Dustin Kjersem // 449 (Happening Now)
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Thank you.

What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today's episode is a horrific story that is unfolding right now. It just happened a couple weeks ago in Montana. And I think especially because of the incredibly shocking headlines and just the nature surrounding it, this case has been recommended so many times over the past few weeks, like across social media and email.

As always, we only have the emailers' names, so big shout out to Sarah, Matthew, Emma, Amber, Jonah, and Kaylee, and to everybody who sent it over to us elsewhere. This case seriously needs our attention right now, so share, share, share. Yeah, this episode will have more

major calls to action. So let's just do our part and help Dustin's family by spreading this story as much as we possibly can. Yes, absolutely. There's going to be a lot of conversation in today's episode, and I think everybody is going to be fascinated and horrified by these details. So listen up, put on your true crime caps, and without further ado...

Alright guys, this is episode 449 of Going West, so let's get into it. Intro

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35-year-old Dustin Gersom was found dead in his tent at a campsite off of Moose Creek Road near Big Sky on October 12th. At first, a bear attack was suspect, but it soon became clear Gersom was the victim of a horrific attack. This weekend, we lost our brother, our son, our uncle, our best friends, and our dad in the most unimaginable way.

On Saturday afternoon, October 12, 35-year-old Dustin Mitchell Gersom was found dead in his tent while camping near Big Sky. Here at this camping spot off the beaten path remains flags marking the area of the investigation. As investigators crack open the case, the chilling details of the Moose Creek homicide have gone viral.

His friend reportedly got concerned after he said Dustin didn't check in. After finding his body, he then called first responders, saying that Dustin appeared to have been mauled by a bear. Officials, though, found no sign of a bear attack. Investigators say they later found evidence of a, quote, vicious attack.

I want everybody to know what happened. I want to know, I want them to know that there's somebody out there in our community that is capable. And you know, for me, I mean, my heart is like everybody stop and look and help find who did this.

Dustin Mitchell Gersom was born on November 10th, 1988 to Janet Price and Jay Gersom in beautiful Bozeman, Montana, alongside his three wonderful older sisters, Desiree, Jillian, and Erin, all of whom he was close with. When he was young, the family relocated a short distance away, just around 30 minutes over to Three Forks, Montana.

Now, Three Forks is in the same county as Bozeman, Gallatin County. This entire story takes place in Gallatin County, but it's much smaller. Bozeman has a population of over 50,000 people, though it only had about 22,000 when Dustin was born, whereas Three Forks currently has 2,000 and about 1,200 back in the early 90s.

And both, as many of us know, are incredibly stunning, picturesque rural areas. Oh, absolutely. Montana is absolutely gorgeous. So as a young boy in Three Forks, Dustin enjoyed doing outdoor activities with family like fishing on the river or just skateboarding with his many friends.

But as Dustin moved into teenhood, he actually returned to Bozeman to live with his sister Jillian, who is the de facto spokesperson for his case. She has been trying to push his story in the news by doing interviews and pressers. So you could just tell how much she always has cared about Dustin and how great it was to be living together for those few years.

When he arrived back in Bozeman, Dustin joined the Big Sky Youth Empowerment Project, which according to their website, quote, provides youth with an adventure-based group mentoring program designed to help teens build a supportive community and learn about their own ability to grow.

offering activities like rock climbing, hiking, and snowboarding, which Dustin particularly loved, as well as workshops and tutoring. So all this to say, Dustin had a deep, lifelong love for the outdoors that only strengthened as time went on. And he loved being a part of this positive program so much that, according to his obituary, he helped instruct for a few months after graduating.

Well, because he spent his teen years in Bozeman, Dustin attended Bozeman High School, where he fell in love with construction thanks to an elective class. So after graduating, he excelled in his craft of building, and he was pretty much as handy as they come, eventually starting Dustin Jersom Construction, where he specialized in anything from appliance or backsplash installation, to painting, to gutter cleaning, to modular home construction, and just so much more.

