I need some inside information, who'd Garry Seaman shoot?

I'm tired of waiting to hear, it's been since Saturday.

Suspect arrested after fatal shooting at Libby campground

Garry Douglas Seaman

One man is dead and a suspect is in custody following a shooting at a campground near Libby on Saturday afternoon.

The suspect, Garry Douglas Seaman, 63, was arrested Sunday morning near his home in Flathead County following a multi-agency manhunt, according to information from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. He was being held in the Flathead County Detention Center.

Deputies were called Saturday at about 2:45 p.m., to a report of a shooting in the Alexander Creek Campground north of Libby. Upon arrival, they found the deceased man and a woman with multiple gunshot wounds. The woman was transported by Life Flight helicopter to the hospital.

Deputies secured an arrest warrant for Seaman after speaking with the victim and other witnesses.

The investigation is ongoing.

Notifications were made by Lincoln County detectives.

Your trusted Law Firm in Kalispell for over 30 years...

Garry Seaman, P.C. is a dedicated and experienced trial lawyer in the State of Montana. He practices legal services from his law firm in Kalispell, Montana with expertise in the areas of Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Personal Injury, and Property Damage. Attorney Garry Seaman is an active member of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association. He is licensed in State and Federal Court, as well as the Montana Supreme Court. He has been a practicing trial lawyer in the State of Montana for over thirty years.

I’m pretty sure he shot “the other guy”.

Jeff,
This is the first I heard of this. I know Gary, he did some work for me... wow. He is a serious hunter and outdoorsman... wtf?

He wounded a woman and killed a man with her, so it wasn't random. Wife, girlfriend, or ex and her new catch would probably be a good bet. Woman can make men crazy. But just speculation on my part

They haven’t said yet. Speculation is rife.

That campground is 2 spots on the Kootenai river below the damn.... I am planning on going there in the next week.

Gary is a very smart guy and a good lawyer, this blows my mind.

Self defense is sorta ruled out being that he hauled azz outta there and they had to go looking for him.

Kinda crazy, still nothing in the news.
I was hoping for a little something being he was suppose to go before a judge yesterday.

Looks like they had him in the bullet proof suit for his mugshot.
He didn't make bail yesterday, he's still on the jail roster which is really odd considering the families resources.

Hard to tell what took place, tiny little camp spot there.
They could have had boats on the river but most put in and stay on the east shore by Dunn Creek or right at the dam.

I guess time will tell as the facts are revealed.

Alcohol, love or both might play in there.

99.9% of this kind of chit involves drugs, alcohol, puzzy, or a mix. I doubt he was a drug addict given his long term profession, so my money is on a vagina obsession with some alcohol mixed in.

I live in the Flathead valley and never heard of him.

I've known his mother Patty for many years, Garry, not so much.

Doubt anyone that's been around NW Montana for long don't know her.

If Garry drinks anywhere near the way his mother does, alcohol would surely be involved.

That women could drink more than most any man in her day.
Kept her butt parked on a barstool behind a keno machine at Nickel Charlie's every evening slamming vodka and OJ for years.

His lawoffice has been just off main by the courthouse for about 25 years, big ol' sign out by the road.

That Garry?

Hell...we were in the Navy together for many years.


Best Senior Chief I ever had.

Columbia Falls near the banks of the Flathead River in the early 1890s

Then they literally laid the groundwork for the arrival of the railroad and cleared the way for everybody who followed.

In 1891, Robert and Mary Saurey, the Seaman siblings’ great-great grandparents, made the five-day wagon trip from Hamilton to Columbia Falls, described in family historical documents as a fledgling “tent city.” Saurey worked on a logging crew that hauled timbers to build a trestle in Bad Rock Canyon for the new Great Northern Railway line through Northwest Montana.

Saurey then became a foreman for logging crews in the Whitefish and Half Moon areas, clearing out extensive swaths of forest to open the area up to settlement while providing timber for railroad ties and development.

