The Abduction of Kari Swenson

     Kari Swenson was an all- American girl. She was a beloved daughter and sister, got good grades, was a great friend and a star athlete. Everyone who knew her loved her. She was the exact kind of girl that would get kidnapped. The only thing I didn't read about her was how she lit up a room with her presence but I'm sure she did that too!  

     Kari was spending the summer working at the Lone Mountain Ranch on her break from college at the University of Montana where she was a microbiology major. She was actually an honor student. The ranch was, actually still is, located in Big Sky, Montana right on the edge of the Gallatin National Forest and 18 miles from the northern border of Yellowstone National Park.

     Kari wasn't just an athlete, she was an Olympian and a member of the U.S Biathlon team. She was an expert target shooter and cross-country skier. Being strong and healthy would be a trait that would be very useful to her later.

     Kari's desire to stay in shape while she was off for the summer is what led her to go for a quick run on the evening of July 15th, 1984. As Kari jogged along, taking in the scenic beauty of the Montanna mountains, suddenly two dirty scruffy looking men, an older one and a younger one, appeared in front of her emerging from the tree line. Unbelievably, Kari didn't run away, she stood her ground. This was unfortunate because she probably could have used her far superior athletic abilities to outrun them easily. She would later say she felt it was unlikely they were there to harm her. To her, I guess, they were just two more nature lovers out enjoying the evening. She was wrong.  

      Kari had no chance to assess the situation. The two lunged at her, grabbed her hands and tied her at the wrist to the younger one. Before she knew what was happening to her, she was dragged far into the woods. When they finally stopped walking, Kari found herself in what appeared to be a camp of some sorts. It had basic camping supplies and a fire pit. The two men chained Kari to a fallen tree. There would be no escape. She must have been beside herself with fear.  

     The older man explained to Kari their purpose for kidnapping her. Brace yourself because this is insane. He wanted Kari to be his son’s, the younger man's mountain bride. Yeah! He wanted her to marry his son. He asked Kari how old she was. She answered 23. He was disappointed. He was hoping for a younger girl for his son. Then he told her, since she was older than he thought, she could choose which man she wanted to be her husband.  Yes, seriously. The two men then proceeded to... ignore her. They went about their evening chores while Kari sat frightened to death chained to the tree. But as the evening got colder, they did give her a sleeping bag.

     When Kari failed to return, her friends at the lodge became worried. I'm sure their first thought or even their second thought was not that she had been kidnapped to become some man's mountain bride. They feared she had sprained an ankle or been attacked by a grizzly bear. Nothing close to the truth. Twenty members of a search party, including friends from the ranch, spent the night looking for Kari.

     Jim Schwalbe and Alan Goldstein were two of those friends. They filled up their backpacks with provisions including their sleeping bags and a gun and set off together to find their friend. They searched all night in the darkness with no success. But their luck changed at about 8 o'clock the next morning.

     They were searching the best they could, looking in every direction, but the forest was just too dense. They nearly passed right by the camp. The kidnappers motioned for Kari to stay quiet but she could not.  She cried out to her friends to stay away because her abductors had guns. But they did not hear her. Then the younger one turned to Kari to warn her to be quiet. That's when he did the unthinkable. He shot Kari.

     Jim ran towards the sound of the shots as he heard Kari cry out in pain. And so did the younger man. When Jim reached her he frantically ripped open her shirt to find the source of the bleeding as the younger one pleaded with his victim. "God, I can't believe I shot her". The older one responded, "shut up Dan, shut up, just shut up". While Jim tried to care for Kari, the older man kept jabbing him with his rifle, asking him if he was armed. Just then Alan came from the trees, gun drawn. He told the mountain men to drop their weapons, they were surrounded by 200 men. The older man in turn...shot Alan!

     Alan dropped to the ground. The bullet struck him in the head. This was not a survivable wound. He bravely tried to save his friend but was met with death. Jim panicked. He didn't know what to do. He chose to run away. Some called him a coward, but this action probably would save both his and Kari's lives.

