Montana man arrested for murder wrongly reported as bear attack

A camper in Montana who was initially reported to have died in a bear attack was murdered by a stranger he welcomed to share his campsite and offered a beer, officials said.

Police say Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, was arrested and charged with murder after his DNA was discovered on a beer can at the campsite where the victim's body was found.

Dustin Kjersem, 35, was allegedly killed on 10 October and found two days later by friends who thought he had been mauled by a bear.

The two men did not know each other before the chance encounter in the outdoors, and no motive for the attack has yet been identified, Gallatin County Sheriff said in a statement.

Sheriff Dan Springer said that Mr Kjersem had welcomed his killer to share his campsite, about 35 miles (56km) south of the city of Bozeman.

Prosecutors say that at some point, Mr Abbey hit Mr Kjersem with a piece of wood, then stabbed him with a screwdriver and attacked him with an axe.

The suspect allegedly returned to the crime scene later to remove items from the camp he thought might tie him to the murder, but overlooked the beer can.

He has confessed to the killing, telling police that he attacked his victim after discovering him at the site where he had planned to camp, officials say.

Police say Mr Abbey led them to several items he had stolen from the campsite, including an axe, guns and a cooler.

“This appears to be a heinous crime committed by an individual who had no regard for the life of Dustin Kjersem,” Sheriff Springer said.

"We have a bit of his story, but … we don't really know what the true story is," Springer said.

Mr Abbey was ordered to be held on $1.5m (£1.2m) bail during a court appearance on Friday.