That photo of the Saureys from 1891 is a window into the broader lore of the region and the specific history of an influential multigenerational family that still calls the Flathead Valley home.

The three Seaman siblings are the children of Michael and Mary Seaman. Mary recently retired after 30 years in the U.S. National Guard, while Michael is the general manager of Patty Seaman Homes, which was started by his parents, Patty and Vernon. Michael says the business has sold about 6,000 mobile homes over the decades. His brother Garry is a longtime local attorney who runs a law firm in Kalispell......LINK

It'd be some kinda bad ju-ju to have a beef pending in circuit court, and to read the morning paper and see your lawyer's mug shot

He made bail, his mugshot just hit the counties recent release list.

Local papers gotta pickup something...

So the Libby scuttlebutt is it was Seaman’s ex and significant other at the site, which pretty much paints the picture imo. It’d be about a two hour drive from kalispell to drive there, so that’s interesting.

Seems Lincoln County is usually good for one homicide a year. Usually mef mouf v. mef mouf; drug dealer v drug dealer; or toofless love triangle gone… worse. Add in garden variety jealousy/hothead/domestic, and guess we’re about like anywhere else.

Well, on the Brite side this lets Libby step up their quality of murderers.

Holy smokes,
I suspected, but honestly, that mug shot had me thinking, that can't be MY Garry Seaman. He and Mike were pretty much classmates and cronies although I haven't seen Garry in ten years. Honestly don't recognize the guy in that mug shot. Holy frack!

Substance abuse is actually pretty common in lawyer, doctors, etc from the stress of the job.




I once heard her referred to as a “whiskey drinkin’ heifer”



Pretty accurate?

Sumtins holding up a news story coming out.

Seems more to it than waiting to notify the deceased's next of kin, maybe not..

I'm just impatient and curious as hell about who he shot.

I sent the first post with the picture to my sister in law who grew up in Kalispell and she has never hear of that guy or seen him. I think she is in her 60's

Ohhhh, I'd suppose in a way.

I distinctly recall vodka to be her most common beverage of choice but that can change.

By no means could you call her a heifer in any sense.

She's just a tiny dash of a women, little old thing.
Always dressed to the nines and drippin' with jewelry.

She looked out of place sitting in Nickel Charlie's playing keno.

She's a notorious tightwad, she played Penny Keno so the drinks were free in the casino so long as she kept pounding on a machine. Her office wasn't far from the Nickel Charlie's bar.

That would be in the years after she divorced Vern.

She's a shrewd but savvy business women, her success in the Flathead didn't happen by chance.

You'd never want to cross her...can't say I ever saw her smile, sort of a built in permanent scowl. Serious all the time.

My error, he didn’t make bail, he was released because he was extradited to Lincoln County......

Libby scuttlebutt was spot on...

Alleged campground killer charged with deliberate homicide

May 25, 2022 12:00 AM
The man arrested for allegedly killing one and wounding another in a campground shooting near Libby over the weekend made his first appearance Tuesday in Lincoln County Justice Court on deliberate and attempted deliberate homicide charges.

Garry Douglas Seaman, 63, of Kalispell is being held without bond in the Lincoln County Detention Center following his extradition from Flathead County. He was arrested May 24 — a day after the slaying — near his home in the Flathead Valley following a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

Local authorities received word of a shooting at the Alexander Creek Campground near the Libby Dam at about 2:45 p.m. on May 23. Arriving deputies found a man dead and a woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Accordingly to newly filed court documents, the woman identified Seaman as the shooter while deputies provided emergency treatment. She offered up a description of his vehicle and told them it had “Kalispell plates.”

Prosecutors said in an affidavit that the woman previously had a romantic relationship with Seaman. The one-time couple was “going through a contentious separation, and recent instances of violence and requests for civil standby assistance have been documented by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office,” wrote Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang in an affidavit.

Court documents identified James Preston Freeman as the man Seaman allegedly killed. Freeman died of apparent gunshot wounds to the torso.