     As Kari lay bleeding with Alan dead near her, the two men feverishly gathered all their supplies and put out the fire. They knew the outside world would be coming for them soon.  The older one stomped over to Kari and unceremoniously dumped her out of the sleeping bag she was using for warmth. The younger one released her chains. As they were leaving, they told Kari they would not be taken alive... and then they were gone. Just as quickly as they had emerged from the woods, they disappeared back into them leaving Kari alone to fend for herself.

     She couldn't walk. She was too weak to stand. She couldn't even scream. She crawled to the fire and desperately tried to restart it but didn't have the air left in her lungs to blow on it.  She saw Jim's sleeping bag tied to the backpack he had shed when he raced to her side.  She slowly made her way to it and crawled inside. All she could do was hope for someone to come for her. And pray it wasn't the mountain men.

     Jim raced back to base camp as fast as he could run. When he arrived, he announced breathlessly that he had found her. When everyone asked where... he couldn't remember. One tree looked like the next to him. He tried his best to lead the group back to her but in the end, it took four hours to locate her.

     When they found her, she was near death. The bullet had punctured her lung. It's a miracle she survived at all. The entire ordeal lasted 18 hours for her. She was airlifted to the nearest hospital in Bozeman. Then the crew returned for Alan.  

     Alan came to Big Sky from Flint, Michigan after falling in love with it while on vacation. He surprised family and friends when he sold his interest in a men's clothing store and took off for Big Sky permanently. When he wasn't working at the Lone Mountain Ranch, he spent every minute he could outside. He loved to ski. He left behind a wife, daughter, parents, two brothers and a life in the mountains of Montana he'd dreamed of.

     Now the focus of the hunt was the two mountain men. They were considered armed and dangerous and there were several unsuspecting campers in the forest. Right off they got a break. For some odd reason one of the men wrote their first and last names on a log in the camp where they held Kari. Nobody knew why they did that but it sure was a gift to investigators. They were Don and Dan Nichols. Kari would be able to confirm that the older man called the younger Dan. Searchers set out on horseback, four wheelers and foot looking for Don and Dan while investigators tried to learn as much as they could about them.

     Sheriff France, the one in charge of the investigation, tracked down Don's ex-wife and found out she was also Dan's mother. From her, they learned a lot about what made the two tick and what it would take to bring them in, hopefully alive. Don, a Korean War veteran, was a highly intelligent straight A student in high school who continued to be a voracious reader. Dan, on the other hand, was frequently absent from school because he always wanted to be in the mountains with his dad. Dan was just nineteen years old.

     Don loved the time he spent with his son in the woods. He would do anything to make him happy. When Dan was little, they would hike down to the store in town to buy supplies. Don always made sure his son got anything he wanted like ice cream, candy bars and pop. Perhaps Don saw Kari as an object he could give to his son the way he'd given him treats. Perhaps he was just trying to make Dan happy the way he did when he was a little boy.

     Sheriff France would also learn that Don and Dan had already built several shelters to survive the cold winters in the mountains of Montana. They were already adept at hunting animals for food and kept caches of supplies hidden throughout the woods.  They also had gardens they tended all over the west side of the mountain. It's almost as if they had been preparing for this, to someday be hunted instead of the hunter. But they didn't realize Sheriff France was prepared for this too.

     Sheriff Johnny France called himself a mountain man and a cowboy. He spent his youth riding bucking broncs and bulls. And, just like Kari was good at what she did, he was good at his sport too, winning many of the times he competed. He was known to never shy away from danger, once confronting an assailant armed with an axe. Yes, he was good at what he did. And he'd be the first to tell you that.

     Kari spent a week in the ICU trying to recover from her wound. In the beginning doctors weren't sure of how well she would do but she pulled through. Rehabilitation would take much longer, but Kari was strong. She would use her training to succeed at this, just as she had succeeded at everything else she did.

     Meanwhile, searchers combed through the rugged mountains looking behind every tree, inside every cave and down every hole. They even had the S.W.A.T. team and helicopters with infarred but there was no sign of the mountain men. Canada was relatively close. There was always the possibility they weren't even still in Montana. After a week, Sheriff France called the search off. It was costing the county thousands of dollars and going nowhere.  

