Tyler Allen Turney, accused of killing two people and wounding two others near Absarokee on Monday, December 8, 2025, pleaded not guilty to all charges on Thursday in Stillwater County District Court in Columbus.
Turney, 23 years old, appeared in court via video call from the Yellowstone County Detention Facility, where he has been held since his arrest Monday morning while fleeing the scene.
He appeared in a wheelchair, showing injuries he apparently sustained when his pickup truck rolled off the road and into the river following the shooting.
Judge Matthew Wald ordered Turney be held without bail.
He is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide.
Turney is accused of shooting and killing his estranged girlfriend, Nila Dawson, and her mother, Justine Dawson, at the home on Stillwater River Road, between Absarokee and Nye.
Prosecutors said he also shot and wounded Nila Dawson's father, Greg Dawson, and her friend, Matthew Cale Osgood.
Prosecutors stated in charging documents that Turney drove from Texas to Montana in an attempt to reconcile with Nila Dawson, a student at Rocky Mountain College.
Instead, prosecutors allege, he raped Nila Dawson at her campus apartment and tracked her to her parents' home, where he shot and killed both mother and daughter.
Turney shot Greg Dawson in the back when he investigated the early morning commotion in the garage, then shot Osgood as he approached the residence to help, according to charging documents.
The Absarokee community is in mourning. Nila Dawson graduated from Absarokee High School in 2022 and was involved in athletics, FFA, and other activities.
The district described her on social media as "an incredibly kind, vibrant person who was taken from her friends, family, and community far too soon."
Justine Dawson was a longtime school board member who will be remembered as being "giving, fair, and incredibly supportive of all the students and staff in our district," district staff wrote.
Information from the court documents:
The shooting was first reported at about 3:40 a.m. through a 911 call to the Stillwater County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center by a female caller stating shots had been fired at 1015 Stillwater Road.
The caller, later identified as Cheyenne Turner, a friend of Nila Dawson, told the dispatcher that she believed her friend was deceased.
A second 911 call was made at the same time by Greg Dawson, who advised that his daughter and wife had both been shot and were in the garage. He was unsure of their injuries or where the assailant had gone. The call then disconnected.
After failed attempts by dispatch to establish contact with the second caller, Greg Dawson called a second time about three minutes later and reported that Osgood, a friend of his daughter, had been shot.
Osgood then spoke with dispatch and was able to relay that the suspect had left the area in a white GMC pickup and that he knew the suspect's first name was Ty.
When deputies arrived at the home, they spoke briefly with Greg Dawson before he was transported by ambulance to meet a waiting Life Flight helicopter. He told deputies that he was asleep when he heard arguing in the garage and was shot when he went out to check on the commotion.
A detective at the scene spoke with Turner, who explained that Nila Dawson and Ty Turney were in an on-and-off relationship.
She said Turney had recently travelled to Billings from Texas to meet Dawson at Rocky Mountain College, where she attended classes and lived in an apartment.
Turney made the trip in an effort to try and reconcile their relationship, the woman reported. But Nila Dawson told her friend that he had raped her on Dec. 6 in her apartment, but she refused to report the crime to law enforcement.
Turner further explained that she met Nila Dawson and their friend Osgood on Sunday. As the three were driving around Columbus, Turney and Dawson were exchanging text messages and calls that Turner said concerned the group "because of the aggressive manner in which Turney was communicating."
The trio decided to drive to Nila Dawson's parents' home near Nye.
When they arrived, they saw Turney's truck parked in front of the garage. Turner said she parked in the driveway and they all got out of the vehicle.
As Osgood got out, he grabbed a pistol from Nila Dawson's purse, both Turner and Osgood told investigators.
Turner said she then saw Turney coming down a flight of stairs with a handgun and he "began firing at them." Turner took cover behind a vehicle and called 911, while Osgood was struck in the arm by the gunfire.
Osgood told investigators he dropped the handgun while running to the side of the house and continued running to a neighbor's residence when he heard additional gunfire. He also saw Turney's truck leaving the residence.
Nila Dawson was pronounced dead at the scene. Justine Dawson's body was found laying across her daughter's body where she had suffered a point-blank gunshot to her head. She died later that morning at a Billings hospital.
Greg Dawson had been shot in the back and is being treated in intensive care at a Billings hospital.
Osgood was treated for a gunshot wound to his arm at a Billings hospital.
