Nila Lynn Dawson, a 20-year-old White woman, was a junior at Rocky Mountain College studying Biology and Psychology with hopes of becoming a Physician Assistant. A 2022 graduate of Absarokee High School, she had been active in athletics and the Future Farmers of America. Friends and community members remembered Nila as an incredibly kind and vibrant person who was a friend to many.
In the early morning hours of December 8, 2025, a violent ambush occurred at the Dawson family home on Stillwater River Road, located between Absarokee and Nye in Stillwater County, Montana. Nila’s estranged boyfriend, Tyler Allen Turney, had driven from Texas to Montana in what prosecutors described as an attempt to reconcile their on-and-off relationship. According to charging documents, Turney had allegedly attacked Nila at her college apartment two days earlier before tracking her to her parents’ home. He was waiting there when Nila arrived with friends.
In the garage, Turney shot and killed Nila and her 60-year-old mother, Justine Lynn Dawson. Authorities confirmed both women died from gunshot wounds.
The attack also left two men wounded. When Nila’s father, Gregory B. Dawson, went to investigate the commotion in the garage, he was shot in the back. A friend of Nila’s, Matthew Cale Osgood, was shot in the arm as he approached the house to help. Both men were hospitalized and survived their injuries. The loss of Nila and her mother devastated the small community. Justine was a longtime school board member and had also worked as a nurse at a local clinic. She was remembered as a giving, fair, and compassionate person who was fiercely supportive of her daughter and the students in her district.
Stillwater County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the home at about 3:37 a.m. after receiving 911 calls reporting an assault in progress. By the time they arrived, Turney had fled in a pickup truck. He was found and arrested about two hours later after crashing his vehicle into the Stillwater River not far from the residence.
Tyler Allen Turney, who was 23 at the time of the attack, was charged with two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide. After initially pleading not guilty, Turney later changed his plea. In Stillwater County District Court, he pleaded guilty to all four charges, admitting to two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide. The case is considered solved.