Detective David Hall of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation into the shooting, court documents said.

Deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide are punishable by the death penalty, life imprisonment or at least 10 years in state prison.

I doubt he will hang, we never hang anyone anymore

He's got some sweet properties, 3500sf pad on Foys Lake, the house adjacent to it, hillside view acreage across from it.

And 23 others, a good bit of commercial over in Great Falls.

His ex GF will sue and get a good chunk of what he has left when this settles out.
She has his baby and had recently filed for a restraining order according to the write up in the Beacon.

Now she's got a few bullet holes in her too.

Hope he figures it was worthwhile, at 63 he's likely to never experience another day as a free man.

August 6, 2022 
Bail will remain at $25 million for a Kalispell attorney accused of shooting two people — one his former, long-time domestic partner — at a campground near Libby Dam in May.

Garry Douglas Seaman, 63, sought a bail hearing to reduce the $25 million bond set by Lincoln County District Judge Matt Cuffe. He is accused of deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide in the shootings of James Preston Freeman and Seaman’s former partner at the Alexander Creek Campground on May 23. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in June.

Under state law, if Seaman sought to use real estate to cover the bond, he would need to put up about $50 million worth of property to be released.

Missoula County District Judge Jason Marks, who took over the case from Cuffe, made his decision rapidly Friday morning in the Lincoln County Courthouse after the alleged surviving victim testified about her fear of Seaman and her belief that he would seek to “finish the job" if freed.

Marks said he believed $25 million is appropriate.

“If the defendant is able to post bail, the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office should be notified five days prior to his release,” Marks said.

The one-time couple was “going through a contentious separation, and recent instances of violence and requests for civil standby assistance have been documented by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office,” wrote Deputy County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang in an affidavit charging the shootings.

THE VICTIM'S emotional and charged testimony left the courtroom in silence after County Attorney Marcia Boris questioned the woman about her past relationship with Seaman and her feelings since the alleged shooting.

“I’m terrified,” the woman said. “I never thought it would go this far. If he ever gets out, I have no doubt he’d finish the job.”

She said her doctors told her she shouldn’t have survived the attack.

“I was shot in the left hand, twice in the stomach, in the buttocks, my right breast. I have to wear a colostomy bag because of what the shrapnel did to my intestines,” she said.

The woman, who was able to walk into the courtroom with some assistance from family, explained that she went to work in Seaman’s law firm on May 19, 1994. She said they began a romantic relationship 15 years ago and one child was born of the union.

“We broke up in 2020, but I went back to him briefly before things went downhill again,” she said. “It (the relationship) ended in April 2022. One night he said, ‘Get the (expletive) out of my house and you’re fired.’”

She also talked about the day of the shooting and her relationship with Freeman.

“James and I were old friends from 30 years ago and we had texted and talked,” she said.

After their relationship evolved, they decided to go camping in Lincoln County.

“We didn’t tell anyone where we were going, but I told my son we were going camping. It was the first weekend Garry would take him (their son),” she said.

The woman said the reservation they had made for a campsite was cancelled because of a “glitch in the system.”

“We stopped at a restaurant in Libby and a waitress told us another place we could go,” she said.

The woman said she and Freeman spent time shooting guns at a local firing range before returning to the campsite.

“James and I were sitting at a picnic table when Garry drove in. I believe my guns were in the glove box of my vehicle," she recalled.

“He said, ‘It’s you, it’s you,’ and then started shooting. He shot James first, then me,” she said.

The woman alleged, in a petition for a protection order filed in Flathead County, that Seaman had followed her to homes she was interested in renting and was using electronic devices to track her location because she received notifications on her phone, according to the affidavit filed by Zwang.

According to court documents, the woman identified Seaman as the shooter while deputies provided emergency treatment. She gave them a description of his vehicle and told them it had “Kalispell plates.”