Which is why it's no surprise that in late 2014, when 26-year-old Dustin became a father, he turned into this amazing, loving type of dad that did crafts with his daughter and just hung all of her artwork around the house. He was just that fun, goofy kind of guy, and he always worked well with kids. Yeah, it was actually when Dustin was 17 that he moved in with his older sister Jillian. She got custody of him when he was 17, and

after what she described was a, quote, not good childhood. And Jillian has the most amazing things to say about Dustin regarding just how great of an uncle he was to her daughter when they lived together. Although he and his mother's daughter didn't remain together, he was known to be attentive, hardworking, and present for his little girl. And his daughter's mom agreed, actually writing on Facebook after his death, quote,

My daughter's dad was found Saturday dead at his campsite. Please pray for us and his family. He did not deserve to die. He was an amazing father and person and friend. Rest in peace, Dustin. Watch over your daughter and keep her safe, please. I love you so much. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

Well, at some point, Dustin moved to Belgrade, which is a small city just outside of Bozeman, before reportedly returning to Bozeman once again in 2023, where he did his construction work and took part in caring for his daughter, and also just doing fun things that he enjoyed, like going hunting with friends. And due to his major interest in the outdoors, camping was always something that he really enjoyed. And that brings us to October of 2024.

Just 17 days before this episode is being released, when something unthinkable happened to Dustin Gersom. On Thursday, October 11th, 2024, 35-year-old Dustin Gersom headed out for a camping trip for the weekend in Moose Creek, Montana. Now, there are a ton of Moose Creeks in Montana. Yeah, you guys could probably guess that. There are so many, but this place,

Specific location is in Gallatin County near the Gallatin National Forest. So this spot is just under an hour away from his home or about 30 miles away near the beautiful Rocky Mountain community of Big Sky, Montana, just surrounded by pine and fir trees.

Although we were three weeks into autumn by this point, the weekend proved to be a sunny and partly cloudy one there with an average of 67 degrees Fahrenheit or about 20 Celsius. So it was still a great time to be outdoors before much lower temperatures and snow would hit the area just weeks later, which is starting to happen right now.

Now, due to zero cell service out there, which has actually made the investigation a little bit difficult, Dustin was not reachable. But what is known is that he headed out there in his 2013 Ford F-150 with a black topper and aluminum silver ladder rack.

Now, since it's still very early, it hasn't been clearly released what Dustin's intentions were for the weekend, as many details are still absent from this story as the investigation only recently began. But we do know that Dustin last spoke to his family on Thursday, October 10th, before packing up his truck and heading out by himself to camp. And his family knew about this planned trip as well as where he was going.

A friend of his was actually planning to meet and join him for camping on Friday afternoon, but Dustin did not make it to their agreed location that day. And yeah, there are reports that claim they were supposed to at least meet up on Friday to camp for the weekend, but where they were meeting has not been released. You know, if it was at the camp spot or somewhere else, we just don't know at this point.

Well, when Dustin didn't make it, this friend later told police that he went around looking for him. Now, obviously, looking for a single man in the vast wilderness is not an easy feat, but somehow, possibly because it was in the general area they were planning to meet up anyway, this friend, who has not yet been named in the media, came upon a tent that belonged to Dustin.

So I read through like 30 pages of the forum on this case on Web Sleuths to see if any locals had insight on certain details. And someone commented this. They said, quote, the campsites are spread out along the road and Dustin's vehicle is a distinct truck with shell and lumber rack.

I imagine it would have been easy to drive along and find the truck, in my opinion. It may have taken the friend a bit of investigating and maybe annoying some other campers. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, it is a vast place out there, but also just knowing that general area, I'm sure, like this person is saying, it took a little bit of driving around, maybe driving through campsites,

But eventually, this friend did find Dustin's campsite. Yeah, and actually, let's talk about this quote-unquote campsite because the tent was located at a Forest Service campsite described as a makeshift campground. So not an official regulated campsite at a state park or anything that has a lot of people going there with, you know, their families, which makes sense.

because Dustin was an outdoorsman and he was more than prepared to set up camp anywhere. Yeah, when you and I go camping, we usually just go to like state parks where there's... Yeah, we do the cushy. Yeah, where there's vaulted toilets, sometimes even showers. But Dustin is this outdoorsman...

