by Travis Mateer

First, some obvious housekeeping: my blog is not a platform to attack my friends and colleagues.

I edited a comment recently made by someone claiming to be David Bethman, and when I did a quick search of the name, I found an article about a Hamilton man by that name who is organizing a rally for the Freedom Convoy.

But here’s the thing. THIS David Bethman is NOT the David Bethman who made the comment. So, who is DB?

The second comment that came in from DB, which I will not release in full, says this:

I won’t use my legal name, since it apparently triggered you. Poor Travis Mateer. It turns out, there may actually be multiple people by the same name existing in the world. I know that is tough for you to wrap your head around, but in my day there were phonebooks showing all sorts of people in Missoula with the same name. Wild, I know! Thanks for reaching out to me to check for facts, I know you fancy yourself a journalist.

The bold part is where this “DB” continues trying to pretend he’s the David Bethman I spoke to over the weekend. While I’m clearly being trolled, the specificity of the comments points to a few possibilities.

One possibility is someone who didn’t like how they were depicted in the documentary, Engen’s Missoula. Another possibility is fallout from reporting I’m working on regarding Roger’s International, the private security company just highlighted by NBC Montana (excellent reporting, by the way!).

While it might just be a coincidence, the emphasis this person is putting on the initials “DB” makes me think of David Barsotti, the estranged husband of Rebekah Barsotti who went missing on July 20th, 2021.

Here’s a picture of David wearing an eye-patch, a style he was sporting during the conservator hearing I attended a few months ago.

Why would David Barsotti be motivated to make comments on my blog? Could it be the conversations I’ve had with his “caretaker”, Brandy Walker? Could it be because I notified the Veteran program David is allegedly a part of that his “caretaker” is sending me pictures of his injured foot as proof that David COULD NOT have been present at the river on the day David’s wife disappeared?

In order to mitigate her exposure to claims of HIPPA violations for sending me pictures of “disabled” David’s injured foot, Brandy had a LONG conversation with me, which I recorded with her knowledge. In this conversation Brandy claimed she sent me the pictures at David’s behest. So I guess that clears that up.

I have never spoken to David Barsotti, but if I did there are LOTS of questions I can think of to ask him, questions a more discerning Sheriff, or Sheriff deputy, might have asked him if they weren’t busy turning down help from Crime Stoppers, and not finding the firearm in Rebekah’s vehicle, and not releasing the 911 call supposedly made the day Rebekah went missing by a family passing through from Oregon.

At the end of the day I don’t know if the coward using another man’s identity to issue trolling comments on my blog is David Barsotti, but maybe this fake email and IP address could be helpful.

I don’t expect this screen shot to glean any useful info, but it was something I told the REAL David Bethman I would provide him when I get the chance to meet him in person.

And that is the note I’d like to conclude this post with, a note of appreciation to “DB” for connecting me to a nice guy in Hamilton who understands the REAL enemies are tyrants like Trudeau, not commenters who hide behind real men’s names.

Thanks for reading (even you, DB).