GALLATIN COUNTY — There was a full courtroom on Wednesday morning at the Gallatin County Justice Center, as Austin Clowes made his initial appearance in district court.
25-year-old Austin Clowes is the man charged with the murder of Steven Kilwein. On Sunday, June 13th, 2021, Kilwein was murdered in his home in Bozeman. The case went unsolved for 4 years, until about a month ago. Police arrested Clowes after DNA obtained from Kilwein's pajama bottoms matched Clowes’ DNA. On Wednesday morning, Clowes had his initial appearance where he faced Judge John C. Brown. Gallatin County Attorney General Audrey Cromwell represented the State.
Clowes is charged with a single count of deliberate homicide felony. In court Wednesday morning, Clowes pleaded not guilty.
Clowes’ bail remains at the initial amount of $1 million. He has a bail hearing set for August 28th at 9:30 am.
WATCH: Austin Clowes' initial appearance in district court
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Kilwein Family Reacts to Arrest of Suspect in Cold Case
BOZEMAN — The arrest of 25-year-old Austin Clowes is sending shock waves through the community.
“I was overwhelmed with emotions. I was shaking, I was crying, I was smiling. I couldn’t even describe how you feel when you hear those words,” said Karla (Kilwein) Hacker, daughter of Steven Kilwein.
WATCH: Shock and Relief: Arrest of Austin Clowes Revives Kilwein Family's Hope for Justice
Kilwein’s family has waited more than four years for an arrest. Kilwein’s children, who we spoke to after the arrest was announced, say they’re grateful for law enforcement’s perseverance in finding a resolution to the cold case.
Still, they are concerned that Clowes walked free – in Bozeman – all this time.
“He was there living his life. I mean, he got to have five more birthdays that we didn’t have with our dad, He had four more Christmases, countless family dinners, and he just got to go on living his life,” said Kari (Kilwein) Gray, one of Steven Kilwein’s daughters.
The family says an especially alarming component of this case has been the lack of public knowledge – making it difficult to get help from the community.
“A lot of people have never heard of this. People on the street who were a couple houses down had never heard of this. Nobody even seems to know this happened and we didn’t know how to get the word out,” said Kurt Kilwein, son of Steven Kilwein.
One of the neighbors who had never heard of this case before: Treasure Imokhai, who found out about the murder for the first time today while speaking with us.
“I’m honestly so surprised cause I’ve lived here for, like I said, four years, and it’s been a really quiet neighborhood and to think something like that happened over there is kind of insane,” he said.
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Kilwein Family Reacts to Arrest of Suspect in Cold Case
