Bad Luck or Did Utah Officials Mess Up in the Fatal Bear Attack?
Steve Fidel, Deseret Morning News Jake Francom shows a pillow that was dragged away from his tent by a black bear early Saturday, a day before Sunday night’s fatal mauling in the same primitive area. Dark marks on the pillow are the bear’s paw prints.
What happened only hours before the Ives family arrived at a primitive campsite just a few miles up from the Timpanooke campgrounds is enough to wonder why the area was not closed? On Friday evening a group of friends were camping in the same spot when in the early hours of Saturday morning a black bear entered the campsite and attempted to grab one of the men through the tent.
Jake Francom, 26, camped with his girlfriend, his brother and two other friends Friday night in the same primitive area just above Timpanooke. The site is not a specific Forest Service campground and has no services.
He awoke when something outside the tent hit him in the head about 5:30 a.m. Saturday.
Thinking it was someone moving in the tent, he said, “Stop it.” But when he felt two more hard hits, he realized it was a bear.
Jake told his girlfriend to get out, yelling at a friend in another tent to grab his gun.
The bear ripped through the tent, taking a bite out of his pillow.
The men shot at the bear a few times. It walked away from the camp, then stopped to stare at the campers before it lumbered off.
The campers drove down the canyon and called their parents, who called police.
After hearing about Sunday’s fatality and having their sons’ experience characterized as a “tent-brushing,” the parents said they were frustrated and wondered why the area wasn’t closed.
“Why would they let another family up there?” mother Kathy Francom said. “All they had to do was shut a gate (to the campground) and that boy wouldn’t be gone.”
“It broke me down,” father Kurt Francom said of watching the news of the mauling early Monday. “It could have been my boy.”
Steve Fidel, Desert Morning News Collette Young shows the hole left in her tent during a bear attack early Saturday in American Fork Canyon. No one was injured.
Utah officials responded to the area with tracking dogs but with the dry conditions the dogs lost the trail. They posted warnings along with other signage to educate the public on being bear aware. Utah officials also have stated that they were unaware of all the details of the first attack until the information came out after the second fatal attack.
Although there have been 12 previous black bear mauling deaths in the last 7 years there have been none in the state of Utah. Utah has had some close calls but with good public education and a problem bear management system tragedy up to this point has been avoided.
I know hindsight is 20/20 so its hard to say if more should have been done on Saturday when the first encounter happened. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Ives family with the tragic death of Samuel Evan Ives.
Deseret News
Daily Herald
Salt Lake Tribune
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