He was arrested near his home in the Flathead Valley following a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

In addition to her testimony about the alleged shooting, the woman explained why she didn’t want the bail reduced.

“He’s lived a life of luxury,” she said. “He has a home on Flathead Lake with his brother, two other homes in Kalispell, several mobile home lots in Great Falls and Kalispell.

“He also has hundreds of guns, he has guns all over the house, at work, in his vehicle, he has an airplane, he has several sports cars and other vehicle, he collects gold bullion and I am just like all of those things - I am a possession to him and that’s why he shot me,” she said.

NICK BROOKE, an attorney with the Missoula firm of Smith and Stephens, who is part of the team representing Seaman, said if his client were able to post bail, he’d likely live in Missoula and wear a GPS monitoring device.

Brooke also argued that a receivership has been appointed for Seaman and his property. It usually means his ability to control, manage or operate the property has been displaced.

Seaman's alleged victim felt that wasn’t enough to keep him from gaining his freedom and harming her.

“Garry will save and protect his assets from losing it in potential litigation,” she said. “I wouldn’t feel any safer if he were in Missoula and I don’t trust an ankle bracelet. I believe he could cut it off and find me and my family before anyone could get there.”

She also said he had “bug-out” bags prepared in case he ever had to flee the area. Such bags, typically carried by military personnel, may contain an emergency kit, cash and other items used to survive for short period of time while trying to elude potential captors.

She also said Seaman attempted to use their son as an alibi on the day of the alleged shooting.

“He tried to drop off my son at my parents, but they weren’t home. He took him back home and told my son he was going to Missoula to his older son because he was having trouble in school.

“When (my son) called (his son) in Missoula, the older sibling said he hadn’t talked to dad in weeks,” she said.

Seaman’s next court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9.

Deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide are punishable by the death penalty, life imprisonment or at least 10 years in the Montana State Prison.

Kootenai campground killer sentenced to state prison

October 5, 2023

A Kalispell attorney convicted of deliberate homicide and attempted homicide in relation to the shotgun shootings of two people, one fatal, last year at a campground near Libby Dam was sentenced Thursday.

Garry Douglas Seaman, 64, appeared in Lincoln County District Court and received two 60-year concurrent sentences for each count from Missoula County District Judge Jason Marks. Seaman must serve 18 years before he is eligible for parole.

Seaman pleaded guilty to shooting and killing James Preston Freeman and his former, long-time domestic partner at the Alexander Creek Campground on May 21, 2022.

His sentence followed a plea deal agreed to by Deputy County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang and Seaman's attorney, Nick K. Brooke.

According to the plea deal, both sides agreed to Seaman receiving a 60-year sentence on each count to the Montana State Prison. It stipulated that Seaman must serve 18 years, concurrently, on each count before being eligible for parole. Seaman received credit for the time he has served in the Lincoln County Detention Center. Seaman must also pay restitution of nearly $5,800.

Seaman, who had been held on $25 million bail since an August 2022 hearing, will remain in the county jail without bail until he is moved to the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

The one-time couple was “going through a contentious separation, and recent instances of violence and requests for civil standby assistance have been documented by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office,” wrote Zwang in an affidavit charging the shootings.

The surviving victim said she and Freeman had been old friends from 30 years. “We had texted and talked,” she said.

After their relationship evolved, they decided to go camping in Lincoln County.

“We didn’t tell anyone where we were going, but I told my son we were going camping. It was the first weekend Garry would take him (their son),” she said.

The woman said the reservation they had made for a campsite was cancelled because of a “glitch in the system.”

“We stopped at a restaurant in Libby and a waitress told us another place we could go,” she said.

The woman said she and Freeman spent time shooting guns at a local firing range before returning to the campsite.

“James and I were sitting at a picnic table when Garry drove in. I believe my guns were in the glove box of my vehicle.

“He said, ‘It’s you, it’s you,’ and then started shooting. He shot James first, then me,” she said.

She also said Seaman shot Freeman five times and her five to seven times.