He doesn't really mind camping, just setting up camp really anywhere. Yeah, which we have also done before. Sometimes you find a great spot by a river and you want to set up there. Oh, yeah. And also remember, Dustin grew up in this area. So I'm sure he visited this particular spot or at least this general area quite a bit. So the camp spot was 2.5 miles off Highway 191 on.

off the dirt, rocky Moose Creek Road, and this will be important for later. It was also described as, quote, informal but often used for dispersed camping, with hunters and campers known to utilize the area throughout the year. This exact area is called Moose Creek Road Dispersed Camping. There's even some pages online about it with good reviews, and of course, it is free to camp.

It's described by one reviewer as, quote, never too packed. No toilets, dumping, hookups or water. Just the stars and roaring creek. Once you pass Moose Creek Ranch, it's a straight shot back on the bumpy road.

And like the other commenter had said, you know, the one I read a minute ago, the campsites were by the road. They're not official campsites, but we can imagine that people who know the area use them as such. Like there's no address here. It's just find a good flat spot somewhat by the small road because I have a lot of equipment and set up camp.

And you guys can go check out our socials for some photos. We have photos right on Highway 191 in the area, so you can see the landscape. And then we also have some overhead screenshots of the area that Dustin was believed to be. Yeah, and in these overhead screenshots, you can see whenever this was taken...

that, you know, some tents and cars just off the National Forest Road and the Forest Service Road kind of cross section that Dustin apparently was located. So it does look obvious where the general camp spots are. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's still rural, but when you look overhead, you can see that there are like designated places where people probably set up their tents. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And to give you guys a little bit more of a visual here, the sheriff stated that Dustin had a 10-foot wall tent, which are massive, often canvas tents, that you can walk right into. Like, you don't have to crouch down. You can just walk right in. And they're tall and almost kind of look like a little house with a pointed center. Yeah, and they're also really nice and expensive, and we know that Dustin had high-quality gear. Yeah, absolutely. And I've actually stayed in these type of canvas tents before,

And oftentimes people in the colder months will actually put like a wood stove inside these tents. Like sometimes they actually have like a little hole in the top of the tent where the wood stove or the spout kind of goes out the top.

But I don't know if that's something that Dustin had, but I just can imagine that that's kind of what it looked like. Like, it's very it's pretty big. Yeah. And I think this is a testament to how much he loved the outdoors and being outside and camping. Sure. To have such nice equipment, to be comfortable and and have everything that he needs. Absolutely. Which will go a little bit more into gear later.

Alright, so let's get back to the timeline here. Now, at around 10 a.m., two and a half hours after sunrise, on Saturday, October 12th, 2024, Dustin's friend, again, who we do not know the name of, entered his wall tent to find a horrific scene. 35-year-old Dustin Gersom was dead.

And due to the brutality of his injuries, his friend allegedly believed this to be due to a bear attack. Now, because he didn't have self-service out there, he left to a spot where he could reach police, and he called 911 at 10:07 AM, reporting this finding.

And let's kind of talk about this area because there are a lot of animals and wildlife here. So basically, the wildlife that inhabits Gallatin County and the Gallatin National Forest are grizzly bears, which is why campsites often have bear boxes or bear-proof containers to avoid attracting bears. They also have gray wolves, bald eagles, Canada lynxes, elk, deer, mountain lions, wolverines, and bisons.

So that's like a lot of predatory animals here, which is something that obviously Dustin grew up around, knowing very well how to protect himself in case he did encounter any of these specific predators. Yeah, his sister says he's a Montana boy through and through. He knows about all these animals.

He's got the right gear. He knows exactly what to do in this area. They obviously wouldn't have had or most likely wouldn't have had bear boxes because it's not a designated campground. But he would know how to keep his food safe so as not to attract any predators. Sure. I mean, he might have even had his own bear box. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I'm sure he did.