    Time passed and slowly other news stories started to take the nation's attention away from Kari's story. The McDonalds Massacre resulted in 21 deaths, the 1984 summer Olympics took place, Baby Fae received a baboon heart transplant, Band Aid released "Do They Know It's Christmas", Regan was re-elected. The world had gone on. It was like everybody forgot about the mountain men who had managed to elude authorities for months.

     Well, there was one person who hadn't forgotten them. In November Johnny France got a call from a hunting guide that he had spoken to the two fugitives. They seemed weak. Sheriff France knew they could make a mistake soon. He continued the hunt. All he needed was a good day, a good tip or some good luck. Or how about all three. On December the 13th, a rancher spotted two men sitting by a campfire trying to warm themselves in the heavy snowfall. France had a good feeling. This had to be them.  

     Without calling for help or even notifying anybody of where he was going, he grabbed some supplies and his rifle and headed out into the snowy mountains certain that this was the day he would catch his prey. He headed in the direction the tipster told him. He saw the campfire and after four freezing and exhausting miles he found fresh boot prints in the snow.

     He followed the prints and the smell of the venison cooking on a campfire into a small clearing. There he spotted them. Unsuspecting but with guns close and at the ready. The day that France had dreamed of for five months was here. He slowly crept toward the two men with rifle in hand. This man was either very brave or very stupid. He was about to confront two men with guns alone. One who has proven he'll shoot you on purpose and one who's proven he may shoot you by accident.

     The story that France would go on to retell to anybody who wanted to hear the tale of his heroic action was that he calmly walked into their camp before they could see him, with his gun in hand and asked "Seen any coyotes lately". Don scrambled for his gun but it was too late, France already had him in his sights.  He didn't want to shoot either of them but he would if he had to and he made that clear to them.  

     France told them "If you come with me I'll make sure you get a warm bed, warm food and warm water." He stressed the word warm. Don let his gun go. He didn't fear for his own life as much as he did for his son's. The last thing he wanted to see was his son get shot. Don raised his hands and Dan followed suit relieved that the ordeal was over. Their clothes were frozen to their skin and Dan's hands had started to turn black. Their surrender had come just in time.

     As they walked down the mountain at gunpoint the Nichols made several comments, with sadness in their voices, about how beautiful they were. They knew they were going to jail for a long time, and it seemed that this was what they would miss the most, the mountains. They loved these mountains. But you know what? So did Alan Goldstein. And it was because of their actions that he would never see his beloved mountains again and now they would, most likely, not see them again either.    

     The Nichols were placed in separate cells. Probably for the first time in Dan's life he was without his father. They were both charged with homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and intimidation.

     Meanwhile, France's superiors were very displeased with his lone gun attitude. They felt going out there alone not only endangered himself but his fellow officers. They would have told him that too if they could have torn him away from the cameras. Every major news station and paper wanted to interview him and Hollywood wanted to make his life into a movie. It was as if Johnny France had now become the star of the story. France would go on to acquire a book deal, lawyer, personal assistant and visit the White House. He even received an award for trapper of the year from the Montana Trappers Association for "trapping" the Nicholses.

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     After a hearing to determine if Dan was competent to stand trial, it was determined that he was. Both Don and Dan pleaded not guilty to all charges. Probably a smart choice considering they were both eligible for the death penalty. A judge decided to try them separately. Dan’s trial would be first. 

     Just as you may have expected the media surrounding the trial was raucous. The coverage spanned from local stations all the way to the New York Times and the Washington Post. That summer, everybody in America wanted to peek into the windows of that courtroom. 

     Dan’s defense was based around the idea that he was under the hypnotic spell of his father and that none of the things that happened would have happened if it had not been for Don’s control over Dan. It was decided that Don would have to testify at Dan’s trial. Don agreed in spite of the fact that much of his testimony to protect his son would make him look guilty.

