A suspect has been taken into custody nearly three weeks after a Montana camper was found brutally killed in an attack that was initially reported as a bear attack, authorities said late Wednesday. The suspect was in custody on unrelated charges, authorities said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office said it had identified a suspect in the murder of Dustin Kjersem, who was found dead on October 12 in a tent about two-and-a-half miles up Moose Creek Road (east of Big Sky) after a friend who went looking for him called 911, telling the dispatcher that Kjersem appeared to have been attacked by a bear. After the 911 call, investigators from several agencies, including a bear expert from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, examined the site but did not find any signs of bear activity.

According to the sheriff's office, an autopsy later determined that the 35-year-old Kjersem had suffered "multiple chop wounds." Investigators initially said they did not know what weapon was used, but Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer later said "we do know it was something hard enough to cause significant damage to the skull as well as some flesh areas of the body. He was brutally killed at his campsite." The sheriff's office noted that several items, including a camp axe, a shotgun, a revolver, and a cooler had gone missing from the scene of the crime.