated probation violation. A few days later, two investigators sat down with him for an interview. And that's when the story took another turn. Darren confessed to killing Dustin, but he insisted it was self defense, a claim that detectives soon realized didn't line up with the facts. As the questioning continued, in the span of a single conversation, Darren gave multiple versions of what supposedly happened. He said Dustin attacked him. Then he said Dustin threatened him. Then he said Dustin pointed a gun at him. Then he said he feared Dustin might kill him and his dog. He changed the details of the fight. He changed the details of the sequence of events. He changed which weapon he used first. He claimed he only hit Dustin with a block of wood Then he admitted to also stabbing him with a screwdriver. Then he said he struck him with the blunt side of an ax. He even contradicted himself about where he found the ax. First he said it was inside the tent, then he found it outside. But one detail did stay the same. Every time he washed the ax and screwdriver in the creek. Before leaving, detectives also observed that Darren had something missing, something that didn't line up with his story of self defense because he had no defensive injuries at all. Not a bruise, not a scratch, nothing to suggest he had been attacked. And there was more. Only after Darren's DNA placed him inside the tent, and only after he began shifting his story, did investigators uncover what actually happened. According to Darren's statements and forensic analysis, this is how it all played out. He struck Dustin with a piece of firewood. He stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver, and he struck him multiple times with an ax, first saying he used the blunt side of the blade, then ultimately admitting he used the blade. It wasn't a single blow. It wasn't a scuffle. It was a sequence. And Darren didn't stop when Dustin was dead. Before leaving the campsite, Darren stole several of Dustin's belongings, including a yeti cooler, a Remington shotgun, a revolver, two cell phones, and the ax used in the killing. He put distance between himself and the scene, washed the weapons in the creek, and took off. When investigators asked why he never called for help, Darren said he had a felony record and believed the police would assume he was guilty. His behavior, detectives said, didn't resemble someone acting out of fear. It resembled someone trying to cover their tracks. With the evidence, mounting, DNA, the confession and stolen items, and the forensic findings, prosecutors charged Darren Christopher Abbey with felony deliberate homicide and two counts of felony tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. His bond was set at $1.5 million, and he was transferred to the Gallatin County Detention Center. And when Darren filled out his intake paperwork, he wrote down something shocking. As Darren Christopher Abbey was filling out forms at the detention center, he listed his organizational affiliation as white supremacist Dash General and listed his religion as Odinism, which is a pagan tradition heavily associated with white supremacist ideology. Reporting also noted tattoos tied to Nazi imagery. However alarming that history is, it still doesn't automatically explain why Dustin Gerson was targeted, at least not on the surface, because both men were white. What investigators and prosecutors did know at that point was simply that Dustin had been killed. The DNA at the scene pointed to one man and that man was now in their custody. On November 26, 2024, Darren made his initial appearance in Gallatin county district court. He pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence. And he continued to claim self defense. A jury trial was scheduled for November 3, 2025, nearly a year after Dustin's death. Friends, family and reporters filled the courtroom for Dustin's loved ones. This was the first time they would hear the full story laid out from start to finish. Prosecutors began with the last time Dustin was seen alive, the campsite, the plans with his girlfriend, and the Saturday morning discovery. They then walked the jury through why a bear attack theory didn't hold up. Wildlife officers testified about what they saw at the scene. The complete lack of tracks, fur markings, or dragging wounds. A forensic analyst explained the DNA hits on the beer cans, One for Darren and the other for his twin brother who was incarcerated. Then detectives recounted Darren's confession, the contradictions, the shifting details, and his unwavering admission that he washed the weapons in the creek. The medical examiner took the stand and described Dustin's wounds. Blunt force trauma, deep puncture wounds, and multiple chopping injuries consistent with an ax blade. The testimony painted a picture of a brutally violent attack, One the prosecution argued went far beyond a split second struggle. Eventually, prosecutors rested their case. The defense, for its part, continued to lean into a claim of self defense. They argued the campsite off of Moose Creek road was remote, it was dark out, and the several cans of alcohol found at the scene may have escalated into a misunderstanding. But prosecutors pushed back, emphasizing Darren was found unscathed and had no defensive wounds. And he also admitted to using three different weapons. He stole multiple items from Dustin, and he washed the ax and screwdriver in the creek. Also confirmed by the defendant. And maybe the most telling giveaway, he never called for help. The jury deliberated for about three hours, and on November 10, 2025, which would have been Dustin's 37th birthday, they delivered their verdict. Darren Christopher Abbey was found guilty of deliberate homicide and guilty of tampering with evidence. Prosecutors have confirmed they are not seeking the death penalty, and Darren was sentenced on December 30th. As of this recording, no motive has been established publicly. A frustrating loose end that Dustin's family will have to live with forever. Dustin planned a quiet weekend in one of his favorite places. He shared a beer with a stranger, and that stranger took everything from him. For his loved ones, the verdict doesn't erase the loss, but it does confirm the truth and brings at least a measure of justice. What did you think of tonight's case, drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. See you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel Rimehouse Daily and follow us on social media Rimehouse247 for real time updates. Because the pursuit of justice never stops.