     His trial revealed that Kari was shot after she began to scream to warn Jim and Alan, followed by Don’s order to his son to “shut her up”.This made the shooting sound less like an accident and more like Don had ordered his son to do it. Maybe Dan had shot her out of fear of what his father would do if he didn’t keep her quiet. It was also revealed that kidnapping a woman for company had been a long time plan of Don’s. He even admitted to buying the padlock used to bind Kari to the tree years prior for the purpose of keeping a woman hostage. Things were looking bad for Don but how was his son doing?

     The entire point of the trial seemed to be to portray Dan as a witless accomplice unable to think for himself and under the spell of his fathers fantasies. To rebut that theory, Kari testified that Dan told her she was pretty and he wanted to keep her. Quote unquote. Ol’ Dan wasn’t looking so innocent after that came out.

     The jury must have somewhat agreed. The verdict in his case would be guilty of kidnapping and misdemeanor assault for shooting her. But he was found not guilty of the crime of murder. While he was awaiting sentence he was released on bond. He would later be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

     Don’s trial started later that same year in July. He was charged with murder, kidnapping and aggravated assault for aiming the gun at Jim Schwable. He faced 140 years if convicted. 

    Kari testified that the night before Alan was shot, Don told her that if anybody found them he would shoot them. That sounds like premeditation to me but I’m not a lawyer. She also testified that Don struck her in the face while trying to subdue her on the jogging path that day. He then threatened to hit her again if she didn’t cooperate.

     Jim Schwable testified that even though he didn’t see Alan get shot he also did not see him charge into the camp as had previously been reported either. According to Jim, Alan took shelter behind a tree as he called for Kari’s release and that he never actually aimed his gun at anybody. This did not keep Don from claiming the shooting was in self defense. The prosecution argued that Alan died because Don’s instinct to kill was greater than his own. The defence countered by pointing out that Don could have shot Jim and Kari but did not. He only shot the person with the gun. In the end, the jury did not care that Don didn’t shoot Jim and Kari, only that he shot Alan. Don showed no emotion to the verdict. He was found guilty and was sentenced to 85 years in prison. Seventy five was for the murder of Alan, 20 years for aiming the gun at Jim and ONLY 10 years for kidnapping Kari. It seems that the jury did not think it was his fault that Kari was shot.

     And that's how all the excitement ended.The newscrews returned home to publish their stories. Don and Dan started serving their sentences. Kari went on with her life. And Johnny France wrote a book. But the public wouldn’t soon forget them.

     Kari’s story was made into a TV movie called “The Abduction of Kari Swenson”. Interestingly, it was directed by Stephen Gyllenhall, father to Jake and Maggie Gyllenhall. It starred Tracy Pollan as Kari but Kari herself did all the skiing for the movie. You can watch the full movie on Youtube.

     Johnny France, the man, the myth the legendary sheriff went on to lose his re-election bid for sheriff of Madison County, Montana. It seems his heroics may have impressed everyone but his constituents. The book he wrote is called “Incident in Big Sky: The True Story of Sheriff Johnny France and the Capture of the Mountain Men”. Maybe it should have been called Kari got shot, Alan got killed and I got a book deal. Just kidding, he was a hero, I just don’t think that should overshadow the trauma Kari, Alan and their loved ones went through.

     Dan served seven years of his sentence. When released he went to college. I don’t know if he graduated college but in 2011 he was arrested for illegal distribution of marijuana. He claimed, again, that he was not guilty and decided to not go to court, becoming a fugitive for two months before surrendering to authorities. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. 

     Don remained in prison where he was the prison gardener until he received parole in 2017. There’s no word on whether he returned to the woods he loved so much. He died in 2023.

     Kari went on to recover from her physical injuries at least enough to compete in the European Cup competition in Norway in 1986. She won 4th place. Not too shabby. After retirement from competition she went on to college. She works as a veterinarian in Montana. She occasionally appears on podcasts to discuss her ordeal. I hope she has found peace.

So what do you think?

Do you think Don intended for his son to shoot Kari to keep her quiet?

Do you think Dan should have taken more responsibility for his choices?

Should Dan have been found guilty of murder even if he didn’t pull the trigger?

Let me know in the comments.