You know, and for people who have never been to Montana, it's basically, it's a place where you're going to see wildlife because it's so open. It's so vast. There's so much natural beauty. You're just, you're going to see wildlife. You're going to see bears at times.

You might even see some wolves. You're definitely going to see some eagles. Even way more so than you would where you grew up in Oregon. And Oregon is super wilderness-heavy as well. But Montana is kind of more specific for that, I think. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, in Oregon, we have black bears, I think, more so than brown bears. But yeah, I mean, we do have mountain lions and stuff in Oregon as well. So I do know a little bit about that. And I have been to Montana. But yeah, I've never lived in Montana. So...

But if you did, I'm sure you would have all that right gear, especially because you're also an avid outdoors person. Sure, yeah. And just thinking about Montana as a whole, they don't have any big cities. It's not like Oregon where we have Portland or Eugene.

Bozeman is basically the biggest city in Montana. It is. And as we discussed, well, actually, the city as a whole in the general Bozeman area at this point has almost 120,000 people. And that's as big as it gets. So, yeah, it is. It is so wilderness heavy.

But here's the thing, guys. So when police actually arrived at the scene, they didn't find any evidence of a bear attack and wondered, based on the state of Dustin's body, if it really was a bear. To give you guys an idea of how rare it is to suffer a grizzly bear attack in Montana, on average, just one person a year is injured in the greater Yellowstone National Park area of Montana, which does cover the area that Dustin was camping in and far beyond it.

with the most recent attack being in July of 2024, when a 72-year-old man shot and killed a grizzly bear that came after him while he was picking berries there. And then before that, it was in September of 2023, when a grizzly bear mauled a woman. But that didn't even happen out in the wilderness. It actually happened inside her home. Yeah, I think I read it was either 2021 or 2022. I think it was 2021 was kind of the last time...

Exactly. So basically wondering if maybe this was a bear attack, the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office called in a bear expert with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

to assess the scene. And to their surprise, they didn't find any evidence that a bear had been at Dustin's campsite. I mean, they didn't find any scat, no hair, and no tracks. And it probably would have been pretty obvious. You know, a bear wouldn't have neatly walked into the tent. They would have torn it open. Yeah, absolutely. There would have been a lot more damage. I mean, you're talking about

over a thousand pound grizzly bear like bears shred things up yeah they shred things up they're gonna make a ruckus they're gonna knock shit over and just the fact that they didn't find any prints uh they didn't find any hair which you typically also would probably find left behind and they also didn't find any scat and for those of you who don't know that is bear shit and

And really the biggest reason that their minds are going here is because Dustin's friend had told them, I think that he might've been attacked by a bear, which to be fair, if his friend is coming upon the scene, that might be your first reaction

you know, first thought, because your thought is not going to be somebody came out here and murdered my friend. You're going to think, well, what's the most likely situation out here in the woods? Yeah, I mean, it makes so much sense. But then when an autopsy was conducted, it was determined that the killing of Dustin Gersom was not, in fact, a bear attack, but instead a vicious homicide committed by an unknown person.

In the autopsy, a medical examiner found that he had suffered "multiple chop wounds, including to his skull."

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Before that break, Heath explained that Dustin's case was deemed a homicide due to multiple, quote, chop wounds.

to his body that some reports also described as, quote, battered. They said that his body was battered. And I know that we have a ton of questions here, but as the autopsy has not been released and the investigation is still in its earlier stages, there hasn't been anything else released about what he endured, what the state of his tent was, how exactly his friend found him.

how he knew that the tent was Dustin's, etc. Just that he was found inside his tent in that spot about 2.5 miles up Moose Creek Road off Highway 191 on that Saturday morning. Remember, he was supposed to meet his friend on Friday, but according to his friend, he did not meet at their location and that is how he stumbled upon him on Saturday. This is what the friend said.

So police believe his murder occurred sometime before the evening hours of Thursday, October 10th and 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 12th. So we've got, you know, a two day window here. Which also is making things with the investigation even more difficult because they don't even know when this happened. There was nobody, as far as we know, to witness the attack, to hear anything about the attack.

