Trying To Get Away With Murder By Staging It As A Bear Attack Is A Bad Idea

A brutal and grisly murder in Big Sky, Montana, last month was initially reported as a grizzly attack. A man was found dead at his camping site, seemingly mauled to death. The gruesome scene a pair of witnesses stumbled upon led them to report it as a bear attack. 

But it wasn’t. 

Daren Christopher Abbey confessed earlier this month to killing the camper with a screwdriver and ax. Dustin Kjersem had been camping in Custer Gallatin National Forest in mid-October when his deceased body was found in his tent.

Given the multiple bloody wounds to his body, the friends that discovered him thought it was the work of a grizzly bear, though investigators later discovered the cause was from “multiple chop wounds” inflicted by a screwdriver and ax.

In Tennessee, 45-year-old Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was arrested Nov. 10 for murder after allegedly killing a man and stealing his identity, while staging the death as a bear attack. 

Hamlett called 911 pretending to be a distressed hiker named Brandon Andrade who he claimed had been attacked by a bear and fallen from a cliff in the Tennessee mountains, according to a report from the U.S. Marshals Service.

Andrade was later determined to have died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

The phenomenon of blaming one of nature’s apex predators for homicidal intent isn’t a new excuse, but it’s an alleged motive forensics and wildlife experts say they have little problem disproving. 

Despite a handful of recent grizzly-bear inspired murders and crimes in other states, Wyoming law enforcement officials say they aren’t fooled by man’s attempt to frame innocent bruins.

Failed Grizzly Impersonations

Taking the grizzly-inspired crimes one step further, four Los Angeles residents were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of insurance fraud and conspiracy in excess of $141,000 for allegedly dressing in a bear suit and damaging luxury vehicles to collect the insurance money, according to a statement from the California Department of Insurance.

After watching surveillance video of the alleged bear assaults on the vehicles the culprits had turned into their insurance companies, a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife declared it to clearly be a human in a bear suit.

Hard To Fake

The teeth and claw marks of a bear are distinct and hard to mimic, said Dave Wolfskill, a retired Laramie and Crook County Sheriff Deputy and rancher living in the Hulett area. He’s personally seen the puncture scars on the face of a man in his area who survived a grizzly bear attack and said they are nothing like chopping wounds.

“The punctures from teeth and claw marks are nothing similar to being hit with an ax,” he said.

Short of a hay hook used on square bales, he can’t think of any implement that might replicate a bear attack, though he said the teeth would be incredibly difficult to mimic.

Mike Frolander, long-time EMT and Crook County’s coroner who has held the position for over three decades, agreed. He’s never personally responded to bear attacks or any staged murder scene but said it would be easily discernible based on DNA evidence alone.

“Anytime there is contact between two things there is a transfer of evidence,” Frolander said. “Sometimes it is obviously hard to see. I would like to think there would have to be evidence of an animal there, no different than a human.”

DNA testing would likely show it, Frolander said.

Hard To Pull Off

Lt. Russ Ruschill of the Jackson Police Department also said that attempting to stage a grizzly attack would be “statistically difficult to pull off” in the age of DNA and advanced homicide investigation tools.

He’s never heard of anyone attempting to do so and noted that grizzlies aren’t exactly walking through downtown Jackson, though he did once see famed and recently deceased grizzly 399 and her four cubs walking through the police parking lot one night.

He doesn’t recall any staged crime scenes in his experience, though staged versions of events are commonplace when it comes to questioning suspected criminals.

“A lot of people fabricate, minimize, obfuscate and embellish their version of events to favor themselves,” he said. “That happens in almost every criminal investigation.”

Grizzlies Not On The List

When it comes to staged crime scenes in general, the most common is burglaries and home invasions, according to one analysis that looked at 141 staged crime scenes throughout the U.S. Canada, U.K and Australia.

Burglaries and home invasions accounted for 43% of the staged crime scenes, followed by suicides at 13%, car accidents at 12% and accidental deaths at 11%, according to figures published by Claire Ferguson in her 2011 thesis for Bond University in Australia, “The Defects of the Situation: A Typology of Staged Crime Scenes."

Perhaps not surprisingly, grizzly bears did not make Ferguson’s list of staged crime scenes.

In fact, a person’s chance of being attacked by a bear is approximately 1 in 2.1 million, according to the National Park Service. 

Bigger Story

Over in Big Horn County where one might expect to see a bear framed, no such instances have occurred, according to Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn.

Though many people have attempted to forensically manipulate crime scenes throughout his career, he’s never had a grizzly impersonation. Typically, it’s arson or burning vehicles or other similar crime scenes that are easily determined through crime scene investigations.

In his mind, the bigger story apart from staged grizzly attacks is cash-strapped departments like his who often have to shell out thousands to third-party forensic labs due to staff shortages and backlogs at the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation’s crime lab.

To that end, his department just shelled out nearly $10,000, he said, to verify a paint chip in a recent ATM burglary case due to backlog at the lab in light of a pending court date.

“It’s natural for criminals to try to disguise a crime, and it’s really important that we have the proper tools to be able to investigate crime,” he said, “and even more important that we support forensic efforts to bring these people to justice and bring closure for the families of the victims.”

As far as impersonating grizzly attacks, Blackburn said he feels such attempts would be easily foiled based on evidence.

“I got to think the mechanisms of injuries would be so blessed obvious,” he said.

Contact Jen Kocher at jen@cowboystatedaily.com

Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.