She said a fisherman drove up and, “I told him to go toward Libby and he’d get service to call for help.” She said it was a little more than an hour before first responders showed up.

She was flown to Logan Health in Kalispell for medical care.

“I was in the ICU for about two weeks, had three stomach surgeries for all the shrapnel and debris,” the woman said.

She described medical bills in excess of $360,000 at the time and would increase with further treatment.

The woman alleged in a petition for a protection order filed in Flathead County that Seaman had followed her to homes she was interested in renting and was using electronic devices to track her location because she received notifications on her phone, according to the affidavit filed by Lincoln County Deputy Attorney Jeffrey Zwang. The woman said the petition was denied when the judge determined the information she provided did not support the order of protection.

According to court documents, the woman identified Seaman as the shooter while deputies provided emergency treatment to her. She gave them a description of his vehicle and told them it had “Kalispell plates.”

He was arrested near his home in the Flathead Valley following a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

Seaman’s former partner’s testimony in the 2022 bail hearing was emotional and she believed if he ever got out of prison, “I have no doubt he’d finish the job.”

The female victim also testified to her extensive injuries from the shooting.

“I was shot in the left hand, twice in the stomach, in the buttocks, my right breast. I have to wear a colostomy bag because of what the shrapnel did to my intestines,” she said at the August 2022 bail hearing. “All my doctors said I shouldn’t have lived.”

She explained that she went to work in Seaman’s law firm on May 19, 1994. She said they began a romantic relationship in 2007 and one child was born of the union.

“We broke up in 2020 and then I went back to him briefly before he told me to, “Get the [profanity] out of my house and you’re fired.”

The woman also testified that Seaman said, “If you have to kill someone, use a shotgun and make sure you kill them, because dead men tell no tales.”

Dawn Freeman, the wife of James Freeman, said at the 2022 bail hearing that she wasn’t aware of the relationship between Jim and the female victim.

“We were married for 16 years and we have five children. Four of the kids are still at home,” Dawn Freeman said. “On the morning of May 21, two police officers came to my home and told me [Jim Freeman] was deceased and there was a manhunt underway.

“I spent hours in the garage, agonizing over having to tell the kids because of the news and social media. Things come out so quickly,” Freeman said.

She said her children were stunned, shocked and upset. She said they didn’t sleep for days and had entered counseling.

“The kids loved their dad. He was always there to take care of their needs. He worked very hard and was the sole provider of the family,” Freeman said.

No big deal shootings are just a daily accurance in the Flathead anymore.

Very true, much like a traditional western town of the late 1800s or early 1900s.

This one just stands out due to it not involving a recent transplant.

The Flathead has always been a neo nazi, skinhead, racist and far right wing "haven".

Had some nazi propaganda under the windshield wipers of work truck one day out there by a typical right winger up that way. Saw that [bleep] stapled to trees on the forest, telephone poles, kiosks.

It's surprising there is so much crime, drug use, etc up that way, said nobody, ever.

I guess all the influx of people flocking in has nothing to with it huh Buzz, how long since you lived in Montana?
Google flathead jail roster and see who there arresting and were there coming from. Hmmmm illegal aliens with 12,000 fentayl pills. The 70 year old Dr who just shot the guy in murdochs parking lot came from Ten.
Thank your President for all that

Buzzy was triggered!

Its just like when I worked in the oil boom towns every scumbag seem to flock to the opportunity.
As if Bozangeles and Missoula are any better huh Buzz?
Must have been a pint night visit to the flathead.

How was the klan meeting last night?

You talking about Pint night?

"Far right haven"
sounds like a good place.

MAGA!!!

