kaarma Archives

Marcus Kaarma and a child he didn’t shoot

I can’t read the Missoulian comments section anymore, because I installed CommentBlocker. Its combination of comment-blocking power and arbitrary bugs prevents me from reading comments at the Missoulian even when I override it. So finally I have escaped the funhouse. Yesterday, the prosecution in Marcus Kaarma’s murder case argued that it was more a hall of mirrors. Objecting to Kaarma’s attorneys’ motion to move the trial because it had become “sensationalized” in local media, Deputy County Attorney Jennifer complained that much of defense’s evidence consisted of Missoulian.com comments. For example:

As an example, attached to one Missoulian.com article about the case a single user commented 31 times and another user posted 34 times, Clark retorted.

I wish that sentence were not a train wreck, because it confirms what we suspected all along.

Markus Kaarma appears on court video

A Missoula man who baited his open garage with his wife’s purse and told his hairstylist that he was waiting up nights to “shoot some [fudging] kid” has been charged with deliberate homicide in the death of Diren Dede, 17. Dede was an exchange student at Big Sky High School. According to Kaarma’s wife, Janelle Pflager, the couple set up motion detectors and a surveillance camera in their garage in the hopes of catching burglars who had previously stolen phones and credit cards. They left the garage door open and left Pflager’s purse visible inside “so they would take it.” When the motion sensors went off late Sunday night, Kaarma fired four times with a shotgun into the darkened garage, in what police called a “sweep pattern.” He aimed high so as not to hit his car.

Dan Brooks writes essays, fiction, and commentary from Montana and abroad.

Tag Archives: kaarma

Kaarma case legally documents inanity of Missoulian comments

MSO man shoots exchange student in garage