But that's why they're really hoping for more people to come forward in case somebody was in the area and heard something of value. So here is a clip from the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office during their initial press conference just a few days after this murder occurred.

On Wednesday, October 16th, some of the things that they're going to talk about we did already discuss, but I think it's good to hear it from the mouths of the people that are investigating this. And there is also a little clip from Jillian, who is Dustin's sister. All right. Hello. Thank you all for attending. My name is Dan Springer. I'm the Galvin County Sheriff. With me today, I have our investigations captain, Nate Kammerman.

He heads our investigative division, which is made and supervises some of the finest, most hardworking detectives that I know. And what happened here is, and also today is Jillian Price. Jillian is the sister of our victim, Dustin Gersom. On October 12th, the sheriff's office received a report of a male found deceased in his wall tent approximately two and a half miles up Moose Creek.

The male has been identified as 35-year-old Dustin Gersom of the Belgrade-Boseman area. This is a homicide and we are working all hours of the day and night to find his killer. Jillian described Dustin as a caring, hardworking, and loving brother. He was brutally killed at his campsite and we need your help. I'm going to turn this over to Captain Kamerman so he can describe to you what it is that we need from you. Captain Kamerman? Good afternoon.

We put together several facts for you to hopefully help the community narrow down exactly what we're looking for, as well as jostle any memories out there of anyone that may be up there and encourage people to come forward with information. Dustin was last seen in the afternoon hours of Thursday, October 10, 2024. He was leaving to go camping up Moose Creek in his black 2013 Ford F-250 with a black topper and an aluminum silver ladder rack.

He was well prepared for a weekend of camping and had plans to meet with a friend on Friday afternoon, but he never made that meeting. He was located deceased in his tent shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning on Saturday morning. Autopsy has shown that he sustained multiple chop wounds, quote, which led to his death. We're following up on leads, but we have no arrest at this time.

We're asking the community members to help us in this way. What we need from you is anyone who is present in the area between the evening hours of Thursday, October 10, and the early morning hours of Saturday, October 12, to reach out to us. That's up Moose Creek. Anyone with trail or game cameras in the Moose Creek area, please reach forward, even if the footage seems irrelevant. Anyone with in-car cameras traveling in the Moose Creek area during this time frame, please reach out to us.

Anyone who saw the victim's truck, as a picture will be provided both on our Facebook site as well as I believe it's been provided to media, anyone that's seen that truck during the time frame mentioned, please come forward to us. And anyone who saw something out of place, out of the ordinary, in the area surrounding Moose Creek, think of the whole canyon. If you saw something weird in the canyon area or in town with this truck, please reach out to us. That time frame, again, is between the evening hours of Thursday, October 10th

and early morning hours of Saturday, October 12th. Thank you for everyone who has already reached out with information. We've been given multiple leads, and we are working to close those leads and find what direction they take us. My folks are working around the clock. And again, as the sheriff said, we need your help on this. Anything you can bring to us would be greatly appreciated and may make a huge difference on what we find here. Thank you.

We want you to better understand who Dustin was. And so to do that, Jillian Price, his sister, would like to say a few things. This weekend, we lost our brother, our son, our uncle, our best friends, and our dad in the most unimaginable way. Dustin was a great kid. He was born here in Bozeman, and he worked all over the Valley. He could have framed your house. He could have poured your foundation. He could have installed your countertops. He was a hardworking person.

skilled tradesman. He was a loving, helpful, and adorning father who in no way deserved this. I ask our community to please help us find out who did this. There is someone in our valley that is capable of truly heinous things. Please, if you are in Moose Creek at any time from Thursday to Saturday, please call and talk even if you think you didn't see anything.

So we do not have anyone in custody at this time. People have asked me if there's a threat to this community and the answer is we don't know. We don't have enough information to know at this time, but we do know that someone was out there who killed someone in a very heinous way. So if you're out in the woods, I need you to be paying attention. You need to remain vigilant. If you see anything suspicious, please just call us. We will take a look. No information is too small. If there's something, please call us. And at this time, we will take some questions.