Had the shooting at the boat ramp in Rexford this summer too. We usually go down and camp at McGillivary; just to get a break from our own campground. We launch paddleboards below the dam at Alexander Creek and float down to the boat launch halfway to Libby.
Kalispell has probably quadrupled in size over the last 30 years, and it's not due to the birth rate! A lot of the crime involves recently arrived residents but sometimes crazy just happens.
North Western Montana is a lot like North Idaho, with the same mix of working class residents and leisure class newcomers from urban areas. There is considerable friction between the two; not that this particular occurrence is related to that in any way. In general, long-time Montanans, while they may be divided politically, usually get along because of their common background. That is to say, conservatives and liberals disagree but don't seem to show the blind hatred for each other which you might see in other areas. If said liberal is also a transplanted Californian though, all bets are off! Growing up, in north Idaho, we were taught that Californians were a lower form of life. It was only years later that we learned, it was only urban Californians who were inherently evil and even a few of those were OK.
In this particular case though, it seems to have simply been a broken home issue. It happens but usually no one dies. GD

Of course Helena has the worst overall crime rate in the state but Sams Country up in Wolf Point rings in first place for violent crime.





Wolf Point is one of Montana’s lesser-known towns, aside from the fact that it plays host to the oldest rodeo in the state. The majority of visitors to the town come for the rodeo, but there is an unfortunate downside to this.

Visitors and travelers are often unaware that the town has one of the highest violent crime rates in the entire state, and even worse, much of this is often directed towards strangers.

When you consider that the population is less than 3,000-strong, it is a little worrying to find 26 violent crimes occurring in a year. It may not sound that high but statistically, it is around 900 per 1000 people per capita.

The good news is that property crime rates are significantly lower, with Wolf Point registering only the 13th highest in the state for property-related issues that have also dwindled somewhat in the last decade.


Havre has been ranked 4th and 5th in various listings for violent crime rates in Montana, and has something like a total crime rate of 680 per 100,000 residents. The people who live in the city generally believe the northwest region of the city to be about the safest, while in other areas there is around a 5% chance of being a theft or arson victim. Residents tend to not live near recreational areas as crime rates are higher around them when people visit.

The good news is that Havre is currently ranked number 6 for violent crime, indicating that there has been a large drop in rates over the last decade or so. (Flaves Departure?)

The Flathead don't even come close to measuring up with the top crime ridden locations in Montana.

Have you or do you live in the Flathead or Havre? I lived in the Flathead for 30+ years moved to Havre 1.5 ago not even in the race with the Flatehead.
Theres a reason local long time resident people are leaving the Flathead. Obviously you believe everything you read. Spend a little bit of time in the Flathead then tell me.
I bet you believed the article and T.V program few years ago that the Browning reservation was a top 10 destination for tourists too LMAO

I guess the crazy a$$ will stay in the slammer for a good while.
Humm, I wonder, if he will be in there 12 years.

What that article is including i guarantee you is the reservations that are close to here, there's 2 within 20 miles of Havre which have alot of crime just like most in Montana. Google Havre shootings then Kalispell and compare.
Havre has a population of 12,000 so compare shootings in Kalispell% to Havre as far as im heard and know of 1 shooting in 2021 and 1 in 2022.

Retirement package

Trying to get that math to pencil out. And what does "...per 1000 people per capita." mean?

Crime statistics are on par with COVID statistics.

I see Busse's campaign manager Buzzy just had to check in with the communist view. I just have to wonder what the heck Garry wasn't thinking when he lost his mind. As I noted before, I grew up with the Seaman boys and this sort of thing isn't computable. He pulled a crime and is now going to get the punishment -- he's got the assets so both victims are not fully adrift and there's a tiny bit of justice. But I still can't wrap my head around it all.

LOL

NPR has checked in.

Buzz the Bitch still struggling.

The Flathead has long been associated with both ends of the political whackjobs....there are skinheads groups there as well as total dirt bag liberal enviro whackjobs, especially in Kalispell and Glacier themselves. It is surprising to me that the Reservation itself is really nice. Most certainly among the cleanest and best run reservations I have been around.

Libby itself? I one time considered paying for a motel there via meth as opposed to a CC.
That place can be as rough as Browning...