Pactice Miller, 71, had been harassed by an aggressive black bear in her small Northern California city for months earlier than it broke into her dwelling and killed her final 12 months.
When officers first discovered Miller’s physique mauled and partially eaten final November in her Downieville dwelling, they first believed she might have died of pure causes and the bear broke in, attracted by the scent.
However neighbors had reported seeing the bear, which she had dubbed “Huge B—ard,” repeatedly returning to her home, in response to the Sacramento Bee.
Miller even put in metal bars throughout her home windows to attempt to maintain the bear out earlier than it broke her door down, the newspaper reported.
Miller’s dying is the first documented deadly black bear assault on a human within the Golden State.
“It appeared that the bear had most likely been there a number of days and had been feeding on the stays,” Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher mentioned.
Sierra County Sheriff’s deputies discovered Miller’s door damaged, which gave the impression to be how the bear bought inside.
Inside her lounge, there was bear scat together with blood streaks and paw prints.
The bear had doubtless pulled Miller from her mattress into her lounge, the coroner’s report mentioned, in response to the Bee.
The small mountain city is “proper in the midst of the place bears wish to be,” Catilin Roddy of California Fish and Wildlife’s North-Central area advised the newspaper.
Miller’s good friend Cassie Koch, who initially requested for a welfare verify on her, advised the Bee: “After I was a child, you by no means noticed a bear on the town. Now, they’re throughout, making their rounds. It’s simple pickins for them.”
Koch mentioned Miller had wished the bear to be eliminated however not damage earlier than it killed her.
Koch advised the newspaper that Miller had a vegetable backyard and compost and didn’t all the time throw her trash out instantly, which officers mentioned may have attracted the bear to her dwelling.
Round 40% of California’s estimated 65,000 black bears reside within the Sierra Nevadas the place Downieville is positioned, in response to the paper.
The bear was finally trapped and euthanized.
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