I will take some questions. Do you have any idea what the weapon is then? We don't have an exact idea what the weapon is, but we do know that it was something hard enough to cause significant damage to the skull as well as some fleshy areas of the body. So we had contact with him Thursday afternoon, not we, but the family. We know that he was in contact with people on Thursday afternoon.

He drove up into the canyon. As most of you know, there's limited service up there to no service. And so his timeframe of missing was from that Thursday afternoon into Saturday morning about 10 a.m. when he was found deceased. So what time exactly he was killed, we don't have that yet.

I was wondering if you could describe the area, the campsite, what's around there? Yeah, so it's not an official campsite. It's kind of your standard Forest Service area where people make their own campsites, but then it becomes kind of an established one.

He had a wall tent, probably 8 by 10, 10 by 10, somewhere in that neighborhood. It was very well kept. He had lots of equipment up there with him. He had been planning to kind of spend a weekend with a friend up there and had set it all up prior to them getting there. And so it's

There's a lot of hunters up in that area. There are some outfitters. There are people that are just living up there or camping. So there is a lot of activity even though it's fairly remote. Information on who found him. So the friend that he was going to pick up was missing. Obviously he did not show up. So they went looking for him and the friend and so on who found him. Thank you all for being here. I'm sorry, was there another one? Okay. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you, Jillian. And, you know, the sheriff's office is dedicated to finding out what's going on here. Please reach out to us if you have anything. So thank you for your time. Now, because this wasn't a regulated campground with a camp host or a spot where you had to pay for your campsite, the police are grasping for any evidence that they can get, especially due to the remoteness of this area.

Two and a half miles away, or about 10 minutes right along Highway 191, there's a small spot called Moose Creek Flat Campground, right along the Gallatin River and Moose Creek that offers tent sites, public restrooms, firewood, and picnic tables with 13 spots, and it actually has really great reviews. Now, because it's regulated, it also is only open from May to October, and it's reservation only.

So we have to wonder if anyone was staying there and possibly saw anything or maybe had a good tip about a car driving by or something. Well, I have never been to this location, but based on the maps to get to and from the area that Dustin was camping, which is not the campground that Heath is talking about on this more, you know, remote small road off the highway on Moose Creek Road, whoever attacked him most likely would have needed to turn around and go back out the way they came.

I was really zooming in on the maps here, but Moose Creek Road does connect to other small roads like Forest Service Roads that go off into other parts of the forest. But to get away and out of the area, they would pretty much have to turn around and go back to Highway 191. Because all the other little connecting roads eventually dead into the woods and then it is just massed wilderness beyond it.

So if this was the case and this person was traveling down Highway 191, there may have been cars on the road that have dash cams. There might have been somebody traveling that day that could have seen something suspicious in the area. Yeah, I mean, that's why this is so important to share because that Highway 191 is a major highway. Like it goes from the very top of a part of Montana all the way down to the Mexican border in Arizona. So

So very many people would have been driving on this on that day right before the weekend and somebody could have seen something very valuable here. And I know a lot of people will be suspicious of the friend who came upon Dustin because we're all naturally curious here how exactly he found Dustin, who he is, but this is something that police are keeping very tight-lipped on and we can just trust that they're doing their due diligence to rule him out and

And also to put all these confusing, disturbing puzzle pieces together. Yeah, I mean, it's so hard because I would imagine that if Dustin's family knows this friend, that they will have something in their minds of, oh, yeah, he's capable of this or not at all. Him? No, never. But we're not in that circle and we're not privy to that information, which is absolutely fair.

