David Thomas Dawson was born on October 20, 1957, in San Diego, California, the middle child in a family of five. His early years were marked by instability; the family moved often between states such as California, Colorado, Florida, and Montana, largely due to his father’s repeated business failures. As a child, Dawson was described as clumsy and socially withdrawn, struggling to make friends. He eventually married and is believed to have fathered a daughter, but the marriage ended in divorce.

In the early 1980s, Dawson relocated to Montana, where he found work in construction in the town of Colstrip and rented an apartment in Billings for weekends. However, his life was heavily impacted by drug abuse, with reports of his use of marijuana and methamphetamine. Before committing the murders, Dawson had a reputation as a reclusive and drug-addicted construction worker.

On April 18, 1986, in Billings, Montana, Dawson committed a horrifying and calculated act of violence. He broke into a motel room occupied by the Rodstein family, who were staying in town. He forced all four family members—David (39), Monica (39), Andrew (11), and Amy (15)—into his own room, which was directly next door. Once inside, Dawson bound and gagged them with tape and stole their money.

Over the next two days, Dawson systematically strangled three members of the family: David, Monica, and young Andrew. He kept 15-year-old Amy alive in the room, tied up and held captive until authorities discovered her on April 20. Amy was found traumatized but alive. Dawson was immediately arrested at the scene.

In February 1987, after a 14-hour jury deliberation, Dawson was convicted of three counts of deliberate homicide, four counts of kidnapping (one for each family member), and one count of robbery. On April 15, 1987, Judge Diane Barz sentenced him to death. Dawson waived his rights to appeal, making him a so-called “volunteer” for execution.

He remained on death row for nearly two decades. On August 11, 2006, Dawson was executed by lethal injection at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. His final meal included two double cheeseburgers, two large fries, a half-gallon of vanilla fudge ripple ice cream, and two Dr Peppers. When asked for final words, he simply responded, “No.”

As of 2023, Dawson remains the last person executed in Montana, making him a historically significant figure in the state’s capital punishment history. Only two other people—Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. (1995) and Terry Allen Langford (1998)—have been executed in Montana since the reinstatement of the death penalty.