So we don't want to put anything on him. I think everybody just does have a lot of questions because also it's just so strange knowing that he was out there by himself and

in this wilderness area and we know that he was killed in a way that has been described as heinous and brutal by the sheriff's department which just feels personal like there hasn't been any reports of equipment being stolen which I am going to talk about but it does seem like kind of the opposite with it being described that he had quote lots of equipment that was quote very well kept so

So this doesn't seem like some aggressive robbery, and it's hard to imagine that somebody would just stumble upon him, see his gear, and want to take it, and then just brutally murder him like that, and then leave. I don't know. This is so hard to think about that way because it does seem like such a personal attack. Well, we have to think about the fact that

How did this person get to that area? Were they camping somewhere else in this area? Did they know Dustin? Did they not know Dustin? Why didn't they steal his truck if they were, you know, whatever, gonna take off? And then what was the motive here? How did this...

unknown person find him, which is why much of the internet speculation does surround, you know, the friend who found him since he was someone who knew where Dustin was that weekend because they had those plans to camp together. And then we had talked about the friend saying to the police that he did not meet up with Dustin on Friday. Is that true? Again, not trying to question him whatsoever.

We have very little information, so that is natural. But this also could have absolutely been someone else entirely. It's just it's so hard to think of what and why without more information. Well, and I think that those details are probably going to come out in the following weeks and months of this investigation.

But right now, I think this is why this is such a call to action. Because there isn't enough information, we need your guys' help. We need you guys to share this episode. Yeah, and this is not a dangerous person-on-person crime area at all. And it's not like he was shot in a hunting accident by a stranger. This was a savage murder.

And even though this was not an accidental hunting accident, I just want to say for anybody wondering, in October in Montana, there are a number of animals that are hunted, including deer, elk, mountain goats, and waterfowl. Well, let's talk about what's believed to be the murder weapon here. So here's a statement that the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office released five days before this episode is being released on October 24th, 2024.

The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the homicide of Dustin Gersom. We appreciate the information that has been provided by the community and multiple leads are being investigated. In addition to the information previously provided, we're asking you to be on the lookout for the following items that are believed to have been removed from the scene of the crime.

Estwing Camp Axe, blue and silver, likely with a 26-inch handle. See photo. Remington 1187 12-gauge shotgun with a wood stock. Ruger Blackhawk 44 Magnum revolver, blued .458 barrel, wood grips.

So with that, I want to add that there are still no reports that his equipment was stolen. So we don't know why the sheriff's office believes that equipment was taken and

And if it does belong to Dustin, I will say it seems like it does belong to him. And due to the nature of the wounds, we wonder if that Estwing camp axe was the murder weapon and if it belonged to the killer or if it was found at the scene amongst Dustin's things. If his family knew that he had this axe and it wasn't at the scene. I am leaning towards it being Dustin's since the...

They know the exact style and size? Yeah, I can't imagine that they would have known that information if it was the killer's weapon. Like, how would they know that? Yeah, like, I know what equipment you have. I mean, I'm also married to you and we have the same equipment. But I feel like his family and friends would know what he would bring and maybe say, hey, where's his orange Yeti cooler? It's not here. Hey, where's this gun of his? It's not here. Right. So that would make sense. But they didn't exclusively say...

that these were his items and that they were stolen.

At least not yet. Yeah, and we can assume that's probably what happened. But we will also post photos of the axe and the Yeti that they posted so everybody can see. It's very good to take note of these items because if someone out there notices that someone they know suddenly comes in possession of these items, like an obvious orange Yeti, we have a white Yeti, but an orange one stands out more. You know, this person could wonder if they're connected. Yeah.

I'm also wondering if this attack happened at night, you know, did it happen while he was sleeping? Did it happen inside his tent or was he moved in there afterwards? I can't imagine him really hanging out in his tent during the day. Obviously people do that, but he does really enjoy the outdoors. Maybe he would go down to the river to fish. He maybe was hanging out by the campfire or by

in a hammock or whatever. So I do wonder if he was sleeping when this attack happened, because knowing he was a hunter, he certainly had a firearm on him, possibly that 44 Magnum from the sheriff's recent posting. So was he caught off guard and couldn't grab a hold of it? Was he sleeping when someone approached his tent in those pitch black woods?

Like, what is the scene here? I mean, I feel like it would be a lot easier to sneak up on somebody at night because at night, usually people are in their tents. They're either sleeping or whatever they're doing, who knows. But it would be a lot easier if it was dark for somebody to approach the tent

rather than it being during the day. Yeah, and that's what's hard about a tent as well, is there's one opening, one entrance, one exit. And not saying that that couldn't have happened. It could have been possible that Dustin was inside the tent during the day and somebody came upon the tent. We don't know. But with how brutal it was as well, I feel like...

somebody would have heard something if there was a struggle or if he was trying to get away. He was a strong guy. So I feel like he would have been able to more likely get away if he was awake, which makes me lean towards him possibly being asleep.

Yeah, I definitely think that he was probably caught off guard. Obviously, again, this is just speculation because we don't have the details, but I think it is important to talk about. Oh, I completely agree. Well, the police have received numerous tips over the past few weeks and have been diligently following up and trying to get this case solved.

They're also looking for any trail camera footage set up by hunters, as there's no privately owned land nearby, so nobody would have their own trail cams out there. Or possibly, as I mentioned earlier, anybody's car dash cam footage from that area that day.

Or over that weekend, I guess. The family did set up a GoFundMe, which we will put in the link of the description of this episode and also on our socials. So if you want to donate alongside us, it's going to a very great place. And here's what that GoFundMe page says, quote, "'Our dear friend, brother, son, uncle, and dad, Dustin Gersom, was taken from us suddenly, tragically, and far too young.'

Born and raised in the Gallatin Valley, Dustin was dearly loved by so many in this community. He was a loving, helpful, and adoring father, an avid outdoorsman, and a skilled tradesman who could have been the one who framed your house, poured your foundation, or installed your countertop. Please consider joining our community in helping to cover funeral expenses and to establish a fund for the care of his children, now and into the future.

Because, by the way, also along with Dustin's daughter, he had a stepson. Any amount of support, small or large, is greatly appreciated. But since they've reached almost $25,000, they posted this update, quote, "...thank you everyone for your kind words and your donations. The funeral expenses have been covered. Every bit of the donations will be set up in a trust that will directly benefit Dustin's children."

Please keep talking and sharing in hopes of bringing justice to this unimaginable tragedy. Yeah, hopefully we will get a lot more details soon. I'm super curious about the details and the plans for that weekend. We know that Dustin had this

giant tent that he would have had to put up. And although he absolutely could have decided to camp solo one night in one spot, you know, set up, tear down, and then set up again wherever he was going with his friend, it would have been a lot of work. I mean, this is like a hundred square foot tent, which is only slightly smaller than your average bedroom in the United States. So maybe the friend was supposed to camp with him in the area that he was found.

Maybe they were going to meet elsewhere and caravan back to the campsite so the friend knew exactly where it was.

There's so many questions. Knowing all too well how much Dustin loved the great outdoors, his sister Jillian and family gathered on October 25th, 2024 at the Headwater State Park to tell stories of how wonderful Dustin was and commemorate his life. It is so important to share Dustin's story and keep people talking about it while memories are fresh and while people still have access to relevant camera footage.

So if you have any information about the death of Dustin Gersom, please call the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office Detectives Division at 406-582-2121 or by email at detectives at gallatin.mt.gov. ♪♪♪

Thank you.

Thank you guys so much. Wait, that's not my line. Thank you everybody so much for listening to this episode of Going West. You almost messed up that line. Oh my gosh. I'm jumbled. This case is just rocking my brain. Yeah, it is absolutely devastating. And we just really hope that Dustin's family and friends can get some answers because this was a brutal attack for no reason. For no reason. Out in the woods, Dustin was just doing something that he loved.

and having a great time. And then all of a sudden, his life was cut short. Yes, make sure you guys share this all over social media. Post about the episode. Post photos of Dustin. Share the post that we are going to about the missing equipment, as well as just the information page about Dustin. Because somebody knows something, and we can all make a difference.

And by the way, if you guys are not following us on social media, we are on Instagram at Going West Podcast. We are also on Facebook. There's two places you can find us on there. We have a discussion group and then we just have a regular Going West true crime page. Yes, indeed. So check it out. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Don't be a stranger.

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